CHAIRMAN: I call the meeting to order and open the 17th meeting of Commission II. We continue the debate on the follow-up to the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development.
CAMELARIS (Cyprus): I shall not take up delegates time in explaining what we have been doing in Cyprus in the field of agrarian reform and rural development nor what are our major problems. I shall not comment either on the significance of agrarian reform and rural developments in the developing countries, particularly because we all agree that agrarian reform should be the basis and basic infrastructure towards a socialist, equitable and economically effective development process.
I shall limit myself to two practical points, aspects of agrarian reform development which involve the identification, and preparation of projects on the one side and the monetary evaluation of projects on the other side. I think in these two aspects Cyprus and I believe many other developing countries face difficulties and problems. The initiation of the development process through the proper identification and preparation of projects, and the establishment of priorities is a very important aspect in development. It is here where most of the developing countries do not have adequate expertise. It is here where FAO can be of very substantial help, not only directly participating in the identification and preparation of projects per se, but also in assisting developing countries to build up their own capacities so that they can undertake the job in the future and even be able to extend the same assistance, similar assistance, to other countries.
The other aspect which I consider of most importance is the evaluation, the monitoring and evaluation of the projects in agrarian reform and rural development. We specifically face this problem in Cyprus with respect to evaluation of our land conservation problem, and I have to say with pleasure we have already contacted the appropriate FAO authority, and I am pleased to say that the response was favourable and was positive in extending to us assistance in carrying out this job. So the FAO in monitoring and evaluation of projects in agrarian reform and rural development can be of profound assistance, again not only directly in carrying out the job, but also in assisting the countries to build up their own capacities, and be able in the future to undertake the job themselves or extend similar assistance to other countries. Thank you, Chairman.
H. OGUT (Turkey): My delegation has carefully examined the document on the work carried out by FAO with regard to the implementation of the 1979 Conference Resolution on the follow-up of the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. I would like to make two comments. One on the resource situation, the other related to substantive issues. There is no doubt that the financial resources allocated in the FAO regular programme budget for rural development activities is not commensurate with the needs of the activities assigned to FAO by the WCARRD and by the aforementioned resolution as follow-up of the WCARRD programme of action. Also the fund allocated in the budget does not comply with the priorities given by the respective governments to their rural development programmes, following to the WCARRD and extrabudgetary sources for the follow-up activities to be carried out by national governments and FAO are very much needed. We now learn that the commitment and allocation to the extrabudgetary source foreseen by the last conference has been obtained from the donor countries and organizations at a level which has not met the ever-increasing requests for the programmes related to agrarian reform and rural development as follow-up of WCARRD. While admitting that the implementation of the rural development programmes identified by WCARRD for national action should be the responsibility of the governments, FAO’s advocating role is of great help in the cases in which the countries need FAO’s assistance in formulating and implementing their programmes. Also, FAO’s role is of great importance to the implementation of the activities outlined by WCARRD for international action. Also, Mr. Chairman, it is not desirable to shelve a number of projects already prepared owing to the absence of FAO’s assistance in finding the necessary funds for these projects. We, therefore, would like to invite the donor countries and organizations to increase their allocations to extrabudgetary fund foreseen in the follow-up of WCARRD.
Regarding the nature of the assistance provided by FAO as to the follow-up of WCARRD, my delegation is pleased to note the importance attached to the increasing involvement and participation of the rural population in both formulation and implementation of the programmes and the projects. This certainly improves the relevance, timeliness and composition of the input of the projects to current requirements resultive capacity and development potential of the rural sector. I would also like to mention that the work which has been done by FAO on the integration of women in development deserves special attention, and in this context we would like to congratulate FAO taking the leading role and positive activities among all the UN agencies, and reiterate the stand of my government that more resources should be devoted on the integration of rural women into rural development action programmes who, in most developing countries, constitute the majority of rural population and the rural labour force.
In conclusion I would like to express my delegation’s views on the projects. Constantly there is need for launching quick yielding programmes. It is extremely important projects should be of practical nature, have manpower development as one of their primary objectives, taking into consideration the regional and country-wide employment situation and opportunities, and most of all their design should reflect very explicitly how these projects give positive effect to their intended beneficiaries.
Mme M. KASSE (Sénégal): Je ne reviendrai pas sur les mesures prises dans mon pays pour permettre l’accès des petits agriculteurs à la terre. En effet, une voix plus autorisée que la mienne, celle du Président Senghor, en avait parlé lors de la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural en 1979.
