LE PRESIDENT: Nous avons sous les yeux le document CL 102/8, qui est un document qui date du mois d'août, et je me permets de rappeler aux honorables membres du Conseil que cette question du suivi du Programme d'action de la Conférence mondiale a fait l'objet de deux documents préparés en vue de la Conférence de 1991. Ce sont les documents: C 91/19 et 91/19 Sup.1, et dans le rapport de la vingt-sixième session de la Conférence de la FAO, qui s'est tenue il y a exactement un an, en novembre 1991, nous trouvons le compte rendu de l'intéressante discussion qui a eu lieu pendant la Conférence, concernant le troisième rapport intérimaire sur le Programme d'action de la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural. Ce rapport analyse les résultats de la Conférence en ses paragraphes 92 à 101.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: Mr Chairman, distinguished Members and observers, this morning I have pleasure in introducing document CL 102/8 containing FAO's proposals for a follow-up to the recommendations of the report of the WCARRD Review entitled, United Nations' Agencies and Rural Development: A Review of the Post-WCARRD Decade and an Agenda for Future: Director-General's Views and Comments.
As the Chairman has noted, the latter documents reviewed in a general and preliminary way at the FAO Conference a year ago, and which have been made available to you, are identical to those prepared for the last conference. They contain a wide range of recommendations with a view to reorienting the focus of FAO's WCARRD follow-up activities to give greater attention to those areas considered to be of prime importance in the 1990s, as well as to improve the effectiveness and impact of these activities.
The Conference requested that the Hundred and Second Session of the Council further consider the documents, together with specific proposals for follow-up to the recommendations contained in the WCARRD Review Report. Particular attention was to be given to important aspects of a poverty alleviation strategy; i.e., people's participation, access to natural resources, credit, inputs and markets, diversification of the rural economy, promotion of rural non-farm employment, development of agro-industries, gender issues and sustainable development.
Document CL 102/8 considers follow-up activities related to these matters in paragraphs 4 through 45 and then goes on to related concerns, research and data analyses, education, training and extension, WCARRD follow-up and the ACC Task Force on Rural Development, these items being raised in the Report of the WCARRD Review.
The comments of the Director-General and of the 1991 FAO Conference were most in mind in implementing these activities which are reflected in the Programme of Work and Budget for 1992-93. Since the preparations for that Programme of Work and Budget and the WCARRD Review took place concomitantly, FAO technical staff benefited from a process of discussion with the WCARRD Review team which enabled the Organization to get an early start in implementing the recommendations which, of course, will be continued and enhanced in future biennia.
I should like to draw to the attention of the Council the fact that many of these follow-up activities are taking place within the framework of several major ongoing programmes which involve most, if not all, of the technical divisions of FAO. However, resource constraints have slowed progress, as you will see when you review document CL 102/13 on the implementation of the approved programme budget 1992-93 and especially with respect to the section of that document on Programme 215, rural development.
The activities relating to sustainable development reflected in the document have been referenced during your discussion of previous items, especially Item 7, and also yesterday afternoon. These statements and interventions, I believe, can be taken into account in preparing the report on the discussion of these topics.
As you know, FAO attaches considerable priority to the effective and timely implementation of follow-up to UNCED. The activities concerning people's participation and gender issues are also reflected in the action plans on people's participation and women in development, which have been approved by the Conference and involve comprehensive and interdisciplinary action throughout FAO.
In closing, I wish to note the enhanced attention being given to poverty alleviation by the UN system, for example at the high level segment on ECOSOC and at the World Bank. Follow-up to the ICN will also influence the future agenda for WCARRD follow-up. The guidance of the Council on future activities in implementing the WCARRD Programme of Action will be appreciated.
Adel EL-SARKI (Egypt) (Original language Arabic): In talking about this document, the delegation of Egypt would like to reiterate its agreement, which we indicated during the general Conference of the Organization in November 1991, regarding the priorities contained in the mid-term plan for the period 1992-97, in particular in the domains of the role of women in development and sustainable rural and agricultural development, and we hope that FAO will achieve success in promoting increasing people's participation in accordance with paragraphs 6 and 18.
Having reviewed paragraphs 19 to 22, which refer to access to natural resources, we agree that the main reason for the spread of poverty in the countryside is the lack of access to land, water and fisheries. Accordingly we have the agrarian reform law and the relationship between landlord and tenant, and we have developed the objectives of land reform in order to create new opportunities for work and to increase the incomes of beneficiaries. We have also had decrees for the reparation of agricultural products in order to bring them in line with international market prices and thus bring remuneration to farmers, in addition to the provision of inputs and services.
My delegation welcomes the trend within the Organization to prepare studies for the preparation of appropriate action plans to study the socio-economic conditions of those who work in range lands and the efforts of the Organization in diversification of rural economy and development of agro-industries.
The document deals in paragraphs 34 to 39 with issues related to gender. My delegation welcomes the role of FAO in solving the problems of rural women and would like to refer to the fact that Egypt has established an administrative unit under the direct supervision of the highest echelons in the Ministry of Agriculture, which is concerned with women. There is continual cooperation between this unit and FAO. My delegation also welcomes the establishment of an operational unit for the development of the role of rural women and for the holding of meetings and seminars for the development of rural women in Africa and the Near East region to provide necessary facilities in order to run these activities.
We congratulate the Organization on its success in including sustainability in its programmes. We should like to thank the Deputy Director-General for the excellent presentation of this topic, which is of great interest to my country.
Mrs Charlotte E. ROE (United States of America): The document on follow-up activities to the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development is brief yet covers a number of areas which are useful in the pursuit of ways to achieve sustainable rural development and the alleviation of poverty.
Multilateral assistance has been important over the past decades. Of the US$530 billion given to development assistance by OECD countries since 1970, US$100 billion, or about 18 percent of the total, has been channelled through the UN system. How well have we done? A great deal has been achieved through cooperative efforts, but the World Bank estimates that 1 billion people, one-fifth of the world's population, still live on less than US$1 a day. As the world's population has relentlessly increased, we have seen the number of those locked in poverty grow. This is unacceptable. During the past decade it has been noted in this room that we have also seen underinvestment in agricultural technology and rural development that is sustainable. This also is unacceptable.
We are beginning, after decades of experience, to have some new answers. Among the lessons we have learned is that policy management is the key, focus is essential, coordination at the country level is critical and should incorporate non-governmental organizations in the broadest sense of that term and, finally, national capacity to develop policy and overall strategy must be established and reinforced or progress made will not be sustainable. The document we are considering touches on some important aspects of strengthening rural capacities, including enhancing the role and management capabilities of cooperatives, village groups and other grass-roots organizations in sustainable development, the involvement of NGOs as full partners in the planning process, the expansion of agricultural credit and access to that credit by women and other disadvantaged groups, the strengthening of marketing extension capabilities, the diversification of rural economies through non-farm employment and access to natural resources. These activities are valuable, although it would be helpful to have a sense of how they will be prioritized, particularly when carefully focused and evaluated in areas where
macro-structural reforms are being applied, and by that I refer to elements such as the increased use of water conservation methods, increased seed varieties, better cropping techniques, and so forth, which can provide keys to lasting development in rural economies.
Haris ZANNETIS (Cyprus): The proposals for follow-up activities concerned with rural development which have been prepared by the Secretariat, as requested by the Twenty-sixth FAO Conference, are, in our opinion, well-balanced and realistic. We therefore have no difficulty in registering our full support for these proposals. However, I wish to highlight some of these proposals, while, with your permission, Mr Chairman, I will refer briefly to the involvement of my country in rural development issues.
Cyprus participated in the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development organized in Rome in 1979 and in the follow-up activities derived from the Programme of Action. Reporting on the progress achieved in relation to the principles and the Programme of Action of WCARRD has been a useful experience in assessing the achievements and impact of agrarian reform and rural development policies in Cyprus. This reporting was also useful in identifying the constraints and the areas of priority for achieving the targets and objectives of WCARRD as embodied in our national development plans.
During the period that followed the 1979 Conference, Cyprus has made substantial progress in agricultural and rural development. Through prudent planning and the implementation of rural and agricultural projects, Cyprus has succeeded in improving the performance of the agricultural sector and the standard of living in rural areas. A good indication of the progress achieved is the agricultural income per person employed in agriculture. This income, measured at constant prices, has almost doubled during the last decade.
We highly appreciate the assistance received from FAO and other UN agencies in planning and policy issues, and we are ready to share the experience gained through this development process.
Turning back to the proposal for follow-up activities, I wish to draw the attention of all of us to the fact that most of these proposals are based on the FAO Programme of Work and Budget as mentioned in paragraph 2 of document CL 102/8 and, inevitably, they will be affected by the state of the financial resources of the Organizations.
Referring to the first two proposals for people's participation and access to natural resources, we support the idea expressed in the document for conducting a series of case studies, and we express our willingness to cooperate with FAO in organizing national or sub-regional meetings on related issues.
Regarding the proposal for access to inputs and services, we wish to suggest that cooperative societies at village level and/or district level might be very useful for providing agricultural inputs and credit to farmers. In Cyprus such cooperative societies have, for over 70 years, been the nucleus of economic activity in rural areas, the first cooperative society being established at the beginning of this century.
With regard to the proposal for the diversification of the rural economy, we believe that mixed farming - that is, livestock and crop production - is a good practice which contributes positively to good economic performance under rainfed conditions, namely in the sub-tropical zone. On the other hand, labour-intensive crops are most suitable in irrigated areas.
Finally, we wish to suggest that the proposals for education, training and extension should be placed among the first priorities of the proposed activities, taking into account the importance and the quick benefits resulting from such activities. The fact that FAO has a certain comparative advantage in this field will assist in materializing the aforesaid proposals at the required level and extent.
R. ALLEN (United Kingdom): As was pointed out, this paper explains in general terms FAO's contribution to the follow-up to WCARRD, and also contains some proposals for the future. In this respect it is very useful.
Paragraph 5 of the paper mentions the use of case studies to promote greater public awareness and emphasizes the use of the World Food Day network to disseminate the idea of participation. These proposals are particularly welcome to my delegation.
We strongly support the drawing up of guidelines for appropriate legal frameworks to provide free association of rural people in organizations of their choice, as mentioned in paragraph 8 of the paper. This is likely to have an important symbolic role: that is, it can be used as a yardstick of good practice against which other projects can be judged.
We also support the continuing monitoring and evaluation of results and progress in people's participation as part of the WCARRD reporting. It would be extremely useful if Council could be kept informed of the progress WCARRD makes along these lines.
There are many positive points in this paper. However, in our view the paper falls short of presenting a coherent picture of the situation and does not clearly identify areas of focus for the future.
There is a number of references to intensification and acceleration of certain programmes of action. There is, however, little attempt to identify those areas where funding will have to be restricted as a result of these changes in emphasis.
Furthermore, this document and document CL 102/13 on the progress report on the implementation of the approved Programme of Work and Budget, appear in part to contradict each other when discussing the prioritization of work. For example, document CL 102/8 speaks of intensifying data-handling activities via WAICENT, but, at the same time, in document CL 102/13 we read of a reduced capacity to implement GIS activities.
Therefore, it would seem that there is still some debate as to the areas in which activities will be reduced. In other papers placed before the Council the Secretariat has made it clear that it recognizes the need for prioritization and careful management of resources. However, as yet, the methodology by which this will be achieved remains unclear. This process is, unfortunately, a necessary one. FAO does not have unlimited resources and we,
as the membership, should not press the Secretariat to implement programmes for which funds cannot be found.
It is our responsibility as the Governing Council to assist the Secretariat in their efforts to prioritize. We must give them our fullest support so that they may concentrate the resources of the Organization in those areas in which FAO has a clear mandate and can out-perform other organizations and institutions: that is, in those areas where the Organization has a clear comparative advantage. This will ensure that all gain maximum benefit from the extensive experience and expertise which this Organization has at its disposal.
LE PRESIDENT: Je ne crois pas que ce soit le rôle du Secrétariat de fixer les priorités, c'est plutôt au Conseil de tracer les grandes orientations et de définir les priorités. C'est là l'intérêt de nos débats qui doivent permettre au Secrétariat de tenir compte de l'avis des organes directeurs pour fixer les priorités, mais ce n'est pas le Secrétariat en soi qui fixe les priorités.
R. ALLEN (United Kingdom): That is, in fact, what I just said. I said it was the role of this Governing Body to assist the Secretariat to form priorities.
