SECRETARY-GENERAL WARNS THAT GREATER EFFORT NEEDED, IF MILLENNIUM POVERTY-REDUCTION TARGET TO BE REACHED.
SG/SM/7704
5 February 2001
SECRETARY-GENERAL WARNS THAT GREATER EFFORT NEEDED, IF MILLENNIUM
POVERTY-REDUCTION TARGET TO BE REACHED
Following is the text of remarks made today by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the launch of the Rural Poverty Report 2001 produced by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD):
The struggle to overcome poverty has been an overarching objective of the United Nations family, ever since the birth of our Organization. Last year, at the Millennium Summit, the world’s leaders pledged to pursue that struggle with new resolve. They committed themselves to cutting in half, by the year 2015, the proportion of the world's people living in extreme poverty -- defined as those whose income is less than one dollar a day.
Over the past decade, the rate of poverty reduction has been barely one third of what is needed to achieve that target -- and in sub-Saharan Africa, even lower.
Official development assistance has stagnated, and, in some cases, even declined.
All experts agree that poverty cannot be defeated unless there is development in the countryside, as well as the cities, and we have heard eloquent testament from Fawzi (Al-Sultan, President of IFAD) on this. Yet, support for agriculture and for rural programmes has fallen sharply.
Clearly, if we are to live up to our millennium goal, we need a much- greater and more clearly focused effort.
This is why the Rural Poverty Report, produced by IFAD -- the member of the United Nations family that has focused specifically on rural poverty throughout its existence -- is so timely and important. It draws on IFAD’s own experience, and also on the work of academics and experts. It analyses the constraints, risks and opportunities faced by the rural poor, in an age of globalization from which most of them have yet to feel any benefit.
The Report reminds us that those living in rural areas still form the majority of the world's poor -- and all scenarios for the future suggest that this will still be true 30 years from now. But it also tells us that urban and rural poverty are closely linked, as poverty forces large numbers of people to migrate from rural areas into the cities. So, to deal with urban, as well as rural, poverty in a sustainable way, we must give people in rural areas better opportunities to make a living.
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5 February 2001
Almost everyone in the countryside depends on agriculture, directly or indirectly. So, agriculture must be strengthened, if the rural poor are to increase their productivity and income.
But we must not forget that the majority of the poor -- a growing majority -- are women. Women produce a large proportion of food crops themselves, and they have the main responsibility for ensuring that everyone in the household has enough to eat. Yet, in times of scarcity -- which for the poor means almost all times -- it is usually women who are the first to go without.
The Rural Poverty Report outlines a range of areas where we can work to give poor people more power over their own lives. It spells out practical things that can be done to speed up the reduction of poverty. And it suggests a basis for partnerships between those inside and outside the United Nations family, which can help ensure that these things are done.
I welcome this Report. It is a most valuable contribution to the efforts we all need to make, if we are indeed to halve the proportion of people living in abject poverty, and in time to eradicate the shame and misery of such poverty from the face of the earth.
Fawzi, we congratulate you and your team.
Thank you very much.
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