REPRESENTATIVES OF 19 COUNTRIES AND 8 ORGANIZATIONS ADDRESS HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL

01.07.03

The Economic and Social Council this afternoon continued its high-level segment on the promotion of an integrated approach to rural development in developing countries for poverty eradication and sustainable development, hearing statements by representatives of 19 countries and 8 organizations.

Country representatives spoke about specific problems facing them as well as global difficulties and challenges. Among those addressing the Council was Addisu Legesse, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Rural Development of Ethiopia, who highlighted the dependence of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) upon commodity prices for their export earnings. The dramatic declines and fluctuations of these prices had had serious negative impacts on the rural poor, on infrastructure development and development strategy. He said there was a need for an international commodity policy to be developed with a view to stabilizing commodity prices and eliminating tariff barriers to trade.

Bruce Montador, Vice-President of the Multilateral Programmes Branch of the Canadian International Development Agency, said that Canada had eliminated tariffs and quotas on almost all imports from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on January 1, 2003, but true progress in rural development required an end to the agricultural export and domestic subsidies crippling developing countries’ agriculture at home and destroying their hopes for expanded markets abroad.
Lennart Bage, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said that key factors of rural development were secure access to assets, particularly water and land; markets to buy and sell; access to finance and opportunities to save and borrow; access to technology and research; and access to accountable and non-corrupt institutions. The high-level segment would be a success if it resulted in a greater understanding of the role and significance of agriculture and rural development for poverty reduction; a strengthened commitment to increasing funding for agriculture and rural development; and the establishment of a mechanism to hold the international community to account by monitoring and reporting on progress on the implementation of commitments.

Other speakers echoed similar sentiments. Some highlighted aspects of their own experiences in rural and agricultural development and problems facing developing countries, while others stressed variously the need to focus upon aspects of good governance, respect for natural resources and the environment and respect for the priorities of the poor during the policy planning processes in developing countries. There was also widespread agreement that national rural and agricultural development policies must be accompanied by support from the international community – particularly in the areas of the provision of official development aid, the elimination of tariff barriers and the opening of markets in developed countries to the products of developing countries.

Addressing the Council were Munir Akram (Pakistan); Mauricio Gomez Lacayo, Vice-Minister and Secretary-General for Trade Affairs of Nicaragua; Justas Vincas Paleckis, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania; J. G. Moyo, Minister of Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare of Zimbabwe; Sergiy Melnik, State Secretary in the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine; Joab H. O. Omino, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kenya; Ove Ullerup, Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark; Caroline Millar, First Assistant Secretary in the International Organizations and Legal Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia; Walter Fust, Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland; John D. Negroponte (United States); Ronaldo Motta Sardenberg (Brazil); Stafford O. Neil (Jamaica); Chung Eui-Yong (Republic of Korea); Archbishop Celestino Migliore (Holy See); Arye Arazi, Centre for International Cooperation of Israel; Henri Djombo, Minister of Forest Economy and the Environment of the Republic of the Congo; and Michael O'Neil (United Kingdom).

Also offering statements were Jacobus Richelle, Director General for Development of the Commission of the European Community; Juan Manuel Suarez del Toro Rivero, President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies; Bertrand Durfle on behalf of Salah Mentouri, International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions; Rolf W. Boehnke, Common Fund for Commodities; Renate Bloem, Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO); and Pilar Lara, Foundation for the Social Promotion of Culture. A statement was read out on behalf of Roberto Blois, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union.

The Economic and Social Council will meet again at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 2 July to conclude its high-level segment on rural development.

Statements
MUNIR AKRAM (Pakistan) said that accelerated rural development was essential to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. There was however a need for an integrated approach to rural development, including sustainable use of natural resources, education, the empowerment of women and access to health care. One of the most important aspects was access to resources, an area where developing and developed countries needed to cooperate further. Developed countries must provide space for developing countries, allowing them in invest in rural development. Trade was also critical for rural development. However, rural development had been hampered by both internal and international obstacles to trade.

Agricultural trade had always been unfair and unequal to developing countries, including within the Uruguay Round. Such inequalities led to distortions of agricultural trade. Even provisions such as that for differential treatment for developing countries had remained inefficient due to the lack of implementation by developed countries. Developing countries did not have a level playing field in agriculture, but faced a cliff in competing in agricultural trade. Developing countries were still competitive in grains and cereal, notwithstanding the obstacles put up before them. Yesterday, the Secretary-General of UNCTAD had referred to the cotton crisis. Pakistan had suffered greatly as a result of the volatile prices of cotton and now sought a playing field in agriculture that would allow fair competition. So far, critical proposals in favor of the developing countries had not received a positive response.

