Twenty-fourth FAO Regional
Conference for Asia and the Pacific
Yangon, Myanmar, 20 -24 April 1998
Mr Chairman,
Mr Independent Chairman of the Council
Distinguished Ministers
Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Five months ago, the FAO Conference
met in Rome where it reviewed the state of food and
agriculture in the world and the past and future
activities of the Organization.
Although according to the latest
estimates the overall world economy grew by a
satisfactory rate of approximately 4 percent in 1997, the
food and agriculture situation was one of contrasts.
Agricultural production only increased by an estimated
1.1 percent and cereal stocks are still below the
security threshold. Furthermore, development aid has
hovered in recent years at a nominal US $60 billion and
has therefore fallen in real terms, while the portion of
this aid earmarked for agriculture slumped from US $16
billion in 1988 to some US $10 billion in
1996.
FAO's activities in the previous
biennium were marked by the World Food Summit held in
November 1996 since then, several initiatives have been
undertaken to implement the resulting Plan of
Action:
- 150 national strategies for
agriculture and food security towards the year 2010
have been drafted with the governments of developing
Member Nations and others in transition;
- the Special Programme for Food
Security is now operational in 30 countries, including
4 in the Asia and Pacific region, and under
formulation in 40 others, including 10 in the
region;
- the Emergency Prevention System
for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases
has registered a number of successes, in particular
against rinderpest and desert locust; and
- the Food Insecurity and
Vulnerability Information Mapping System has been
fully established.
During the last biennium, the
Organization continued to help implement the Marrakech
agreements by organizing regional workshops and executing
national projects. The Organization will also step up its
action to assist in the preparation of future trade
negotiations, working closely with the WTO, the World
Bank and UNCTAD.
In accordance with the directives
adopted by the Summit, FAO has also encouraged the
launching of "Food for All" campaigns to mobilize civil
society. A number of countries have already initiated a
process of national consultation to this effect. The
"TeleFood 1997" operation that was broadcast by some one
hundred television channels in over 70 countries
gave 500 million viewers an added insight into the
problems of hunger and malnutrition and laid the
foundations of a system for the raising of funds which -
already this year - will finance small projects of direct
assistance to rural communities in developing countries,
helping them boost agricultural production. As endorsed
bythe last Conference of FAO, TeleFood is to be an annual
event to be held within the celebration of World Food
Day. The next edition will be held from 16 to 18 October
1998 and will be larger in scale than last year.
Finally, interagency co-operation for
implementing the Summit Plan of Action has been put in
place with the establishment of a Network on Rural
Development and Food Security led by FAO and IFAD. The
mechanism for monitoring the Summit Plan of Action has
also been set up and the Committee on World Food Security
will evaluate progress at its next session, as you will
yourselves for the Asia and Pacific region.
Among the other FAO initiatives with
worldwide impact undertaken during the 1996/97 biennium,
I should like to mention:
- with regard to the sustainable use
of natural resources, the adoption of the World Plan
of Action of the International Technical Conference on
Plant Genetic Resources and the revision of the
International Plant Protection Convention;
- as regards forests, programmes
focusing on the contribution of forestry to food
security, on effective and responsible forest
management and on maintaining a balance among the
economic, ecological and social benefits of forests;
assistance in formulating national forestry
programmes; support to the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Forests and to the Eleventh
World Forestry Congress hosted by Turkey;
- regarding fisheries and
aquaculture, the reinforcement of the regional bodies
and the staging of 21 technical consultations on the
management of marine fishery resources of different
regions, within the framework of the Kyoto Plan of
Action on the Sustainable Contribution of Fisheries to
Food Security and the Code of Conduct for Responsible
Fisheries
The annual report State of Food and
Agriculture continues to be the main source of general
information in this area and now includes a section on
developments in food security as a follow-up to the
Summit. This document is complemented by The State of
World Fisheries and Aquaculture and State of the World's
Forests. The Sixth World Food Survey was published in
1996. As for the long-term world outlook for agriculture
and food security, a study will be carried out on the
likely scenario until 2015, with a more general
evaluation taking us to 2030.
