CHAIRMAN: The delegate of Lesotho has asked that his statement be included in the verbatim report. He is unable to be present at our discussions because he has commitments elsewhere. Therefore Lesotho's statement will be included in the verbatim report.
Manuel José DÍAS SOARES COSTA (Portugal)i In the name of the Portuguese delegation I take this opportunity to congratulate the FAO Secretariat on the preparation of document C 93/24. Besides being a document which looks ahead to the evolution of agriculture and food for the next 20 years, the document also addresses the most relevant issues which food and agriculture will have to face in the course of the next two decades. When we compare this document with the 1987 issue of Agriculture: Toward 2000, we must say that we rather prefer the present document. Instead of playing with scenarios for the course of events, the present document uses a more pragmatic approach. Prospective developments are based on trends and background analyses of the pertinent social and economic factors. The report then goes on to provide substantial material for thinking and rethinking by policy-makers of Member States on many different areas and issues affecting agriculture. Governments will find in this report important guidelines to design appropriate strategies for sustainable agriculture and rural development and options to enhance the status of food and nutrition of the populations in need.
The whole report is rightly oriented towards two main objectives: firstly, achieving food security for all and making progress in elimination of hunger and chronic sub-nutrition, which still affects as much as 20 percent of the population in the developing world; secondly, ensuring sustainable use of agricultural resources and safeguarding productive potential for further generations, while promoting agricultural development and improving the welfare of populations in rural areas.
We particularly welcome: the overview and the discussion material provided in Chapter 7 of the Economic Framework and the context in which agricultural development might evolve; the way in which Chapter 9 addresses the issue of rural poverty and agricultural growth and policies aimed at the alleviation of poverty in rural areas; the analysis of the fundamental quest of human resources development in rural areas through education, extension, training and technical and professional education in agriculture
as outlined in Chapter 10; the analysis of pressures from agriculture on the environment, such as pressures on land and water and the ever-present problems of desertification, soil degradation through erosion and nutrient-mining, increasing salinity, water contamination, deforestation and losses of biodiversity; and, most of all, the views on the technological foundations of sustainable agriculture for the future, the very nature of forthcoming challenges particularly in the developing world, and the irreplaceable role of research, addressed in Chapter 12.
We should like to point out what we consider the main features of this report, which is a straightforward clarification of a number of misconceptions and misleading views which still prevail in the public opinion. The number of undernourished people in the developing countries still remains at 800 million, while on the other hand it is known and accepted that world agricultural output is sufficient to provide food for everyone. The report indicates that the potential increase in food production is sufficient to cope with the requirements of a world population growing from the 5.3 billion of 1990 up to the expected 7.2 billion of 2010. This seems to be a dramatic paradox difficult to understand and morally unacceptable. However, the positive and negative developments should be analysed in more detail and from a different angle if one wishes to address the persisting problems and offer new policies and strategies.
In spite of the fact that the world population has grown from 3.7 billion to 5.3 billion in the last 20 years, per caput food supplies are today 18 percent above the level of 3 0 years ago. This fact shows that agricultural output has been able to respond sharply to the increasing demands and the prospects and that it should be able to continue to do so for the coming decades. The progress shift is very impressive and is a good reason for hope. In fact, a considerable number of developing countries have participated in this progress of improved nutrition. The problem is that many other countries and population groups in specific areas of the world only have very low per caput food supplies and have made hardly any progress. In particular, the nutritional status of sub-Saharan Africa is today worse than it was 20 years ago. It is also a fact that the percentage of those suffering from hunger and sub-nutrition has shown a sharp decline in the last two or three decades yet the absolute number of undernourished people, because of demographic expansion, has fallen only modestly and remains high, although it is now more concentrated in some areas of the planet, particularly in Africa, in South Asia and in some pockets of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The prospects for 2010 are for a continuing decline in percentage terms, but the absolute numbers of undernourished people will remain high until 2010. Some countries and geographic areas seem to be unable to overcome their food security problems. Therefore the requirements for food aid and the need for emergency food supplies might even increase in the years to come because food deficits in certain areas are expected to grow.
It has become clear that the problem of the quest for food and nutrition is not a matter of increasing world food output or even of increasing per caput food availability. The problem is one of equitable distribution and access to food supplies. Some regions produce food surpluses, while others are unable to cope with their needs as population grows. There is clear evidence that world agriculture is able to increase food production by as much as is required to meet the growth of effective demand. The problem is
that in most cases the requirements for food supplies do not exactly mean an effective demand.
It is well recognized that failure to alleviate poverty is the main reason why undernutrition persists in vast areas of the world. Agriculture and its resources are existing assets on which a large part of the population in the developing world depends for obtaining employment and a secure income.
In countries where more than 50 percent, sometimes up to 80 percent, of the population still live in rural areas and depend on agriculture to make a living, if they remain poor, if agriculture does not develop in a sustainable way and if rural areas do not progress in an integrated fashion, people cannot ensure their livelihood.
In most developing countries, 80 percent of the poor are still living in rural areas. Therefore, the vicious circle of population growth/increased food requirements, persisting poverty and the absolute need to protect the environment and natural resources, must be broken at once. However, for some time large numbers of people have had to rely on agriculture. Agricultural development and poverty alleviation are, in fact, two faces of the same coin in many countries. The objectives can only be achieved through sustainable, integrated rural development. I mean sustainable agricultural development because in most developing countries it would mean increasing food output, through increased production and productivity which will require the use of new techniques compatible with environmental protection - that is minimizing trade-offs between agri-development and alleviation of pressures on natural resources.
I also mean integrated rural development because it may require simultaneous efforts on several fronts: improving human resources through health care, education, extension and professional agricultural training, as well as through developing new activities in rural areas creating new jobs and income sources through diversification, manufacturing activities, further processing of agri-foods, providing new services and social amenities, etc. All these, of course, would create jobs and generate income.
Many developing countries have resolved or attenuated their food/nutrition problem through agricultural inputs, using other sources of foreign currency. Some countries, however, are mostly dependent on agricultural exports, mainly of cash crops. Those are virtually vulnerable to the current situation of very depressed world market prices of agricultural commodities.
Even more worrying is the situation of the so-called least-income, food-deficit countries. Those are the countries where deep poverty and insufficient food supply prevails, and the prospects are darker. Those are also the countries where the option, probably the only credible alternative, for the next decades would be a strategy and policies to increase local food production. Appropriate field programmes to stimulate smallholdings to improve food security and supply local markets are a must in such countries.
In concluding, I should like to make three or four remarks on some important issues: firstly, the problem of irrigation and the use of water. There is sufficient evidence that pressures on some resources will increase in the near future. Whilst in some regions there is still enough land available to allow for further increases in agricultural land occupation,
in other areas land is already scarce, which means that we shall in the future have some intensification of agricultural food production. However, water is definitely more scarce than land. In fact, in many regions of the world it is the main constraint to the development of agriculture. This is why FAO needs to dedicate priority attention to the new irrigation projects and the improvement of old irrigated areas in order to obtain increased output. However, because water is becoming more and more scarce, more attention should be paid to new techniques of improving efficiency of water utilization.
Secondly, I think more attention needs to be paid to the recycling of many agricultural byproducts and waste. This applies to agricultural byproducts as well as to animal wastes, and is particularly important in the forestry section. I call on FAO to note that this matter should be envisaged in an integrated way. Recycling and valorization of wastes and byproducts should, in many cases, be a combined process.
My third comment is on the issue of agricultural research: we are all aware of the difficulties that research institutions are generally going through worldwide. They have funding problems, a surplus of research people in some countries and lack of research people in other countries, particularly in developing countries. It is known that many researchers trained in developed countries do not return to their home countries in the developing world. There are many, many other problems in research. One could even speak of a crisis in the worldwide research system.
With regard to agricultural research, the current state of affairs cannot continue in its present form. The matter needs to be addressed by FAO in an appropriate forum. Agricultural research is a must, if we wish properly to address the challenges facing agriculture worldwide and particularly in developing countries in the next decade. If we really want to take full advantage of the course of new biotechnologies, cooperation should be enhanced and research networks should be reinforced.
Finally, I would have hoped that the report addressed the problem of commodity prices more in depth and put more emphasis on other areas of concern. I am sure that agricultural development should be more oriented by market signals. Trade and marketing would find the way to relieve the current problem of depressed market prices for agricultural commodities. It is also important to ensure that farmers get a fair share of international prices and most of all that agriculture input prices also reflect the results of free market policies, otherwise the problems of agriculture in many areas of the world will persist.
Zahir Shah MOHMAND (Pakistan): The Pakistan delegation appreciates and recognizes the FAO Secretariat's tremendous efforts in assessing the prospects for agriculture in the year 2010. It is a definite improvement on the study last issued in the year 1987. It is further gratifying to note that the thrust of FAO's activities in the next two decades will remain focused on the important themes of food security, human nutrition, human resources development and improved sustainability of agriculture and rural development.
The study under review aims at increasing awareness in order to guide policies at national and international levels. It has also been admitted that the study describes the future as it is likely to be, and not as it ought to be.
The mere normative description of the future, although an invaluable assistance in itself and in its own right, yet amounts to half the truth. The need of the hour is to throw away the shackles of traditional euphemism and compromise and face the reality and to state it in stark nakedness. The dire need is to call the international community in time for action to avert future catastrophe before it is too late.
The document admits, for instance, that in sub-Saharan Africa undernutrition will probably remain disturbing and still in effect in the year 2010, when nearly one-third of the population will be almost 3 00 million people. It is high time to convey a strong note to the affluent world to come forward and save humanity from undernutrition and loss of face and respect.