ADDISU LEGESSE, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Rural Development of Ethiopia, said that the theme of rural and agricultural development was of particular significance for his country as 85 per cent of the population depended on agriculture for its livelihood and as the fundamental development objectives of Ethiopia were to build a free market economic system, to extricate itself from dependence on food aid and to enable poor people to be the main beneficiaries of economic growth. Giving primacy to the welfare of its rural populace, Ethiopia saw agriculture as a potential source for generating surplus to fuel the growth of other economy sectors, including industry.

The four pillars of Ethiopia’s Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Program were agricultural development-led industrialization; justice system and civil service reform; decentralization and empowerment; and capacity building in the public and private sectors. Within the context of the first pillar, the main objective was to increase agricultural productivity and income. Ethiopia’s national commitments should be complemented by international support, in which regard additional and effective measures needed to be taken by the international community to improve current international development cooperation, financial and trade policies.

Strengthened international partnerships were also important for the development of Least Developed Countries (LDCs), he said. It was hoped that this meeting would help to reverse the fall in official development assistance to the LDCs. Other important issues were debt relief and the liberalization of trade. In particular, LDCs were dependent on commodity prices for their export earnings and the dramatic declines and fluctuations of these prices had had serious negative impacts on the rural poor, on infrastructure development and development strategy. There was a need for an international commodity policy developed with a view to stabilizing commodity prices, eliminating tariff barriers to trade and eliminating tariff peaks and escalations for products with added value and improving the productive capacity and infrastructure of LDCs.

LENNART BAGE, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said that despite an abundance of food – poverty and hunger were rampant. The first prerequisite was a global consensus on the task ahead. The first element of such a consensus had been put in place by the Millennium Summit and its Declaration. The second element was yet to be put in place. As had been stated repeatedly, the majority of poor were rural. If the Millennium Development Goals were to be reached, the international community must make an impact on rural poverty. Reforms in the agricultural sector had been the foundation for overall economic development and poverty reduction in several countries. It had been the often-dramatic progress in agriculture, translated into productivity increases, that had generated increased production, income, savings, investments and demand for goods and services to create the virtuous circle of development.

Every dollar of increase in agricultural production generated more than two dollars for the national economy, according to the most recent studies. However, today, only eight per cent of developed countries’ total overseas development assistance went to agriculture. This had to change if the international community was to reach the millennium development goals of halving world poverty by 2015. Key factors of rural development were secure access to assets, particularly water and land; markets to buy and sell; access to finance and opportunities to save and borrow; access to technology and research; and access to accountable and non-corrupt institutions. The high-level segment would be a success if it resulted in a greater understanding of the role and significance of agriculture and rural development for poverty reduction; a strengthened commitment to increasing funding for agriculture and rural development; and the establishment of a mechanism to hold the international community to account by monitoring and reporting on progress on the implementation of commitments.

A statement was read out on behalf of ROBERTO BLOIS, Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union, which said that the ITU membership sought to contribute to the development of rural and remote areas through an integrated approach that took into account new dimensions introduced by the information and communications technologies. This was a particularly timely subject since the World Summit on the Information Society was close at hand. The Summit would adopt a solemn declaration reaffirming the importance of information and communication technologies to meet development goals and the need to narrow the digital divide. The basic inequality in the age of the information society took many forms and was reflected in this instance by the difficulties faced by rural and remote areas in gaining access to universal service in communications and information.

By way of example, the installation of rural telecommunications in Sri Lanka had contributed to more rapid decision-making by farmers and a significant reduction in their costs. The prices for their products had practically doubled with the introduction of rural telephony. ITU continued to contribute to pilot projects for the establishment of multipurpose community telecentres in rural areas, in cooperation with its partners from governments, the private sector and international institutions. The strategic importance of information and communication technologies must be taken into account in any integrated rural development policy. The ITU would continue to work to narrow the digital divide and to promote equality of access to all information and communications services.