Je voudrais dire brièvement quelques mots sur la coordination au niveau national des activités de suivi de la CMRADR, en signalant que celie-ci sera faite par le CNASD (Comité national sénégalais pour l’alimentation et le développement). Cet organisme qui dépend du Ministere du développement rural comprend les représentants de tous les Ministères et ONG intéressés par le développement; c’est également le Comité national de la campagne mondiale contre la faim/action pour le développement de la FAO.
Nous estimons, en effet, que la participation populaire au développement ne peut se faire sans le soutien des ONG qui participent déjà à la CMRADR. Nous avons déjà eu, au Sahel, à apprécier a sa juste valeur et en son temps l’intervention rapide, désinteressée des ONG et encourageons la FAO à continuer à améliorer ses relations avec ces organisations.
S’agissant de la participation des femmes au développement, sans entrer dans les détails, je signale que mon gouvernement a élaboré à cet égard un programme ambitieux qu’il a confié au Secrétariat d’Etat à la promotion humaine; ce Département comprend en son sein une direction de la condition féminine.
En conclusion, qu’il me soit permis, Monsieur le Président, de joindre ma voix à celle des orateurs qui m’ont précédée pour lancer un appel aux donateurs, afin qu’ils aident la FAO a atteindre l’objectif de 20 millions de dollars nécessaires à la réalisation des projets de suivi de la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et de développement rural.
G. IJIGU (Ethiopia): The delegation of Socialist Ethiopia would like to express its resounding congratulations to the Secretariat for the preparation of Document C 81/23, follow-up of WCARRD, which is an excellent piece of work. With equal admiration we congratulate Professor Nurul Islam for his matchless presentation of the introduction of the said document. Mr. Chairman, in our opinion, the contents as well as the goals and objectives embodied in the document are satisfactory to us in that they support our national objectives which were actually laid down several years ago and implementation of plans derived from them are in progress, albeit with too many constraints impinging upon them, and we shall cite the cardinal ones in a moment.
As the whole world knows, Socialist Ethiopia has successfully implemented over 7 years ago now redistribution within her confines. That was followed by the creation of institutions called Peasant Associations which today number over 25 000. Those associations forming the building blocks, culminated in the formation of the wholly Socio-Peasant Association, with the trunk of the pyramid made up of 14 provincial peasant associations. It is those associations that primarily distribute land and produce the bulk of food which is consumed domestically, and so on. From this bird’s eye view of the rural panorama of Socialist Ethiopia, I believe you can see why we trust that the recommendations spelled out in the document under review, beginning from paragraph 4 all the way to paragraph 35 are amenable to our task of rural development after our agrarian reform which our revolutionary government is irrevocably commited to.
Mr. Chairman, we would have liked to have gone into further detail but since actual reports are expected as we approach the end of the biennium we shall confine our remarks to action in specific areas. In relation to mass participation, the 25 000 peasant associations I cited earlier embrace over 7 million family heads of farmers. This number in turn accounts for the livelihood of over 27 million people out of a population of about 31 and a half million. Access to land and other natural resources is there by right. In fact every item contained in paragraph 36.2 on page 8 of the Document C 81/3 has already been provided for as anyone can check our claim from the reports of various FAO missions which have visited Ethiopia and have made on the spot evaluation of what is happening in our rural areas. On the question of integration of women in the productive process, I am especially happy to state here that the rights of men and women have been, and are now, equal before the law throughout the recorded history of Ethiopia, which stretches over many thousands of years. So one may see we have very little or no problems integrating them.
Mr. Chairman, I had referred at the beginning of this statement that right at this time our perennial problems emanate from constraints which are massive. As an example, let me cite the case of the development of non-farm rural activities, which is also recommended in the document before us. Needless to say we lack the investments that are necessary to realize a big scale non-farm engagement on a self-generating basis of economic activity. We are in dire need of an expanding base of trained manpower that must be involved at all levels of our heightened economic activity, so that a rapid increase in food and agricultural production may be obtained as early as possible, during the United Nation’s Third Development Decade which we examined only a few days ago.
I do not intend to take any more time explaining our experience and the present level of implementation of our agrarian reform and rural development. Suffice it that we assure the Conference that Socialist Ethiopia will proceed with rural development no matter what the constraints. I would like to wind up at this point by restating here what my Minister of Agriculture has already put before the Conference in the Plenary, and it is highly relevant in relation to the document we are now examining. “We strongly urge the Conference to adopt a resolution which would enable WCARRD follow-up work to include adequate measures for the realization of a trained manpower base and for the creation of at least some critical infrastructures, especially in low-income, food-deficit countries so that tangible results may be obtained in such countries quicker.”