The mere shipment of a few thousand tons of commodities at a time of famine is not a solution. The solution should be in time and lasting. Sub-Saharan Africa, and, for that matter, any part of the world, requires the resources to eke out their livelihood themselves with honour. The equality of wealth has been an elusive siren over the ages, but the equality of opportunities and egalitarian dispensation is a definite possibility, provided there is a will on the part of those who control these opportunities.
Secondly, although the study is alive to the fact that maintaining a wide spectrum of genetic diversity of animals and biodiversity of plants is useful, it is however failing to describe how much of this diversity will be lost by the year 2010. It is an admitted fact that the mindless search for cross-breeding of plants and animals has resulted in the extermination of some valuable thorough-breeds and nondescript species of plants and animals. These species are essential not only for future research, but also to maintain the diversity of colours and flavours on earth.
In the document under review sufficient space has been dedicated to international trade in agricultural commodities, describing the economic and social fallouts of the stabilization and adjustment programmes lately started by various countries. However, this study stops short of touching either the most vital issues or, where it does, it lacks the requisite frankness and vehemence.
The world is once again hoping against hope that the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations will successfully liberalize the international trade and the rich countries will dismantle the tariff barriers, do away with quotas on imports and cut the much-talked-about agricultural and farm subsidies. It is only the Third World countries which are found to be more compliant with the GATT decisions. According to GATT statistics, the rich countries subsidize their farm outputs up to 200 percent, to 400 percent. In the last three years one farmer in an affluent country has pocketed US$3 0 million in subsidies. Such facts should have been brought to light for open discussion.
Finally, we would like to say a few words about forestry. Deforestation is rapidly causing the depletion of forests. This is mainly due to commercial logging and over-exploitation by an ever-growing population of fuel, fodder and livestock grazing. The adverse effects of deforestation are obvious. This process is particularly threatening some of the rare forests of the world. In the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, we have the second largest juniper forest in the world. Such a forest requires centuries to grow. These rare species are the assets not only of one country, but are the
assets of the human community. The assistance of FAO and other UN agencies is required to save these valuable assets.
Tawfiq-e-Elahi CHOUDHURY (Bangladesh): I have a few short comments to make on this interesting paper. The study 2010, C 93/24, is very informative.
As you know, it is hazardous to make long-term forecasts when we know it is difficult even to predict the outcome for the next year in terms of production, distribution and consumption. Then again, in the near term production will be sensitive to prices but consumption and distribution are sensitive to prices even in the near term. In the long term they are very sensitive to prices also.
The question I want to raise is this. Although we need to have a vision for the future, some notion of what is going to happen in the future, how are we to go about it? The basis of forecasts is very important to give us some confidence as to the terms of direction and the magnitude of changes that will need to happen in the future. It is in this context I have difficulty understanding the document. The methodology and database are not clearly stated in the document.
I suggest the following. One, there should be a technical appendix to the document which clarifies the basic methodology and database for the study. Two, since we do not know the future, it is good to take an alternative view of it. In that context, I think it is reasonable to have alternative scenarios which would give us a broad sweep of the likely outcome in the future. Three, from the explanatory note on page 5, it looks as if there is an extrapolation of past trends for the future. I find this perplexing.
Most countries are going through structural changes just to break away from the past. If the future is going to be an extension of the past, is it not a bit disheartening? On the contrary, as some delegates have already mentioned, since we are trying to break away from the past, predictions or forecast for the future must, in some way, incorporate the benefits of the changes that are being undertaken in many of the countries.
Four, with the liberalization of the domestic and international market, prices are going to be very critical. There must be some mechanism for incorporating prices which are going to allocate resources, both in production, distribution and consumption.
Lastly, I have a little problem with the statistical tables. In the case of Bangladesh in Table A.1 the population for 1990 is given as 115.6 million. We had a census in 1990 when the population was estimated to be 110 million.
With regard to growth rates also mentioned in the statistical table, there need to be some changes. I hope these errors only apply to Bangladesh.
Peter Makokha AMUKOA (Kenya) : I take the floor only to emphasize a few areas.
Many delegates have spoken on this subject already and have touched on the same areas. There are many other topics on which I will not touch.
On the whole, we support the analysis in the Secretariat's document, on which much work was done. My first area of emphasis is that of crop production for the next several years in horticultural crop development. This area has great potential to earn some developing economies foreign exchange and generate employment, while improving incomes, welfare and the nutritional status of rural communities.
We would like to see in the years ahead the efforts made to support this sector intensified, especially in areas of the production of horticultural seed for the domestic market and in marketing.
Another area is the need to intensify efforts to introduce oil-processing technology at the rural level. We believe that oil processes at that level are more affordable by the rural people and will enhance their nutritional status.
You will note that for many among the rural poor it is not that they do not know what is nutritionally desirable; they simply cannot afford to buy these goods.
We have not yet succeeded in managing farm household systems for improved production and productivity. This is because we have either not yet understood socio-economic dynamics at that level and in those communities or we have understood but prescribed the wrong messages to management. Let us in the years ahead increase our understanding of what is going on at that level and formulate more realistic strategies and approaches to solve the problems.
Lastly, I emphasize in this area of crops the focus on soil degradation, its management, integrated pest management and the consensus on health and ecosystem conservation. Much has been said on this by other delegates. I need say no more.
On forestry, we agree that there is a habitat for biodiversity. In the next two decades attention should be focused, among other areas, on research into the more efficient use of forestry resources to meet the energy needs of the rural poor with forestry programmes to prevent soil erosion and protect water catchment areas. We should also focus on the promotion of forestry habitats of various animal species which have current and future potential in the life-supporting systems.
Through biodiversity, FAO should, by the year 2010, have made an impact on the preservation and use of edible traditional plants by local communities and the preservation of plant species and biodiversity both in in situ and ex situ.
With regard to fisheries, we would like to see that industrialization and expansion in human settlements and the pollution of fishing waters no longer threaten the fishing industry within the next 20 years. Also, those of us whose nationals over-exploit certain species to the extent that these are threatened with extinction should try to stop the practice. Indeed, there is a need for guidelines and codes of conduct for responsible fishing to achieve a sustainable fishing industry and to preserve species diversity.
With regard to investment in agriculture, those who depend on this sector as the engine of economic development should try to ensure that, in their
allocation of national resources for development, agricultural development takes its rightful share. Let us ensure in the years ahead this is done.
In this connection, it is imperative that we manage the resources so allocated efficiently in order that in the years ahead we try more seriously to implement measures to manage our own resources more efficiently.
At this point let me note also that there has been a decline in the inflow of both official and private resources to developing countries, for reasons that have been neither economic nor humanitarian. We urge that this trend be reversed in the future.
We find the subject of external debt a sore point. External debt repayments have gone beyond 100 percent of the average foreign exchange earnings to over 50 percent of GDP for many of the developing countries. There are reasons, of course, why these debts were incurred. However, the fact is that the situation in which these countries find themselves is one that will not enable them to develop in the years ahead if nothing is done about the debt crisis. We must urgently address this issue so that 20 years from now the situation will be quite different.
Lastly, there is also a need seriously to look at international trade arrangements which seem to influence the outflow of resources from south to north. It is indeed interesting to observe that while one of the prescriptions for structural adjustment reforms is the liberalization of trade internally and externally, it remains a fact that the developed economies remain more or less closed to products from developing countries except for raw materials which, nevertheless, are priced below their opportunity cost. In the years ahead let the international community look at the whole area of trade and adopt trading practices which are favourable to all nations.
Kiyoshi SAWADA (Japan): Firstly, my Government appreciates FAO's efforts and its elaboration of long-term prospects in Agriculture: Towards 2010, notwithstanding many uncertain factors. This prospect surely provides all Member States, including Japan, with a good standard of examination into future projections.
My delegation was not able to prepare enough comments on this comprehensive document as we had insufficient time to study it. If you will allow us to express our impressions, this document before us seems to be a mixture of optimism and pessimism.
Regarding food and agriculture, no matter how the global food balance is described optimistically, there is chronic under-nourishment in sub-Saharan Africa which is estimated to increase; there will be no improvement.
We feel the following points should be explained more clearly.
One, according to Table 4.1 in paragraph 4.4, arable land is estimated to increase from 757 million hectares in 1988-90 to 850 million hectares in 2010. This means an increase of 12.3 percent in the next 20 years. This figure seems to be an over-estimate compared with the 5.5 percent increase rate in the last 20 years. Moreover, the increase in consciousness of environmental conservation in the world should be considered as a negative factor.
Two, as to yields, the expansion of high-yielding varieties with the usage of fertilizers has contributed to a dramatic increase in the past 20 years. It is observed that potential areas for the introduction of such current varieties are almost saturated. To realize the yield increase, in over the next 20 years, more information on the technical background for it are needed.
Three, for this target yield, concentrated support from every country should be focused on research activities, mainly by international agricultural research centres, to develop promising varieties and technologies which are adapted to the conditions of developing countries, as well as an extension of those activities.
Four, the expansion of low input agriculture, particularly in developed countries, would negatively affect the quality of food production in these countries and thus the food supply to food-deficit countries. How is this issue considered in this document?
Five, China is expected to achieve high economic performance. How does this document consider the Chinese food situation prospects which will affect the global food situation?
Six, considering abnormal climatic conditions and environmental changes in the mid-and longer-term, it is necessary to recognize in this document that the increasing reliance for food by many food-deficit countries on a few exporting countries will lead to uncertain food security.
