RURAL AREAS RECOGNIZED AS KEY IN ANTI-POVERTY FIGHT,

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TOLD

Growingrecognition that the rural areas –- where 75 per cent of the world’s poor live -- are key in the fight against poverty is coupled with newly rising levels of international assistance, Lennart Baäge, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, told a meeting of the United NationsEconomic and Social Council (ECOSOC) today.

This opportunity, however, is being undercut in many areas by the AIDS epidemic, he said.  Appointed last month to chair the United Nations High-Level Committee on Programmes, which coordinates strategic initiatives of the United Nations system, Mr. Baäge described to ECOSOC a three-pronged plan to address the development crisis in sub-Saharan Africa with support for farmers, health care systems and public institutions.  This would address the vicious cycle whereby AIDS is decimating both farmers and civil servants, sapping the ability to improve food and nutrition and to mount a public sector response.

There is “a disappearing generation of farmers” in many parts of southern and eastern Africa, he said, and more and more households are now headed by children or grandparents”.

The meeting brought together ECOSOC ambassadors, United Nations agency chiefs, development experts and two national ministers to review plans for integrated rural development, in preparation for the high-level meeting of the Council to take place in Geneva beginning on 30 June.

Jacques Diouf, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, stressed that agricultural development is key to progress at the national level, and that successful water management is the key to agriculture.

“We don’t invest in water resources, even though the biggest single problem we face is lack of water”, he warned the Council.

Within Africa, the flagship for development efforts, as well as for coordination with donors and the multilateral system, is the New Partnership for African Development, said United Nations Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari, the Special Adviser on Africa.  Improved coordination and coherence of efforts is essential, he said, to achieve solutions for the rural poor, who comprise 60 per cent of the region’s population.

For more information, contact Tim Wall of the Development Section, Department of Public Information, 1-212-963-5851. 

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