Finally, we would like to conclude by urging this august Commission, and through it the Conference, that if the collective urge that has given birth to the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development is a matter which is supported by a collective will to conquer hunger, malnutrition and poverty in general, then my delegation assures you that Socialist Ethiopia will put to the best possible use of all assistance that the collective good will of the world community may make available to us in our ceaseless efforts to transform our rural areas and rid our people from all forms of want. The trust which donor countries, bilaterally or multilaterally, have placed in our people is bearing sweet fruits because cooperativization which our agrarian reform has made possible is helping millions of our people earn a better livelihood. So, Mr. Chairman, assuming that natural hazards like droughts do not impede our progress, we expect to be able to report much greater achievements.
D.R. SHARMA (Nepal): My delegation would like to express its appreciation to Professor Islam for comprehensive introduction of the subject. We have gone through the document C 81/23 prepared by the Secretariat to report on the follow-up of Action Plans recommended by the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. We find the document comprehensive and well prepared. There have been organizational rearrangements and orientation of FAO activities towards WCARRD Plan of Action. Actions have been taken or are being taken at the country level. Nepal invited two WCARRD missions; one was a policy mission and the other was a project formulation mission. The mission on project formulation has prepared six project proposals for implementation and these are submitted to FAO for funding.
Mr. Chairman, as a support to WCARRD Plan of Action Nepal has established a separate Ministry to look after and coordinate rural development activities. For policy decisions and coordination, a high level ministerial committee under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister was established about three months ago. In our integrated rural development projects and local development programmes, participation of local people in all stages of project implementation is given high priority, both from the point of policy and institutional arrangements.
My delegation has reviewed carefully the summary of major issues presented by the Secretariat in the document. We agree that there is a need to reiterate and remind ourselves of the commitment we made during WCARRD meeting. These commitments involve not only institutional improvements and structural reforms but also a greater level of resources mobilization.
Mobilization of about 9.3 million dollars of resources as against the stipulated amount of 20 million dollars called for by Resolution 7/79 cannot be said to be very encouraging.
If additional resources are not made available, Mr. Chairman, the initial enthusiasm and awareness shown to carry out WCARRD Plan of Action will be difficult to sustain at international as well as at country level. Then the WCARRD Plan also will remain as one of the international rhetorics towards rural poor.
In regard to regional coordination and consultation the role played by the FAO Regional Office, Bangkok, deserves commendation. They organized two government consultations and one NGO consultation. Nepal participated in these consultations and we find them useful and productive and we feel those should be continued.
Reference is made in the document to the activities of CIRDAP. Nepal is a member of CIRDAP and we actively participated. We strongly feel that CIRDAP can make a significant contribution in the follow-up of WCARRD in the Region by stimulating ECDC and TCDC spirit in rural development. We should like to see that CIRDAP become more and more activated and exhibit more dynamism and provide articulate and imaginative leadership in rural development in Asia and the Pacific. We also would like to see more member countries join the CIRDAP.
O.B. SELIKANE (Lesotho): To help farmers escape from the misery of traditional farming we need to delineate and interpret the origins and dynamics of poverty and to identify the means by which it can be dealt with. Such analysis should be done against a background of historical events, including the economic destruction of traditional societies through market forces. Rural poverty should also be analyzed in the framework of marginality rather than traditional culture.
In the international economic system, agricultural commodities and rural materials are exported from developing countries to the developed countries. Industrial products are exported by developed countries to the developing world. In this process disparities in the welfare of rural people between the developed and developing countries continue to intensify. Developing countries have now become net importers rather than net exporters of food since differences in output per hectare and in output per worker between the Western and developing countries widen yearly whilst the population growth rate of the latter exceeds its production growth.
A practical question to ask is why, despite expensive technical assistance programmes by the international aid agencies, developing countries still fail to produce enough food for themselves and generate sufficient income. In my view, the crux of the matter resides in the fact that some developing countries are typified by socio-political structures described in terms of class alliances between traditional landed elites and foreign capital.
The rural development programmes recommended to us by some exogenous NGO advisors and decision makers compel farmers to lose control of the means of production because of their inability to withstand competitive pressure originating from the commercial sector, the money and traditional landed elites who like to maintain the internal status quo. The dominating elites monopolize institutional services through institutional control. Given an environment of this type, farmers apply strict individual rationality which leads them to mining the land and increasing family size in order to face poverty, and poverty thus leads to even more poverty. Thus the vicious circle continues unabated.