With regard to forests and forestry, world forests - particularly the forests in developing countries - are exposed to deforestation caused by the demand for fuel, construction, agriculture, and so forth. As to the measures to be taken in regard to this situation, the urgent areas for action mentioned in paragraph 5.82 are essential. It is important to develop sustainable forest management responding to the various demands for forest use. My Government expects a positive role of FAO in this field.
Turning to fisheries, although there are many pessimistic descriptions in this document, my Government sincerely commends FAO's positive initiative in this field and its further contribution to fisheries development. However, the following paragraphs cause us anxiety and we request that they be reconsidered.
One, paragraphs 6.26 and 6.3 6 describe some type of fishing as environmentally negative, without giving any scientific information.
Two, the second sentence from the bottom of paragraph 6.38, concerning krill production, is based on a misunderstanding because the current production of krill is only 80,000 tons compared with 1.5 million tons, which is the precautionary catch limit set up by the CCAMLR, and a limited production is caused by economic factors alone.
These are the comments which my delegation can make on this Agenda Item for the moment.
MAUNG MAR (Myanmar) : I have a few comments concerning C 93/24, Agriculture: Towards 2010.
First of all, the Myanmar delegation would wish to congratulate the Secretariat on the quality of this report. Moreover, our delegation fully supports the assumption contained therein. This covers a wide array of issues with regards to geographic, commodity, resources, technology and other dimensions, and related policies of varying degrees. Two major issues are included, such as the elimination of under-nutrition and food insecurity, and the safeguarding of the productive potential and environment with sustainable approaches.
Our delegation agrees that increasing food production is among the principal means of combatting poverty as the majority of the poor depend on agriculture for employment and income. Increasing food production will consequently alleviate nutritional problems with more per caput food supplies.
It is salutary to note that chronic under-nutrition in developing countries as a whole will persist for about 650 million people in the year 2010. However, we are optimistic that this figure could be lessened through better technology and management. To increase agricultural production, more land must be brought under cultivation. There must be a reduction in fallowing. Cropping must be intensified. Better technology must be introduced and better irrigation and drainage facilities provided.
Moreover, those practices which are sustainable with less resource degradation - such as deforestation, over-grazing, salination and nutrient mining - must be used so that the vicious circle between increasing poverty and resource degradation can be broken. However, further research is a necessity to prepare for the longer term. Biotechnology, hybrid rices -based on apomixis-asexual reproduction - are good tools.
We have two comments concerning the report. These concern the land classes on page 121 and the legends on the maps which do not agree. For example, land class "AT 6" is productive lowland on page 121 but in the legend on the map it is marginally productive land. With this classification on the map, the fertile, productive rice bowl of Myanmar falls under "marginally productive land". Similarly the same thing happens for land class "AT 7". Another concerns paragraph 1.90 on page 25 where it would be more appropriate to use the term "Access to productive land" rather than "Access to land" in the first line.
Concerning the plan for Agriculture: Towards 2010, in Myanmar we are basing our agricultural development on three objectives. The first is the promotion of cereal production leading to a surplus in paddy; secondly, self-sufficiency in edible oil; lastly, the production of industrial crops for domestic agro-based industries and for exports. These objectives are planned to be achieved by following the following five principles: first, development of new agricultural land; second, provision of adequate irrigation water; third, provision and support for increased agricultural mechanization; fourth, acceleration of technology transfer; and fifth,
development and utilization of high-yielding quality seeds. We have achieved this with a GDP growth of 10.2 in 1992-93.
We are also very careful with sustainability and we are practising sustainable methods of cultivation, timbering and fishing.
Myanmar is following the objectives of FAO guidelines and fulfilling FAO's aims and objects. The recent expansion of rice land could be affordable to
feed 50 million people which would be by the year 2000. However, more agricultural production in Myanmar, such as rices, pulses and other crops, is not only for our own consumption but also for food security. Our country is usually free from disasters. Therefore, more production can be attainable with advanced technology for the betterment of world food security. Myanmar has recently been engaged in this kind of development with limited resources and limited assistance. With more assistance and collaboration with FAO in the TCP Programme, financing other related projects will be helpful in increasing food production in Myanmar.
Before I conclude my comments, I would wish to support the idea of the distinguished delegates of Iran and Indonesia to publish a fiftieth anniversary book on the successes and failures of the FAO.
Winston RUDDER (Trinidad and Tobago)i The Trinidad and Tobago delegation wishes to congratulate FAO on this seminal document, this prospective, on the prospects and potential for dealing with under-nourishment, poverty, hunger alleviation, and linking those themes to the sustainable development of the resources which are available for dealing with them fully and frontally.
Mr Chairman, like my fellow delegates before me, we wish to record our view that the document before us represents a significant improvement on the previous edition, and the Secretariat must be congratulated. The message is clear and our delegation subscribes to that message and the main theme in this document.
There can be no room for complacency. We have a context for action, a responsibility which devolves on the international community and nation states alike.
There is one seminal sentence in the document to which I wish to draw attention, and it is in Chapter 10 where it says that there is increasing evidence and recognition that what matters for development more than natural resources and man-made physical capital is the capability of people to be effective and productive economic agents, in short human capital. A propos that, I wish to emphasize on behalf of my delegation the fact that neither government nor international organizations can develop people. We can only stretch them or diminish them as we seek to develop them. What we need to do is to create the framework, the context, the necessary and sufficient conditions, that allow them to develop. It is in this context that we subscribe fully to the views outlined in that chapter on human resources development in agriculture, because it is a critical issue, perhaps the critical issue, in terms of development. It is an issue to which we fully subscribe.
May I just make two observations of a general nature on this document which I believe might assist in improving future editions thereof. One of the factors that one must recognize in the development process is that there is no homogeneity amongst developing countries. I dare say there is no homogeneity within the regions that constitute the developing world, whether it be Latin America, Africa or Asia. In the particular and specific context of small island states of the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and South East Asia, I believe that a document of this nature would have been improved substantially if the issues that are common to these regions, which form the small island states, had been treated in a context that would have been unique and different. In fact, that is being recognized at
the Global Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island States in Barbados in April 1994. It will be a useful improvement to this document, if in future the conditions and circumstances of small island states as a group are better described and analysed.
My second comment relates to the very last sentence in the document. I do not want to get into a dialectical argument about an anthropocentric approach or an ecocentric approach to development, but merely introduce a caveat that, if we are thinking that a more anthropocentric approach to development is more desirable, given the nature of the circumstances about which we speak and debate, I would only hope and pray in taking that approach that we accept and understand that man ought not for behave in a way to suggest that he is apart from nature but that he is a part of nature; this suggests a stewardship responsibility to oversee, to ensure that nature and the natural resource base is managed in a way that he can enjoy it, not in a very selfish manner, but that his children and future children can also enjoy it. So if the anthropocentric approach will have this understanding about it, I support it; if it does not, I suggest we would perhaps like to rethink that last sentence.
Mile Adelaide Manuela RIBEIRO (Cap-Vert): Merci Monsieur le Président. Tout d'abord, nous remercions le Secrétariat pour la qualité du document qui nous a été soumis. Ce document nous donne une vision des perspectives à l'horizon 2010 dans le domaine de l'alimentation, de l'agriculture, des pêches et des forêts, et nous invite à une réflexion sur le futur de l'agriculture et de la sécurité alimentaire de notre planète.
C'est avec une grande préoccupation que nous constatons que l'Afrique, malgré une certaine amélioration dans la production agricole, est encore loin d'atteindre la sécurité alimentaire. La dégradation de la qualité de l'environnement et de la baisse des ressources naturelles suscite aussi une inquiétude de notre part.
D'autre part, l'on ne s'attend pas à l'avenir à des changements majeurs dans les perspectives des grandes pêcheries mondiales. La surcapacité des flottes mondiales de pêche engendre une dégradation des ressources halieutiques. Dans beaucoup de zones de haute mer, le mauvais aménagement et la surexploitation sont des gros problèmes et mettent en danger la durabilité des ressources halieutiques. La menace pèse aussi sur le secteur forestier où ces soucis se font sentir surtout sur les problèmes de santé des forêts, d'incendies, de diversité des écosystèmes et le déboisement. Malgré tout cela, Action 21 et les principes forestiers adoptés par la CNUED reconnaissent l'importance du rôle des forêts. Ce nouvel engagement international aura une influence positive sur les perspectives de la foresterie dans les années à venir. Au Cap-Vert, la tendance veut que la superficie agricole diminue progressivement à cause de diverses raisons: l'occupation croissante de terrains à vocation agricole pour des constructions urbaines, à cause de la croissance démographique; l'érosion qui provoque l'usure des sols avec des effets négatifs dans la productivité; la tendance pluviométrique: le niveau de précipitations baisse graduellement chaque année; des surfaces autrefois terrains agricoles deviennent aujourd'hui terrains marginalisés ou voués au pâturage; la pratique d'une agriculture traditionnelle qui ne prend pas en compte l'environnement et le développement durable. Le gouvernement devra donc prendre les mesures qui s'imposent en vue de créer des mécanismes appropriés pour faire face à cette situation et rendre viables l'agriculture et la sécurité alimentaire dans l'avenir.
Pour ce faire, l'aide de la communauté internationale et de la FAO en particulier sera d'une importance capitale.
Ms Faith INNERARITY (Jamaica): Document C 93/24 is clear and comprehensive, covering most of the issues related to the development of agriculture. However, I would like to focus some attention on Chapter 9 dealing with the alleviation of rural poverty, which is in fact the long-term goal of the various strategies that have been outlined.
