RURAL, AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CENTRAL TO MEETING GLOBAL ANTI-POVERTY GOALS, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TOLD

Economic and Social Council                                

2004 Substantive Session                                   

22^nd & 23^rd Meetings (AM & PM)

RURAL, AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT CENTRAL TO MEETING GLOBAL

ANTI-POVERTY GOALS, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL TOLD

Council Begins Coordination Segment of Current Session

The Economic and Social Council suspended its high-level segment and began its coordination segment today, as consultations continued on the declaration intended to cap the ministerial-level debate of 28 to 30 June on the theme of resource mobilization and creation of an enabling environment for poverty eradication in the least developed countries (LDCs).

Scheduled to last through 7 July, this segment will focus on two themes:  “Coordinated and integrated United Nations system approach to promote rural development in developing countries, with due consideration to LDCs, for poverty eradication and sustainable development”; and “Review and appraisal of the system-wide implementation of the Council’s agreed conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system”.

Participants in today’s debate addressed the means of achieving greater coherence in rural development, poverty eradication and sustainable development efforts, with most speakers agreeing on the need to place rural and agricultural development at the centre of poverty-alleviation activities.  In particular, it was pointed out that, to work out an integrated approach, it was necessary to remove the obstacles that prevented the rural poor from improving their livelihoods.  It was also necessary to foster more peaceful, equitable and open societies based on greater transparency, accountability and decentralization.

The theme of rural development follows up on the deliberations of last year’s high-level segment, whose Ministerial Declaration stressed that eradication of rural poverty and hunger was crucial for the achievement of the internationally agreed development goals, including those contained in the Millennium Declaration.  The marriage between last year’s high-level segment and this year’s coordination segment had been made in heaven, Guatemala’s representative said, stressing that rural development was at the centre of development efforts of many developing countries.

In that connection, most speakers stressed the Council’s coordinating role, saying that it needed to reinforce synergies between the United Nations system and other international structures, such as the Bretton Woods institutions, regional financial institutions and civil society.  Also emphasized in the debate was the need to strengthen the Council’s ties with other key United Nations bodies, including the General Assembly.

Introducing the report of the Secretary-General on the coordinated and integrated promotion of rural development, the Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, Patrizio Civili, said that the recognition of the critical importance of the eradication of poverty in rural areas –- where more that two thirds of the poor lived -– for the implementation of international development goals “had not necessarily” placed the issue as a priority on the international agenda.

There was a clear trend, however, towards enhanced inter-agency cooperation, he observed.  United Nations agencies were increasingly pursuing farmers’ education, access to financial services and implementation of environmental conventions.  Such initiatives as the common country assessment and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) were helping the Organization to identify how international development partners could best support national efforts.  Deliberate efforts had been made to enhance policy coherence for rural development with the Bretton Woods institutions.

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island States, Anwarul K. Chowdhury, recalled that the Brussels Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries had emphasized the key role of agriculture and agro-industries, as well as rural development and food security, in development processes and provided the United Nations with a guiding framework for coordinating support to LDCs.

Pointing out the need to enhance synergy and eliminate duplication, he also noted the fact that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) -– the agencies which conducted the bulk of United Nations activities for rural development -– had adopted several resolutions aimed at mainstreaming implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action into their activities.  Commodity-dependent LDCs would also benefit from the establishment of the International Task Force on Commodities, which the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had assembled to promote a multi-stakeholder approach.

China’s representative said that, aside from formulating integrated rural development strategies, the United Nations needed to foster dialogue and cooperation among developing countries, in order to increase South-South cooperation, including in the areas of micro-credit and capacity building.

Speaking on behalf of the European Union, the representative of the Netherlands pointed out that an integrated approach should address more than agriculture alone.  Action was required in several sectors, including health, education and infrastructure building.  It was necessary to obtain synergy with urban development and address the problem of HIV/AIDS.  Of paramount importance was promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women.

Switzerland stressed the importance of an integrated United Nations approach at the country level, which went hand in hand with a quality-field presence.  While not all United Nations entities were represented at the country level, in many countries regional offices ensured a presence at crucial moments of system-wide coordination.  The role of regional commissions should also be strengthened, as they served as a platform for information exchange and best practices.

Also participating in the debate were representatives of Qatar (on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China), Russian Federation, Bangladesh, Republic of Korea, Jamaica, Ecuador, Ukraine, Madagascar, Indonesia, Norway, United States, Tunisia and Nepal.

Speaking on behalf of international agencies were representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), FAO, IFAD, WFP, World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO).  A statement was also made by a representative of a non-governmental organization, Oasis Open City Foundation.

Various aspects of coordinating rural development efforts were also explored in the afternoon panel discussion on the theme of “Working Together to Promote Integrated Rural Development in Developing Countries, particularly in LDCs”.  Its participants stressed the importance of improving coherence of United Nations policies and activities in that regard and pondered the means of improving the Organization’s contribution to the integrated approach, in collaboration with developing countries, the donor community and other stakeholders.

The interactive session was launched by the panel consisting of the Vice-Minister of Agriculture of Madagascar, Marius Ratolojanahary; Administrator of the UNDP, Mark Malloch Brown; Director of the Division of External Relations, Department of Policy and External Affairs of the WFP, Allan Jury; Deputy Director-General of FAO, David Harcharik; and the representative of IFAD, Vera Weill-Halle.

The Council will continue its coordination segment at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 2 July.

Background

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) was scheduled to begin its coordination segment this morning, and had before it the Secretary-General’s report (document E/2004/58), analysing the role of the United Nations system in promoting a coordinated and integrated approach to rural development.  The document builds on the outcome of last year’s high-level segment of the Council on rural development, giving due consideration to the least developed countries (LDCs) and, in particular, to the Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010. 

The report makes concrete proposals on how to improve policy coherence at the international, regional and country levels, emphasizing, first and foremost, the need to elaborate a coherent strategy, which would integrate various dimensions of rural development and development goals.  It also calls for development of partnerships among governments, bilateral agencies, international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the private sector, academic institutions and community-based organizations and cooperatives in the pursuit of rural development, including through the United Nations Public-Private Alliance for Rural Development.