MAURICIO GOMEZ LACAYO (Nicaragua) said that the lack of efficiency and its impact in current international cooperation practices had been recognized and there was now a consensus to change this. There was also support for making the domestic changes necessary, but the international community was still waiting for the necessary external changes to make development effective. So, while there were greater resources available for cooperation, the budgets of donor countries were being reduced in terms of official development assistance available.
In this environment, he said, Nicaragua had moved its planning for development from a project-based approach to a sectoral approach, which included elements such as clear strategies, public financing systems and permanent dialogue mechanisms for planning and evaluation of cooperation. Yet, still the centrifugal force to move the international community toward effective cooperation had not been realized.

The available resources for development, he said, were still concentrated upon investment in human capital and the protection of vulnerable groups, to the detriment of their underlying causes such as the need for broad-based growth and governance. Welcoming the British proposal for an international financing facility, he said it was only through additional mobilization of resources that the Millennium Development Goals would be achieved and that dependence on outside resources through achieving sustainability would be removed. Moreover, there was a need for additional market openness as there was no point in increasing agricultural productivity without increased access to markets.

JUSTAS VINCAS PALECKIS, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, said that his country was experiencing a complicated process of transformation from a recipient country to a donor country, which was connected with Lithuania’s membership with the European Union. Nevertheless, the experience of transition into a market economy and the raising of living standards in rural areas could be interesting to other Eurasian States as well as other countries. To target remaining pockets of poverty in rural areas as a result of unequal distribution of the benefits of transition into a market economy, the Government had adopted a National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. This would be followed by the Implementation Programme for 2002-20004 as well as the recent establishment of a Poverty Monitoring Commission.
In general, Lithuania had quite favorable conditions for agricultural and rural development. At the same time, Lithuania was facing certain problems characteristic to some other countries in the region. For many small holders, farming had not yet become an income-producing activity. There was a shortage of modern equipment, and cooperation among producers was underdeveloped. As people were poorly prepared under competitive market conditions, levels of unemployment were high. A system of economic measures was being implemented which included investment support and direct payments; the provision of investment support to small and middle-scale companies; encouragement of small industrial companies in rural locations; and the creation of a favorable environment for cooperation. Other measures included organizing educations for farmers, providing advice on modern farming methods and supporting their participation in international exhibitions and fairs.

SERGIY MELNIK, State Secretary in the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, said that, to date, inadequate attention had been paid to rural development, which had led to a high level of poverty in rural areas and which, in turn, impeded development. However, recent international conferences and summits had underscored the need for rural development as did the current Council meeting.

Ukraine had made a significant advance in capacity building in the agrarian sector since independence, he said. An important element in agricultural development in Ukraine since independence had been legal enactment of the status of landowners and landowners’ rights. Collective agricultural policies had been reformed on the basis of private ownership; the privatization had involved over 70 per cent of the land being made available for private ownership. Also, as agrarian reforms had shown, a result of privatization measures was the development of a new source of income from leasing land and properties. Ukrainian policy was now intent upon creating an optimum land use system, resolving indebtedness and developing a free market, enhancing the living standards of the rural population, building an improved system of taxation, and taking action to combat the shadow economy.

On the international front, he said that Ukraine favored increasing agricultural output to increase food security and that the Government had strengthened its commitments to promote domestic and global food security. Among other elements, improving infrastructure and introducing credit and market services was extremely important for rural development. Urging the international community to assist countries’ entry and membership in the World Trade Organization, he said that this would constitute concrete support of national efforts for trade and development. Moreover, man-made hunger and famine should never be allowed; Ukraine had had its own experience of this some 60 years in the past and it had constituted one of the country’s gravest tragedies.

J.G. MOYO, Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare of Zimbabwe, said that in Zimbabwe, about 70 per cent of the population lived in the rural areas. The Government had therefore adopted an integrated approach to the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals in the areas of rural development designed to reduce rural poverty. The Government had adopted a decentralized approach to the implementation of projects and programmes, the key elements of which were macro-economic stabilization, targeted poverty alleviation, employment policies, social protection and food security. The Government had continued to empower rural communities and institutions through Rural District Councils, mandated to spearhead rural development. The dependency syndrome would be reduced both in the medium and long-term if rural communities became self-sufficient through engaging in viable income-generating projects and activities.