In paragraph 4.5 there is a section on rural development in the non-farm sector. I believe this section could have been expanded. In dealing with the agricultural sector we expect technological advances which would lead to greater efficiency - hence the sector would absorb fewer people in the labour force. There is already in the rural sector a problem of under-employment. For example, I believe agro-industrial development is an important area which we need to focus on for linkages, also rural industry and the expansion of services in the rural areas. This document could have been strengthened by focusing much more on non-agricultural developments.
As is known in the developed world, the more efficient the sector becomes the fewer persons are needed - hence greater employment opportunities must come from agro-industrial linkages or from industry. I suggest in future there be more focus on this very important and critical area which is also necessary for the expansion of markets and rural income.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: First of all, as I did in connection with the first item on your agenda, I must express deep appreciation for the many compliments and positive comments which have been made in connection with the work underlying the document for this item.
We have heard a number of specific comments which raised in some cases questions of fact and in other cases questions of interpretation. Those, of course, will be taken into account; note has been made of them, and we will seek to correct any misinterpretations that arise such as the one mentioned by the delegate of Norway in connection with endangered species, where I think that the deletion of a certain phrase can take care of the valid concern expressed in that case.
We have also heard offers for further technical comments arising from reviews from different units at home. We welcome those also as they will be useful, along with the comments made here, as we move forward with what I would take to be a relatively minor revision to prepare this document for publication.
Many have suggested that the document be brought into the public arena in a published form, and sooner rather than later. I am pleased to inform you that Mr Alexandratos has been in close contact and communication with our Information and Publication Units within the Organization. They have been addressing this issue very clearly. We will publish the document. It does appear at the present time, all things considered, that it will be best to go to an outside publisher, as was the case with the 1987 edition.
I want to dwell a moment on the issue of methodology. First of all, I would refer to the footnote at the bottom of page 57 which identifies where you can find a description of the methodology that underlay the 1987 edition.
But I also wish to assure you that certainly in the published version there will be a statement of methodology.
I must say I was pained, and I am sure my colleagues were hurt, to hear several people suggest that this was a trend analysis and a projection of trends. If it is anything such, it would be a great disappointment. This is the product of serious work. The past has relevance for the future. Changes are taking place, as has been mentioned. What my colleagues have tried to do is to discern out of the current situation and the past what is most likely in the future.
Again I stress it is by no means a trend analysis. We do see trend projections appear, and I know many of you go to discuss them with other sources. This has much, much deeper quality behind it than.the others. In one way or another, I have been associated with projections work for more years than many of you have existed, and I can assure you that, in my view, this is the most detailed probing that is done anywhere, or has been done anywhere. As has been mentioned, it is true that the probing is in more depth with respect to the so-called developing countries than the so-called Eastern and Central European countries in transition, or the so-called developed countries themselves. We will seek as we have been guided, to bring about an even better balance in future editions. I have taken careful note of the importance of including the small island states, which we will seek to do to the best of our ability.
In connection with methodology, I also comment in response to a comment made about a projected population figure or the current estimate. We are not experts in population projections. There is a body which you fund in the United Nations which provides those projections. We simply rely upon and use them. We do not pretend to be experts on population matters.
We also take from the World Bank, the IMF and other sources estimates and projections of income growth, and so forth. In this way we try to rely on those who have the deepest capability for these various aspects of the matter.
On the other hand, as far as agriculture is concerned - that is, crops, livestock, forestry, fisheries, food security and so forth - we believe we do have the deepest capability. We do find that other bodies tend to rely upon us for the information on the agricultural side.
Turning to the approach, I wish to remind you of what was stated in the document and in my introduction about the approach.
The results are what are judged to be most likely, not what we would like to see. Therefore, with regard to comments such as those from Norway about overcoming hunger instead of foreseeing a situation where 650 million may still be under-nourished, we hope the figure will not be that high. We hope that the world could find the political will to overcome hunger and eradicate under-nutrition. It has already had the ability to do so for some time. The world can certainly produce enough so that no person need go to bed hungry. We have the technical knowledge to produce the food. We have long experience as an international community in the distribution of food to overcome emergencies, prevent famines, and so forth. We know how to do those things. The fact is that we do not have the political will to eradicate the beast, and the judgement is that at 2010 there will be a disturbingly large number of people under-nourished. We hope not.
I shall ask my colleagues to respond to any questions that they have taken note of, but, in connection with comments made about water, I would inform the Commission that there is a special chapter in this year's SOFA edition which could be taken as a complement to the section in this document on water, and I believe that some of the considerations and concerns that have been raised over the water situation and water policy will be responded to, or at least addressed, in that special chapter of SOFA, which will be coming out in the near future.
I think the statement was made that our estimate of the impact of the GATT Round may be outdated and that there is a fresh study from the World Bank. I would simply remind you that the latest is not necessarily the best. There were suggestions that the probing be updated after GATT. I think the main point here, which you will find in the document, is that the so-called liberalization or privatization process, or in any event the move towards greater reliance upon market forces and private agents, is widespread and well under way. In other words, member countries are moving in the same direction as they would be encouraged to move under the GATT process. We have heard in the last few days from several delegates of the steps that have been taken along these lines and the results, sometimes disappointing, sometimes very positive. The point I am making is that, maybe because the GATT process has been discussed and more broadly understood, even though it has not come to a successful conclusion, it has influenced policies and events and the world as a whole is moving in the same direction as GATT would move it. I am not saying that it is not necessary to look again depending on the outcome of GATT, but I know that our people who have been looking at this carefully say that, given what is taking place, maybe the events will not be all that different.
Reference has been made earlier, and here, to FAO's involvement in preparations for the International Conference on Population and Development. There may be further reference to this in our next agenda item and I know that it has been covered in the item on events in other organizations in another session, another Commission. All I would say at this time is that we are participating. At present there are some round tables on technical issues, including one that IFPRI, the International Food Policy Research Institute, is organizing in collaboration with UNFPA and where we have been invited to participate. In this case they would be drawing very much upon the AT 2010 findings and scenario and addressing the implications of that scenario for population and vice versa. There are in addition other areas, such as health, environment, education, and so forth, where we are involved.
As a footnote on a comment made about the loss of diversity, here I would only remind you that we have in process a scenario to prepare the first state of the world's plant genetic resources and plan of action for overcoming problems therein, and that topic will be covered in your Agenda Item 7.
There were some comments about subsidies and barriers to trade and the concern thereon and a comment that perhaps we had not covered that sufficiently in this document. I would just note that this is a matter which is covered in almost all of our current documents. The concern of the Organization and its member countries over deep subsidies and barriers to trade is, I think, quite clear in these other documents and will be addressed once again by this Conference.
Turning to investment in agriculture, I wish only to note again that FAO plays a very important role in the identification and preparation of agricultural investment projects. I am hopeful that we can play an even more important role in this area in the future. Over the last year or so we have been looking at our work in this regard and have concluded that we can do some fine tuning to make our services of even greater value to member countries. One way is to make certain that our technical departments -agriculture, forestry, fisheries, economic and social policy - are more deeply involved in the process of helping to identify not only technical assistance but also investment projects. Second, we have become somewhat concerned to note that we could find ourselves having a mission going to the same country for the same purpose for three or even four clients. As I said, we have several financial institutions which are clients, which raises the question whether it might not be more efficient and cost-effective if we were to work directly with member countries to help them identify investment projects and even help them identify which financing institution or source may be the most appropriate one.
Finally, I wish to note the point made about what was characterized as insufficient stress on non-agricultural development in rural areas and to say that I could not agree more. I believe there is more in the heart of the document, but maybe it is too implicit rather than explicit. Certainly the point is made that one cannot expect the agriculture sector itself to provide the means to lift all out of poverty who must be so lifted and that economic opportunities and jobs in rural areas from, for example, processing raw agricultural products, thereby stimulating the rural economy, is something that is absolutely essential in a good number of cases around the world.
I think there were probably a large number of specific comments which my colleagues would like to address.
N. ALEXANDRATOS (FAO Staff): I will elaborate a little on two or three points of more general interest raised during the discussion. A number of delegates wondered why we did not have more than one possible outcome, more than one scenario. The answer is that it is extremely difficult to construct alternative scenarios because the way we go about looking to the future is not by a simple mechanical exploration of what may happen using a huge mechanical model, as it were. If we want to change some of the exogenous assumptions concerning overall economic growth or population growth, then every single number - and there are millions of them - would have to be re-evaluated. If demand were to be higher in sub-Saharan Africa, it would not be sufficient just to assume that the additional demand would be met by imports, but every single commodity and every single country number would have to be re-examined all over again as to whether production could respond.
The evaluations of land yield combinations would have to be done all over again. This would require a lot of additional work, which would not be justified by the additional insights we would be getting.
Another general point which was raised is, why are we apparently to pessimistic about the prospects for the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe? The answer there is that our projection period already includes the first few years of the recession both in the overall economy and in agriculture itself. Therefore, even just absorbing that recession would mean that the average growth rate would have to be very low, because
one starts in 1993 from a very low point, well below the point where the projection period starts.
With regard to the extent to which biotechnology potentials have been explored concerning their possible impact on production, the answer is yes, but essentially only in terms, of what might be the biotechnology applications which have a significant impact on the overall magnitudes presented in this Study. The more exotic aspects are not immediately apparent in this Study.
More than one delegate asked essentially what might happen if energy prices were to increase considerably. We did not really look into this issue specifically. We did assume that the exogenous assumptions on the overall economic outlook, the overall development and the economic growth rates, already embodied certain assumptions on the energy sector. If I remember correctly, there were no significant changes in the prices over the medium term.