With respect to the dissemination of
information, the introduction of new technologies has
rationalized and modernized systems, while reducing
costs. The World Agricultural Information Centre
(WAICENT) now offers ready access to essential
information for food security and sustainable rural
development: FAOSTAT for statistical data, FAOINFO for
textual information and FAOSIS for specialized
information systems, in particular on animal genetic
resources, pesticides and the Global Information and
Early Warning System.
FAO's site on the Internet is posting
over 1 million hits each month and is providing
information to English-, Arabic-, Spanish- and
French-speaking users. At the same time, 2000 CD-ROMs
have been distributed to Member Nations to provide access
to WAICENT in areas where the Internet is not yet readily
available. These services will be further expanded in
1998-99 to enable Member Nations to take full advantage
of the Organization's wealth of documentary
information.
Actions for the advancement of women
are given priority status in the general drive to involve
the whole of society in the common pursuit of "Food for
All". FAO's technical departments have been requested to
bear gender parity in mind when formulating programmes
and projects. The Special Programme for Food Security
should improve the access of rural women to technologies,
inputs and credit, which is why special emphasis has been
placed on poultry raising and market
gardening.
The Organization has strengthened
coordination and co-operation with its partners to ensure
that all its programmes can be implemented against a
backdrop of budgetary constraint: with the World Bank and
the regional banks through new agreements, mainly for the
implementation of the Special Programme for Food
Security; with the food and agriculture institutions
based in Rome, IFAD and WFP; with the Consultative Group
on International Agricultural Research, its Technical
Advisory Committee and its institutes; with the other UN
agencies under the Administrative Committee on
Co-ordination; and with the private sector and the
community of non-governmental organizations.
Similarly, co-operation has been
stepped up with many Member Nations. Over the past three
years, some 1300 experts have been implementing FAO
programmes under agreements for co-operation between
developing countries and countries in transition and
co-operation with academic and research institutions, and
by hiring retired experts. In support of the Special
Programme for Food Security, a number of South-South
co-operation agreements have enabled more advanced
developing countries, with FAO assistance, to provide a
critical mass of field technicians in the rural
communities of other developing countries. Five countries
from the Asia and the Pacific region have agreed to
provide such assistance and it is hoped that others will
join soon. Finally, with a view to building national
capacities, FAO is looking into training opportunities
offered by Member Nations in the areas of its mandate for
students and trainees from developing countries and will
itself employ young professionals, within the limit of
available resources, so that they can add practical
experience to their academic training.
One of FAO's ongoing concerns is to
promote investment in agriculture. During the last three
years, 24 projects prepared with the assistance of the
Investment Centre in the Asia and the Pacific region were
approved for financing for a total value of US
$3 564 million, including US $2 245 million of
external loans.
FAO's Technical Co-operation Programme
continues to act as a strong catalyst on account of its
defining characteristics of rapid approval, limited
project duration, low costs and practical orientation. A
total of 86 new projects were implemented in the Asia and
Pacific region in 1996-97.
The restructuring of FAO has proceeded
under conditions of severe budgetary limitations, with a
focus on identifying savings and improving efficiency
through decentralization.
Besides reducing the number of staff
members - posts fell from 4 185 in January 1994 to
3 599 in January 1998 - annual savings of
US$25 million have been made by cuts in travel,
translations, publications and meetings. Growing
attention is now being given to training staff, raising
the contingent of women professionals and ensuring
equitable representation of Member Nations: the number of
countries not represented among the staff dropped from 54
in January 1994 to 29 in February 1998, taking into
account ongoing recruitment.
The decentralization process is
nearing completion: all the new liaison and sub-regional
offices are open and the Regional Office in Bangkok has
been substantially strengthened; Member Nation coverage
by the network of FAO representatives has been extended
through multiple accreditation and the use of National
Programme Officers and National Correspondents. At
present, 39 percent of the staff are assigned to
decentralized offices. The decentralization of policy
assistance and project operations will bring FAO more
closely in touch with the needs of its Member
Nations.
The restructuring process has been
accompanied by a delegation of operational,
administrative and financial responsibilities to
departments at Headquarters and teams in the field, with
the establishment of the Management Support Units and
tighter audit control in all regional, sub-regional and
country offices.