We contend that people must be given political power, freedom to air their views without fear of repression and the power to restructure their own society so that part of power, income and assets can be offered to the marginals. In fact, it is our view that unless there is an equitable distribution of food, income and power among inhabitants of developing countries no agricultural, let alone economic, modernization will be witnessed in such countries. Rural people must wield power to design overall programmes and policy strategies rather than a set of isolated projects.
That land reform and rural developments are essential to the generation of productive growth is an acceptable premise. However, we contend that an agrarian or land tenure system in which the basic unit of production is the family farm, owned and operated by the farmer-cultivator, represents the only sound foundation for social equality and political stability.
We fully agree with WCARRD in regard to placing major programme priority on land tenure, marketing, extension and credit institutions that stress popular participation at all levels, including participation in programme monitoring and evaluation. Empirical evidence is available which reveals that agrarian structure consisting of small owner-cultivator family farms can be viable, reasonably efficient and capable of sustaining rapid upward shifts in production functions.
The assumption that there are two optimum tenure systems is absolutely unacceptable to us. Each and every country has its own concept of suitable land tenure changes in institutions. I honestly do not believe that developing countries need to be told what systems may be appropriate for them. Perhaps they may wish to call upon some informed guidance from some suitably qualified tenure expert who will be subject to correction if he follows a wrong path. Hence the prospective expert will have to understand, be willing to accept and be guided by the normative judgments of governments seeking his help.
Some of us have been advised by NGO’s to introduce leasehold arrangements into our tenure systems. A leasehold arrangement may give rise to tenure systems which discourage the evolution of more labor intensive systems of crop and livestock production. Such an arrangement will exacerbate the labour absorption problem.
Certainly, as the developing countries undertake the transformation leading to modernization, the share of economic resources devoted to marketing agricultural commodities increases because of the increase in the volume in food moving through marketing channels and the flow of imports to production units. Whether it is technically possible, economically feasible, or socially acceptable to replace existing marketing systems with marketing boards, farmer marketing cooperatives ought to leave the performance of marketing functions in the hands of private people as a matter to be decided by individual governments in developing countries.
Evidential material exists however which shows that middlemen do not necessarily earn higher marketing margins in all developing countries. A government may either opt to let primary, secondary and federal cooperatives market all domestically produced agricultural commodities or allow private traders to buy and sell such products, subject to close governmental supervision.
In situations where local cooperatives are assigned the marketing responsibilities, it is imperative that the cooperative, with government assistance, train their own local marketing personnel. Here I do not refer only to cadres like salesmen, product promoters, financial managers, commercial managers and so on but to the operators of processing machines and equipment as well as mechanics who will ensure that machines are always in prime running condition.
The sequencing of marketing with other development activity is often ignored in rural development programmes. Market information dissemination is another area which does not receive adequate attention locally. This information can best be collected by indigenous people who receive training in both local marketing and international agricultural marketing. They will help open up new markets in foreign countries, negotiate sales, arrange shipments and penetrate overseas markets through demand promotion.
If farmers are to employ the new biological and chemical inputs, they must have confidence that they will be available in sufficient quantities at the right time, in the right form and at the time when they are needed. Whenever possible, extreme input price distortions and differentials must be avoided to permit reliable planning decisions.
To sum up, we thank Professor Islam for his introduction to the follow-up on WCARRD. We appreciate the work of the secretariat in producing the document we have before us and FAO cooperation with NGO on agrarian reform and rural development. We are grateful to FAO for establishing regional development centres in Asia and Africa. We endorse Resolution 7/79 which calls for direct financial support for the implementation of the Programme of Action through the contribution of extra-budgetary resources of a minimum of $20 million in 1980-85.
Our support for the important role which women can play in rural development is demonstrated by the establishment of the role of women which, among other things, examines the nutritional problems of the rural poor in Lesotho. My government will report on progress in rural development arising from the implementation of our agrarian reform and rural development programmes to the 22nd conference.
In universities there exists a tremendous body of knowledge about agriculture and what can be done to remove constraints in development. I would suggest to governments of developing countries that they request their planning departments to try to lay their hands on published theses written by students from developing countries, especially those that deal with topics of agricultural importance.
KYO-BUN KIM (Korea, Republic of): The delegation of the Republic of Korea appreciates the FAO’s efforts successfully to implement the follow-up of WCARRD and also thanks Dr. Islam very much for his comprehensive and excellent introduction of this subject.
I should like to take this opportunity briefly to introduce my country’s past experience, present problems and future policy framework for integrated rural development. My country is now facing the problem of reorganising the agrarian structure, readjusting its resources allocation for optimum use of scarce resources and redirecting its agrarian policy in order to adapt itself more effectively to the rapidly changing socio-economic environment of an open economy. My government is now in the process of formulating and implementing our own new national development strategy for growth with equity and thus the new Programme for Integrated Rural Income and Welfare Development will take concrete shape soon.