The other reason why we may have some problems in estimating the impact on agriculture of an eventual increase in the price of energy is that such an increase would have a significant effect not only on agriculture but on the overall economy. By itself, agriculture may be affected less than the overall economy, so if a great upheaval were to come about because of a significant increase in the real price of energy, the whole overall economic situation would change, not just the prospects for agriculture.
Therefore, it is extremely difficult to estimate the impacts of energy price rises on agriculture without first estimating such impacts on the overall economy.
I think the distinguished delegate from the United States asked why it is that environment-friendly technologies have not been given sufficient priority by the agricultural research system. The answer probably is that traditionally they have been commodity-oriented rather than holistically environment-oriented. There is now more re-orientation in that direction and one can only hope that, in the future, we shall see more home-oriented research.
On the same topic and from the same delegation, I think the question was asked about environmentally-friendly technologies in the developed countries - how much we know about them and how much of an impact they may have on developing countries in the future. I must say that this topic will be addressed at the next Conference for Europe. The paper is being prepared. I will not say more on that for the moment
Finally, a small point was raised by the distinguished delegate of Morocco. In paragraph 7.41 there is a statement that a reduction in the gap between border and domestic prices is an incentive to production. It is not immediately clear from the draft that this statement was referring to export commodities. The situation would be the opposite in the case of imported commodities.
R. J. PERKINS (Director, Commodities and Trade Division): I should like to add a postscript on trade in 2010. Reference was made to the very recent OECD/World Bank assessments of the impact of the Uruguay Round in the monograph Trade Liberalization: Global Economic Implications. There has been a number of assessments of the possible impact of the Uruguay Round on
possible trade. We have mentioned some of the figures in the document and indeed elsewhere. All of the studies make different assumptions about commodity coverage and indeed about the definition of individual commodities; about country coverages and the way in which they are lumped together - and quite a lot of lumping together goes into this most recent study of the Bank and the OECD.
It is sometimes very difficult to disentangle what is actually causing the results of these rather aggregated general equilibrium models of the sort being used. The gains were mentioned from trade liberalization as ensuing from the OECD study at least, namely that 120 billion would accrue to the OECD countries and 70 billion to what are called the developing regions, but I guess it means the rest of the world. These are very large numbers compared with other assessments which have been made, although I would point out that in the World Bank/OECD study these numbers refer to the welfare gains as reflected in the presumed increases in national income, and are not trade gains as such.
Of course, we shall be taking our own studies in the CCP and in the Inter-governmental Groups at a detailed level when we know what are precisely the provisions of any successful Uruguay Round. Other studies, such as the World Bank/OECD Study, for example, assume that there will be an across-the-board 30 percent reduction in tariff equivalents. If that is going to be the case, let us see what is going to be the case so far as the actual conclusions to the negotiations, the safeguards and a very important area indeed, namely minimum access provisions, are concerned. Will they be as they are in the Draft Final Act, at what level of commodities will the minimum access be defined for aggregates of commodities or at the four digit level as proposed in the Draft Final Act? There are many unknowns at this stage. Hopefully, the unknowns will disappear before 14 December.
There are some other surprises in the World Bank/OECD results, as well as the overall assessed welfare gains. For example, the assessment is that prices of some commodities would decrease. I note that the study concludes that prices on international markets of rice, coffee and cocoa would decrease compared with no liberalization. I think this may reflect what Mr Hjort was saying a moment ago, namely that a lot of water has already passed under the bridge since the base period or starting position for projections of the World Bank/OECD type.
There is one result that is not so surprising and it does indeed correspond with our own fears and the fears expressed in other studies: namely, the very difficult position that the Uruguay Round would have in developing countries in Africa, mainly resulting from loss of preferential access as well as, in this particular scenario of OECD and World Bank, the reductions in prices envisaged for important export commodities such as coffee and cocoa.
With that I will conclude.
Ulrich D. KNUEPPEL (European Economic Community): We are certainly grateful for the explanations which we have received from Mr Hjort and his colleagues from the Secretariat, but one specific point raised by the Community and its Member States has not been addressed in those replies: that was our request for receiving supplementary information at an early stage regarding the needs for food assistance. Obviously, even if we were to consider the approach of it here as an approach where there is often
demand on a general equilibrium, still we think the question of food assistance is a very important aspect and should be explored at the same time as the rest of the study. Therefore, we would be very grateful if we could have some additional information on that.
N. ALEXANDRATOS (FAO Staff): In the past we used to extend the analysis of the projections of food import requirements of developing countries, single out those which are likely to be in a difficult position to meet those requirements through commercial trade, and indeed provide a rough estimate of how the future requirements of food aid or concessionary food transfers would develop. Indeed, the distinguished delegates may remember that in the FAO Guidelines for international agricultural adjustment there is a food aid target. It actually refers to the estimates of future food assistance needs computed on the occasion of the preparation of earlier editions of this document. I think a rough and ready idea of this could be obtained fairly quickly from further analysis of food import requirements of low-income countries. I do not think it would be appropriate for me to commit myself as to exactly when, but we can give it high priority by disaggregating food import requirements into those which could possibly be financed without great strain by developing countries themselves and those which would need some form of supplementary assistance if they are to be met. I can probably follow this up later on with particular dates and the form of the estimates that we can provide.
CHAIRMAN: The delegate from Dominica has made a request that her statement be inserted in the verbatim records, and to this I willingly agree.
Teleko RAMOTSOARI (Lesotho): We would like to express our appreciation of a job-well-done in the production of the document - Agriculture Towards 2010, and therefore we commend FAO and staff.
Lesotho delegation however, would like to make the following contribution:
-following the Rio conference we are convinced that the future of good agriculture depends on the sound and sustained environmental development. We believe that without proper protection of the land base, the productivity of forests, fisheries, crops, livestock, wildlife and indeed the productivity of human beings will remain the everynight dream of the world technocrat. It is the land where every object of the planet earth derives its survival.
-Mr Chairman, we would like to recommend that in future, countries of which data were used should be representative of regions and sub-regions; and the criteria of choosing certain country or countries to represent the region or sub-region should be very clear. It seems again important that member countries should collaborate more with FAO in collection of data to produce the document which we are discussing today. Many quotations in the document are from World Bank publications or other institutions as opposed to FAO publications, or publications produced in those countries which are to be representative.
Mr Chairman, since this organization is doing a good job in projecting the world agriculture, we would recommend that, such service be provided to member countries and specifically to the developing countries in order to develop the capability of such countries. This means that if member
countries have capacities the future job of FAO will be facilitated and the document of this nature will be more informative world-wide.
We would like to conclude by reiterating the conclusions and recommendations of the International Conference on Nutrition. Since the last ICN in December 1992, technical aspects of agriculture have formally married nutritional aspects. We from Lesotho recommend further formal marriage between agriculture technology and population growth.1
Mrs Hannelore A.H. BENJAMIN (Dominica) : The document before us is a very comprehensive one. Mr Chairman, food security becomes each year more and more problematic, partly:
a) because the developing countries do not have the right access to a free trade market;
b) data and the assessments change too rapidly - leaving governments of developing countries no time for a reasonable adjustment, and that is a critical point and must not be overlooked by FAO.
Mr Chairman, again the "Small Island Development" has not been well addressed. My delegation therefore wishes to support what was said by the delegate of Trinidad and Tobago who expressed his concerns fully.
Mr Chairman, in Table Al we see only data of five Caribbean countries which are economically active in agriculture - but what happens to all the other islands? - no data was given - and in Table A5 "data on land with rainfed crop production" outlines the potential of only "one island" in the Caribbean. I could go on, but Mr Chairman, already the two above-named data show clearly that the document has been inefficiently addressed, and that should be avoided in the future.
My delegation would also point out that it would be advisable if FAO continued in its efforts to set up a large-scale programme for "Small Islands" and (1) be of help for a diversification programme in agriculture, (2) be of assistance in helping our sustainable development in our fisheries sector, and (3) help the Caribbean region in its efforts for sustainable utilization of forestry resources and the preservation of the watershed areas, which are of utmost importance; as to help us in maintaining our very fragile ecosystem which is very critical. Therefore the development of TFAP must be FAO's high priority and needs to be addressed very explicitly and not implicitly.2
_________________________________
1 Statement inserted in the Verbatim Records on request.
2 Statement inserted in the Verbatim Records on request.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: The document for discussion on Agenda Item 8, 'The Third Progress Report for the Implementation of the Plan of Action for Integration of Women in Development', is identified as C 93/14. Although we are at the end of just the second biennium of implementing the Plan, substantial progress has been made. Mr Chairman, in introducing this item, I would like to emphasize several points.
First, FAO continues to place a high priority on women-in-development (WID) issues. This is indicated in the fact that WID is one of five cross-sectoral priorities in the Organization's Medium-Term Plan for 1994-1995, and one of nine global priorities in the current and forthcoming Programmes of Work and Budget.
Second, I would like to stress that, while FAO is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the Plan of Action, the ultimate achievement of its objectives is highly dependent upon the collaboration and cooperation of the Member Governments that unanimously adopted the Plan in 1989. Although this point is not emphasized in the Progress Reports, many Governments have collaborated in such actions as integrating gender concerns into mainstream programmes and projects, and establishing WID coordinating units in Ministries of Agriculture, and Planning. In this regard, I would remind the delegates that FAO remains ready, within the limits of our resources, to respond to any government request for assistance in the area of WID, especially over the next biennium as FAO and our Governments prepare for the Fourth World Conference on Women, which will be held in Beijing in 1995. In this context, I wish to inform the Commission that the regular programme provision for preparatory activities related to this Conference is insufficient. We have been seeking extra-budgetary resources, so far to no avail. I urge the donors to reconsider our appeal for extra-budgetary resources for this purpose.
