World Summit on Sustainable Development Department of Public Information - News and Media Services Division - New York
	Johannesburg, South Africa 26 August-4 September 2002	29 August 2002

PRESS CONFERENCE BY INTERNATIONAL FUND FOR AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT   Resources were urgently needed for rural areas if the international community hoped to achieve sustainable development or reach Millennium Summit goals to reduce poverty, Lennart Bage, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said today at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development. Funding for development had dropped from more than 20 per cent to less than 10 per cent of official development assistance (ODA) over the past decade, Mr. Bage said, as he briefed correspondents on an IFAD report -- The Rural Poor: Survival or a Better Life? -- launched at the Summit today. In addition, funding from international institutions for agricultural programs had decreased by half to two-thirds over the past few years. Of the world's 1.2 billion poor living on less than $1 a day, the bulk lived in rural areas and were largely dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, he continued. Poverty in those areas must be vigorously attacked to reach the Millennium Summit goal of halving poverty by 2015. Mr. Bage stressed that reducing poverty and achieving sustainable development were one agenda, rather than two. If the international community failed to tackle poverty in rural areas, sustainability in natural resource management would not be reached. Counteracting land degradation and resource depletion would be extremely difficult if the poor had to concern themselves solely with survival. He noted that some attention had been paid at the Summit to the additional resources for development pledged in Monterrey -- namely, $30 billion from the United States and the European Union. Resources for sustainable development and poverty reduction should have a high priority in distributing those funds. The IFAD report urged the international community to deal with people living in vulnerable and marginal areas, he said. The sustainable development agenda must focus on investment in poverty reduction and the management of fragile resources. Noting another important aspect of the IFAD report -- the gender dimension -- Mr. Bage said that 80 per cent of agricultural production was estimated to be done by women. But women owned or controlled only 2 to 3 per cent of the land, which represented a huge inequity. Asked about IFAD's resources, Mr. Bage said the organization received about one third of 1 per cent of ODA annually. Through yearly programs, it reached about 10 million rural poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Since it began 25 years ago, IFAD had reached a total of about 250 million rural people. Questioned how much funding IFAD would commit to reducing poverty in rural communities through its programmes over the next 10 years, Mr. Bage said the organization would like to raise past figures. Over the past 25 years, the organization had committed more than $7 billion, and had leveraged another $20 billion through partnerships and co-financing with other actors. Another correspondent asked how IFAD would interface with the new World Bank initiative on agricultural science consultation over the next five years. Mr. Bage said he would be pleased if that institution heeded IFAD's experiences over the past decade of what exactly was needed to reach out to local communities.   Press Conferences Summit News