LE PRESIDENT: Ma déclaration rejoignait votre intervention. Votre intervention était importante sur ce point, parce que c'est au Conseil et aux organes directeurs d'aider le Secrétariat, comme vous l'avez très bien signalé.
Elias REYES BRAVO (México): Deseo expresar el apoyo de la delegación mexicana a lo propuesto en el documento CL 102/8 y destacar algunos aspectos del desarrollo del campo mexicano en conexión con la Conferencia Mundial sobre Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural.
Para el desarrollo rural y agropecuario de México son factores y propósitos importantes el bienestar de los productores, la competitividad, el abasto y el comercio, el desarrollo sostenible y la diversificación de actividades en el medio rural.
Justamente por esos propósitos, durante el presente año se ha dado en México un intenso trabajo para el campo en lo que respecta a cuestiones de politica y legislación, cambio institucional y políticas de apoyo.
La politica actual considera el papel del Estado en el campo básicamente en una perspectiva normativa, sin olvidar el compromiso social que tiene el Estado con los sectores menos favorecidos de la población.
La actuación del Estado mexicano en el campo se define por la instrumentación de políticas en cinco grandes áreas:
Estabilidad macroeconómica que favorezca la inversión y la planificación a largo plazo;
Certidumbre jurídica que proteja con más eficacia los derechos de propiedad;
- Creación de un marco regulatorio y de participación adecuada del Estado;
- Consolidación de un marco de politica comercial, y
- Definición de la nueva politica agropecuaria y forestal.
Asimismo consideramos que la estabilidad del marco macroeconómico es un requisito fundamental para la viabilidad del sector agropecuario y forestal.
Los procesos de cambio institucional en las áreas del marco jurídico, entorno macroeconómico y política de comercio exterior y subsidios han permitido lograr avances en el desarrollo del sector. Sin embargo, para incidir más, se cuenta con políticas específicas de apoyo en ámbitos como los siguientes:
- Acciones de combate a la pobreza.
- Conservación de recursos naturales.
- Programas de apoyo en caso de desastres naturales.
- Inversión pública en el sector, y
- Financiamiento y seguro.
Sr. Presidente, la delegación de México considera que es muy importante alentar la observancia y el seguimiento del Programa de Acción de la Conferencia Mundial sobre Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural; también considera que los países debemos seguir haciendo esfuerzos nacionales y de cooperación internacional para avanzar en el proceso de desarrollo rural.
Saleh SADIQ OSMAN (Tanzania): The Tanzanian delegation wishes to endorse document CL 102/8. This document is very comprehensive and has touched on all the important areas of agrarian reform and rural development, including very important issues, such as people's participation, sustainable forestry, rural employment, sustainable development and gender issues.
The Tanzanian delegation also endorses FAO's Seven Point Plan of Action for people's participation in rural development.
However, we wish to put more stress on a few points contained in document CL 102/8. Firstly, utilization of sustainable forestry resources must go hand in hand with the promotion of the use of efficient fuelwood and charcoal cooking stoves, so that less biomass is consumed to produce the required energy for domestic uses.
Secondly, the utilization of sustainable forestry must go hand in hand with the promotion of the use of other alternative sources of energies - for example, solar, wind, biomass, etc.
Thirdly, sustainable agricultural development must take into account the following: agriculture in developing countries is too burdensome, very unattractive, inefficient and unprofitable; hence these problems have to be equally tackled; credit packages and other services meant for rural smallholder farmers normally find their way into the urban setting where there are normally more profits realizable; because of rural poverty, there is too much labour drift of youth from rural to urban centres leaving old and less productive peasants to work on the land.
Fourthly, on gender issues, women in developing countries, particularly in Africa, engage in many activities for long hours using very inefficient technologies; and sometimes they use just their bare hands and bare feet unassisted by any technology or machinery. If we are to succeed in this endeavour, women's burden must be lessened; that is, technologies that will help women perform their activities more efficiently must be developed and made available to this burdened group.
The Tanzania delegation realizes that the basic policy decisions on WCARRD are the responsibility of member countries. In this respect Tanzania has been keen to pursue the goals of WCARRD through the promotion of grass-roots people's participation in rural development, for example, the formation of local Councils, primary producers' cooperative societies, and grass-root nongovernmental organizations for development activities.
Institutional reforms in agricultural extension services and agricultural research are all aimed at giving recipients a greater say in the kind and direction of research and extension most beneficial to them.
The establishment of a Ministry specifically responsible for community development and women and children's affairs provides a central structure for coordination of gender issues and provides policy directions for the same.
Tanzania recognizes that WCARRD activities are broad in scale and require close inter-sectoral cooperation, that is, between natural resources, agriculture and rural development agencies. This is also partly covered through the establishment of broad-based specialized agencies such as the Land Use Commission, the Commission on Environment and the Planning Commission.
We strongly believe that if we are to alleviate and eradicate rural poverty we will have no choice but seriously and exhaustively to tackle these problems. We therefore urge FAO's assistance as stipulated in document CL 102/8 to help the developing countries attain these goals.
Kwang Hee KIM (Korea, Republic of): Mr Chairman, before I start my statement I should like to take this opportunity of paying my respects to the Chair, since this is my first intervention at this session of the Council. I should also like to take this opportunity of renewing old acquaintances with those who have worked with me, because I used to be Country Representative to the FAO back in 1982-84.
My delegation appreciates the excellent work of the Secretariat on this important subject. The document for this Council's discussion clearly presents specific proposals for follow-up to the recommendations contained in the WCARRD review report submitted to the 26th Session of the FAO Conference, and introduces a future agenda based on the Programme of Work and Budget for the 1992-93 biennium.
We highly appreciate the efforts made and to be made by FAO for alleviating rural poverty through its Regular Programmes of Work and support to government programmes and inter-agency collaboration since the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development.
My delegation would like to make a few comments on some specific proposals for follow-up.
First, People's Participation: paragraphs 4 to 8 deal with people's participation in order to promote public awareness of the role of people's participation, and people's organization, and also to achieve sustainable rural development activities.
We are quite interested in the FAO's planned work to promote improved institutional arrangements for sustainable forestry use. The work of forestation in the Republic of Korea is often cited as one of the success stories in the forestry sector.
Until the early 1970s, many barren mountains could be seen. However, we can see no longer barren mountains in the country these days. Imported cheap lumber dominates the lumber and forestry product industry; therefore, the owner of forestry land is no longer interested in the management of domestic forest resources. In this connection, FAO's future work on this issue of people's participation, not only in forestry use and forestation but also in rural development, should suggest ways and means to give viable economic incentives and motives.
We also welcome FAO's plan for promoting decentralized, community-based fisheries management through policy formulation, advice to governments, and seminar and workshops for awareness generation.
In this connection, we would like to see how the recommendations at the FAO/Japan expert consultation on the development of community-based coastal fishing management in paragraph 13 is being followed up. We appreciate the information.
Secondly, Access to Natural Resources: we also highly appreciate FAO's action programme to assist the countries concerned in facilitating a better access by the majority of the rural populations to natural resources, and FAO's programme to give technical assistance to Eastern European countries which undergo privatization of land ownership.
In this connection, the information on the ongoing agrarian reform programme in some countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and technical assistance given to Eastern European countries will be appreciated.
Also the FAO's work for a computerized system for land registration is quite interesting and deserves our attention. We expect early publication of various subjects mentioned in paragraph 23.
Thirdly, Access to Inputs and Services: we are quite interested in the FAO-developed low-cost EDP credit package called the micro-banker system in order to overcome the high administrative cost associated with small transactions. This kind of work will certainly facilitate banking services to the rural poor. But at the later stage the economy of scale of operation should be promoted. A merging of agricultural credit bank and cooperatives in many countries, including the Republic of Korea, clearly demonstrate the importance of the economy of scale.
We also pay high attention to the improvement of agricultural marketing and marketing infrastructures which naturally induce a high marketing cost. Therefore, our attention should be paid to narrowing the price gap between what the farmer gets and what the consumer pays.
Fourthly, Diversification of the Rural Economy: we agree to the importance of diversification of the rural economy and non-farm employment in the rural poverty alleviation programme. Technical support for the farming sector, and for food processing and handling, including work on the development of marketable convenience foods using indigenous crops is an excellent area in the FAO Programme of Work in order to diversify the rural economy. The Republic of Korea puts high emphasis on this area. We would like to share our experiences and exchange information.
In the document, the matter of women's participation is touched upon under many sections: People's Participation, Access to Natural Resources, Gender Issues, Sustainable Development, etc. We remember that last February there was the Women's Summit in Geneva under the coordination of IFAD. In that meeting the rural women's situation and role were discussed and the Geneva Declaration for Rural Women was adopted. And we are informed that the follow-up activities of the Women's Summit are being implemented.
In this connection, I would like to draw the Council's attention to the close relationship and cooperation between FAO's Gender Issues and Women's Summit activities, especially with regard to Gender Issue activities in this document.
Lastly, Sustainable Development: we appreciate that FAO has made tremendous efforts and progress in integrating sustainability criteria in all its programmes and activities, and we know that FAO is expected to play a vital role in the implementation of 113 programme areas of UNCED's Agenda 21 activities.
As we have already discussed, sustainable agricultural and rural development under the agenda item the State of World Food and Agriculture, FAO activities related to Sustainable Development and Environment, the Korean delegation notes with anxiety that the recent performance of the global food and agricultural sector has been uneven, and the future prospects also remain somewhat uncertain.
In per caput terms, agricultural production declined in much of Latin America and the Near East and marginally increased in the Far East. The substantial rise in Africa's total agricultural production was almost entirely eroded by the high population growth. In the case of the Republic of Korea, our total cereal production is on the decrease, as also is utilization of farmland, while the cereal import is on the rapid increase.
If individual countries keep sustainable development without degradation of their own environment, I am of the opinion that the agricultural sector must continue to be an important source of economic growth and we must do our best so that the international economic environment can provide adequate opportunities to accelerate sustainable agricultural and rural development. In this regard, I would like to reiterate that the Uruguay Round negotiations must reflect vital interests between developing and developed countries. Especially, I am of the opinion that differences in the level of agricultural structure and development in different countries, and their non-trade concerns such as food security, regional development and environmental conservation, should be fully reflected in the negotiations.
Therefore, I sincerely hope that the "Comprehensive Tariffication" in the GATT Dunkel text will be reconsidered for the reaching of a successful agreement in the Uruguay Round negotiations and for a future contribution to world food security and environmental conservation.
At the same time, I hope that the roles and activities of FAO will be strengthened further in order to ensure and protect the welfare needs of the most destitute population groups of the world.
HUANG YONGNING (China) (Original language Chinese): Mr Chairman, the delegation of China has read document CL 102/8 with great care and also consulted the Progress Report on WCARRD that the Secretariat prepared for the Twenty-sixth Session of the Conference. We have noted that, thanks to the concerted efforts of FAO, other international organizations and governments of a number of countries, remarkable progress has been recorded in the area of rural development and agrarian reform. The decline in the proportion and absolute numbers of poor people is the most convincing evidence of this but nonetheless this progress is far from being satisfactory compared to the objectives we have set for ourselves and, therefore, efforts should be increased.
Having said that, Mr Chairman, allow me to make a few brief comments. Firstly, the eradication of hunger and poverty is the priority task of agrarian reform and rural development. In the world of today over 16 million people live in a state of poverty. For a long time the economic environment has been unfavourable and these people are marginalized in the progress of development. Therefore, general development of the rural economy would be impossible if hunger and poverty were not radically eradicated. In this connection the international community and the governments of the different countries should make further efforts to bring assistance to these countries so that they may have access to agricultural inputs and social elements so as to participate fully in development and be finally rid of poverty.
Secondly, education, training and extension work play an important role in improving the scientific and technical levels of the poorer strata of the population and increase their participation ability in the development process. FAO should accord sufficient importance to these points in preparing the follow-up programme for WCARRD and should undertake further activities which are truly effective.
Thirdly, our experience in China shows that it is necessary to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to development and diversification for the eradication of hunger and the promotion of general development of rural economies. It will be necessary to actively promote non-agricultural activities and, above all, agro-industries for a diversification of activities in various areas so as to accelerate development for the poorest strata and to improve their income levels.