Third, in addition to Member Governments, FAO has been increasing its collaboration with other international organizations on implementing the Plan of Action. This was evident, for example, in the FAO/WHO 1992 International Conference on Nutrition, where much emphasis was placed on gender issues and where women were very active participants in all preparatory activities and in the Conference itself. Such collaboration has also been evident in the development of the FAO-initiated Socio-Economie and Gender Analysis (SEGA) Training-of-Trainers Programme, which began in 1992. SEGA is a collaborative effort with UNDP and World Bank, and is noteworthy because it provides the first gender analysis framework that explicitly addresses poverty, environment, people's participation and empowerment. This kind of inter-agency collaboration will continue and be enhanced in the future. Here again, there is the need for a modest extra-budgetary contribution.
Fourth, FAO is continuing its efforts to strengthen and systematize the administration and implementation of the Plan of Action within the Organization. The last section of the Report identifies major administrative constraints encountered over the biennium, and recommends
actions to overcome them, including: to review and update the Plan of Action to assure its relevance beyond 1995; to further develop monitoring and appraisal capabilities; and to establish Divisional Core Groups to improve coordination and liaison between the Technical Divisions and ESH. Your comments on these recommendations will be appreciated.
Fifth, I wish to mention FAO's attempts to increase the number of women in professional staff positions. As acknowledged at the joint meeting of the Programme of Finance Committees in its last session, the Organization has taken positive steps and made progress towards increasing the percentage of women staff members. While the Committees urged continued efforts in this regard, they underlined that progress in this area had to be assessed against the relatively scarce availability of qualified women candidates in FAO's technical fields. The Committees agreed that this task was more difficult for FAO, as compared to the other large specialized agencies of the UN System.
We recognize that, notwithstanding the numerous activities of the Organization described in the Third Progress Report, much work lies ahead in the achievement of full and equitable participation of rural women in agricultural and rural development. FAO will continue to collaborate with the Member Governments and other international organizations in order to secure the full participation of rural women in the processes and benefits of development. This, in our view, is a social and economic necessity. We look forward to the comments on the Progress Report, and to the guidance of the Conference on future work in this important field.
Ms Gertraud PICHLER (Austria) (Original language German) : On behalf of the Austrian delegation, I would like to thank the Secretariat, in particular, our Deputy Director-General, Mr Hjort, for the excellent introduction to the document which has been submitted to us, the Third Progress Report on the implementation of the Plan of Action for the Integration of Women in Development. We are also very pleased that FAO has given this matter high priority. The document is very well constructed. It gives us an excellent picture of the implementation of the Plan of Action for Women in Development. It provides information on measures and projects which are done on the spot or at international, regional and local level.
These projects are carried out in the following priority areas: training and extension of women in development, particularly in the area of agriculture and home economics; political measures for the governments of member countries; project development and project monitoring; updating and reformulating of the curriculum for the training in agriculture and home economics; development of WID guidelines and collection of data; research and communication; education of populations and women in development and sustainable development of resources in the environment.
The priorities which are set out in this Plan of Action will also directly affect and impinge on the sensitive work programme of Women in Development. This report shows very clearly which programmes within this Plan of Action have been successful and what shortcomings or problems there have been with the attainment of certain of the targets.
In this Conference a lot of agriculture ministers and many delegates have stressed the importance of women and development and women and the rural environment. Indeed, the important role of women has been mentioned regarding the production of food in connection with food security and
sustainable development as well as the very responsible attitude that women take when it comes to managing resources. However, women are still subject to lack of access to the resources that they need; for example, land and soil, water technology, credits, training and extension services. Women do not have the access they need to important institutions such as health services, family planning, social security, pensions and many more. Women need greater access to political decision-making and to be involved in the legislative process.
The FAO has, therefore, recognized the importance of the role of women through various measures set out in the WID Programme. FAO has attempted to make good these shortcomings. Here we would particularly mention in a positive manner the effort to extend vocational training and extension training as well as technical education so that women, both as farmers and business women, will be able to acquire the skills they need.
Austria believes that 20 to 30 percent of women are running farms alone because over 65 percent of the farms in Austria are part-time farms.
Document C 93/14 indicates that in this area there is still a great deal of training required by women. There is a great deal of catching up to do, particularly in farm management, technical training, nutrition, marketing, and many other areas. What we would say is very good are FAO's efforts to reformulate training programmes for home economics and agricultural training, and to tailor them to actual needs. This means that these would be tailored to the needs of the countries, and in certain areas they would be specific parts of nutrition and the family's food needs.
This means that we have to have well-qualified teachers and well-qualified extension agents. Home economics is not something that should be aimed only at women. Also, at schools all young boys have to be brought into this as well, and indeed it has to be compulsory as part of general schooling because only if that is done can we create a real partnership, can people learn about partnerships, and can we have proper divisions of labour within the home, within the farm and within one's vocation.
FAO's efforts in this area are certainly laudable because they are attempting to increase equality between men and women by having research and training programmes on gender analysis. The gender analysis programme ought to be extended, though, particularly to socio-economic and environmental contexts.
To put into effect the programme of action in all five continents and in all regions, particularly in rural areas, the following has to be done. Human resources - by which I mean managers, experts, staff - have to be given a proper degree of training and they have to be in place. This has to happen nationally, locally and internationally.
It is also vital that the financial resources be increased so that these programmes can be implemented. What I mean by this is that the financial resources which the FAO can provide, but also those resources coming from other sources, and through donor countries, can actually arrive at those countries where these programmes are being carried out.
Within the FAO Conference priorities have been discussed a great deal and I believe that human resources, particularly women, who are properly trained and well-educated, are a very important factor in the attainment of these
FAO targets. This means that women again have to be present at all managerial levels - nationally, internationally and locally.
If we look at paragraph 142 we can see that women are under represented in certain areas. To achieve this, the plan of action has to be taken very seriously, and I also believe that close and intensive cooperation and coordination must be maintained with all NGOs at all levels. These NGOs, with their well-placed and strong organizations, can help FAO in the implementation of its programme. They can do a great deal of good.
I would therefore ask what has been planned by FAO so that in the future the number of women in these various posts can be increased? I work as the Chair of the FAO/ECA Working Party on Women and Agricultural Families in Rural Development, and in that capacity may I just add that this Working Party within Europe has drawn up a work programme which properly tallies with the FAO Plan of Action. Our Work Programme is aimed at improving the socio-economic status of women and rural families in rural areas. What we need here is good basic training and further training. That is the prerequisite.
In our medium-term plan, we have training programmes in the foreground -the development of rural tourism, the setting-up of small business, the development of an entrepreneurial culture, project management, village development and village rejuvenation as well as the use of new and efficient advice and extension methods.
There are many other topics as well. The FAO Working Party for Women and Rural Families has made an effort that in those countries in transition in Central and Eastern Europe training and extension services will be put up and supported.
At the moment, we are now running a project which is looking at the socio-economic status of women in Central and Eastern Europe. These countries need our support and they need our help.
In connection with the International Year of the Family in 1994, I would also like to add that the 7th Session of the FAO/ECA Working Party, Women and Rural Families in Rural Development, will take place in October 1994 in Athens, Greece. It will have the following subject under discussion: the family as a socio-economic unit in rural development future focus.
Many of the activities which have been looked at by our Working Party, and many of the things considered, require bilateral support. Here Austria can refer to a number of activities which have been under way, and we will also be giving a great deal of help to Eastern European countries in the future.
May I ask a question? What is FAO planning for the future regarding extension and advice in Eastern Europe regarding agricultural reform, policy structures and the support of institutions regarding gender analysis, basic training, further training, farm management and entrepreneurial management? We believe this is very important when we are planning the future of our Working Party and the subjects that our Working Party will be tackling.
May I now come to an end by saying that the Austrian delegation gives its full support to the Working Programme for Women in Development and we would like to thank you for the excellent introduction to this Programme.
Ms Thakane ADORO (Lesotho): We wish to congratulate the Secretariat on the elaborate paper before us. We reiterate our support for the Plan of Action for the Integration of Women into Development. We therefore support the initiatives undertaken by FAO in this regard.
We are generally happy with the review which attempts to underline constraints as well as positive trends in development programmes. At this juncture we would urge FAO to move quickly in implementing those projects which have been found to be successful in other regions.
We wish to refer to paragraphs 25-32. We hope Lesotho will be included in such programmes in the future. We also appeal to FAO to continue to organize sub-regional workshops like the one mentioned in paragraph 98.
We support fully FAO's administrative priorities mentioned in paragraph 104, although not necessarily in the order shown. We concur with the view that more training of FAO representatives be embarked upon and that FAO should increase female technical advisors in all its field programmes.
We are concerned to learn that Africa and Asia are the two regions which have registered a downwards trend in 1991 regarding women's participation in FAO field projects which have a training component. We therefore agree with FAO that the reasons behind this negative trend be urgently explored.
Regarding the question of structural adjustment programmes and their repercussions on the rural poor, we would submit that in order to alleviate their negative consequences beneficiary governments be allowed to participate in the formulation of such programmes in the future.
Let me conclude by thanking FAO for the assistance extended to Lesotho in the form of a project designed to eliminate marketing problems and increase the incomes of vegetable producers who are primarily women.