I should like to conclude this
overview of the highlights of the last two years by
recalling that the Conference approved a Programme of
Work and Budget for 1998/99 with zero nominal growth
which, in real terms, amounts to a reduction of 3.7
percent. Despite this, however, the Organization has a
unanimously endorsed programme which, in contrast to the
two previous biennia, will not need adjustment. I think I
can safely say that the Organization has successfully
completed its period of reform and that it can now look
to the future with confidence and buckle down to its
appointed mission of helping to achieve sustainable food
security for all.
Mr. Chairman,
Allow me now to address the situation
of food and agriculture in Asia and the Pacific and to
briefly discuss recent events of great concern to most
countries in the region.
During the last two decades the Asia
and Pacific region has led the world in economic growth.
Most countries saw rapid and sustained growth for a
considerable period. While agriculture GDP changed
gradually from 30 percent in the mid-1980s to about 20
percent in recent past, the sector remains a driving
economic force. More than 65 percent of the region's
inhabitants live in rural areas; and agriculture employs
more than half of the economically active
population.
Unfortunately, the "El Niño"
phenomenon has once again seriously affected a number of
countries and underscored the existence of pockets of
vulnerability to food insecurity in the region. Floods,
and other natural hazards such as earthquake, landslide,
volcanic eruption, and forest fires have also plagued
large areas. They have been a major cause of food
insecurity among the vulnerable segment of the
population, with large and devastating impact in terms of
price upswings and instability of food access, coupled
with damaged production and market
infrastructures.
In a similar manner, the contagion of
monetary and financial instability puts in jeopardy the
region's progress towards sustainable food security and
poverty alleviation. This instability poses a number of
challenges to agriculture, fisheries and forestry. More
than ever, the sector is called upon to absorb displaced
labour, produce more export crops for foreign exchange,
increase domestic food supply to mitigate upward
pressures in wages, prices, and inflation rate, and to
generate domestic sources of investment. In this context,
the Organization, in consultation with the World Bank, is
preparing programmes to develop peri-urban agriculture in
those countries which are most affected by the current
crisis as it is felt that these programmes could greatly
contribute to lessen the problem of unemployment and
urban poverty which have been exacerbated by the
financial situation and adjustment programmes.
Under the new economic paradigm, a
declining public sector role together with high costs,
will diminish the influence of domestic procurement
vis-à-vis international stocks in stabilizing
domestic food prices and supply. On top of this, world
food prices vary widely. The inherent risks and
uncertainties associated with trade-oriented supply
stabilization are a serious food security
issue.
Household food insecurity as a result
of poverty continues to be a major challenge in the
region where the bulk (74 percent) of the poor in the
developing world is located. Poverty is mainly a rural
phenomenon; it accounts for about three-fourths of the
total. As the large majority of the rural poor depend on
agriculture for employment and income, agricultural
growth offers a potentially enormous source of poverty
reduction, particularly when the growth is broadly
based.
Given rising population, shrinking
agricultural land, increasing demands on limited water
resources from the expanding urban and industrial
sectors, intensified cropping, and widespread land
degradation, sustainable agricultural resource management
is crucial for food security. The challenge is one of how
to increase output from the sector while sustaining and
enhancing the productive potential of the available
resources.
Mr Chairman,
Against this backdrop, I wish to
briefly address the issue of management and conservation
of fisheries resources in the Asia and Pacific region
which was considered by the Senior Officers meeting. As
you know, fisheries plays a vital role in feeding the
world's population, contributing significantly to the
dietary protein intake of hundreds of million of people.
Aquaculture has not only a long history in this region,
but it also currently contributes about 87.7 percent of
world aquaculture production of fish and shellfish.
However, the multiple benefits and changing roles of
fisheries in the development process have been frequently
neglected in the past. Instead, crop and livestock issues
have dominated research, investment and policy agenda
related to food production. Today, fishery resources are
moving to the forefront of national and global policy
debates about how to restructure economic, institutional
and political systems for sustainable
development.
Management is an essential tool for
the sound and sustainable development of fisheries.
Governments should, therefore, give priority attention to
fisheries management and endeavour to strengthen their
management capacity through the improvement of fishery
information and statistical data for appraisals of
resources and for management decisions. Aquaculture has a
great potential for further augmenting production in this
region. In particular, rural aquaculture can play a
valuable role, in ensuring food security in rural
areas.