Fourthly, we have noted that the follow-up Programme of Action is linked not only to the Regular Programme of FAO for the biennium 1992-93 but also to a number of future budgetary years and, therefore, a high level of extra-budgetary funds are required. This is why the international community and the governments of member countries should make further efforts and arrive atspecialarrangements fortheallocation ofthefinancialand human
resources required so as to assure the effective implementation of this programme. Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Inge GERREMO (Sweden): Mr Chairman, development efforts today focus very much on macro-economic issues. In many developing countries, discussions are geared towards implementation of necessary structural adjustment programmes.
Changing policies in many of these countries towards privatization and liberalization of the economy can be seen. The roles of governments are being reformulated.
During the years before and immediately after the WCARRD Conference, in 1979, the situation was different. Emphasis was on rural development and integration of both economic and social aspects. Development efforts were very much geared to direct poverty alleviation.
We know now that many of these efforts were planned and carried out without a sound macro-economic basis which could secure necessary growth.
Today it is quite clear that growth and equity must go together. There must be a balance between macro and micro-economic development efforts. So during a time when macro-economic issues seem to be high on the agenda, it is extremely important that the WCARRD principles are given adequate attention.
The proposals for follow-up activities presented in document CL 102/8 are therefore very valid. The Swedish delegation would like to elaborate on some of them.
People's participation or, maybe more rightly, people's own initiatives, are fundamental to all development. As can be seen from Agenda 21 of the Rio Conference, people's involvement and understanding of sustainable development is a crucial issue.
An important part of people's participation is the gender aspect and how specifically the role of women in rural development can be increased. We appreciate the mentioning yesterday by Mr Hjort that other organizations, like the World Bank, now seem to look on FAO as a lead agency when it comes to methodological work on gender issues. People's participation and gender issues are delicate issues for governments and international organizations in the sense that there are limits to what can be done from authorities working from above. When it comes to supporting governments it is more important to bear in mind that FAO and others can mainly assist in creating a suitable framework and climate for local initiatives. Such initiatives could definitely include relevant training activities as a basis for forming local organizations, cooperatives, etc.
An important way of stimulating people's participation and gender issues is through support to NGOs. Such support must, however, be carried out with some caution, not to lose the independent identities of these NGOs. We must avoid a situation where such organizations mainly become tools for and channels of government ambitions.
An important area is how to prepare people in rural areas, primarily small farmers, for a situation with an increasing private sector. Agricultural credit will definitely play a crucial role.
There should, however, be a word of caution also here, both as to what is needed in the form of capabilities from the farmers' own side as well as from the government and the private sector to provide necessary services. Otherwise credit can lead into dangerous poverty traps where farmers even might have to leave their land.
It is important to stress that there is a considerable gap between the aggregated level we are now discussing and the operative level where the WCARRD principles finally should be implemented.
Mr Chairman, the Swedish delegation would like to emphasize that FAO has an important role to play in developing such operational guidelines as well as gathering and disseminating experiences in the field.
My delegation would like to emphasize once again that many of the WCARRD principles are key ingredients in the efforts to achieve sustainable development.
It is important that FAO give high attention to these issues in its Regular Budget.
The Conference last year recognized the continuing validity of the WCARRD Programme of Action and to intensify efforts in its implementation.
Mr Chairman, the Swedish delegation would therefore like to know how the Secretariat will organize itself to be able to carry out these important tasks. Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Kiyoshi SAWADA (Japan): Mr Chairman, we have studied the document before us, C 91/19 and also Supplement 1 of that document. My comments will be brief and concise. Firstly, WCARRD is one of the outstanding results of FAO, and nobody can overlook its sound follow-up activities during more than ten years.
Secondly, as stressed in the Plan of Action on People's Participation which was adopted at the Twenty-sixth Conference, and is published in beautiful style now, we are seeing obstacles which is a challenge to us, such as the old-fashioned consciousness and the well-established structure of authorities concerned as well as social custom. For this reason, the challenge to us requires in the long term a tough spirit.
My Government believes that it is vital that the leadership of international agencies, particularly FAO accompanied by positive attitudes on the part of member countries, will be further strengthened for this challenge.
Thirdly, let my delegation introduce, "Japan's Official Development Assistance Charter" which was released in June 1992. This Charter clearly declares Japan's official development assistance should go to the development of human resources as well as socio-economic infrastructure and also to the support for "good governance" as well as fair distribution of resources. Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Nusyirwan ZEN (Indonesia): Mr Chairman, thank you for the opportunity given to my delegation to address the proposal for follow-up of WCARRD activities as appears in document CL 102/8.
Rural development including agrarian reform has always been an integral part of the Indonesian national development. Sectoral rural development programmes have been based on a fuller understanding and participation of rural people so that development efforts can be more responsive to their varying needs. Programmes of Action in the Indonesian rural development have been clearly reflected in expansion of opportunities in employment and income, development of farmers' groups, development of rural cooperatives, greater investment to promote agricultural development, health, nutrition, and education.
Although the equity goals are clearly defined to be carried out in every development programme in Indonesia, it is the policy of the Government to give more consideration on achievements of top programme priorities such as: sustainable agriculture development leading toward strengthening of self-sufficiency in food; boosting up exports of agricultural commodities; strengthening of efforts to develop rural cooperatives in the framework in increasing people participation; programmes for diversification of rural development; transmigration programmes, especially directed toward sparsely populated areas of the country; family planning movement; creation of opportunities of employment for rural population; development entrepreneurship of economically weak groups; and improvement and conservation of natural resources and living environment in the framework of sustainable development.
In regard to rural women in development, the Government emphasizes its policy on fuller integration of women in national and rural development undertakings. Programmes to foster the role of women in development cover a wide range of activities. It has been the policy of the Government to integrate the fostering of the role of women in all agriculture and rural development projects. Developing and implementing a programme for increasing women's access to productive resources, empowerment in political and economic activities, and improving women's access to education, health services and technology information have been carried out by government agencies as well as non-government organizations. This policy and programme is in line with the Plan of Action for the integration of Women in Development. Our national experts and field officers and NGO's have been working closely with advisers provided through technical assistance by FAO. We would like to express our thanks to FAO for this assistance.
Priorities in reducing rural poverty have been based on the Government's policies to create impetus among rural people to develop themselves by utilizing their own resources and basic potential to gain self-sufficiency and self-growth. Not less that 35 programmes of action have been created by the Government and the people towards alleviating rural poverty. The Government has given priority to improvement of access to credit, production inputs and technologies for the rural population who are under the poverty line. This policy is carried out in line with policies on the greater participation of people, improved farmers' organization and cooperation, creation of rural employment through agro-industry development, and improvement of delivery systems.
Without statistical evidence on the progress made on rural development and agrarian reform, it may not be possible to predict the results achieved on the basis of active participation of rural people. Rural poverty may still exist even if the economy reaches a sufficiently high growth rate and per capita income can be increased substantially.
Out of success stories of development, however, there are still issues that need to be seriously addressed, such as policy issues on accelerated rural poverty eradication, prevention of the ever-increasing urbanization, decreased valuable agricultural land due to increasing industrialization, achieving sustainable agricultural development based on a better living environment, promotion of agro-industries in rural areas and increasing the role of rural cooperatives in rural development. The Indonesian delegation therefore wishes to express its full support for the proposal on WCARRD follow-up activities.
Ms Maria GÁLVÖLGYI (Hungary): My delegation thanks Dr Hjort, the Deputy Director-General, for his concise introductory statement.
It is with reference to the very last paragraph of the document on WCARRD's follow-up that the Hungarian delegation would like to start its intervention. Paragraph 59 states that most of the WCARRD recommendations are already to a large extent reflected in FAO's Work and Budget. This is an absolutely correct statement and we indeed feel that nearly all of the actions reported on have been and will be tackled by various FAO programmes.
Even making allowance for numerous overlappings between WCARRD and FAO programmes, we definitely think the review of the post-WCARRD decade is a useful and welcome document. The problems, constraints and conditions calling for the WCARRD Conference 13 years ago are still alive, one may even say are more acute than ever.
In this spirit may we be allowed to offer some comments? A careful study of relevant expertise within FAO and our personal experiences have led us to say that the closer cooperation with NGOs has achieved a greater chance of success than any WCARRD follow-up activity has. NGOs could also be major vehicles for people's participation and we would be only too happy if a major emphasis could be put on both cooperation with existing NGOs and the strengthening cooperation at national, local and regional levels. NGOs could also be instrumental in carrying out another most important part of WCARRD actions, i.e. the training component.
We feel that the training activities' role in the WCARRD follow-up deserves an even higher priority than mentioned in the document.
A significant number of the aspects pertinent to WCARRD are strongly dependent on training activities. To mention but a few, rural women programmes, improvement of financial and credit facilities, non-farm employments and so forth. The programmes mentioned, and other ones, are rather capital-intensive and well-designed; practice-oriented training programmes could achieve a much-needed breakthrough.
My delegation welcomed the reference made in paragraph 21 of the continuing support FAO offers also under the WCARRD umbrella to ongoing agrarian reform programmes and the hint to include technical assistance to some countries in the Central-Eastern European region. The Hungarian delegation made public its views on some arguments and problems in this respect when discussing the State of Food and Agriculture.
The reference to World Food Day machinery as a possible means to strengthen people's participation in WCARRD programmes has been found of great interest. Although it might be somewhat doubted that a machinery had been set up to
organize and prepare World Food Days, the idea could be a success, in so far, as World Food Days - and why not the next one - may centre on a more direct and efficient involvement of various grass-roots level organizations and ongoing programmes and on the improvement of the management capabilities of these organizations.
To sum up, the Hungarian delegation thinks of the WCARRD follow-up as a continuous effort being steadily covered by FAO's Regular Programme and other related activities, though deserving attention and systematic reporting. Guided by these principles, we would like to commend the FAO staff on the compilation of this comprehensive and valuable document.
Iain MACGILLIVRAY (Canada): We have reviewed in detail report CL 102/8 and paid full attention to the priority proposals for follow-up to the recommendations of the WCARRD Review Report. We wish to provide a background statement followed by brief remarks on this report.
The Canadian Delegation recognizes that development activities within the broad context of sustainable agriculture are never easy, since the process often deals with the unknown, sometimes the unpredictable. Outcomes depend on strong commitment, perseverance and fortune, both good and ill.
It is all the more difficult in the FAO context when national and regional interests diverge or even compete among both beneficiary countries and donors. Undoubtedly, work over the years by FAO and the WCARRD Programme is a significant contribution to agricultural development.
In examining and commenting on this document, Canada has been guided by its ODA charter, the umbrella statement of principles and priority which informs the allocation of public development resources between competing geographic, sectoral and institutional activities. In so doing, however, we must also recognize a public which is increasingly sceptical of its governments, the task demands which they impose, some of the aims which they pursue and the results they claim.
Having said this, it should be pointed out that Canadians as a whole remain committed to assisting others less fortunate to improve their well-being. But their general concerns with the public process together with the recent challenges and rising expectations in Eastern Europe (and beyond) mean that those of us working in Canada's traditional ODA Programmes must strive harder than ever to assure appropriate targeting on problems and best possible results from available development resources.
Therefore, a key issue for Canada is how to maximize the likelihood that these scarce ODA resources encourage development activities that contribute efficiently and demonstrably to the improved well-being of Canada's intended primary beneficiaries - the poor and the disadvantaged groups in developing countries.
We do believe Mr Chairman, that the WCARRD Programme strives to achieve these same goals. Thus, we support these efforts by FAO, fully aware of the complexity of the undertaking to achieve lasting and improved change in the livelihood of rural and urban dwellers.
Within this context, we provide the following comments on the proposals before us.
We note extremely valuable efforts which merit special attention. For example:
- Paragraph 8: action to create more favourable legal and policy conditions for people's participation;
- Paragraph 51: assistance for the integration of environmental concerns within the curricula of universities, educational institutes, extension and training programmes ;
- Page 9: FAO staff training in women in development and gender analysis; gender training in fisheries and forestry development and management.
We also firmly support FAO's work to cooperate with and strengthen NGOs. The promotion of dialogue between NGOs, governments, agencies and other bodies will prove an essential ingredient to achieving sustainable improvements in the livelihood of the rural poor.
More specifically, and without seeming to undermine the value of efforts expended, we have the following comments on WCARRD activities:
The document considers in summary form (understandably) a number of important activities within the poverty alleviation strategy. The document explains that most activities are based on the 1992-93 Programme of Work and Budget. Other activities are to be financed from extra-budgetary resources.
From the report, though, it is difficult to assess the balance or proportion of these two sources of funding; likewise, which activities belong to the three action areas mentioned, i.e.: FAO's own regular programme activities, support to government programmes, and inter-agency collaboration.