Against the background of poverty and poor soils in the rural areas, the Government had responded to the people’s cry for land by embarking on the second phase of the Land Reform Programme in July 2000. This programme had enabled people to fight poverty by getting access to their own pieces of fertile land which they could work on productively. Now that most of the rural people who previously were landless had access to land, the government was emphasizing programmes aimed at enhancing agricultural productivity and production. These included the dry areas development programme; irrigation development; crop and livestock input schemes; mechanization programmes; and communal areas reorganization programmes. It was also stressed that women constituted 51 per cent of the population and the majority of them lived in rural areas. Rural development could only be successful if the status of women improved and programmes had been put in place to assist women to access finance for income generating project in the rural areas. The major challenge of the Government remained the reduction of the impact of HIV/AIDS. A national HIV/AIDS policy had been developed and main activities on HIV/AIDS covered advocacy, research, orphan care and support of public awareness education.

BRUCE MONTADOR, Vice-President of the Multilateral Programmes Branch of the Canadian International Development Agency, said that agriculture was central to rural development, with strong linkages to issues of health, education, the private sector, water resource management, sanitation, the environment and decentralized governance. Last year, Canada had embarked upon a highly consultative process to forge a new commitment to agriculture and rural development in its development assistance. Thus, Canada saw all development assistance to be aimed at adhering to the effectiveness principles of local ownership, improved donor coordination, stronger partnerships, a results-based approach and greater policy coherence. Additionally, good governance was critical for effective aid.
Agriculture played a dual role in alleviating hunger and providing economic growth opportunities, he said, and both were important to the long-term improvement in livelihoods of the poor. Canada subscribed to a balanced approach that targeted particularly the very poor, including women, the aged and youth.

Additionally, he noted that trade had a profound impact on economic growth and development, in which context Canada supported the achievement of development objectives as laid out in the Doha round of talks. Canada had eliminated tariffs and quotas on almost all imports from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) on January 1, 2003, but true progress in rural development required an end to the agricultural export and domestic subsidies crippling developing countries’ agriculture at home and destroying their hopes for expanded markets abroad. This was the true development challenge of the Doha round.

JOAB OMINO, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kenya, said it was Kenya’s hope that ECOSOC's high-level segment discussions would focus on the removal of obstacles to endeavours by the national and international community to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. While poverty levels in some of the developing countries had reached unacceptable levels, with the gap between the rural and urban widening, populations of the north had continued to enjoy the highest levels of prosperity in the history of humankind. The number of poor people had therefore increased by an average of 10 million persons per annum in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia. There was therefore a need for the international community, through the stewardship of the United Nations to take deliberate, corrective measures to reverse this trend.

The United Nations and its agencies had a responsibility to spearhead efforts to bring about sustainable development in developing countries and in particular in rural areas which were often neglected. Emphasis must be placed on potential growth engines for the rural areas such as agriculture, agro industries, informal sector and partnerships in an integrated manner. Equally, the United Nations must target the elimination or reduction of inequalities that currently existed between rural and urban, and developed and developing countries so as to achieve the much-needed sustainable development. The focus of the recently launched economic recovery paper in Kenya was to restore the economy to the path of growth. The newly elected Government had embarked on implementing pro-poor programmes and reforms which included the provision of universal free primary education, legal and constitutional reforms, public service reforms and national health insurance schemes.

JACOBUS RICHELLE, Director-General for Development of the Commission of the European Community, said that poverty reduction was the central objective of EC development policy, and as poverty was a predominantly rural phenomenon, rural development and food security were essential to the fight against poverty. Yet, rural development should go beyond its social and economic dimensions; it was also necessary to foster more peaceful, equitable and open societies based on greater transparency, accountability and decentralization, which were vital to prevent conflicts – the greatest threat to national development.

In addition to having the lowest tariff scheme for developing countries with its “Everything But Arms” initiative, he noted that the European Union had reached agreement on a comprehensive and far-reaching reform package for the Common Agricultural Policy which was centered upon decoupling farm subsidies from production through a single income payment to farmers, linked to environmental and food safety standards and animal welfare standards with a stronger accent on rural development. This would result in a substantial reduction in trade distorting subsidies on the European side.
Among the other areas of concern, he said that approaches to rural development must recognize that rural and urban spaces were becoming increasing interlinked. Therefore, the European Commission now supported a mainstreamed approach to rural development incorporating the objectives of rural poverty reduction, food security and sustainable natural resource management within its existing framework of policies, institutions and programmes and built upon principles of participation, empowerment and ownership of development strategies by the rural poor.

