DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Reducing Rural Poverty

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, Nov 22 1999 (IPS) - Every day, some 40,000 people die of hunger-related causes, which can be avoided, across the world, according to the UN international Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Latest statistics, provided by Ifad, shows that more than 1.2 billion of the world’s rural population live in conditions of extreme poverty.

To reverse the trend, some 250 participants from 11 African countries – Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe – are meeting in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, from Nov 15-19, to map out strategy to improve the living standards of the people in the rural areas.

“Our objective is to combat hunger and rural poverty and to improve the livelihood of the rural poor,” says Osmond Mugweni of the Zimbabwe Smallholder Dry Area Resource Management Project (SDARMP), which is funded by Ifad.

Ifad was established in 1977, following a decision by the 1974 World Food Conference, as a UN specialised agency with the mandate to combat hunger and rural poverty in the low-income food-deficit regions of the world, and to improve the livelihood of the rural poor on a sustainable basis.

The participants, attending the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) Implementation Workshop for Ifad-funded projects, are expected to share ideas and establish a channel of communications to improve the concept of networking among themselves. “The idea is to share experiences and learn from one another,” one participant told IPS.

The bulk of Ifad’s resources are made available to low-income countries on highly concessional terms, repayable over 40 years, including a grace period of ten years and a yearly service charge of 0.75.

Ifad says: “On average, some 30 projects have been approved on a yearly basis over the last five years, for a total commitment of approximately 380 US Dollars.”

As of mid-1998, Ifad had financed498 projects in 112 countries and had provided upwards of 1000 grants for research and technical assistance.

“Through these activities, approximately 200 million men, women and children have been helped to work their way out of hunger, poverty and deprivation,” says an Ifad publication, made available to ips this week.

According to the publication, between 1978 and mid-1998, Ifad committed 5.77 billion in loans and over 300 million US Dollars in grants.

Ifad loans to Africa accounted for less than 15 percent of total lending in 1997, but rose to 34.8 percent in 1998. “Overall, it was generally satisfactory agricultural year for the entire continent, and even problematic area such as Ethiopia registered a small increase in food production”, according to Ifad.

In remote areas of Zimbabwe, Ifad helped the Co-operative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), an international non- government (ngo), to establish a network of agribusiness traders, or “agents”, during the period 1995-97.

Seventeen agents, including six women, were selected and trained in business management and agricultural skills. An Ifad evaluation found that the programme have been largely successful in its objectives and has achieved an internal rate of return of more than 40 percent.

Ifad is now working with CARE in drawing up plans to introduce similar programme in Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia.

In Chad, Ifad is trying to improve the living conditions of 7,500 households in a typically semi-arid zone afflicted by drought and environmental degradation.

Writing in Ifad Annual Report 1998, Ifad President Fawzi H. Al- Sultan said: “While the scale of poverty has grown, the international community has at the same time given a new emphasis to tackling the tragedy of chronic deprivation.”

According to Al-Sultan, the international community has endorsed the target established by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to reduce absolute poverty by half by 2015. “At a time like this, Ifad needs more resources, not less,” he says.

“Today, as we look to our next twenty years in a new century and a new millennium, the Fund is confident of having the experience, knowledge and tools to make a real difference in the lives of poor farmers, rural women, the landless and other vulnerable groups,” he says.

“We do, however, face the continuing question of mobilising adequate resources to maintain a viable lending programme to meet the needs and expectations of our member states, and of our clients, the rural poor,” says Al-Sultan.

The Bulawayo workshop is being attended by Klemens van de Sand, Assistant President, Ifad Programme Management Department.