In essence, Mr Chairman, we believe FAO's commitment to this critical developmental effort that targets poverty alleviation could be made more clear from a strategic and programmatic standpoint. In many ways we seek programmatic clarity as raised by the delegate from Sweden.
Also it is no simple task to elucidate what balance in expenditures exists between these strategic activities or whether any balance was intended. An indication of geographic balance for these activities for each of FAO's regions would also seem important, and yet this remains unclear.
Expected results or outputs over time are also hard to assess. We welcome that in paragraph 55 mention is made to the effect that "FAO will monitor and evaluate progress achieved in implementing the WCARRD Programme of Action", but no reference is made as to the necessary baseline data for such a results -oriented approach. We did welcome reviewing the generally successful results as explained in the FAO publication on lessons from the people's participation programme.
We believe these areas of balance and performance are crucial to permit decision-making and necessary understanding by this executive body. A clear definition of the level of effort in resources and staff, between regular programme and extrabudgetary sources, would allow members of this Council to assess programme commitment within FAO,and,linked to results,the
effectiveness and efficiency of resource use. As implied by the delegate of the United Kingdom, this is important from an accountability perspective but would also contribute to greater clarity on resource constraints and priority allocations. We believe this information should be made clear in future progress reports, where, in some cases, detailed tables may suffice. We must never underestimate the impact which FAO does, and can further, achieve by setting an example in all of its undertakings and quest for change.
As a last point, Canada's foreign policy objective, fully linked to Canadian ODA policy, acknowledges the importance of "good governance", which in itself calls for strengthened public participation. In this regard, we believe that FAO's participatory approaches to rural development, through the Plan of Action on people's participation, mirror Canada's interests to foster popular participation, equality of social groups and empowerment of the world's poor and disadvantaged.
José Eduardo MENDES FERRAO (Portugal): Le document CL 102/8 nous présente une synthèse excellente des problèmes liés à la réforme agraire sensu lato et aux programmes pour le futur.
Au Portugal, nous sommes en train d'introduire des modifications profondes de l'agriculture pour la rendre plus compétitive.
Dans cette ligne d'orientation, les agriculteurs ont reçu d'importantes subventions dont une grande partie est d'origine communautaire. Les subventions constituent un bon système selon nous pour obtenir l'adhésion des agriculteurs. Il y a également des mesures structurelles que nous devons mettre en pratique, ainsi que des changements de cultures traditionnelles qui actuellement ne sont pas compétitives au niveau du marché international, comme par exemple les céréales d'hiver.
Plus de 40 pour cent des entreprises agricoles possèdent une superficie inférieure à 5 hectares. Dans cette situation, sauf dans le cas d'une agriculture extrêmement intensive comme certaines formes d'horticulture, il est nécessaire de faire un grand effort de regroupement des parcelles et d'union des petites exploitations agricoles.
Cette tâche implique un travail parfois long et difficile de préparation et de maturation des agriculteurs, et demande d'offrir d'autres alternatives aux agriculteurs qui sont excédentaires au niveau du milieu rural.
La plupart des agriculteurs portugais sont très âgés, et cette circonstance peut faciliter à la longue le remembrement des petites exploitations, grâce à la retraite anticipée. Des mesures dans ce sens sont déjà en cours d'application.
Cependant, la délégation portugaise voudrait faire remarquer qu'une grande partie des petites exploitations agricoles fonctionne comme entreprises complémentaires de l'activité industrielle et commerciale. Elles sont vraiment la base d'une agriculture à temps partiel.
Dans ces conditions, la femme est vraiment le principal élément du contexte agricole et l'homme ne consacre à l'agriculture que le temps libre que lui laisse son activité principale, surtout dans les périodes de l'année où les jours sont plus longs.
Au Portugal, quelques organisations d'agriculteurs ont déjà pris une telle importance qu'elles sont reconnues comme partenaires sociaux du gouvernement, et certaines organisations de base écologiques, qui se préoccupent de la défense de l'environnement, ont acquis un grand prestige. Le gouvernement les écoute et entretient un dialogue avec elles.
Notre préoccupation est de préparer une nouvelle génération d'agriculteurs, ce qu'on appelle les nouveaux agriculteurs, dont une partie relèvera les exploitations agricoles qu'ils tiennent de leurs parents et pour les autres l'Etat leur facilitera l'acquisition de terrains nécessaires et du matériel pour pratiquer une agriculture basée sur de nouvelles techniques et de nouvelles cultures, mieux adaptées au commerce intérieur et international.
Parmi les jeunes agriculteurs, certains sont des femmes non mariées ou dont le mari travaille dans l'industrie ou le commerce.
Pour donner ses subventions, le gouvernement impose une formation professionnelle de base adéquate, et le document attire notre attention sur ce point au paragraphe 5.
En 1992, nous avons centré la Journée mondiale de l'alimentation sur l'alimentation correcte et la dignité des agriculteurs et des pêcheurs comme producteurs d'aliments. Cette manifestation a obtenu un grand succès avec l'appui de la communication sociale.
Depuis plusieurs années nous avons une excellente collaboration avec le Ministère de l'éducation pour une formation et une préparation adéquate des professeurs sur les problèmes de la production d'aliments, notamment en milieu rural. Nous pouvons dire qu'il n'existe pas aujourd'hui d'écoles où ces problèmes ne sont pas étudiés avec un grand intérêt. Très fréquemment le Comité National de la FAO est contacté par les étudiants qui doivent élaborer des travaux sur ce thème qui est intégré dans la formation générale des écoles.
Le Portugal a environ 27 pour cent de son territoire recouvert de forêts, malgré les incendies forestiers qui provoquent de grands dommages. Cette année, heureusement, les dégâts des incendies ont été très atténués. Quatre-vingt-dix pour cent de la forêt appartiennent à la propriété privée, divisés en parcelles généralement très petites. Dans ces conditions, la gestion, la défense et l'exploitation de la forêt sont très difficiles et très chères.
Nous sommes en train de promouvoir l'association de petits propriétaires forestiers pour arriver à une superficie minimum de 5 hectares en utilisant les subventions. Nous avons aussi un grand nombre d'associations d'agriculteurs, avec des réserves de chasse collective, pour la commercialisation des bois ou pour l'extraction de la résine du Pinus pinaster.
Une de nos préoccupations majeures est d'assurer que la population rurale reste dans son milieu. En ce sens, les industries bénéficient aujourd'hui de la part des mairies de mesures d'encouragement pour utiliser la main-d'oeuvre excédentaire. C'est ainsi que les industries de confection de vêtements utilisent une grande partie de la main-d'oeuvre féminine excédentaire. Notre préoccupation, c'est d'éviter la désertification humaine.
La valorisation des produits agricoles et leur industrialisation sont en marche non seulement pour répondre aux besoins de nos cultures industrielles typiques, comme celles de la tomate, du piment, de la vigne et de l'olive, mais aussi pour donner aux produits tels que les fruits une qualité commerciale face aux exigences du marché intérieur et international.
La délégation portugaise tient à souligner l'importance que revêtent la formation professionnelle et la vulgarisation pour la modernisation de l'agriculture, tel que relevé aux paragraphes 51 et suivants. Notre expérience montre que la vulgarisation est pratiquement inefficace si les récepteurs du message n'ont pas une bonne formation de base. Pour surpasser cette difficulté, le Gouvernement portugais a pris les mesures appropriées, notamment en fixant à neuf le nombre d'années de scolarité obligatoire. Par ailleurs, avec le vieillissement de la population, l'analphabétisme tend à disparaître.
LE PRESIDENT: Je remercie le représentant du Portugal de son intervention et du tableau complet qu'il nous a donné de la situation de son pays.
Paul VAN RAPPARD (Netherlands): Since the World Conference on Agrarian Reform And Rural Development was held in 1979, the WCARRD Programme of Action has played an important role in FAO's activities.
The third progress report of this Programme of Action was annotated for the agenda of the 26th FAO Conference last year. Considering the fact that the document became available too late for proper study of this most important item, the Netherlands delegation proposed that a preliminary discussion on the issue should take place during the Conference. A more detailed discussion could take place in this Council meeting. The Netherlands delegation appreciates the constructive attitude of the Member States and cooperation of the Secretariat in this matter and in providing us with the chance to discuss the WCARRD Progress Report here today.
The Progress Report contains many data showing the extent to which progress has been made in the socio-economic indicators used by WCARRD in 1979 on behalf of agricultural and rural development. Among these are education, training, extension, people's participation, integration of women, access to land, water and other resources. It seems that in a number of areas achievements have been unsatisfactory, in particular with regard to land reform, access to agricultural extension for smallholding farmers, including women, and people's participation. Chapter 7 of the Third Progress Report gives a summary under the title "lessons from experience".
The document "Proposals for Follow-up Activities" gives an indication of the conclusions to be made from the Third Progress Report with regard to FAO's activities. It contains proposals for follow-up activities for quite a number of areas. We wonder, however, whether the capacity will be available in FAO to implement all these proposals, particularly within the ESH Division.
This brings me to my next point. From what we have learned from the WCARRD experience, and with regard to the follow-up of WCARRD, the Netherlands delegation proposes that FAO should place the following areas of activities high on its agenda: first, to integrate the experiences with people's participation and gender issues in FAO-activities, particularly with regard
to production activities and the recognition and support of farmers organizations, as well as policy advice, through increasing awareness of the importance of participation; second, to strengthen the infrastructure in the field of education, extension and research concerning input supplies and marketing of agricultural products; third, to enhance cooperation between the various UN organizations, for instance through the ACC Task Force on Rural Development; fourth, to promote integration of technical, socio-economic and cultural dimensions of agriculture and rural development.
With regard to people's participation and gender issues, the chapter on People's Participation in the proposals for follow-up activities deserves particular attention. Socio-economic indicators have to be integrated in all technical divisions and should not be limited to forestry and fisheries only. It is essential for all technical divisions to stay in touch with the local rural population in order to learn from their experiences by the formulation of programmes and projects in the longer term.
People's participation and general issues have been so far central themes in the discussion and I should like to take the opportunity to say a few words on the Plan of Action on People's Participation in Rural Development and on the integration of women in development.
First of all, you will not be surprised to hear that we would like to reaffirm our strong interest in both these plans. However, my country would like to express its concern regarding the implementation of the Plan of Action on People's Participation. From the information provided in document CL 102/8 my delegation gets the impression that this implementation is rather slow so far. Therefore, we would urge FAO to take all necessary action to ensure rapid implementation of this important plan. In our view, this will require measures to involve all relevant departments in the process and to ensure that the technical units directly responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Plan are provided with sufficient manpower and Regular Programme resources.
I now come to my main suggestion for future work in the framework of WCARRD. The document for the WCARRD follow-up indicates, in our opinion rightly, that the different areas of activity are not, nor should be, isolated. We notice with satisfaction that FAO recognizes that it: is essential for the achievement of sustainable agriculture and rural development in the framework of the follow-up of UNCED, which we discussed under Item 7, that a considerable number of WCARRD areas of activity are seen as relevant. Therefore, execution of the WCARRD programme remains important in relation to the environment. Chapter 6 of the Third Progress Report "Environment, Public Policy and Poverty" makes a beginning with this approach.
In conclusion, these developments could eventually result in the integration of a number of WCARRD activities in ICPF/SARD, a development which we would strongly support.
EL PRESIDENTE: La delegación de Cuba ha mandado el texto de su intervención. Para agilizar el trabajo decidió que la intervención figure en las actas del día de hoy. Es una buena medida y quisiera agradecer a la delegación de Cuba por seguir este método y si hay algún otro país que quisiera hacer lo mismo, sería una buena idea.
Carlos BASCO (Argentina): La delegación argentina apoya los efonques participativos desarrollados por la FAO y la difusión de ejemplos concretos de participación popular especialmente en la planificación de actividades forestales locales. Asimismo, manifiesta su acuerdo con las tareas realizadas, especialmente aquellas relacionadas con el fortalecimiento de la capacidad de gestión de las organizaciones populares; la descentralización de la adopción de decisiones y la promoción del diálogo entre los gobiernos y los organismos relacionados con el desarrollo y las organizaciones no gubernamentales.
Respecto a la problemática de las diferencias por razones de sexo, la delegación enfatiza el apoyo a las acciones realizadas y exhorta a que las mismas sean intensificadas; pero propone la sustitución de la palabra "sexo", en la versión española, por la palabra "género" tal como se utiliza en inglés "gender", en la descripción de las actividades desarrolladas por la Organización referidas al tema.