OVE ULLERUP, Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, said rural development was the key to uplifting the world’s poor from poverty, malnutrition and hunger. Denmark believed that to promote rural development, three factors were of paramount importance: incentives for the rural communities themselves to invest and develop their production; infrastructure to make an increased production possible; and good governance and democracy. Within incentives for the rural communities themselves to invest and develop their production, there were two basic prerequisites. One was access to land and the securing of land-user rights and land tenure for both men and women. The other was that farmers must be able to receive an income that was sufficient for them to “plough” back a part of their surplus in further rural development. To this end, trade and development was key.

With regards to infrastructure, he pinpointed two areas of importance – education and water. The third and final area was good governance and democracy. It was essential to improve the individual’s ability to participate in economic and productive life. This was closely intertwined with the right of the individual to partake in political decision-making at the local, regional and national level. The bilateral and multilateral donors should give higher priority to rural development – a broad-based rural development. National Governments would have to ensure that the right policies and services were in place or no farmer, entrepreneur of for that matter donor would be willing to invest in the rural areas.

CAROLINE MILLAR, First Assistant Secretary, International Organizations and Legal Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, said income generation for the rural poor must be central to raise rural incomes. Economic growth alone would not be sufficient to raise rural incomes. The Australian aid programme “Income Generation for the rural poor” refocused the Australian aid programmes’ rural development initiatives and offered a range of options to promote income generation that could be drawn on according to the needs of each country. The three components of the programme were: increasing agricultural sector productivity; stimulating rural non-farm employment; and managing natural resources in a sustainable way. Australia’s strategy was premised on a number of lessons learned from 40 years of development practice. First, when considering rural development policies, one must recognize that one size does not fit all. Second, sustaining rural development required good governance. A system of governance which created the enabling conditions for income generation was essential.

A third pre-condition for rural development was agricultural trade liberalization. Australia had long argued for the liberalization of trade in agriculture. Nations could not trade their way out of poverty while developed country markets remained closed to them. Aid could not be effective when export subsidies in rich countries prevented developed country farmers from selling in their own markets. In the year 2002, support to agricultural producers in OECD countries totaled $318 billion, about five times the total amount of overseas development assistance. Australia urged all countries to seize the opportunity presented by the Doha round of trade negotiations to open their markets through genuine efforts to reduce unjust levels of agricultural support and to bring down the very high market access barriers that prevented developing countries from competing fairly in world markets.

WALTER FUST, Director-General of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that within the context of an integrated approach to rural development, he wished to highlight four particular areas - natural resources, the non-farm sector, health, and new information and communications technologies. For example, the sustainable use of natural resources, particularly land and water, played a pivotal role in development and the fight against poverty in the rural areas. In this context, Switzerland had made a commitment to development in mountain areas, which were home to 50 per cent of the world’s freshwater resources and to an abundant biological diversity, marked by extremely fragile ecosystems. They also hosted populations among the world’s poorest.
The non-farm sector was of increasing importance, he said, in ensuring sustainable rural development. Indeed, this sector held the greatest potential for job creation in impoverished rural areas. However, in numerous countries, rural development was victim to the ravages caused by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which perpetrated the vicious cycle of poverty and food insecurity. This escalating crisis called for a response on both global and local levels, with innovative, urgent and concrete solutions.

Finally, he stressed that the information and communication technologies, which had emerged with globalization, when applied as instruments targeted to promote human resources and foster knowledge-sharing, provided a major innovation to be used in attacking the causes of poverty. For this reason, Switzerland was a member of the Global Knowledge Partnership and would host the first conference of the World Summit on Information Society in December 2003 in Geneva.

JOHN D. NEGROPONTE (United States) said increasing agricultural productivity must have a high priority in any effort to promote rural development, reduce malnutrition and eradicate poverty on a sustainable basis. This was a process that virtually all presently developed countries had gone through. It was also a process that all future developed countries would have to go through. Therefore, renewed agricultural investments must be made to work in favor of the rural poor. The United States had identified six components as fundamental to increasing agricultural productivity, rural incomes and overall national food security. These included supportive policy frameworks; applied science and technology such as biotech-engineered products; robust domestic markets and international trade opportunities; secure property rights and access to finance; enhanced human capital; and protection for the vulnerable.
The United States had announced that it would undertake an Initiative to End Hunger in Africa which would work to empower African farmers in key countries and regions by broadening their access to both new technology and markets. The goal was to double production of basic food crops that made up African diets and increase family incomes. The United States did not assert that agricultural productivity was the only component to be considered, but did argue that no programme of integrated rural development would be sustainable without increases in agricultural and rural incomes. All segments of global society – including developed and developing country governments, non-governmental organizations, universities, the private sector and international financial institutions – had a role to play in ensuring that the rural poor could escape from the vicious cycle of poverty and malnutrition.