The document also promotes a clear division of labour among various organizations, emphasizing the need to provide the United Nations system with sufficient resources to promote integrated rural development, including through enhanced flows of official development assistance (ODA) dedicated to that purpose.  Another core element of this approach is promotion of regional cooperation with a strengthened focus on rural development in poverty-reduction strategies.  Among the document’s recommendations is a suggestion that regional commissions should also explore possibilities for interregional cooperation, particularly for sharing best practices.

Also addressed in the report is the need to further promote South-South and triangular cooperation; empower rural women; and ensure access to rural finance.  Countries should recognize the crucial importance of employment, which should be mainstreamed into investment policy and poverty-reduction strategies.  The Secretary-General adds that it is important to promote advocacy and partnerships for education of rural people by concentrating on strategic global, regional and international events, which should also be encouraged within the countries.

Statements

The Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, PATRIZIO CIVILI, presenting the report of the Secretary-General on the coordinated and integrated promotion of rural development, noted that, while the eradication of poverty from rural areas –- where more that two thirds of the poor lived -– had been recognized as critical to the realization of internationally agreed development goals, that recognition had not necessarily translated into the issue receiving the deserved attention and priority in the international agenda.  Thus, the report presented an overview of how, within the broader international community, United Nations system organizations were pursuing implementation of the ECOSOC’s Ministerial Declaration on rural development and made concrete proposals on how to pursue a coordinated and integrated approach to rural development at the international, regional and national levels.

Among its main aspects, the report bore witness to a clear trend towards enhanced inter-agency cooperation, he observed.  United Nations agencies had launched and were actively pursuing initiatives to promote farmers’ education, enhance access to financial services, and facilitate the implementation of environmental conventions focused on education in rural areas.  Integrated approaches to rural development had increasingly become key aspects of the system’s operational activities, with the common country assessment and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) providing the vehicle for identifying how international development partners could best support national efforts in that area.

Deliberate efforts had been made to enhance policy coherence for rural development, he added, including with the Bretton Woods institutions.  Particular attention had been devoted to ensuring that strategies for agricultural and rural development were incorporated into national poverty-reduction strategies.  Moreover, there had been renewed efforts to support and promote regional initiatives for integrated rural development.  The report highlighted the key role regional commissions, development banks and financial institutions should play and noted the importance of South-South cooperation in advancing the integrated approaches required for rural development.

Finally, he said, the importance of agriculture in the case of LDCs could not be overemphasized, as it underpinned food security, foreign exchange earnings and agro-industrial and rural development.  Partnerships bringing together economic, financial, social and environmental actors to advance the integrated approaches being sought should be formed.  In particular, triangular United Nations public-private partnerships, such as the “United Nations Public-Private Alliance for Rural Development”, needed to be given a more prominent role in United Nations development assistance.  That programme, whose pilot phase concentrated on Madagascar, attempted to reconcile the profit motives of the private sector with national rural development objectives, in the context of internationally agreed development goals.

The United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island States, ANWARUL K. CHOWDHURY, stressed that agriculture and rural development were absolutely essential for development of the world’s most impoverished countries, as the majority of the nearly 750 million people living in LDCs occupied rural areas.  Economic growth, poverty reduction and food and nutritional security in most LDCs would remain elusive so long as agriculture and rural development did not receive priority attention.  Thus, the Secretary-General had identified rural development as a “precondition for the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger”.

The importance of rural development had been recognized in many international forums, he noted, where the need to create an enabling environment for rural development and poverty eradication had been highlighted.  The ECOSOC, as the central mechanism for the coordination of United Nations system activities, had, therefore, decided to schedule consideration of coordination issues related to rural development, in particular for LDCs, shortly after the adoption of its 2003 Ministerial Declaration.

The Brussels Programme of Action for Least Developed Countries had emphasized the key role of agriculture and agro-industries, as well as rural development and food security, in development processes, he added, and had provided the United Nations with a guiding framework for coordinating support to LDCs.  Identification of what was being done and what should be done by United Nations system bodies at both the international and national levels to promote rural development in LDCs would enhance synergy and eliminate duplication.

To that end, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) -– which agencies conducted the bulk of United Nations activities for rural development -– had enhanced coordination by defining a global agenda for rural development, he stated.  Of particular importance to LDCs, the governing bodies of the three agencies had adopted several resolutions aimed at mainstreaming implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action into their activities.  Commodity-dependent LDCs would also benefit from the establishment of the International Task Force on Commodities, he said, which the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had assembled to promote a multi-stakeholder approach and forge a global coalition, including with the Bretton Woods institutions.

Also noting that partnerships with civil society and the private sector were increasingly an integral part of many activities undertaken by the United Nations at the country level, he stressed the role to be played by microcredit and microfinance in poverty eradication and rural development in LDCs.  The United Nations system must give further impetus to that area to close the gap in rural gender inequalities.  It should also do more to support South-South cooperation.

JAMAL NASSER AL-BADER (Qatar), speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, emphasized the significance of strengthening and promoting the Council’s efforts in the areas of socio-economic and system-wide policy coordination, including the follow-up to the outcome of the major United Nations conferences.  He also stressed the importance of drawing on the lessons learned at the previous conferences.  The ECOSOC functional commissions played a tremendous role in exploring the best avenues for enhancing the mechanisms of review and coordination.

The integrated coordination between the Council and the General Assembly would largely help in formulating a joint vision for the agreed commitments of the major United Nations conferences and Summits, enhancing the principle of global partnership, as well as preventing duplicity.  The Group welcomed efforts for the appraisal of the Council’s agreed conclusions on gender mainstreaming in all United Nations programmes and policies, as well as the integration of a system-wide approach to promoting rural development.  The Group commended the effective role of the Chief Executive Board for Coordination for its effective contribution to the promotion of inter-agency policy coordination.