Por último, la delegación argentina aprovecha la oportunidad para recordar que las actividades realizadas por la FAO en el campo del desarrollo rural pueden perder mucha de su efectividad si no cambian las condiciones del comercio mundial de productos agropecuarios, especialmente los problemas con respecto a los subsidios y las limitaciones de acceso al mercado. Queremos recordar que los principales beneficiarios de un comercio mundial de productos agropecuarios más libres, son los agricultores de los países en desarrollo, a diferencia de los agricultores de otros paises más ricos que se ven favorecidos por las transferencias internas de ingresos por parte de los consumidores.
A.N.M. EUSUF (Bangladesh): The proposals made in the document CL 102/8 are quite elaborate and my delegation is in agreement with the proposals made for the follow-up of WCARRD. In the proposals there are provisions for case studies and monitoring. My delegation feels that, along with monitoring, there should be impact assessment of the programme activities at regular intervals.
People's participation is the key to sustainable rural development, and the mechanism for such participation has been elaborated in paragraphs 4-18. My only comment in this regard is that, for participatory programmes to succeed fully, the literacy rate has to be increased in many developing countries. A major component of rural development programmes, should, therefore, be education in general and literacy in particular.
Access to resources is perhaps the most important hindrance to development. The traditional banking system has failed to respond to the needs of millions of small and marginal farmers. However, the failure cannot be squarely attributed to the banks. Lack of supervision and delinquency are also very important factors in this very sorry state of affairs.
Let me share with you our experience of a new banking system geared to the needs of the rural poor. In the early 1980s Professor Junus, a university professor, started the Grameen Bank Project. The Grameen or Rural Bank Project has been a tremendous success. It has been widely acclaimed in many developed and developing countries. There is no collateral for Grameen Bank credit. The prospective beneficiaries are formed into cohesive groups. Before a loan is given they are motivated. Repayment is made the responsibility of the group,
although the loan is given to individuals. So far group pressure has worked very well. Repayment is almost 100 percent.
Two other factors have also contributed to the success of this programme. These are the timeliness of the credit and very close supervision. The Grameen Bank is a bank for the poor. There is an upper ceiling of land holding in order to qualify for this loan.
Another important feature of the Grameen Bank is its programme for the skilled development of its members. Timely credit, skilled development and technical supervision are the keys to success of the Grameen Bank. Although as yet coverage is not very large, in future rural credit could be organized on the model of the Grameen Bank to make the credit more effective and efficient.
I should like to say a few words about Women in Development and some of the initiatives taken in this regard in my country. A separate ministry has been established to deal with women's affairs. In all our development programmes, women's development is an integral part. In Bangladesh the quota of government jobs reserved for women has been increased to 20 percent from a previous 10 percent. In one particular case, that of primary school teachers, the quota reserved for women is 60 percent. To give the education of girls, added impetus, girls education up to Grade VIII has been made free. A separate scholarship scheme with donor assistance has been introduced for girl students at rural schools. As a result of all these programmes, signs of improvement are already evident. At primary level the enrolment of girls has improved appreciably and if the trend continues the enrolment of girls will be equal to that of boys, or even exceed it. We now have more women in the upper echelons of administration than at any time before, and the number is increasing. Even in parliament there are 30 reserved seats for women.
CHAIRMAN: I have been fortunate in the past to have contact with this very interesting experience of the Grameen Bank.
Sra. Mercedes FERMIN GOMEZ (Venezuela): No estoy acostumbrada a hacerme esperar, señor Presidente.
EL PRESIDENTE: Eso, señora, da más peso a su intervención.
Sra. Mercedes FERMIN GOMEZ (Venezuela): Debo decir que he estudiado complacidamente anoche este documento presentado por la Secretaría y que es objeto de nuestra preocupación actualmente y puedo dar mi respaldo pleno a todo el documento; no porque no quisiera entrar en detalles, pero pienso que las reuniones de la FAO, del Consejo, no son solamente para aportar los conocimientos técnicos y la sabiduría que se tiene para contribuir a los programas, sino que también debe ser un momento de reflexión en relación a los problemas planteados; y esto es lo único que yo puedo hacer.
Estamos discutiendo desde hace mucho tiempo todo lo relativo a la pobreza y al hambre. Andamos buscando cuáles son las causas de la pobreza y como mitigarla. Hace muchos años que participaba en el Congreso de mi país para establecer nuestra ley de reforma agraria; entonces llegamos a la conclusión
de que fundamentalmente la justicia en cuanto a la distribución de la tierra era esencial para contribuir a acabar con la pobreza.
Sin embargo, en el seguimiento que hace la FAO de la Conferencia Mundial de Reforma Agraria encuentra que todavía hay muchos pasos que dar para poder lograr el punto esencial de esta reforma que es el acceso a la tierra.
A mi se me ocurría pensar como estudiante de Historia que soy, que parece increíble que en vísperas del tercer milenio todavía estamos pensado en la reforma agraria, en la distribución de la tierra que los hermanos gratos plantearon por primera vez en Roma, en la Roma imperial y que también Juan sin tierra hace unos cuantos siglos en su famosa carta planteaba también la necesidad de dar tierra a los campesinos.
Hemos andado tres milenios y todavía sigue esto planteado, la reforma agraria, la justicia social de redistribuir la tierra y de dar a los campesinos que la trabajan un pedazo de tierra y, sin embargo, dice por aquí, creo que el Delegado de China, que hay 600 millones de personas que siguen con hambre, esperando la posibilidad de producir algo para comer. Decía el Japón que la esencial y fundamental necesidad es la autosuficiencia. Bueno, pues, yo pido excusas por decir tantas cosas de mi propia experiencia, pero les diré que no hace muchos años cuando tuve el honor de ser estudiante con Dudley Stamp, un geógrafo inglés que venía periódicamente a Harvard a dictar cursos de verano, ese señor dio el ejemplo extraordinario durante el tiempo de la guerra, no sé si ustedes lo saben, cuando Gran Bretaña estaba cercada por Hitler y por las bombas volantes primeras que cayeron en Londres, no podían recibir alimentos de su gran imperio ni podía venir la carne de Argentina, ni el trigo de la India, ni ninguna de las otras cosas que necesitaba Gran Bretaña para su subsistencia. Entonces este hombre que era profesor y geógrafo en la London School of Economics, sugirió al Rey un plan. Producto de su investigación y reconocimiento de los suelos de Gran Bretaña, de lo cual era maestro y experto, dijo al Rey: Tengo una solución para evitar que Gran Bretaña muera de hambre, la solución es ésta, que cada quien que posea tierra destine un pedacito de esa tierra, que nosotros diremos cuanto, y allí se producirán los productos esenciales y los de los cotos de caza del Rey y todos los nobles ingleses supieron que ellos se morirían de hambre si no obedecían a esta ley, porque no tenían como comer. Entonces, en toda Inglaterra, en cada uno de los jardines de las casas se destinó algo más que un metro cuadrado, yo pude verlo cuando fui a Londres la primera vez, como un metro o dos metros cuadrados para sembrar aquellas legumbres y hortalizas que destinaba este Comité de Salvación de Inglaterra que se estableció durante la guerra, y fue así, como obedientemente los ingleses y con mucha disciplina, más que la que tienen en este Consejo, sometieron a su dictamen el planteamiento de estas obligaciones y así se salvó Inglaterra del hambre.
A mí se me ocurre que en el mundo si todos los que tienen grandes extensiones, porque todavía el latifundio sigue vivo, a pesar de la Conferencia Mundial de Reforma Agraria, todavía tenemos latifundios en muchísimos países a pesar de que se hayan dictado leyes de reforma agraria.
Si lográramos que de alguna manera la FAO hiciera el milagro de persuadir a los poseyentes de las tierras, a los gobiernos, a establecer un programa de esta índole para dar acceso a la tierra a los campesinos que no la tienen, revivir la carta de Juan sin tierra, de nuevo y ponerla entonces a disposición de la FAO para que pueda establecer el uso, el acceso a la tierra y al agua para los campesinos que no tienen como vivir.
Queremos decir con esto, y no estoy haciendo chistes, que no vamos a resolver el problema del hambre y de la pobreza a través de las grandes empresas que producen alimentos, vamos a hacerlo como ha comenzado a hacerlo la FAO en Africa, procurando que cada comunidad, cada pequeño grupo humano comience bajo la dirección de esta agricultura sostenible, de este desarrollo rural sostenible a producir los alimentos con los que puedan sobrevivir, no es un alimento para participar en el mercado mundial, no es una producción para competir en el mercado, es una producción agrícola elemental de aquellos productos que pueden contribuir a su subsistencia, y yo creo que con esto, además de todos los planes que la FAO tiene en este documento que son extraordinarios y que los apoyo, con esto podríamos comenzar por lo menos a combatir el hambre y de allí del hambre podríamos llegar tal vez a la pobreza, porque si pudiéramos dar a cada una de esas familias la tercera parte de lo que tienen los portugueses que dicen que cada quien tiene cinco hectáreas, si le pudiéramos dar la tercera parte a esas familias que no la tienen y enseñarles a producir aquellos frutos que son necesarios para su subsistencia en buena parte se disminuiría el hambre y probablemente comenzaríamos a combatir la pobreza de verdad, porque cuando un hombre y una mujer, por supuesto, sienten que ellos pueden producir algo útil para ellos mismos, estimulan su deseo de desarrollar esta actividad, porque es así. Actualmente y lamentablemente es sólo el lucro el que induce a los hombres a contribuir y desarrollar sus actividades, pero nosotros deberíamos pensar que es también esta solución que perfectamente bien ha programado la FAO en su Agricultura Sostenible y en su Desarrollo Sostenible.
No quiero abundar mucho en estos cuentos que yo tengo, pero debo dar otra experiencia que viene al caso. La China, a pesar de toda la inmensidad de gente que tiene, cuando estuve allí en 1980, pudimos estudiar y ver que el Gobierno había decidido quitar los topes de las montañas, no de las más altas, pero sí de las colinas y limitar los topes de tal manera que pudieran llegar a un nivel en donde se pudiera un poco más de una hectárea y plantar allí productos. No podían ni siquiera comenzar a plantar alimentos, tenían que convertir esos suelos que estaban muy rocosos, como hicieran los holandeses con la parte que le corresponde, crear el suelo y luego sembrar, esto en busca de un poco de tierra para que pudieran los chinos tener alimentos suficientes.
Quiero decir entonces, que en muchos países en donde no hay que hacer este trabajo de los chinos ni hacer el trabajo de los holandeses, sino sencillamente redistribuir la tierra, es decir, aquellos poseedores de inmensos espacios podrían ser distribuidos y dar acceso a los campesinos que generalmente son los que no tienen tierra. Estos campesinos pobres ayudados por la FAO de acuerdo con sus técnicas y con su agricultura sostenible podrían comenzar a producir alimentos para aliviar el hambre y eventualmente para mitigar la pobreza, porque no creo que se va a erradicar la pobreza todavía en este siglo, pero sí podríamos mitigarla como muy bien usamos este término.
Estas reflexiones son las que me ha producido la lectura de este extraordinario documento por el cual yo felicito a quienes lo escribieron y a quienes están en disposición de llevarlo a cabo.
Creo que éste es el recuerdo que me llevo de esta extraordinaria reunión del Consejo que ha enfocado debidamente la forma de cómo podemos nosotros contribuir a disminuir el hambre, no la pobreza todavía, pero sí el hambre. Entonces, yo apoyo este documento, creo que las previsiones que toma la FAO en él para el seguimiento de la reforma agraria son bastante correctas y naturalmente debo también apoyar todo lo que se refiere a la incorporación de
la mujer al desarrollo. Convencida como estoy de que no podrán hacer los hombres nada solos, sino hay la parte de la mujer que es siempre en algún porcentaje mayor.
Me complace escuchar las declaraciones de Bangladesh con respecto al avance de la mujer en este país. Nosotros podemos decir, para no dejar de hablar algo de Venezuela, que en Venezuela la mujer ha andado un camino bastante adelante; sin embargo, tenemos muchas mujeres con pobreza en el campo, pero tenemos acceso a la tierra mediante una ley aunque todavía no se hace efectiva del todo. Las mujeres están participando en todas las profesiones, las maestras de escuela primaria son el 90 por ciento; en las escuelas de medicina el 69 por ciento son mujeres; las abogadas han decidido crear una asociación de abogadas para distinguirse de los abogados, porque ya son bastantes, y tenemos también muchas mujeres incorporadas al trabajo agrícola, porque tenemos agrónomas, también en ingeniería, en geología y no hay profesión a la cual esté vedada la mujer. Tenemos acceso la mujer, como todos los venezolanos a las universidades gratuitamente, porque tenemos escuelas desde la primaria hasta la universidad gratuita, y por esa razón está abierta la puerta para mucha gente.