RONALDO MOTTA SARDENBERG (Brazil) said responding to a widespread public demand to combat poverty expressed in the presidential elections late last year, the Brazilian Government had launched a far-reaching programme named Zero Hunger. The programme was based on the concept of food security, which encompassed four core principles: appropriate quantity, nutritional balance; regular supply, and dignity in the way food was obtained. The Brazilian approach coincided with that of the Secretary-General's report, according to which hunger must be addressed within a wider effort to tackle the insecurity caused by poverty, marginalization and exclusion. The initiatives must aim not only at the short term, but also at the more ambitious goal of creating the conditions for empowering the poor and enabling them to improve their standard of living in a sustainable way.

Structural policies sought to address the very roots of hunger and poverty, such as unemployment and the unfair distribution of income and wealth. Specific policies were devised to have an immediate impact on the problem of hunger. They included credit for the poor to buy food and increasing the provision of school meals. Local policies took into account cultural diversity and allowed for each region to incorporate its experiences in implementing the program. Zero Hunger was already starting to bear fruit. Cities where pilot projects had been carried out had made strides in the areas of nutrition, employment, agriculture, education and health. In spite of progress made, a successful war against hunger and poverty could not be waged without the involvement of the international community as a whole. Unfortunately, the international community had fallen short of creating an enabling environment for developing countries to combat poverty and hunger.

STAFFORD O. NEIL (Jamaica) said that raising agricultural productivity was central for promoting food security and nutritional well-being. The main agricultural development activities in Jamaica were aimed at improving productivity for both domestic food production and agricultural export. The agricultural programmes included the provision of concessionary financing through public sector development banks; the rehabilitation of infrastructure serving agricultural systems such as feeder roads and irrigation; and continued support for agricultural support services, including marketing, research and extension services. The transfer of appropriate technology, including access to safe biotechnology, held the promise of improving the efficiency, level and quality of production.

A further key to rural development was the promotion of income-generating capacity. Non-farm productive activities were central to reducing rural unemployment and stabilizing household income during periods of crisis such as natural disasters. If the developing world was to take full advantage of its human capital, economic growth in rural economies must be accompanied by increased access to education, health and social services. Greater attention needed to be given at the policy level to strengthening the provisions of social services, reducing the impact of HIV/AIDS on labour productivity and educating women who often formed the backbone of agricultural production. The objective of poverty reduction would also not be reached without adequate attention to sustainable development strategies and access to water, land and energy sources were primary concerns for the rural poor. Success would ultimately depend to a significant degree on two important factors -- giving the poor the opportunity to influence decision-making and building the necessary infrastructure base to support agricultural productivity.

CHUNG EUI-YONG (Republic of Korea) said that, within the context of his country’s experience of rural development, the Government had, in the early 1970s in the wake of the rapid industrialization of the previous decade, launched a programme aimed at generating and increasing the incomes of people in the rural areas so as to prevent a mass migration to the cities, which would result in the further isolation and impoverishment of rural communities. Thus, with the benefit of three decades of experience, he could highlight several important elements of rural development strategy, including instilling a sense of ownership, pursuing a combined bottom-up and top-down approach, emphasizing the development of human resources, improving infrastructure, and finally mobilizing and effectively allocating the necessary financial resources.

Rural development was primarily the responsibility of each country, he said, and should involve its government, its civil society and the people directly. However, the international community had an important role to play in supporting such national efforts and activities and contributing to an enabling environment for poverty eradication and sustainable development. As a part of its cooperation internationally, the Republic of Korea now granted duty-free, quota-free market access for a substantial number of products originating from Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and would continue to expand its preferential scheme further. According to recent World Trade Organization statistics, the Republic of Korea was now the fourth largest importer of LDC products.