DIRK JAN VAN DEN BERG (Netherlands), speaking on behalf of the European Union and associated States, said that rural development was a priority area for European development cooperation.  The report of the Secretary-General explored ways and means by which the United Nations system could contribute to the integrated approach, in collaboration with developing countries, the donor community and other stakeholders.  He welcomed the recommendation inviting the United Nations system to design a coherent capacity-building programme for rural development.  That was an appropriate response to the recommendations of last year’s high-level segment and major international conferences and summits of recent years.

The vast majority of the population in developing countries, particularly in the LDCs, lived and earned their living in rural areas, he continued.  It was evident that rural and agricultural development, including agro-forestry, must be at the centre of approaches to reduce poverty.  To work out an integrated approach in that regard, it was necessary to identify and remove the obstacles that prevented the rural poor from seizing opportunities and improving their livelihoods.  It was also necessary to foster more peaceful, equitable and open societies based on greater transparency, accountability and decentralization.

An integrated approach should address more than agriculture alone, he said.  What was required was action in several sectors, including health, education and infrastructure building.  It was necessary to obtain synergy with urban development and address the problem of HIV/AIDS.  Of paramount importance was promotion of gender equality and empowerment of women.  Such issues as food security and vulnerability should be reflected in the common country assessment, UNDAF and poverty-reduction strategies.  Better donor coordination could be achieved only with inputs by all relevant stakeholders.

The Union welcomed increased attention to investments in agriculture, he continued.  It was also evident that an integrated approach demanded institutional capacity, so that local ownership became possible.  Therefore, institutional reform, capacity-building and participatory planning had to be part of development.  As for international trade, the United Nations had an important role in constantly reminding developing partners about important agreements reached in Monterrey, at the Millennium Summit, the World Food Summit and the World Summit on Sustainable Development.  The Organization also needed to identify methods of translating intentions into practical solutions.  Successful conclusion of the current negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha work programme was essential.  Also important was improved market access through preferential schemes.

The Union was very concerned about the problems facing many commodity-dependent countries, he said.  Although it fully supported efforts for diversification, they could not replace action to safeguard the existing sectors.  Much more needed to be done to counter the decline of the commodity sectors in the most dependent countries.  Prepared to do its part in addressing the situation, the Union had adopted a comprehensive action plan last April, which included measures relating to price decline, volatility, dependence, diversification and international trade.

United Nations agencies also supported regional organizations and development banks in their efforts to help countries prepare their national plans, including aspects of regional cooperation and market development, he said.  In that connection, he mentioned the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) initiative and its agricultural component that was supported by the FAO, which encouraged African countries to develop the potential of their rural and agricultural sectors.  To ensure sustainability and effectiveness, the planning process should remain locally owned, so that investments priorities were integrated into existing national development and sector frameworks.

VASSILY A. NEBENZIA (Russian Federation) said ECOSOC should serve as the key coordinating body within the United Nations system for the comprehensive implementation of the recommendations contained within its 2003 Ministerial Declaration on rural development. Reinforcing synergies between the United Nations systems and international structures outside the system, such as the Bretton Woods institutions, regional financial institutions and civil society, the Council should focus upon rural development in the context of poverty eradication in LDCs.

Thus, taking into account the limited financial resources available to the system, United Nations agencies should concentrate their efforts on issues of priority to each country, which should include ensuring access to clean water and adequate sanitation, bringing power to rural areas and tackling HIV/AIDS and other dangerous diseases.  The Council’s ability to effectively coordinate such activities would determine their success or failure.  Therefore, it would also be helpful to diversify the Council’s forms and methods of work and to increase regional and subregional cooperation.

There must be a focus on increasing agricultural productivity, including for the establishment of a network of food security and increased agriculture in high-risk areas, he concluded, in which context the attention devoted to such issues by donor countries and international financial institutions was welcomed.  Ongoing efforts to increase the institutional capacity of countries in need were necessary, especially in Africa, and should include programmes for the expansion of microcredit, incorporation of the gender perspective and the provision of modern information and communications technologies at the rural level.

ZHANG YISHAN (China) said that, as three quarters of the world’s poor lived in rural areas, it was both essential and realistic for the substantive session to review the coordinated United Nations system approach to promoting rural development.  Rural development and poverty eradication had been made priority areas of cooperation at major United Nations conferences and summits, all of which had concluded that rural development and poverty eradication was a systematic project requiring a coordinated approach.  On the need to create an enabling environment, he noted the uneven effects of globalization and the widening the gap between the rich and the poor.  The international community had to strengthen cooperation, increase ODA, reduce and exempt debt, transfer technologies and expand market access.  The United Nations system had to formulate integrated rural development strategies and make rural development and poverty eradication an important part of socio-economic development.

Regarding South-South cooperation, he said developing countries had accumulated valuable experience in rural development, including in the areas of microcredit and capacity-building.  In that regard, he stressed the need for the United Nations to foster dialogue and cooperation among developing countries.  China attached great importance to agriculture and rural development.  The Chinese Government would continue to increase input, upgrade rural production conditions, reinforce infrastructure, improve the biological environment and expand the use of advanced technologies.  Efforts would also be made to improve rural operational systems, accelerate the urbanization process and promote rural development.  China had succeeded in feeding some 22 per cent of the world population with less than 10 per cent of world’s arable land.

IFTEKHAR AHMED CHOWDHURY (Bangladesh) said the majority of people in developing countries lived in ecologically fragile rural areas with agricultural systems that were characterized by high risk and low productivity.  Rural development was critical for reducing extreme poverty.  He shared the Secretary-General’s concern over the vulnerability of the agricultural sectors of the LDCs.  Apart from natural and man-made disasters, their products encountered volatility in both market share and in terms of trade.  He supported the recommendation of poverty diversification and substantial investment in physical and economic infrastructure.  At the same time, development partners must support LDCs by ensuring technology transfer, assisting in capacity-building and by complying with pledges made at various conferences.  An augmented flow of ODA was essential for achieving those objectives. 