Sin embargo, todavía tenemos analfabetismo en el país y muchos campesinos sin tierra que, ojalá, pudiéramos satisfacerlos con este Programa de la FAO.
No sigo adelante, Presidente, porque hay mucho que hablar y no me gusta hablar demasiado, pero reitero mi apoyo a estas propuestas de seguimiento que contiene el documento en especial todo lo relativo a la capacitación y a la investigación que serán las que nos dan la norma para poder hacer efectivo el cumplimiento de los programas que la FAO acertadamente ha diseñado.
EL PRESIDENTE: Muchísimas gracias distinguida Embajadora de Venezuela. Debo decir que no solamente en Inglaterra, que también en otros países durante la guerra, se hicieron trabajos en los jardines, y, cuando yo era varoncito, trabajé en el jardín de mis padres de la misma manera.
Ebrahim MAYGOLINEJAD (Iran, Islamic Republic of): Regarding Item 8 of the Agenda, a Review of the Post-World Conference on Agrarian reform can be considered as one of the instruments for agricultural development, but within the framework of the Agrarian Reform Plan sustainable agriculture development approaches and rehabilitation of farmlands should be included, and farming activities should be socially acceptable and economically viable as well.
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has in recent years reviewed the agrarian reform law which took place in the early 1960s, and adopted the new required regulations and acts for its adjustment and amendment, in order to make it more suitable and favourable to landless rural people and small farmers. Within the recent amendment of this law and its implementation, some 800 000 hectares of new lands have been distributed for landless rural people and smallholders.
With regard to paragraphs 10 and 13, on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran delegation, I should like to express our willingness and support to FAO's participation. We believe that by these types of activities developing countriesin particular can improve their small-scalefisheries and
fishermen's corporate activities. We also support paragraphs 51, 52 and 53 on training and workshop activities.
In the fisheries sector the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been involved in privatization of fisheries since 1989, the beginning year of its economic and social development Five-Year Plan. It has placed more emphasis on this in its second economic and social development Five-Year Plan which will begin in 1994.
Finally, training, extension and education for transfer of technology and upgrading national expertise have an important role in agricultural development, and in increasing the level of the living situations of rural people. On this aspect, on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran delegation I should like to express our willingness and full support of FAO's activities.
Nedilson R. JORGE (Brazil): Mr Chairman, firstly, the Brazilian Delegation would like to commend FAO Secretariat and the Director-General for the excellent work done so far in this important subject and related activities.
Secondly, I take this opportunity to express the support of my country to document CL 102/8 presented to this Council. In this regard I would like to stress the special attention and support of my Government to FAO's proposed follow-up projects and activities presented in the document, particularly with respect to People's Participation, diversification of the rural economy, promotion of rural non-farm employment, development of agro-industries, women in development, sustainable agricultural and rural development with special emphasis on combatting poverty, and education training and rural extension.
All these activities are consonant with domestic efforts made by my Government and with planned rural and agricultural policies. Brazil is pleased to see that FAO is ready to continue to provide its decisive support and help to all developing countries in this subject. Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Benson C. MBOGOH (Kenya): Mr Chairman, I would begin by thanking the Secretariat for the document CL 102/8. Reading through it, it is quite obvious that there are a lot of thoughtful ideas for addressing the broad concerns of the WCARRD Report which have gone into this document.
For there to be socio-economic development, the people have to be mobilized to participate in the development process fully, and this is what WCARRD is all about. We therefore subscribe to the efforts and initiatives that eliminate or mitigate impediments to this mobilization process. I can say this with confidence, Mr Chairman, because in our post-independent era in Kenya we have fully and extensively capitalized on this approach with, I must say, phenomenal socio-economic benefit.
Permit me to highlight a few of these experiences for the purposes of illustration. People's participation in development is a policy and a process in Kenya, and it is achieved through two main approaches. The first is an informal approach whereby people are mobilized through self-help groups (locally known as Harambic groups) including women's groups. These are voluntary open groups rooted in traditional organizational principles of the indigenous Kenyan society, but adopted to serving new development and social needs.
The second is the formal approach applying decentralizing planning as a national policy and rural development strategy using the bottom-up approach to planning and decision-making, but again adopted to allow the people, through a system of formal local development committees and cooperatives, to participate in identifying what projects and programmes are to be implemented in their localities; how to raise resources for development for them; all this, of course, is done with guidance provided by the Government.
Since independence, through the informal self-help movement, large resources have been raised voluntarily by the people for community development covering agriculture, education, health and others. Over the last two decades the Kenyan people have contributed voluntarily to the tune of nearly Kenyan Sh 250 million for a wide range of self-development projects.
A strong cooperative movement has been evolved supporting small-scale farmers and low-income wage earners in providing them with access to markets and credit opportunities. Today Kenya has over 3 800 cooperatives countrywide, with a membership of over two million cooperators, men and women, and with the total turnover of over Kenyan Sh 5 million a year.
Women's participation has received special attention both at the formal and informal levels. Informally, this has been in the promotion of women in development through voluntary self-help groups which have been used as vehicles for channelling targeted assistance and other interventions designed to empower women to play a bigger role in development. Today there are over 20 000 such groups in Kenya.
At the formal level, the Kenyan Government has evolved deliberate policy measures, and continues to do so, to empower women to participate fully in the mainstream activities in development. These include expansion of opportunities in education and training for women and necessary reforms to legal and social structures that impede women's access to economic opportunity in the modern economic sector.
Mr Chairman, the purpose of my intervention is not to discuss Kenya but I have used Kenya to illustrate some points. One of these is the fact that there is obviously a diversity of social dynamics from one country to another. Measures to be taken in the implementation of WCARRD proposals therefore cannot ever be on a blanket approach but must be country-specific to be relevant and effective. For example, the creation of awareness in People's Participation in development is no longer relevant in the Kenyan situation. In other words, a logical starting point for the implementation of WCARRD would be a phase of comprehensive country studies to assess the situation and needs, and determine the specific interventions, among the many spelt out in the document, that would be most relevant and effective to the specific country's needs.
In examining the document, my delegation is particularly supportive of the measures for the diversification of the rural economy of non-farm employment and development of agro-industries.
We also wish to endorse the measures for intensifying research and the development of methodological tools for assessing and monitoring progress in changes and/or trends in rural development and rural poverty, as well as the impact of these interventions on the people targeted.
We support also the programmes for improving access to inputs and services to rural women and other disadvantaged groups, particularly the idea of banking services and credit. Kenya faces problems very similar to those cited by the distinguished Delegate of Bangladesh and would, therefore, welcome that particular proposal.
Finally, Mr Chairman, Kenya would be pleased to share her experiences with other developing countries, not as a model but as a partner, in this very important approach to development. Thank you, Mr Chairman.
Ms Jindra Linda L. DEMETERIO (Philippines): My delegation wishes to commend FAO for its continuing vigorous support to agrarian reform and development in various developing countries, including the Philippines. We support the Organization's follow-up programmes and Plan of Action in this area of activity.
As you are probably aware, Mr Chairman and fellow delegates, the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP) instituted by the Government of President Corazon Aquino in 1987, and reinforced by the Ramos Administration, has the main purpose of making available public lands for agricultural production and redistributing private agricultural lands. My Government regards agricultural development as the necessary base for industrialization and in this process a successful agrarian reform programme is an essential and vital element.
My delegation is pleased to inform the Council that shortly after CARP became the centrepiece programme of the Aquino administration, the Italian Government generously provided funding support for the implementation of a FAO-assisted project extending technical support to agrarian reform and rural development. The project is a success story, Mr Chairman, and has achieved impressive results in improving the lives and livelihood of many CARP beneficiaries.
The results have so pleased the partners in the undertaking, Italy, FAO and the Philippines, that the follow-up phase is now being proposed. The extension is aimed at ensuring the sustainability and expansion of the already important results regarding farmers' organizations and the upgrading of the beneficiary farmers' skills and knowledge and inter alia dealing with a fragile environment.
The proposed project extension is in line with general programmes adopted by UN organizations, FAO's Plan of Action on People's Participation, environmental conservation and regeneration and the FAO Plan of Action for the Integration of Women in Development.
It goes without saying, Mr Chairman, that my Government is most happy with the project and would like to put on record our thanks and appreciation to the Government of Italy and FAO, particularly FAO-TSARRD. We look forward to even closer collaboration with, and more success in, the second phase. Thank you.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you, representative of the Philippines, for your intervention and a thank you to Italy for its support on this important project.
Sra. Ana María NAVARRO ARRUE (Cuba): Señor Presidente, sobre las labores de seguimiento del Plan de Acción de la Conferencia Mundial de Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural, la delegación cubana elogia la labor desarrollada por la FAO en la ayuda a los países para dar cumplimiento a dicho Plan de Acción.
Agradecemos de igual forma el documento CL 102/8 presentado por la Secretaría para dar cumplimiento a los acuerdos de la 26 a Conferencia General referente al análisis del informe de los progresos realizados en la aplicación de dicho programa de acción donde están analizados los aspectos más importantes para un análisis adecuado de las estrategias de alivio a la pobreza.
En lo referente a la participación popular, la delegación cubana quería comentar de manera positiva las acciones emprendidas por la FAO y apoya los enfoques de la agricultura y el desarrollo rural sostenibles, al tiempo que recuerda la vinculación que tienen las mismas con el Programa 21 aprobado por la Conferencia de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Medio Ambiente y el Desarrollo.
Nos pronunciamos porque sea una realidad el acceso a los recursos naturales debiéndose conjugar las acciones propuestas en el plan de acción de la CMRADR con lo planteado en el Programa 21 aprobado por la CNUMAD (Río, 1992) en el cual se aboga igualmente por la adopción de medidas destinadas a garantizar el acceso equitativo de la población rural, sobre todo de las mujeres a las tierras y otros recursos productivos, como condición previa para su participación en el desarrollo y como medio para garantizar la seguridad alimentaria, debiéndose tener en cuenta, además, la reforma de los sistemas de propiedad, donde se considere necesario para favorecer el acceso de esos pobres a los recursos productivos.
Finalmente, la delegación cubana desea apoyar las acciones que se están desplegando por la FAO y por ésta en conjunto con los gobiernos y otras organizaciones, tanto del sistema de las Naciones Unidas como fuera del mismo, en lo cual juega un importante papel el grupo de acción del CAC sobre Desarrollo Rural, donde la FAO presta servicio de Secretaría.
Permítame hacer un paréntesis aprovechando este tema para comentar algunas novedades de la situación de Cuba relacionadas con el reto difícil de su historia y su empeño en mantener y desarrollar, con menos medios, las acciones futuras para el desarrollo.
A partir de septiembre de 1990, por razones de conocidas coyunturas internacionales, en Cuba se dispuso el comienzo del llamado período especial, proceso de reajuste ante estos acontecimientos, que exigieron la máxima racionalidad y austeridad en las políticas económicas y sociales, junto con el despliegue de numerosas iniciativas creadoras, muchas de ellas generadas por el pueblo. Muchas de las medidas que se toman condicionadas por el período especial, se insertan en las líneas estratégicas trazadas por el plan nacional de desarrollo. Así algunas de ellas han contribuido a acelerar las políticas instrumentadas en el país en defensa del Plan Alimentario Nacional y otras para enfrentar la reducción del petróleo importado. Se ha debido reducir el consumo energético con fórmulas que garantizan la equidad social y la participación popular, estableciéndose un límite máximo de consumo, con variaciones de acuerdo con el promedio de comportamiento histórico.
Se ha introducido una solución novedosa por su masividad en la transportación del pueblo y pequeñas empresas, nos referimos a la bicicleta, y otros ejemplos
que implican soluciones colectivas y ecológicamente valiosas son la intensificación del uso de la medicina verde, la creación de áreas de autoconsumo, incluso en zonas residenciales aprovechando jardines, terrazas, la utilización progresiva de la tracción animal en la agricultura, el desarrollo de la lombricultura y muchas más.