CELESTINO MIGLIORE, (Holy See), said the establishment of a strong development alliance, including international organizations, Governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society, agricultural businesses and farmers, both from developed and developing countries, would acknowledge the unity of humanity. This partnership must recognize that those blessed with economic resources and the power to use them, were called in solidarity to address the plight of those who were amongst the most vulnerable. Moreover, there was the question of justice that must prevail in the economic world. It had been said that the truest form of justice was genuine fraternity. Genuine global prosperity and progress depended on unification of the interests of all people.

The Holy See appealed for an integrated strategy that would implement a series of generous economic and trade concessions without asking reciprocity, at least in the short term. At the core of this strategy there was a principle of collective responsibility by which the shortcomings and less favorable conditions of poor countries must be tackled and remedied by the richer countries. Such a strategy would, amongst other things, limit the practice of granting temporary economic relief which did not invigorate the economies of rural areas; encourage new practices which supported both sustainable development and the expansion of family farms; encourage private and public investment in education; identify and eliminate the root causes of regional armed conflict; and promote technology sharing.

AREYA ARAZI, Deputy Director General of the Center for International Cooperation of Israel, said that an integrated rural development programme had been applied in Israel since the 1950s as a means to integrate and settle new immigrants from over 80 countries of origin in peripheral and rural areas. The basic goal had been to offer equal opportunity in employment, income and basic service amenities. At the time, agriculture had been a priority sector to ensure the produce to a population that had increased six times. This paid dividends in the integration of immigrants. For example, the sensible use of scarce water and limited land resources had led to a significant rise in farm productions so that the same water resources available in the 1950s were now able to yield ten times the original harvest.

Through its Center of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MASHAV), he said Israel had shared its experience and expertise with developing nations, including projects in 38 Latin American rural areas spanning 16 countries, 12 projects in 7 African countries, 13 projects in 7 Asian countries, as well as projects in Spain, Turkey and Azerbaijan. Thus, Israel could be seen as an experimental laboratory for integrating technological and spatial solutions. Israel remained willing and ready to enter into partnership with any international and national organizations, as well as relevant non-governmental organizations, with regard to implementing integrated rural development projects in the developing world.

JUAN MANUEL SUAREZ DEL TORO RIVERO, President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said that the theme for ECOSOC this year was particularly appropriate given the crisis of poverty that the world faced today. However, success would only be possible through capacity building so that the rural poor themselves could decide their own priorities and needs. Little had been done so far to make participation of the part of the beneficiaries a reality. ECOSOC members were therefore asked to pay particular attention to this aspect of rural development. An impending international conference of the Federation of Red Cross would address these themes, as well as the question of dignity of individuals and the spread of HIV/AIDS.

In his opinion the Draft Ministerial Declaration must include disaster risks as part of the road leading to rural development. With regard to HIV/AIDS, the Federation had undertaken several initiatives in the past years to ensure a holistic approach to the pandemic. ECOSOC could make an important contribution in this regard and must consider more attention being dedicated to this issue in the Ministerial Declaration.

MICHAEL O'NEIL (United Kingdom) said the importance of creating an enabling environment in rural areas could not be underestimated. There were four basic conditions that had to be achieved in this area. These were creating strong incentives for investment by the private sector and most importantly poor people themselves; fostering trade and business linkages; assuring broad access to assets and markets; and tackling insecurity and vulnerability. Primary responsibility here fell on national governments. But the rich countries had a responsibility, too. This included increasing aid effectiveness and a shared responsibility for all Millennium Development Goals. It was added that the rural poor must have effective influence on development processes, from policy formulation to implementation and monitoring processes.
HIV/AIDS was of major relevance to the theme of discussions, particularly the increasing impact of the epidemic on women and girls, as well as orphans and vulnerable children. With regard to resources, he said that there was an imperative need to enhance resources for development from all sources – national and international, public and private. Alongside increasing resource flows, one needed to move faster on enhancing the effectiveness of development assistance. Moving beyond co-ordination to effective integration was the benchmark of real progress. Being poor was a miserable experience whether one lived in an urban or rural environment. But the situation was far from hopeless – poor people had the ability to get themselves out of poverty given the right conditions. One needed to believe in poor people’s potential and invest in it.