He said he was pleased to note that the Secretary-General had stressed the need for coordination among United Nations agencies.  A coherent approach, which involved all stakeholders, could bring more effective results in rural development.  Economic development required growth.  For growth to benefit the poor, however, it must generate employment.  Employment-intensive growth would be an effective approach in that regard.  Education was another powerful tool for reducing poverty.  His country’s experience pointed to the fact that providing the poor with microcredit resulted in asset creation, employment generation, economic security and empowerment of the poor.  Microcredit unleashed the entrepreneur in the cash-strapped rural poor.

SHIN BOO-NAM (Republic of Korea) said the international community had recognized rural development as a sine qua non not only of poverty eradication and sustainable development, but also of the timely achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.  After a year of generating political impetus for the role of rural development within the overall development process, the international community was well positioned to discuss ways and means of improving coordination.  He fully supported the Secretary-General’s promotion of an integrated approach to rural development.  The United Nations was obligated to assume primary responsibility for coordinating the activities of the various actors.  Coordination needed to occur at the global, regional and country levels.  It also needed to cross-cut the economic, social and environmental dimensions of rural development.

Noting that income-generating projects could play an important role in engaging civil society, he urged the United Nations to continue its focus in that regard.  Human resource development was one of the most critical components of an overall national development strategy.  Education was also a key aspect of rural development.  His country was committed to sharing its experiences with other developing countries.  In that regard, he recommended that the United Nations strengthen coordination mechanisms to disseminate lessons learned to developing countries.  Emphasizing the crucial importance of collaboration between the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions, he welcomed initiatives such as the World Bank’s re-engagement in lending for agriculture and rural development.

OLIVER CHAVE (Switzerland) said integrated rural development went beyond agriculture, touching upon the mandates of a number of United Nations entities and requiring increased coordination.  Implementation at the country level was key to improving the quality and impact of the United Nations support to developing countries.  Yet, at the country level, the United Nations development system did not always operate as an integrated team.  Much remained to be done to maximize the efficiency of the United Nations system in rural development.  That could be achieved at the country level through UNDAF in support of the country’s policies, particularly the national poverty-reduction strategies.  Coordination issues related to rural development should also be addressed in the context of the United Nations Development Group.

An integrated approach required a response to a number of difficult questions, he said, including the strengthening of the resident coordinator system, the role of the specialized agencies in operational activities at the field level, and collaboration between the funds, programmes and agencies.  Increased coordination at the country level went hand in hand with a stronger field presence.  Switzerland, therefore, supported decentralization and encouraged United Nations entities to assure a quality-field presence.  While not all United Nations entities were represented at the country level, in many countries, regional offices ensured a presence at crucial moments of system-wide coordination.  The role of regional commissions should also be strengthened, as they served as a platform for information exchange and best practices.

STAFFORD O. NEIL (Jamaica) said that the Secretary-General’s report before the Council raised important issues, but several problems, including rural unemployment, had not been sufficiently developed.  For example, the impact of industrialization within the framework of diversification of the agricultural sector should have been looked into in greater detail, including food processing and cottage industries.  Greater focus should also have been placed on such issues as water and energy, as they played an important role in rural development.  In view of rising energy prices, sustainable development in the rural sector required renewable energy projects, and he felt that those issues had not received enough attention in the report.

LUIS GALLEGOS CHIRIBOGA (Ecuador) cited a study on the evolution of poverty in his country in the period 1990-2001, which had revealed that 40 per cent of the population lived in rural areas, and that 60 per cent of them were poor.  Thus, despite the trend towards urbanization of the poor, the greatest number of poor people continued to live in rural areas.  Furthermore, the rural poor depended heavily on agriculture for their income, and poverty rates tended to be higher among small farmers and salaried farm workers.  Moreover, poverty rates among the indigenous and afro-equatorial population was 15 times higher than the national average, with more than 80 per cent of indigenous people in rural areas living below the poverty line.

Given those statistics, the Government had established a project, in conjunction with the World Bank, designed to strengthen the capacity of the country’s indigenous and afro-equatorial populations for participation in sustainable development projects.  The project aimed to improve those populations’ access to land and water, as well as improve the management of those resources overall.  It also served to improve their access to investment funds, and to strengthen national bodies in terms of equipment, training and assessment in support of the indigenous and afro-equatorial population.  The results of the initial project had evinced such positive results that the World Bank had recently approved an additional loan of $34 million to finance a second phase, which aimed to benefit more than 1.5 million individuals in Ecuador’s poorest rural communities.

The United Nations must play a greater role in coordinating for the promotion of rural development, he concluded, including for the provision of technical advice, financial assistance and food aid to developing countries.  It must also keep in mind that the solution to rural development must involve market solutions, such as increased market access for developing countries, which had the capacity to sharply reduce poverty levels.

OKSANA BOIKO KULYK (Ukraine) said the fact that rural development had been featured as one of the key themes in two consecutive ECOSOC sessions reflected the critical importance of the issue.  Ukraine supported FAO’s mobilizing role in promoting agricultural development.  While commendable progress had been achieved in promoting the integration of a rural perspective into development policies, there was room for improvement.  At the international level, strengthened coherence and coordination between Rome-based institutions were indispensable.  The thematic approach should be further promoted, with increased attention to issues such as HIV/AIDS, health care, education and sustainable use of natural resources.  More consideration should be given to a clear division of labour between all involved United Nations institutions.

She strongly favoured strengthened cooperation between the World Bank and United Nations institutions and welcomed progress in the implementation of the Bank’s agriculture and rural development strategy.  She also agreed with the need for further United Nations support for regional initiatives.  In that regard, she welcomed United Nations activities in support of NEPAD.  The signing of a memorandum of understanding between the NEPAD secretariat and the WFP created a good framework for cooperation between them.  She also encouraged the strengthening of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Special Unit for Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries, which served as the focal point for South-South cooperation in the United Nations system.