En la situación alternativa a las dificultades del período especial, existe en el país la posibilidad de utilizar uno de nuestros importantes logros: la calificación técnica y científica del pueblo. Los frutos de la inversión priorizada en la formación de recursos humanos son hoy significativos en el país. Esto se expresa en una acumulación cultural, y se traduce en resultados importantes de la investigación científica con aplicación inmediata a la producción.
Durante el período especial también se ha hecho necesario buscar soluciones alternativas en la producción agropecuaria, a partir de la notable reducción de las importaciones de fertilizantes y pesticidas químicos y de piensos para el ganado. Se han ido poniendo en práctica aceleradamente algunos resultados de las investigaciones científicas realizadas en los últimos años, de los cuales los que se destacan por su valor ecológico y su grado de generalización son el uso de biofertilizantes como el azotobácter, el ryzobium y la micorrhiza; el desarrollo de controles biológicos de plagas y enfermedades, sobre todo en los llamados Centros de Reproducción de Entomófagos y Entomopatógenos, de los cuales ha surgido en breve lapso una amplia red en el país; la búsqueda de soluciones para el alimento animal como la aplicación del sistema de pastoreo racional basado en la rotación de los pastos y su fertilización natural por el ganado vacuno, la elaboración de alimento animal a partir de la caña de azúcar o subproductos en la industria azucarera, y otras soluciones novedosas cuya aplicación en todo el país es introducida con singular rapidez, una vez comprobados su viabilidad y conveniencia.
En el caso de la industria azucarera, principal renglón industrial del país, se ha avanzado de manera notable en el tratamiento de las residuales y en su aprovechamiento no sólo en la alimentación animal, sino en otras aplicaciones tales como la obtención de nuevas fuentes de energía, el fertirriego y la fabricación de papel.
Finalmente, señor Presidente, comento que el ritmo de intensificación de estas soluciones sólo es posible por la acumulación del conocimiento. Sus convergencias responden a la sostenida estrategia de desarrollo mantenida por el Gobierno de Cuba en estos años, que ha sabido armonizar el cuidado del medio con el progreso económico y social del pueblo.
Puede este Consejo estar seguro de que la voluntad política de Cuba es mantener sus conquistas ya alcanzadas en diversos terrenos, sabemos que para ello y para responder a las soluciones diversas que nuestro pueblo se plantea cotidianamente para salir de la actual crisis, nos esperan sacrificios, austeridad, pero saldremos adelante por la decisión de compromiso manifestada en diversas ocasiones por la mayoría de los ciudadanos de nuestro país.1
__________1 Texto incluido en las actas a petición expresa
LE PRESIDENT: J'arrive au terme de la liste des orateurs membres du Conseil. Avant de passer la parole aux observateurs je voudrais savoir si un membre du Conseil demande la parole?
La liste des membres du Conseil est close.
Je passe donc la parole aux observateurs. La première inscrite est la représentante de la Fédération internationale des producteurs agricoles.
Mrs G. PELÀ (Observer for the International Federation of Agricultural Producers): FAO is in a unique position to prepare comprehensive reports such as the one on the follow-up to WCARRD, which should, however, include the latest updated information and data. We regret that the material that IFAP and other international NGOs were invited to provide for the section on People's Participation through Rural Organizations, has not been utilized in the short progress report.
In document CL 102/8, we note with appreciation the focus on follow-up activities. We do appreciate the emphasis put on people's participation and the links established between people's participation and other programmes, such as the International Programme Framework for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development, as stated in paragraph 45.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank FAO for the printed version of the Plan of Action on People's Participation which has been distributed at this Council Session. We have made good use of the one on Women in Development and will certainly fully utilize this publication.
We also note the reference to COPAC in paragraph 18. This Joint Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives was established in the early 70s and includes in its unique structure both UN agencies and international NGOs. FAO and IFAP are both funding members of COPAC. We would certainly be happy to see the activities of this Committee further strengthened, also in compliance with ECOSOC Resolution of July 1992 on The Role of Cooperatives in the Light of New Economic and Social Trends.
Positive developments in recent international events have been most encouraging. I would like to mention the good collaboration established between FAO and IFAP, and through it with farmers' representatives, during the whole process leading up to the Earth Summit in Rio, and we do hope to continue cooperation in this area. At the PrepCom of the International Conference on Nutrition in Geneva last August, NGOs were allowed to work alongside government delegations and their constructive contribution was much appreciated and largely reflected in the revised Declaration and Plan of Action.
On the other hand, we have a number of concerns with regard to the implementation of the Plan of Action on People's Participation. We are concerned about the adequacy of human and financial resources invested in key FAO services, such as those in the Human Resources Division, which has the overall responsibility for monitoring the implementation of the Plan and for periodic reporting.
The technical units directly concerned with the rural people's organizations and advancement of women could certainly require resources adequate to their demanding tasks.
"People's Participation" is often seen as a large number of disorganized people and organizations. An effort should be made to move away from this vague terminology and concentrate on farmers' organizations in all their forms, with their farmers' unions, cooperatives and chambers of agriculture. This would be a means to obtain organized agriculture. Organized agriculture will not only favour the farming community but would also be of help to the government and of benefit to society at large.
When farmers are organized, their views are better expressed, their needs known, and healthier agriculture is developed. Once organized, farmers will also be better able to benefit from services provided by national and international institutions.
In the absence of farmers' organizations, even technical competence becomes irrelevant. This fact appeared clearly in a regional Consultation between African farmers and researchers, which was organized by IFAP in Ibadan, Nigeria, last November. The adoption of sustainable farming practices cannot be imposed from above. Farmers listen to, and have more confidence in their own organizations and networks, more than in any other source of information.
Farmers' organizations should be consulted in field projects, especially those which require a group formation component. Whenever possible, this activity should be undertaken by the existing farmers' organizations - thus also strengthening the organization itself.
As the lead agency for agricultural and rural development, FAO should have a strong interest in organized agriculture and hence in farmers' organizations, because otherwise most of its work would be useless. The move toward greater democracy and the privatization process taking place in many countries offers a further opportunity to promote democratic farmers' organizations.
Through its network of 82 national representatives farmers' organizations around the world, half of which are in developing countries, IFAP is active in many of the areas covered by WCARRD and has accumulated a lot of methodological experience in promoting and strengthening farmers' organizations. IFAP is therefore in a position to assist in overcoming some of the constraints related to farmers' participation.
IFAP fully appreciates the good and longstanding relationship with FAO at policy level, and in addition would welcome FAO as a major partner in its development programmes which are aimed at assisting farmers' organizations to serve and represent their members more effectively at all levels with a special emphasis on small farmers and women producers.
GiulianoVECCHI (Observateur de l'Alliance coopérative internationale):
Monsieur le Président, je vous remercie de m'avoir donné la parole au nom de l'Alliance coopérative internationale sur un thème aussi important que celui qui est soumis à notre examen. Bien du temps a passé depuis la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural qui a été le point de repère de la politique mondiale de coopération au développement.
Nous jugeons fort intéressante la mise à jour des orientations de la CMRADR sur les mesures concernant la protection de l'environnement et du développement viable liées à la participation populaire.
Il faut admettre que cet élément avait été considéré comme fondamental dans la déclaration finale de la Conférence.
Toutefois, le chemin parcouru jusque-là est insuffisant et il faut dire que le document proposé sur le thème de la participation populaire diffère les actions dans ce domaine à une date indéterminée. Les propositions sur les paragraphes 46 et suivants nous semblent également insuffisantes, surtout en ce qui concerne les organisations rurales. Cela, malgré les grands changements qui se sont produits dans le monde et qui requièrent une étroite intégration entre démocratie et développement, et malgré la récente approbation par la FAO des plans d'action pour l'intégration des femmes et la participation populaire dans le développement rural.
En particulier, le Plan d'action de participation populaire attribuait à la Division de la FAO pour la réforme agraire et les ressources humaines la mise en oeuvre du Plan lui-même. Cependant toute référence à l'état d'activité ainsi que son renforcement a disparu du document.
Nous croyons que le moment est venu d'avoir des explications sur un problème préliminaire.
Par développement participatif, nous entendons la promotion et le renforcement des organisations démocratiques et volontaires - qui représentent les opérateurs du milieu rural -, caractérisé par une réelle participation des membres qui sont à même de gérer la transformation rurale, compte tenu de la protection de l'environnement et du développement.
Ces associations non gouvernementales sont les syndicats, les coopératives, les organisations d'agriculteurs, les associations informelles d'agriculteurs et d'agricultrices ainsi que leurs organisations locales, régionales, nationales et internationales. Elles ne peuvent pas être confondues avec des agences de promotion ou d'assistance au développement rural pour lesquelles la population n'est qu'un instrument et non pas un sujet directement impliqué dans le processus de transformation. Nous ne voulons pas méconnaître le rôle de ces organismes pour lesquels le bureau pour la campagne contre la faim et le développement de la FAO est particulièrement engagé, mais c'est toute autre chose que les formes de participation au développement.
Il faut être clair à cet égard.
Le Bureau pour la campagne contre la faim de la FAO s'est intégré au Bureau des relations externes. Nous voudrions comprendre quel est le sens de cette intégration par rapport au Bureau de la réforme agraire et des ressources humaines qui est en contact direct avec les coopératives, les syndicats, les organisations d'agriculteurs.
En juin dernier, le Conseil économique et social des Nations Unies a approuvé une résolution concernant le rôle des coopératives et de l'ACI en matière de développement viable. Quelle suite a donné cette résolution à la FAO? Les manifestations sont encore faibles bien que certaines initiatives de collaboration aient été entamées.
Nous estimons nécessaire d'accélérer les initiatives visant à établir des contacts périodiques entre la FAO et les grandes organisations internationales rurales, leurs bureaux régionaux et locaux afin d'échanger des expériences d'activité et de promouvoir un dialogue actif et croissant entre les organisations rurales libres et indépendantes et les gouvernements, tant au niveau national que régional.
L'ACI est très heureuse de concourir à ce dialogue pour favoriser l'intégration entre démocratie et développement, qui représente la condition essentielle pour un développement durable.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL: First of all, again I want to express appreciation to the members of the Council for their counsel, guidance and encouragement on the work being undertaken in the WCARRD follow-up.
Turning to some specific points that were raised, there was considerable discussion on training. At the outset, I would agree with what I believe was the general view, that training can be a very cost-effective way of facilitating the objectives of the work underlying this very broad programme. We could not agree more and it is a very high priority.
Specific reference was made to my comment of yesterday about Women in Development and collaborative activities with the World Bank and the UNDP. That collaborative effort is, in fact, a training activity. If you combine the forces of these three and utilize the full network, you should be able to multiply the impact and move forward with the training programme at a much faster pace than any one of us alone can do.
There was a comment about FAO staff training for Women in Development. I am pleased to report that, following the implementation of the Plan of Action, we concentrated first on the training of staff. About eighty percent of the professional staff at this point have gone through Women in Development training. The remainder will be picked up in an orderly process.
Our attention now can turn more to this broader activity in working with the World Bank and the UNDP in the training of trainers. In this way we are leveraging the experience in the work that we have done with our professional staff.
There have been several comments about implementation in general - which I will come back to - but specifically now about the implementation of the Plan of Action on People's Participation. The fact of the matter is that we share your disappointment at the pace of implementation. We have been able to make some progress. We are not sitting quietly. But we are hampered by a lack of resources, and in that particular unit and in the division to which several people have referred, the Human Resources, Institutions and Agrarian Reform Division, we have a number of posts which have had to be left vacant because of our overall financial situation. While we have tried to protect priority activities, there are, unfortunately, frequently cases where a vacancy arises in a priority area and you just cannot do anything about it except try to minimize the loss. I simply say that a considerable amount of work has been undertaken. I can assure you that the limited staff available to implement the Plan of Action are working on a full-time basis. I can give you some statistics. They have backstopped 30 field projects on people's participation; they have been involved in meetings in six different countries and in missions
to eight countries for promoting people's participation; 14 documents have been prepared on people's participation issues; nine country case studies on cooperative development have been organized; workshops on people's participation have been organized in five countries. You can see that there have been some matters under way - an important preliminary - but I share with you the concern about the pace of implementation and wish it were more rapid.
In this connection, late in the debate a concern was expressed that some information which had been handed over by IFAP was not utilized in the review document. I am told that that was in fact the situation and that the explanation of how it arose was in connection with the decision to put the Progress Report and the Plan of Action on People's Participation as a separate item for adoption of the Plan of Action by the Conference, which ended up cutting back on the information in the Progress Report. It is one of those things that is unfortunate. Nevertheless we appreciate having received the information, and it is registered with our staff.