Ms Faith INNERARITY (Jamaica): I would like to say that sensitization on gender issues in development is on-going at both national and international levels, but many persons are still unsure as to how this can be incorporated in planning in a practical way. It must be emphasized that conceptually gender analysis does not mean an exclusive focus on women, but a comparative analysis of women and men, and the differential access to and/or impact of programmes on them.
More studies are still required on these differences, in spite of the efforts of FAO and other organizations to promote gender disaggregation of statistics.
Gender analysis training currently being undertaken by FAO is commendable but a formal manual is needed in this area to guide planners. We have been speaking much about the environment and sustainable development. Now, when we are planning projects we have definite guidelines by which we can incorporate environmental issues. However, in the area of gender analysis there are still very few formalized guidelines which can be followed, and from personal and other experience I realize there are a number of persons who would like to include gender in planning but do not know how this can be done. In fact, normally it has been interpreted as a woman in development component and a piece of a project for women, but in essence this is not really what gender analysis is all about. It is how projects
impact on men and on women, what are the various needs that exist, what are the differences in both groups in terms of famine and other areas of development? I think we need to emphasize this, and whether FAO or some other organization can take the initiative to formalize gender analysis in the way we have formalized systems for doing financial and economic analysis and, as I mentioned before, environmental impact analysis.
P.R. JANUS (Netherlands): First of all, I would like to thank Deputy Director-General Hjort for his clear introduction of the report on the implementation of the Plan of Action for Integration of Women in Development, the Third Progress Report as it is and a report which my delegation has read with a great deal of interest.
We recall that this Report, which was requested by the Twenty-sixth FAO Conference, was supposed to focus specifically on the most important innovating efforts of FAO regarding: "(1) The systematic integration of gender issues into mainstream FAO policy, programmes and projects. (2) The identification of major constraints to the full participation of women in activities carried out by FAO and Member Governments, as well as the means pursued to overcome these constraints." My delegation has noted that innovating activities are not the main focus of the Report. These activities have been included in the description of the three most important programme actions that FAO uses to realize the objectives in the eight priority areas, namely:
(1) project development and monitoring; (2) socio-economic and gender analysis training, and (3) gender-responsive policy advice to member countries.
Regarding the first group of actions, my Government appreciates that innovative activities have been initiated aimed at increasing access of women to financial resources, extension activities and technical training. In the development of a methodology for training and extension my Government deems it important that attention be paid to increasing the percentage of women among trained technical specialists, managers, researchers and policy-makers. According to the report these percentages are still very low compared to the percentage of trained women at the "grass-roots" level.
With regard to the second area of programme actions, the Netherlands has a particular interest as it contributes financially to the development of the Socio-economic and Gender Analysis Training Programme in which innovative and flexible training tools and methods are being developed, both for FAO staff as well as for trainers in developing countries. The cooperation between FAO, UNDP and the World Bank is regarded as very positive because it implies that resources and expertise are being pooled and duplication is avoided. My Government also greatly appreciates that the FAO Working Group on Women and Development involves other divisions of FAO in the implementation of this programme.
I now come to the issue of gender-responsive policy advice to member countries. It is noted that the number of requests for this type of advice has increased. However, in our experience, this may not fully reflect the real demand for such advice. My Government attaches great importance to the further development of this sort of policy advice.
In conclusion, I would say the following. The Report provides detailed information on programme and administrative actions undertaken to implement the Plan of Action, which is very much appreciated. The important question, however, is whether we can be satisfied with the progress made until now. My Government is of the view that this is not the case. Unfortunately it has to be noted that especially within FAO's technical divisions still not enough attention is given to the question of women in development. We also see that in our Trust Fund Programme. My Government, therefore, recommends that FAO develop a strategy to better incorporate the Plan of Action into the work of the various technical divisions within FAO. It also recommends that even more attention be given to motivating and training FAO staff in the area of Women in Development.
Elías REYES BRAVO (México): La Delegación mexicana, señor Presidente, desea manifestar su interés por este tercer informe parcial sobre la aplicación del Plan de Acción para la Integración de la Mujer en el Desarrollo, aprobado en la 25/?/ Conferenc ia General de la FAO de noviembre de 1989.
La información contenida en el documento objeto de estudio, muestra las actividades que la Organización ha realizado hasta la fecha para alcanzar los objetivos del Plan de Acción.
El documento presenta también las limitantes a la integración de la mujer por lo que respecta, entre otros temas, a la falta de acceso a crédito; a la representación política y al reconocimiento de la importancia de su participación en las labores del campo. Asimismo, se plantea que la participación femenina en las labores rurales trae consigo amplios beneficios, tales como una mejor nutrición y una mejor alimentación, un desarrollo sostenible y una mayor participación en la fuerza laboral del campo.
Sobre este tema la Delegación mexicana quiere comentar las siguientes acciones emprendidas por mi país en esta materia:
En lo que respecta al crédito y servicios bancarios, las limitantes que se señalan en el documento son las mismas que prevalecen en mi país; sin embargo, de manera reciente se instrumentó el Programa de Crédito a la Palabra, enmarcado en el Programa Nacional de Solidaridad, el cual es un apoyo para productoras y productores, en general, de escasos recursos.
Con relación a la extensión y la capacitación técnica, en la instrumentación del Sistema Nacional de Extensión Agrícola de México, se definió un perfil profesional sin distinción de sexo para el extensionista.
En México también se establecieron reformas económica, de estabilización y de ajuste estructural, pero en forma paralela se instrumentó el Programa de Solidaridad para apoyar a los grupos de población más desfavorecidos, incluida la mujer.
México cuenta con algunas experiencias recientes en programas de desarrollo para áreas rurales de pobreza extrema, diseñados específicamente para mujeres, como el caso de las Empresas de Solidaridad y del Programa Nacional de Mujeres en Solidaridad. Estos programas impulsan proyectos productivos que combinan recursos que se recuperan o invierten en un fondo comunitario.
La experiencia que hay en México se ha obtenido a partir de proyectos de mejoramiento de vivienda, talleres de costura y granjas apícolas, avícolas y hortícolas. Los programas que se realizan no sólo conllevan el otorgamiento de recursos, sino que también implican la participación de mujeres en talleres de autodiagnóstico.
Por otra parte, el documento que nos ocupa ahora, muestra interés por la administración de los recursos forestales, aunque desgraciadamente éstos se encuentran excluidos del programa de mujeres debido a su falta de participación en este sector. Por esta razón, la Delegación mexicana propone la integración de un grupo de especialistas técnicos y normativos que ataque el problema de deforestación a nivel mundial, incluyendo la participación de la mujer.
Finalmente, señor Presidente, mi Delegación quiere destacar que - respecto a este tema, y ante un entorno internacional que requiere mejorías, y ante políticas nacionales de ajuste que exigen alternativas sociales, ante este horizonte - es necesario que la acción de la FAO fortalezca la vertiente social de sus programas y que a ello concurran las demás agencias del sistema de Naciones Unidas.
José Manuel MENDONÇA LIMA (Portugal): Je voudrais d'abord, au nom de la délégation portugaise, remercier le Secrétariat pour le texte qu'il nous a soumis sur l'intégration de la femme dans le développement. On connaît l'importance que la Communauté européenne accorde au rôle de la femme. Pour ma part, je voudrais souligner que si la femme a une importance vitale pour les pays en développement, elle continue à jouer en Europe un rôle non négligeable dans l'agriculture, et il faut en tenir compte lorsqu'on définit les politiques dans ce secteur.
La femme agricultrice est plus sensible au problème du développement durable par son intégration au cycle global: production dans l'exploitation, alimentation du ménage, nourriture et éducation des enfants.
Au Portugal, l'agriculture est le secteur où le niveau de participation de la femme est le plus élevé.
Si le nombre des femmes dans l'agriculture est élevé depuis longtemps, la reconnaissance de son statut comme femme agricultrice est relativement récente au Portugal. La clarification de la figure de l'exploitant agricole, nécessaire à la définition de la responsabilité de celui-ci dans les devoirs et dans les droits prévus dans la PAC, a permis à de nombreuses femmes d'être reconnues comme femmes agricultrices, et non plus en temps que femmes d'agriculteurs.
Avant cette clarification, l'homme gardait son statut d'exploitant agricole, même s'il travaillait tout le temps à l'extérieur et si on le consultait à peine dans la gestion de l'exploitation.
De son côté, la femme traditionnellement gardait son rôle invisible dans la responsabilité de l'exploitation agricole.
Au Portugal, la femme agricultrice jouit, du point de vue légal, d'une égalité totale par rapport à l'homme. Mais il faut encore faire des changements importants au niveau des mentalités pour que la situation juridique deviennent une réalité.
C'est dans ce domaine que l'on devrait accentuer les efforts pour que la femme agricultrice joue un rôle de partenaire active en renforçant les liens de coopération et d'échanges d'expériences au niveau des pays et des organisations internationales.
Carlos BASCO (Argentina): La Delegación argentina quiere agradecer a la Secretaría por la presentación del documento y felicitar a la FAO por los progresos que se observan en el campo de la integración de la mujer rural al desarrollo.
La Delegación argentina expresa también su acuerdo con el documento y quisiera agregar que visto el rol clave de la mujer en la producción rural, se apoya la asignación de recursos para formulación y seguimiento de proyectos tendientes a mejorar el acceso a los recursos productivos, así como la capacitación y asesoramiento normativo a los países.
La Delegación argentina manifiesta también su acuerdo con los sectores elegidos como críticos e insta a la Organización a continuar concentrando su acción antes que desperdigar esfuerzos en otros objetivos. Los sectores son: Recursos Financieros, Capacitación, Ordenación de Recursos Naturales y Nutrición.