Panel Presentations

During the afternoon session, the Council held a panel discussion on the theme of working together to promote integrated rural development in developing countries, particularly LDCs.

As noted by Council Vice-President YASHAR ALIYEV (Azerbaijan), progress in social and economic development too often failed to reach those living in rural areas.  However, there was a growing focus on rural development, as reflected by political commitments undertaken at the Monterrey Conference and in the Brussels Programme of Action.  The solution to rural development required collaboration between governments, United Nations agencies and the private sector.  Such a cooperative approach was reflected in the composition of today’s panel, which offered the chance to share different points of view on the development process.

Panellist MARIUS RATOLOJANAHARY, Vice-Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of Madagascar, said that, today, over 80 per cent of Madagascar’s 16 million people resided in rural areas, dependent on agriculture, livestock and fishing.  The large majority lived below the poverty line, struggling to secure adequate household food supplies and generate the income to improve their lives.  Thus, the country was striving, in particular, to meet the Millennium Development Goal of reducing poverty by half by 2015, in which context, the National Strategy for Poverty Reduction gave high priority to rural development, education, health and infrastructure.  A Rural Development National Policy had also been devised.

To establish the necessary linkages and ensure stronger results, the Government –- and especially the Ministry of Agriculture –- was committed to creating fruitful alliances and partnerships, he said.  Thus, it was a pleasure to be the pilot country for the United Nations Public-Private Alliance for Rural Development, which aimed to identify, highlight and promote replication of successful business policies and practices that were both profitable and promoted the social and economic advancement of poor, rural peoples.

Since presentation of the United Nations Alliance concept, much support and hope had been raised at the highest political and business levels in the country, he noted, and a sister organization, “Alliance-Madagascar”, had been established as a public interest non-profit, as well as a General Assembly of Alliance-Madagascar.  That Assembly was comprised of representatives from the public and private sectors, from non-governmental organizations and the financial and technical support communities.

Activities undertaken to date included promotion and facilitation of bankable projects by the Agriculture Ministry and the FAO; arrangements for Land O’ Lakes Inc. to assist the Government in preparing a market-driven Master Plan for Rural Development; collaboration with the Madagascar Professional Association of Mutual Credit Institutions to expand rural credit; promotion of small grants that balanced environmental protection with income generation at the village level; assistance in marketing value-added products in the United States and elsewhere; and facilitation of local and international investments, large and small, especially in the rural sector.

Yesterday, he concluded, a ministerial round-table breakfast had been held at which participants had highlighted the critical role rural development played in achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in Madagascar and other LDCs.  Participants had underscored the importance of the United Nations Alliance as a vehicle for concrete action and had offered ideas ranging from expanded microfinance services to reviving native silk production and sales, from protecting and marketing the country’s rich biodiversity to establishing large-scale agribusiness for import substitution.  Follow-up with the breakfast participants would constitute an important next step.

Panellist MARK MALLOCH BROWN, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), admitted that the UNDP was neither a food nor an agricultural agency, but stressed that it could not deliver effective development results in developing countries, nor coordinate the drive to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, if it did not help other United Nations agencies to secure adequate investments to finance their programmes.

Seventy per cent of those living on less than $1 per day lived in rural areas, he stressed, as did more than half the hungry of the world.  Examining the performance of the development community, it had become apparent that not enough was being accomplished.  Aid for agriculture had fallen by 50 per cent over the past 20 years, and as a percentage of overall ODA, its share had fallen from 16 to 7 per cent over the same period.  The agricultural sector had been neglected due to the disappointing results evinced by agricultural development programmes in the 1970s and over-dependence on the “Green Revolution”.  Thus, while the World Bank had been the greatest investor in agricultural development, agricultural extension was in terrible shape today, as it had been subjected to the fashion-driven phenomenon of abandoning sectors that did not perform as expected.

The Millennium Task Force on Hunger had concluded that political will was all that was necessary to engender sustainable agricultural development, he said.  If the necessary will was present, the solutions were relatively straightforward.  They included:  improving soil fertility, particularly in Africa; making rural markets work for the poor; improving small-scale water management; improving the supply of productive seeds; and restoring investment in agriculture, particularly in agricultural extension.

DAVID HARCHARIK, Deputy Director-General of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), said pooling efforts to eradicate rural poverty was a fundamental part of implementing rural development policies.  The question was:  Why partnership?  One answer was that governments insisted on it.  They wanted the United Nations system to reduce competition and overlap.  Collaboration also made good business sense.  FAO’s budget was equivalent to 45 cents per year per undernourished person.  The FAO would not solve the hunger problem alone.  The trend towards greater regional integration also called for greater collaboration.  The NEPAD, for example, had developed a comprehensive Africa agricultural programme.  Given the importance of agriculture to hunger reduction in Africa, the programme was expected to play a key role in rural development on the continent.  The FAO was trying to cooperate with a wide range of actors, from the global to the community level.

The collaboration between the Rome-based agencies was far better than it had ever been, he said.  In fact, it was excellent.  While the three agencies had different mandates, they shared a common vision.  An example of FAO’s collaboration was the facilitation of South-South cooperation.  Such cooperation provided an ideal way of sharing practices between countries.  Apart from the direct transfer of knowledge, South-South cooperation also had an inspirational dimension.  Successful countries could show how improvements in the farming sector had lead to poverty and hunger reduction.  Broadening partnership would also help to scale up initial private sector activities.  While eradicating poverty and hunger was a daunting challenge, it was not insurmountable.  Not only were the lives of some 842 million hungry people and over 1 billion poor people at stake, the permeable borders and finite resources of a globalized world meant that the fate of all were closely intertwined.

VERA WEILL-HALLE, a representative of the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), noted that a growing number of donor countries had revised their agricultural and rural development strategies.  Canada, Australia, Norway, Finland, Netherlands and the United States had reviewed the role of agriculture and rural development in poverty-reduction efforts.  Recognizing the critical role of agriculture for African economies, African leaders at the July 2003 African Union meeting had pledged to allocate 10 per cent of their national budgets to increased agricultural production.  International financial institutions had also adjusted their rural development policy.  The World Bank had increased lending for rural development by some 50 per cent in 2003 to more than $7 billion.