I might just make a comment that, while I was referring to an international NGO, now more generally about FAO's work with NGOs, I think it is frequently forgotten that the agricultural production process is almost entirely in the hands of private agents and therefore this Organization certainly has longer experience than almost anyone else in working with non-governmental people. In the WCARRD programme it is absolutely essential to have the collaboration and support of the non-governmental community. They are the ones who are implementing national socio-economic development plans and programmes.
There were some specific questions from Canada, which in a way surprised me, since I believe Canada is on the Programme Committee. There was a specific question about the extra-budgetary resources associated with these various programmes and activities. I would refer, for example, to page 138 of the Director-General's Programme of Work and Budget for 1992-93 where you will see for the rural development programme the resources from the regular programme budget and an estimate of the extra-budgetary resources, and you will, of course, see these figures for any other programme in the document. One could note that for rural development - these are unadjusted for cost increase figures - but the 1992-93 regular programme budget for the rural development programme there was US$34.5 million while the extra-budgetary resources were US$118.5 million.
That leads me to make one more point in this respect: the rural development programme is certainly one of our most active field programmes, and there is obviously a large action by the division which is the focal point for this work; you will note that the regular programme resources are well below the extra-budgetary resources for this work.
There was also a statement about their desire to see the regional allocation. Here let me point out that, taking rural development as an example again, you will find in Annex I of the Programme of Work and Budget 1992-93 regional estimates by programme, and so you will see not only the regular programme resources but the extra-budgetary resources for Africa, for Asia and the Pacific, and so on. This type of information is available and I hope it will help in regard to those concerns.
There were comments and questions about agricultural credit. There was a caution that one could get into a situation where they would even lose their resources. It isthe policy of this Organization not to bein favour of
interest subsidies on agricultural credit but to be in favour of subsidies from the key part of the problem, which is transaction costs. If you are going to service small farmers, the poorer farmers, the transaction costs are much more important and a bigger factor than the interest rate itself, it turns out, and so that is where the attention needs to be given. If one is going to provide credit for the small producers, one has, I believe, to provide subsidies of one kind or another on the transaction costs.
Related to credit there was also reference to the Microbanker Programme, and we need to be reminded, as we were, of the Grameen Bank experience. We also had a reminder that, in all of this, farm prices and incomes, international trade prices and earnings, are also important. One might even go so far as to say that they are extremely important and perhaps the key to the whole process of rural development. If we treat our farmers badly, and therefore our rural areas badly, we cannot be surprised if we see slow progress in rural development.
There were a good number of comments about land reform. We have taken those into account. I am sure the Council understands that in recent years - or even in recent months - there has been a surge of interest and activity in this general area of agrarian reform, which has been mentioned by several delegates. We are being hard pressed to respond to the requests of member countries for assistance, including requests from some of the Eastern European countries where they are trying to get under way land titling, land redistribution programmes and move forward as best they can. This is a growth area within this overall general area which we are speaking about.
There were also comments about coordination, cooperation, priority-setting, how one would implement these matters, and so on. I think it is well to recall that the scope of the WCARRD programme is indeed very broad. Certainly the scope of the programme goes beyond the mandate of the Organization. That is part of the reason why to encourage cooperation - some would probably call it coordination - there is the ACC Task Force on Rural Development. This Organization has provided recently, and continues to provide today, the chairmanship for that body. It brings together all the members of the UN system which are involved in any way in rural development matters, or, basically, the follow-up to WCARRD. It is alive and well. I might report to you that Mr Dutia, the former Assistant Director-General for the Economic and Social Policy Department, agreed to be re-elected chairman of that body and thus serves as its Chairman. We are grateful for that because of his long experience and knowledge in this area. This is just part of the coordination, cooperation or collaboration for this massive kind of programme.
We talked yesterday about Special Action Programmes, and you will recall from reading that document that we are at the present time trying to get to grips with how best to package these activities and that at the present time the thought was maybe to make a Special Action Programme called Human Resources Development which would pick up people's participation, women in development, and some of the other activities. It is a live matter but it is part of the internal FAO coordinating task of this programme.
In addition to the ACC Task Force on Rural Development, and the internal Special Action Programmes, there are formal arrangements and informal arrangements with other organizations. I will not go through all of them, but I will share with you that Mr Maalouf and his people have been doing some very good work in collaboration with the World Bank on certain matters, in Africa in particular. We continue to have quite a bit of interaction. We have mentioned the women-in-development training of trainers.
Also, with IFAD, we are preparing about 50 percent of their projects, and many of those are in the area we are talking about here. We have formal and informal links with all of the regional development banks, with the exception of the Inter American Development Bank, and we continue to be working on that one. We of course have formal links with WHO and so on. These are all part of this process of bringing things together. You ask about the country level. Maybe one should take a page from the ACC Task Force on Rural Development, and maybe, if one is truly going to see it operate smoothly, one should recognize that the lead agency for these matters is FAO and let it be the Chairman of the body of interest in working, in response to member countries' requests, for help in the matters before us here. You know at the present time that this task is assigned to a financing agency, not to a technical body.
Priority setting: the point has been made that we seek your views and we rely upon the views of the Council and all of the other committees and bodies, in coming to grips with the question of priorities. They get you a stamp of approval and are put into the Programme of Work and Budget and are implemented. It is a continuously changing matter. These are perhaps more general areas of priority. On a day-to-day basis, in a programme like this, where there are nearly four times as many extra-budgetary resources as Regular Programme resources, the day-to-day priority setting takes place at the requests that come from the member countries. The most pressing problems that they are facing are what they ask for as assistance from FAO. That, in effect, is real day-to-day priority setting and we can try to be as responsive as we can. We are unable to provide all of the assistance that is requested, but we try.
It is this interaction - and I guess the final point to make on priority setting is the one that has already been made at different times - between the Regular Programme and the Field Programme, the Field Programme feeding the Regular Programme, the Regular Programme feeding the Field Programme, and it is that synergism which makes it a viable programme. I only wish we had additional resources to move forward more quickly and aggressively to help member countries accomplish the goals that are underlying this very large programme of work.
LE PRESIDENT: Au terme de cette matinée, je ne vais pas faire une synthèse d'autant que M. Hjort a présenté un état complet de la question. J'émettrai simplement un voeu, concernant cette collaboration souhaitée avec la Banque interaméricaine et qui est en cours de négociation depuis très longtemps. En effet, l'influence de certains membres du Conseil pourrait être fort utile pour faire démarrer une collaboration étroite entre la Banque interaméricaine de développement et la FAO. Je pense également que l'appui moral de certaines
délégations importantes au sein de ce Conseil permettrait de conclure dans un avenir proche un accord attendu depuis longtemps.
Il me reste à remercier tous les membres du Conseil et les observateurs de leurs interventions particulièrement intéressantes et qui collent de si près à la vie de l'Organisation.
Je voudrais vous soumettre maintenant mes intentions quant à la suite de nos activités.
Le Président du Comité de rédaction m'a demandé d'annoncer que ce Comité se réunira ce soir, immédiatement après la séance plénière. Il est évidemment difficile de prévoir l'heure de clôture de notre session. Vous vous souvenez sans doute que lundi matin, à la demande de plusieurs délégations, il avait été décidé que la séance de cet après-midi serait prolongée et ce, en raison de la réunion de Tokyo et de la nécessité, pour un certain nombre de spécialistes dans le domaine forestier, de devoir nous quitter demain ou dimanche pour rejoindre la réunion de l'ITTO.
Je proposerai, en début de séance, cet après-midi d'aborder le point 14 qui ne nécessite pas de décision, sinon le souhait de voir les obligations de tous remplies. Nous passerons immédiatement après au point 12 et au point 13. Le point 12 sera examiné en présence du Président du Programme et le point 13 en présence du Président du Comité financier.
En ce qui concerne le point 12 nous ferons une distinction nette entre les matières qui ont été examinées par le Comité du Programme et une matière plus spécifique: les résultats des travaux à propos du Plan d'action forestier tropical, de façon à sérier les problèmes de façon claire et systématique.
Gerald J. MONROE (United States of America): I really do think at this stage in our day's work that we would be best advised to postpone discussion of Item 14 until Monday, when we will be discussing the Organizations's financial matters. I think it is highly unrealistic to expect us to be able to get through our work this afternoon, given the importance so many delegations attach to forestry issues. We do have these people here now at some great expense, and I think it behoves the Council to give them every opportunity to do their work. I also think it behoves the Council to let those who wish to make interventions on the question of contributions, also to do so.
Therefore I think it is perfectly logical at this juncture to postpone Item 14.
R. ALLEN (United Kingdom): I was going to make a very similar suggestion to that of my colleague from the United States. It also strikes me that perhaps we could take discussion on Item 14 with the Report of the Finance Committee. Otherwise I would go along with my American Colleague to postpone it until Monday. I think it is important that we do give the forestry item enough of an airing.
CHAIRMAN: Thank you for supporting the proposal of the United States of America.
D.P.D. VAN RAPPARD (Netherlands) : It occurs to me also that the forestry issue has to be dealt with in a proper manner, which would not allow us enough time if we had to deal with it at the end of this afternoon or even this evening, and after which the drafting committee has to meet. I can live very well with one of the proposals made by the United States or the United Kingdom.
Sra. Mercedes FERMIN GOMEZ (Venezuela): Yo simplemente quería apoyar la posición de Estados Unidos porque me parece que en realidad no vamos a tener mucho tiempo para agotar el tema satisfactoriamente en esta tarde.
LE PRESIDENT: Je vais vous faire une proposition qui est d'examiner le point 12 de notre ordre du jour cet après-midi dans son entier mais de voir le point 14.1 avant le point 13 car il y a un lien étroit entre le point 14.1 "Etat des contributions" et les rapports au Comité financier. Il est clair que si l'on discute du rapport du Comité financier sans faire le point de la situation financière telle qu'elle se présente aujourd'hui, nous risquons d'avoir un débat quelque peu confus. Je vous proposerai donc, si les honorables représentants du Royaume-Uni, des Etats-Unis, du Venezuela et des Pays-Bas sont d'accord, d'examiner le point 12 en séparant le domaine des forêts, puis d'examiner peut-être en fin de session, si nous terminons rapidement le point 12, le point 13 puis le point 11 - mais de toute façon ce sera lundi matin. Toutefois j'insiste pour que nous examinions le point 14.1 avec le point 13, de façon à éviter les redondances.
Mustapha-Menouar SINACEUR (Maroc): Monsieur le Président il y a une logique dans tout ce qui vient d'être dit aussi bien par vous-même que par les délégués qui m'ont précédé.
Pour ma part, je suggérerais qu'on laisse le point 12 pour la fin de la séance cet après-midi parce que, comme vous l'aviez prévu vous-même, les discussions risquent d'être longues et une séance de nuit sera nécessaire. Or, il y a tout de même des faits nouveaux qui sont intervenus et qui vont nous faciliter la tâche. Je pense donc qu'il vaut mieux considérer la situation financière en début d'après-midi avec les rapports du Comité financier et passer ensuite à la question des rapports du Comité du Programme y compris la question du ΡAFT.
LE PRESIDENT: J'avoue que je suis très peu enthousiaste pour la suggestion qui a été faite pour la bonne raison que, dans le domaine du Comité financier, on touche à de nombreux aspects y compris des plans d'incitation, y compris la gestion de la trésorerie... c'est un domaine extrêmement vaste. Votre Président s'est donc permis de prendre l'engagement d'aborder les différents points du Comité du Programme et plus spécifiquement l'aspect forestier dès vendredi. Je ne voudrais pas que l'on arrive à des heures très avancées de la nuit, on avait parlé de 2 heures ou 3 heures du matin, je ne crois pas que ce
soit une bonne méthode de travail. Je propose donc que l'on voie l'ensemble des rapports du Comité du Programme, le Plan d'action forestier tropical, puis nous ferons le point de la situation à ce moment-là, si vous êtes d'accord.
Etes-vous d'accord avec cette proposition?
Je constate que cette proposition recueille l'accord de notre assemblée.
It was so decided.
Il en est ainsi décidé.
Asi se acuerda.
The meeting rose at 12.45 hours.
La séance est levée à 12 h 45.
Se levanta la sesión a las 12.45 horas.