Por último, en relación con el párrafo 96 se señala la conveniencia de incluir al bloque económico MERCOSUR en Proyectos de Red de América Latina y El Caribe, habida cuenta de la importancia de la subregión, por su alta densidad poblacional y los términos de rápida integración que en ella se verifican.
Mme María de Lourdes MARTINS DUARTE (Cap-Vert): Permettez-nous de féliciter Mr Hjort pour la présentation de ce point de notre ordre du jour.
L'intégration des femmes se pose comme un impératif pour le développement durable. En effet, ce n'est que grâce à des efforts pour améliorer son accès aux ressources et aux services mis à la disposition de tous les partenaires à la vie économique d'un pays sur un pied d'égalité avec l'homme, que de grands progrès pourront être accomplis.
De par sa responsabilité au foyer, en tant que mère et èducatrice, et gestionnaire des ressources du ménage, son rôle devient celui d'un agent producteur de biens alimentaires et de produits connexes, tenant compte de sa participation à l'agriculture, à l'élevage, aux forêts et à la pêche, et en tant que responsable au premier chef des systèmes agro-écologiques durables dans le monde.
En examinant les mesures prises dans la mise en oeuvre du plan et les recommandations de la Conférence, nous aimerions faire quelques remarques:
Tout d'abord, nous avons beaucoup apprécié la façon dont le Secrétariat a présenté son rapport en intégrant les questions liées aux spécificités de chaque sexe dans les activités de la FAO, en identifiant les principaux obstacles qui s'opposent à la participation effective des femmes ainsi que les moyens pour y faire face. Les cas présentés ont été bien sélectionnés et représentent des activités de projets réussies devant servir d'exemple.
Nous nous référons à l'énorme difficulté à laquelle se heurtent les femmes pour faire valoir leurs droits d'accès aux crédits et aux services bancaires. A cet égard, nous félicitons les parties concernées qui ont su conduire de façon remarquable la Coopérative et Banque de développement
rural de Tanzanie, qui gère des crédits pour des artisans pêcheurs et un programme de fonds renouvelables en nature, épargne de groupe, exécuté en Sierra Leone dans le but d'améliorer la sécurité alimentaire des ménages et les revenus des agricultrices.
Un autre aspect important est celui de la vulgarisation de la formation technique. Ces services ont une connaissance superficielle du rôle des femmes dans la production agricole, ne se basent pas sur leurs contraintes et besoins spécifiques et n'ont aucune interaction avec les instituts de recherche qui négligent les produits cultivés par les femmes et n'essaient pas d'adapter les techniques à leurs capacités physiques ou à leur tâche employant des instruments primitifs.
En ce qui concerne la nutrition et la sécurité alimentaire, nous nous félicitons du rôle accru des denrées alimentaires traditionnelles dans l'amélioration de l'état de la nutrition, et de la situation économique des ménages pauvres.
S'agissant des mesures administratives, nous estimons aussi que les crédits du Programme ordinaire affectés au service de la formation des femmes ne sont pas suffisants pour permettre à l'unité de coordination de répondre aux demandes croissantes d'assistance qui lui sont addressées.
De même, pour l'accroissement des effect if is féminins au sein de l'Organisation tant au Siège que dans les bureaux régionaux et les Représentations de la FAO, sans aucun doute cela faciliterait la mise en oeuvre du plan d'action pour l'intégration des femmes dans le développement.
La femme cap-verdienne participe activement au développement du pays. Comme l'a indiqué le chef de la délégation du Cap-Vert, dans sa déclaration en séance plénière: en dépit de la nature difficile de ses activités, la contraignant à d'énormes sacrifices et fatigues, le statut de la femme dans la société n'est pas encore à la hauteur des responsabilités sociales qu'elle assume, étant souvent sujet à la discrémination dans l'exercice de certains droits fondamentaux.
Iain C. MacGILLIVRAY (Canada) : We take this opportunity to acknowledge FAO's continuing efforts to increase women's participation in its programming through the implementation of the Plan of Action currently before us and we thank Mr Hjort for his introductory comments on specific points of the report. Canada, more specifically the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), has long been a proponent of these actions, having dealt with them directly within our own domestic organization. Many of the observations we will make are based on our own experiences. We fully relate to the challenge of adequately addressing the gender issues of development.
As a general note on the Third Progress Report, the thrust of our comments centres on the second part of the report where it is requested that key obstacles and constraints be identified for the full participation of women, in addition to means pursued to overcome these constraints. Here, we believe, the limitations required more rigorous analysis and more concrete solutions.
We will focus our remarks on three issues only which are critical to enhancing - might I say institutionalizing - the integration of women's concerns into the mainstream programmes and activities of FAO. These refer
to: FAO WID linkages or outreach; staff training and follow-up; and gender staffing.
Overall, the Canadian delegation is fully supportive of the multi-dimensional efforts which are being carried out. From an operational standpoint, we see an immense challenge being balanced, in relative terms, with ever tight resources. Hence we identify with the concerted efforts by FAO's WID coordination unit to prioritize its intervention while ensuring that its coordination mechanisms are effective.
FAO linkages: We note with interest the considerable resources that FAO dedicates to women's issues, which, within the Sub-Programme of Women in Agriculture and Rural Development alone, represent approximately US$4 million in the Programme of Work and Budget for the next biennium. This valuable response represents a major source of support to others working on women's concerns if there are strong working relationships with other organizations. However, this document does not fully or clearly outline how FAO activities in this area closely interlink with WID expertise in other organizations nor how FAO disseminates information and materials generated. Many of the guidelines and training papers indicated in the document would certainly be valuable to other organizations.
The Progress Report discusses efforts to liaise more closely with various other multilateral organizations, community groups, networks and NGOs. We would have liked to see greater attention given, for example, to the World Food Programme. WFP targets considerable resources towards women in areas of household food security, nutrition and natural resource management, all areas of primary concern to FAO. As the largest contributor to its development programme, Canada is particularly interested in improving WFP's developmental effectiveness. WFP lacks the technical in-house capacity to develop necessary policies and operational guidelines. It seems to us that FAO and WFP should be working very closely together on gender issues.
Staff training and follow-up: As indicated at the 26th Session of the Conference, Canada would suggest that more can, and must, be done at organizational, administrative and operational levels within FAO to address gender concerns. A particular area is FAO staff training. It is impressive that some 80 percent of professional headquarters staff have received gender analysis awareness training. But the figure for field representatives, who are, after all, the front-line staff with governments, is a meagre 10 percent. Since FAO services are demand-driven, and requests for gender-related assistance have been low, it stands to reason that field representation should in fact be among the most aware and should strongly advocate gender-sensitive policies and programmes.
In this regard, we note with concern that only two country requests were made during this biennium for action-oriented gender-related policy assistance under TSS-1. We agree fully with the comment in the Report that FAO Country Representatives need to show greater leadership for action and become more motivated for a women-in-development advocacy role in their exchange with UNDP Representatives. We recognize, nevertheless, the numerous efforts at the country level to strengthen WID machineries and to influence policy decisions.
The Progress Report is also unclear with regard to follow-up to awareness-level training. Experience within CIDA and other organizations indicates that increasing awareness is seldom sufficient to bring about significant institutional or programme change. This is further complicated by staff turnover. Other follow-up mechanisms must be implemented within the Organization such as a good monitoring system or professional advancement
based on evidence of compliance. It is not apparent if such a mechanism is in place.
On the positive side, the participation of FAO's divisions in the formulation and implementation of the SEGA programme and the plans to test training material and documentation at Headquarters and with regional staff should further strengthen in-house capacity in Women in Development.
Gender staffing: For FAO to be fully committed to excellence it must ensure that it is effectively tapping the pool of women professionals, a recruitment priority in the medium-term plan; and, once women come, FAO must make sure it is providing a work environment which is supportive of women's fullest productivity and career attainment. In spite of the Organization's stated commitment to hire and promote more women professionals, its track record remains poor, especially in the field. Women are most seriously under-represented in management throughout the Organization. Though some efforts have been undertaken to recruit women, the Progress Report does not indicate what is being done to intensify the search, especially for technical expertise.
Here, we believe, FAO could benefit from information generated by the CGIAR gender programme and from one of its centres, the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR). Though dealing more specifically with agricultural research, their analyses are relevant to organizations seeking women with technical expertise. Both show clear trends in an increase in supply of qualified graduate-level trained women agriculturalists, in both developed and developing countries, and they have analysed institutional constraints to their full employment, in national and international organizations.
Thus recruitment must continue to receive high priority. We need to take a hard look at the issues of advancement. We need to ask ourselves if the distribution is strictly a reflection of supply or if it reflects problems of the "glass ceiling" and subtle constraints to women's career attainment in FAO. We believe that it is also important to look at how to make the workplace more hospitable and supportive to women. Experience from other organizations shows that issues of the relationship between men and women in the workplace will only become more important as women move up from the more junior professional ranks into positions of increased authority, programming and management responsibility.
This is a challenging set of issues. To tackle any of them effectively there must be a demand and a commitment from both managers and women in FAO. The absolute importance of this topic - the full integration of women into development planning and programmes - cannot be too strongly emphasized. Institutional change, both in FAO and in governments, does not occur overnight, but actions such as those proposed will influence attitudes, which will themselves influence future activities if we all persevere. Changing attitudes to gender is a long-term task. We appreciate the opportunity to discuss this important topic.
The meeting rose at 12.30 hours.
La séance est levée à 12 h 30.
Se levanta la sesión a las 12.30 horas.