While IFAD’s cooperation with other United Nations system organizations was important, cooperation with NGOs and rural people’s organizations was equally critical, she said.  Field-level collaboration focused on a few critical issues, including local institution-building, access to natural resources and the creation of community-based social and economic infrastructure.  The private sector played a dominant role in generating employment and income in rural areas.  However, as governments shifted responsibility for the provision of vital rural services to private enterprises, the involvement of the private sector in rural areas needed to be significantly increased.  Market access remained a serious problem in rural areas.  Many good initiatives were currently under way, however, to improve private sector development.

While there had been many welcomed efforts by governments and bilateral and multilateral development partners, programmatic commitments needed to be translated into concrete action, she continued.  In 2005, the United Nations would take stock of progress achieved towards the Millennium Development Goals, offering the Council a unique opportunity to ensure that the issue of rural poverty was adequately recognized.  Policies and programmatic priorities needed to be backed with adequate funding.  While progress had been made by select donors and multilateral agencies, more needed to be done to reach the goal of significantly reducing poverty and hunger by 2015.

ALLAN JURY, Director, Division of External Relations, Department of Policy and External Affairs, World Food Programme (WFP), said the poorest could not escape the poverty trap unless their food needs were directly addressed.  Eradicating hunger and poverty –- which were created by a combination of factors ranging from natural disasters to political and economic failings –- was an achievable goal.  And while primary responsibility for combating them rested with national governments, international efforts to complement national initiatives could play a decisive role in its achievement.

The diverse, but complementary, missions of the Rome-based United Nations agencies related directly to the overall objective of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, he observed.  Their mandates for technical expertise, financial assistance and food aid were highly complementary in the promotion of integrated rural development in the LDCs.  For instance, the WFP was actively involved at the international level in the United Nations System Network on Rural Development and Food Security, as well as the International Alliance against Hunger.

At the regional level, he said the Rome-based agencies had committed themselves actively to support NEPAD, particularly in the priority areas of food security and school feeding.  And at the country level, the WFP collaborated with various United Nations sister agencies and programmes, donor institutions and national governments to link school feeding, the fight against HIV/AIDS, improved mother and child health and nutrition and other activities into an integrated rural development approach, using safety nets.

Interactive Dialogue

Opening the subsequent interactive dialogue, one speaker requested the panellists to elaborate upon how coordination between agencies and with countries could be deepened to further rural development for poverty eradication, including in terms of interaction between international agencies and national poverty-reduction strategies, in response to which Mr. Ratolojanahary of Madagascar observed that the United Nations Alliance served as tool for the implementation of national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).

He also stressed that, without partnerships between the private and public sectors, there would be no chance of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and commended the FAO, WFP and IFAD, each of which played a major role in the country’s development and conducted integrated projects in several areas of the country.

Mr. Jury said the key experience in regard of WFP’s involvement with PRSPs and UNDAF concerned the extraordinarily high level of commitment to development evinced by national governments.  Noting that the United Nations system’s efforts could only be as good as the priority accorded to them nationally, and that United Nations agencies could not impose priorities on States, he praised the pattern of integrated leadership by national governments, citing the examples of Bangladesh, Sierra Leone and Madagascar, in particular.

Mr. Malloch Brown said the United Nations system must ensure the full integration of capacity-building into countries’ development strategies.  That should be the overriding priority if the international community was successful in mobilizing greater development resources in 2005.  Too often in the past, capacity-building had been separated from ODA investment.  In terms of how the Rome-based agencies could contribute to UNDAF, he stressed that it was the role of United Nations agencies to offer choices and make recommendations, and that there was no substitute for government decisions at the national level.

In response to a request for his opinion of the future of small-scale farming and what could be done to strengthen the position of such farmers, Mr. Harcharik of the FAO stressed that there must be a future for small-scale farmers, as 70 per cent of the poor were rural and the majority made their living from agriculture.  They must be made more productive and self-sufficient than they now were, in which regard he saw the South-South initiative as bringing technical expertise from more developed developing countries to least developed countries. The programme aimed specifically to increase agricultural productivity and to diversify agriculture on small farms.  It was hoped that successful pilot activities could be broadened in scale, leading to a more promising future for small-scale farmers.

Among other points raised, one speaker asked how international assistance could be given to increasing regional autonomy for rural governance, to which Mr. Malloch Brown observed that decentralization constituted the biggest area of growth in the context of rural development and that international organizations must finance and provide support for increased governance at the local level.

On desertification, Mr. Harcharik said the FAO was actively involved in support of the convention on desertification and agreed it was not an easy problem to overcome.  Among other initiatives, combating it would require better land management, better use of water resources and the development of drought-tolerant crops.

In regard to a question on how international agencies contemplated redressing the digital divide and how they were preparing for the 2005 World Information Society Summit in Tunisia, he said that the FAO continued to pursue support from the private sector to help developing countries access available technology and information, while Mr. Jury stressed that a truly integrated system-wide approach was needed to deal with the digital divide.

The Chief Executives Board had been looking at that question, in conjunction with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), in preparation for the Summit. There was a definite need to make markets work for the poor, he observed, and information and communication technology could play an important role in that respect.

Finally, in terms of the ECOSOC’s role in the 2005 mid-term review of the Millennium Development Goals, Mr. Malloch Brown stressed that that would constitute the most critical point in the achievement.  If the international community failed to get it right at the mid-term review, the Goals would not be accomplished.  For its part, ECOSOC should provide political guidance on their implementation, but avoid involving itself in country-level planning processes.