HENRI DJOMBO, Minister of Forestry and Environmental Affairs of the Republic of the Congo, said that Congo was basically a rural country, but 70 per cent of its population presently lived in urban centers. The rapid drop of the number of people in rural areas had led to a drop in food production such that approximately two per cent of ten million acres of arable land was cultivated by only 200,000 farmers. The ratio of producers to consumers had thus passed 1:15. The growth rate of food crops was below the growth rate of the population and this imbalance between town and country must be corrected.

Thus, a national plan to combat poverty had been prepared, he said, the objective of which was to promote economic activities in the rural areas. It was designed to ensure health services, access to drinking water and electricity, housing, education, cultural activities, a healthy environment and sport and leisure activities. The objectives of this policy were numerous and were aimed at ensuring the full self-sufficiency of the country. The state would be involved as a facilitator and catalyst, yet the private sector also needed to be involved at all levels.

In terms of the environment, he said that the preservation of the Congolese forest was one of the priorities of the Government, based on a policy of sustainable use of forest resources aimed at protecting the integrity of the second lung of the world. In order to succeed in this endeavor, national resources would be mobilized, but the support of the international community in an effective and balanced partnership was also necessary.

BERTRAND DURFLE, speaking on behalf of SALAH MENTOURI, President of the International Association of Economic and Social Councils and Similar Institutions, informed ECOSOC about the organization's Algiers Declaration on combating poverty through sustainable development and partnership approaches. This declaration had come about as a result of the low commitment by the international community to the decisions taken in Johannesburg. It was totally unacceptable that poverty had increased as opposed to decreased. Partnerships on all levels were needed to find sustainable solutions to the issue of debt servicing, the empowerment of women, create employment, establish inter-cultural dialogue, providing food security, and ensuring the environmental sustainability. Efforts needed to be increased in the establishment of economic and social institutions and other democratic institutions that were committed to fight the struggle against poverty.

ROLF W. BOEHNKE, Managing Director of the Common Fund for Commodities, said the Common Fund for Commodities was an intergovernmental financial institution established by the United Nations with a mandate to finance commodity development projects in developing countries and it represented a partnership of 106 countries from both the developed and developing world and three institutional members. Their projects addressed general commodity problems affecting several countries. There was a close link between the reliance on commodities and poverty in the developing countries, particularly agricultural commodities, constituted the economic base of most of these countries. Therefore, any approach to sustainable rural development must take into account the development of the commodity sector.

The Common Fund for Commodities played a key role in assisting commodity dependent countries to strengthen their economic base through measures such as productivity improvement, innovative products and opening markets, credit systems for agricultural inputs, for agricultural trade using warehouse receipts and for local agricultural processing, and finally, commodity price risk management. The Fund welcomed close cooperation with other multilateral and bilateral institutions and civil society organizations involved in sustainable development in order to create synergies and maximize the impact of resources available for development.

Renate Bloem, (Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CONGO), said that in an non-governmental organization forum last week, held in anticipation of this Council session, the discussion had revolved around the expectations of poor people, whose recommendations included four areas for urgent attention including: one, social integration to include the rural poor; two, increased access to assets to include redressing past injustices and to address dimensions of ill-health and lack of access to education, among others; three, agricultural development and food security; and four, decentralization and participation to include decentralization in decision-making as a highly important aspect of rural development, particularly for indigenous peoples. Two cross-cutting seams emerged from the discussion time and again. One, that to promote and enhance women’s right and their access to justice, education and decision-making, among others, was central to rural development as was highlighting their role as entrepreneurs in the rural development sphere. The second was the need to promote rural people’s access to modern technologies and communications.

PILAR LARA (Foundation for the Social Promotion of Culture), said that the Foundation had held a preparatory workshop in preparation for the high-level segment. It had taken place in April of 2003, with the participation of 23 NGOs from ten different countries as well as the support of United Nations experts. Participants had been provided with a detailed outline of a report to be sent focusing on the main themes to be discussed on integrated approaches to rural development. Amongst the recommendations, the workshop had concluded that Governments and the international community were urged to prioritize integrated rural development as a major tool to fight against poverty within the framework of a holistic strategy for development and a clear vision for the future of the country and locality considered. Local authorities were urged to encourage and increase investment in rural areas in agriculture, agro-business and other activities to create jobs and achieve income and food security on the household level and alleviate the internal migration problem. NGOs were asked to participate ethically and effectively at all levels and during all the steps to the projects and programmes of local rural development. Finally, the private sector was asked to participate in the execution and funding of social projects besides the economic ones.



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