In so doing, the FAO Code of Conduct
for Responsible Fisheries should be used widely as a
guideline in the formulation and implementation of
fisheries management systems. Regional Workshops/Seminars
on the implications of the Code should be organized at
the sub-regional and regional level.
In the same vein, I would also mention
the need to give priority attention to the management of
other natural resources. A recent FAO report on land
degradation in South Asia noted that "...total evidence
is sufficient to call for immediate action to prevent
further land degradation and, where possible, to reverse
the effects of past degradation." This statement is
widely held to hold true for East and Southeast Asia.
Another report noted evidence of environmental stress in
the Pacific countries although the specific nature and
urgency of the problem varies. Major aspects of land
degradation and food insecurity can be attributed to poor
forest management and deforestation. The Asia-Pacific
Forestry Sector Outlook Study, carried out over the past
two years under the auspices of the Regional Forestry
Commission, dramatically highlighted the challenges
facing the sector in the coming decade and in particular
that the forests of the region were under severe threat,
with a faster clearance rate than anywhere else in the
world.
Some Asian forests are also
experiencing considerable damage from fire, with serious
impact both locally and regionally. The extent and effect
of forest fires are clearly related to climatic and
environmental conditions, but also and very importantly
to policies, laws and institutional arrangements which
directly affect forest ecosystems and land clearing
practices. Any attempts to reduce the incidence and
effect of forest fires will therefore require a
comprehensive review of all relevant policies,
strategies, legal and institutional measures. FAO has
worked closely with a number of Asian countries to
develop National Fire Protection Policies and will
continue to provide information and technical assistance
to its members on forest fire prevention and control. In
response to growing concerns on this matter, a Forest
Fire Consultation Meeting was convened during the 11th
World Forestry Congress in October 1997, followed by an
Information Meeting during the 29th FAO Conference in
November. Participants noted the effects of land use
policies on fires and called for FAO to convene an
international consultation on forest fires, emphasising
policy issues and resource mobilization.
The Consultation planned for later
this year, will bring together key experts in land use
policies from sister UN Organizations, governments, the
private sector , NGO's and international agencies and
will act as a forum for open dialogue on policy
initiatives that can be taken to reduce fire risk and
outbreaks. FAO will also intensify efforts to use the
Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and
Agriculture for forest fire prediction. For example, it
can be used to provide early warning about adverse
weather pattern such as El Niño that have direct
impact on prevailing environmental conditions which
exacerbate fires.
Finally, I should like to stress that
FAO is committed to collaborate closely with UNEP, UNDP
and other international organizations to mobilize
coordinated international responses to assist countries
in responding to catastrophic wildfires. Strong
inter-agency partnership will be required to address the
extent and complexity of the growing forest fire problem.
Meanwhile, it is encouraging to note that countries in
the region are increasingly giving sustainable forest
management its due priority.
Water is also vital for agriculture
and, like land, is a finite resource. Per caput water
availability in the region, which fell by half in the 30
years ending 1980, may fall by another 35 percent by the
year 2000. With much of the region's crop production
dependent on irrigation, this decline in water
availability has potentially severe implications for food
security. The situation is exacerbated by the growing
competition for water from the urban and industrial
sectors.
Technology has proved instrumental in
accelerating agricultural production and national
economic development in the region. Yield increase is
projected to remain as the primary source of growth in
the future. Yet, national and international support to
agricultural research and development and the diffusion
and transfer of technology have been on the
decline.
Mr Chairman,
Overcoming the above challenges calls
for the promotion of a paradigm of agricultural and rural
development with a broad multi-sectoral base and
linkages, and which enhances the opportunities for
individuals to develop their full potential as human
beings. Development strategies need to be oriented in a
manner that will improve the quality of human life, while
living within the carrying capacity of supporting
ecosystems.
For my part, despite the current
difficulties, I remain convinced that the economic
fundamentals for long-term growth and prospects for the
region are sound. Its leaders have underlined their
resolve to achieve sustainable growth, to preserve the
dynamism and resilience of the region, and to unlock the
full potential of the people who live here. Without
doubt, the Asia and Pacific region will continue to play
a leading role in the global economy in the years to
come.
Thank you for your
attention.