Providing an overview of the discussion, Ms. WEILL-HALLE of IFAD said a key requirement for achieving rural development was political will.  The sustained commitment of governments to the issue of rural development was needed in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  The need for adequate resources had also been stressed.  Agriculture had been described as the key economic sector in rural development.  Emphasis had also been placed on local market access, private sector engagement, local institutional building and capacity-building.  Coordination was noted as a cross-cutting issue.  A number of coordination mechanisms had been highlighted, including the International Alliance against Hunger.  The importance of South-South cooperation had also been stressed.

She said the importance of cooperation at the field level had also been underlined.  Other issues included microcredit; the relationship between natural resource management and agriculture; and the role of the Chief Executives Board in reviewing the entire rural development agenda.  Without country ownership, none of the efforts highlighted today would succeed.  While the United Nations could provide advice and financial support, in the end country commitment was critical for reducing rural poverty.

DJAUHARI ORATMANGUN (Indonesia) said that national poverty eradication and development efforts alone would be insufficient without an enabling environment at an international level.  International support, therefore, was crucial, given the complex challenges before the developing countries to promote rural development.  A coordinated and integrated United Nations system approach to promote rural development in developing countries constituted a strategic effort.  To have real impact, it should cover all dimensions of rural development, whether economic, social or environmental.  A recent publication by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, “Integrated Approach to Rural Development”, could contribute positively to the deliberations on the matter.

Among the main constraints before the developing countries, he mentioned limited financial resources, lack of institutional capacities, high volatility in commodity prices, limited market access and inadequate debt relief programmes.  However, he was encouraged by some of the initiatives implemented by various United Nations bodies and appreciated the support by donor countries and international organizations to some developing countries.  At the same time, he noted that the report placed emphasis on the institutional aspects relating to coordination of mechanisms in pursuit of efficiency, both within and outside the United Nations system, while failing to assess the real impact and contribution of those institutions on rural development and poverty eradication at the country level.

The report also did not adequately address the challenges faced by developing countries, including LDCs, in implementing poverty reduction strategy papers as part of World Bank-driven process, he added.  Although such instruments were not a panacea, since many of the developing countries were undertaking such programmes, their relevance and impact could be underlined.  Supporting several initiatives jointly explored by IFAD, FAO and the WFP to improve the volume of funding for rural development, he said that attention should also be given to the role of microcredit and macrofinance.  He also stressed the strategic importance of South-South cooperation.

JOHAN L. LOVALD (Norway) noted that, despite recognition of the right to food and international efforts to ensure food security, the number of hungry worldwide continued to increase, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.  Hunger served as an indication that many sectors of society were not functioning satisfactorily.  For example, production, health, education, infrastructure and the environment were all being negatively impacted when hunger was evinced.

Welcoming United Nations system efforts to promote an integrated approach to rural development among its funds, programmes and agencies, he noted the launch of Norway’s Action Plan for Agriculture in Development Policy, which constituted an integrated approach to rural development that aimed to promote food security and a healthier diet, improve natural resource management and increase economic opportunities for the poor.  Such improvements in living conditions laid the groundwork for greater influence and more democracy, and resulted in less discrimination and better legal safeguards for vulnerable groups.  Rural development constituted a means of promoting respect for human rights and human security.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, he added, mobilized cutting-edge scientific research in the fight against poverty.  Given increased privatization and patenting of agricultural tools, processes and products, it was essential for United Nations Member States to fund research organizations that kept the results of the research in the public domain.  Multilateral organizations should also take up the challenge to place property rights to natural resources on the international agenda and to provide guidance to countries in need of capacity-building.

MADELYN SPIRNAK (United States) said that major donors and financial institutions had recognized the importance of promoting agricultural productivity and updated their rural development strategies.  Among the commendable initiatives, she applauded the focus of the African Union on agricultural productivity and rural development, noting that Union leaders had pledged to allocate 10 per cent of their national budgets to increased agricultural production.  Also welcome was the commitment by the Group of 8 to end the cycle of famine in the Horn of Africa.  The Group had also committed to working closely with the WFP, FAO and other United Nations agencies and leading international NGOs to improve global emergency assessment and agricultural information systems.

Such issues as HIV/AIDS, education, health care, women’s empowerment, and sustainable use of natural resources had a vital role in rural development.  No one agency could address those issues in their entirety, and increased collaboration among the Rome-based food agencies (FAO, WFP and IFAD) was welcome in that respect.  She also welcomed the United Nations system’s support for NEPAD and regional organizations in the areas of agriculture, trade, and market access.  Also important was the contribution of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.

Continuing, she commended the FAO for its “State of Food and Agriculture 2003-2004” report, which concluded that biotechnology should form part of an integrated and comprehensive agricultural research and development programme, giving priority to problems of the poor.  The public sector should be encouraged to direct more resources to agricultural research, including biotechnology.  Capacity-building for agricultural research and regulatory issues related to biotechnology should be a priority for the international community.

President George W. Bush had actively embraced the 1996 World Food Summit goal of cutting in half the number of chronically hungry people in the world by 2015.  To meet that goal, the international community must reduce the number of undernourished by an average rate of 22 million people per year.  Today, that number was decreasing by only 6 million annually.  All segments of global society, including developed and developing countries, NGOs, universities, the private sector, international organizations and financial institutions, had a role to play in ensuring that the rural poor could escape from the vicious cycle of poverty and malnutrition.

GERT ROSENTHAL (Guatemala) said that when each agency went its own way, United Nations interventions in rural development could have the perverse potential of contributing to fragmented policies.  If each agency worked well, however, the United Nations had the potential of encouraging all parts of the system to work together.  The marriage between the high level and the coordination segments was one made in heaven.  For the vast majority of LDCs, rural development was, by definition, the path towards development.

Rural development was one of Guatemala’s key development priorities, he said.  Guatemala had received United Nations support in pursuing concrete initiatives in diverse topics, such as land tenure schemes and infrastructure.  With UNDP’s sponsorship, an inter-sectoral panel for promoting dialogue on rural development had been established.  The new administration in Guatemala had adopted rural development as a top priority, breathing new life into the dialogue on the issue.

MOHAMED FADHEL AYARI (Tunisia) said that the fact that rural development and agriculture were of particular importance to developing countries and LDCs had been recognized by several international summits and conferences.  Today’s debate had highlighted the role of coordination in that respect.  There must be an integrated approach and strategy within the environmental, economic and social programmes.  It was also important to empower women and strengthen partnerships at all levels.  The United Nations had an important role to play in that respect.

Continuing, he emphasized the importance of consistent capacity-building programmes for rural development and allocation of sufficient resources towards that end.  Financing for development was of crucial importance, and he expressed concern over the decline of investments in agriculture at the time when the number of people suffering of hunger and malnutrition was growing.  Another issue of great significance was the digital divide, and the forthcoming conference on the information and communications technologies in Tunisia would help to address that issue.  Among other aspects of the problem that needed to be addressed, he listed the need to develop South-South cooperation and eliminate trade imbalances.

MURARI RAJ SHARMA (Nepal) said the problem of promoting sustainable development was immense.  Some 800 million people went to bed hungry and ll million children died before the age of five.  Malnutrition, disease and lack of education had been stifling development and decimating people.  Burgeoning populations had been barely eking out a living with the limited resources at their disposal.  Apart from people, the principal victim of poverty had been the environment.  Ensuring that people could earn a living without straining the environment was the challenge.  The international community had the obligation to protect the environment.

Some 85 per cent of Nepal’s population of 25 million lived in rural areas, he said.  About 90 per cent of those lived below the poverty line.  While there were pockets of poverty in urban areas, poverty was a major problem in rural areas.  The United Nations had contributed to rural development, poverty eradication and the promotion of sustainable development.  It had the convening power with which it was able to bring the international community together to fashion a number of compacts, including the Millennium Development Goals.  The United Nations had also been instrumental in its advocacy role.  As a whole, the United Nations system did have sizeable resources to invest.  Unfortunately, the United Nations’ past efforts had been taken in fits and starts.  Without consistency, the United Nations would lose its credibility.

In his country, roads had been built that went to nowhere, he said.  Schools had been built with parts impossible to replace.  Rural development efforts had not produced the result the people of Nepal had expected.  That did not negate the fact that rural development efforts were needed to move the country forward.

EDUARDO DORYAN, World Bank, said that with all the attention on achieving the Millennium Development Goals, there had been new recognition that halving poverty by 2015 was impossible without focusing on rural areas –- home to most of the world’s poor.  Developing countries, in rethinking their own development strategies and their poverty-reduction actions, had increasingly put rural development in their comprehensive strategy to overcome poverty.  The international community was in the midst of a convergence of global and country-based efforts.

The World Bank had worked out a new strategy, under which rural lending had increased by over 55 per cent in the last couple of years, he continued.  It now represented some 41 per cent of the Bank’s lending.  The United Nations, bilateral development agencies and donors had also drawn up new rural development strategies.  “The era of fragmentation is over, if we are to achieve the goals”, he said.  A concrete example of cooperation and coordination was the Global Platform for Rural Development -– a systematic attempt to work together and coordinate with many agencies in rural development policy.  While the administration and coordination functions of the Platform was streamlined and “lite”, it was not costless.  It was now necessary to work together to put it on firm financial footing.

In its activities, the World Bank took into account the need to support a vibrant agricultural sector in each country and increase agricultural productivity, which was critical to increasing farm incomes.  As agriculture research fell behind in developing countries, the Bank was committed to the agriculture science and technology assessment programme, which was expected to have a major impact on the management and generation of agricultural knowledge.  One of the Bank’s most significant partnerships was a Consultative Group on Agricultural Research, which it supported together with several other agencies.  Among the Bank’s other projects, he mentioned the Harvest Plus Programme on bio-fortification, and new programmes aimed at mobilizing financial and human resources.

FABRIZIO BASSANI, of the World Health Organization (WHO), noted that, since the last substantive session of ECOSOC, the WHO had established a Department of Millennium Development Goals, Health and Development Policy, with the goal of supporting national and international activities for the achievement of the Goals, especially in the poorest communities.  Among its other initiatives for implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action, the WHO had developed a framework for action to promote health in the LDCs, which outlined a series of interventions to be undertaken, in a coherent manner, by governments and donors.

He identified the seven key aspects of that framework as:  mobilization of additional resources from existing donors, global trust funds, savings from debt relief and new funding partners; effective and efficient channelling of those funds and promotion of integration in development processes, such as PRSPs; establishment of strategic partnerships for the production and distribution of global public goods; development of effective health systems under sound government stewardship and with coordinated donor support and community participation; assessment of progress against agreed indicators and targets; promotion of advocacy, social mobilization and public awareness campaigns; and promotion of policy coherence and complementarity across all health-related sectors at the national level.

WHO’s commitment to support LDCs in achieving internationally agreed development goals reflected the fact that three of the eight Millennium Development Goals, eight of the 17 targets and 18 of the 48 indicators referred specifically to health, he added.  Thus, as the majority of the world’s poor lived in rural areas, where facilities were rare, the supply of services insufficient and the burden of disease great, the WHO had focused its activities on development of district health management systems and the decentralization of health services.

MARILIA EMA MACEDO BERMANDES, of the Oasis Open City Foundation, said the Brasilia Declaration adopted at a forum of national, international, State and Federal authorities was the result of the collaboration so highly prized today.  Recommendations from the document included:  implementing territorial coordination of sectoral policies affecting rural development at the national, regional and local levels; and promoting collaborative partnerships among civil society, intergovernmental organizations, academia and the private sector focused on integrated rural development.  Also reviewing today’s discussion, she said the points raised by speakers reflected a promising basis for international cooperation and coordination for integrated rural development.

In his concluding remarks, Mr. CIVILI thanked the participants of the debate, saying that he was impressed by the quality and level of interventions, as well as a remarkable convergence of views across groups and regions.  The Secretary-General’s report had received good reception, and the Secretariat would take into account many recommendations made in the debate and during the interactive session.

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