The main purpose of the programme is to protect, stabilize and enhance the farmer’s income as well as to make his life healthy and rich on the basis of his full participation in the process of development and in its benefits. Regional especialisation in crop production, promotion of small-scale livestock breeding, development of non-farm income sources and better living activities will become major components of the programme.
We expect to be able to implement the programme successfully and fruitfully largely because of the interaction of our past achievements, accumulated technical know-how and experience gained in the agricultural and rural sectors in Korea. The first of these socio-economic and technical factors is the early implementation of land reform in the 1950’s. The accelerated development of the agricultural cooperative movement is a second factor and the third is our nationwide programme, “Saemaul Undong”, which is the Korean version of integrated rural development.
Land reform in Korea has played a key role in laying a sound foundation for continued growth and development with equity in the past two decades and in the future. On the basis of the homogeneity of farmland holdings and farming patterns established by the land reform, agricultural cooperatives in Korea have developed rapidly and successfully as the multi-purpose type. From the successful development of this type of cooperative come most of our rural development efforts: an adequate supply of modern farm inputs and production loans, marketing of agricultural products and the integration of women in development. All these have been realized effectively and fruitfully.
We know from past experience, however, that rural development cannot be achieved simply by implementing land reform or simply by organizing agricultural cooperatives in rural areas or simply by directing the maximum flow of resources into rural communities without the positive and active participation of the rural people.
One of the most important things is learning how to ignite people’s zeal, how to motivate rural people and how to encourage them to cooperate and to participate actively in the development process. Our “Saemaul Undong” is the Korean method of meeting these requirements. The ultimate goal of this movement is a comprehensive and integrated development which includes a substantial improvement in the socio-economic and physical environment and living conditions in rural areas, an increase in farm income and an increase in the morale and desire for self-help on the part of the farmers at grass-roots level. We believe that the rich experiences of our country, which I have outlined, may be relevant to other developing countries. We are also ready to cooperate with all those who want our experiences under the FAO’s initiative.
M. BUENO GOMEZ (España): La delegación española se une a las manifestaciones de felicitación hacia la Secretaría, expresadas por las delegaciones que nos han precedido. Siguiendo las recomendaciones de la Conferencia Mundial sobre Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural, nuestro Gobierno viene intensificando desde entonces, las acciones de cooperación en estas materias, tanto de forma bilateral con países de nuestro contexto cultural como a través de organizaciones internacionales.
A pesar de la delicada situación económica por la que atravesamos, consecuencia entre otras razones de la enorme factura que hemos de pagar cada año por la importación de crudos de petróleo, a pesar de ello repito, estamos actualmente intercambiando experiencias en materia de reforma agraria y desarrollo rural, en programas concretos de seis países hermanos de América Latina.
Las experiencias en sus aspectos, tanto positivos como negativos, en materias tales como transformación de regadío, tratamiento del minifundio a través de la concentración parcelaria y de la agricultura de grupo, asentamientos humanos, programas de desarrollo rural integrado, formación de cuadros, etc..., se están adaptando ya a las condiciones específicas de aquellos países.
Finalmente, nuestra delegación considera acertada la sugerencia expresada en el párrafo 20 del documento C 81/23, en el sentido de que en los programas de las conferencias regionales a celebrar en 1982, se incluya un tema sobre las actividades complementarias de la Conferencia Mundial de Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural, haciendo si fuera posible referenda expresa al aspecto de los indicadores que permitan comparar el impacto de las diferentes medidas adoptadas en los programas de reforma y desarrollo agrario, en los diferentes países.
WANG SHOU RU (China) (original language - Chinese): I should like to thank Dr. Islam for his excellent introduction. Two years have elapsed since the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. In that time the spirit of the declaration of the principles and Programme of Action adopted by the conference has gained a better understanding and greater support by the international community. Energetic action has been taken to follow up the conference. Many developing countries, starting from their actual circumstances at home, have done quite a lot of work in carrying out agrarian reform and rural development. In this respect, it should be pointed out that FAO has done a great deal of work to help some of the developing countries to lay down a strategy and programme of rural development, helping them to expand and strengthen their education, training and popularization work. All of these things have been beneficial to the rural development of the developing countries.
Whilst experience shows that agrarian reform and rural development must be carried out in conformity with the spirit of the declaration of principles and Programme of Action of the conference and should be based on self-reliance at national level, the support and help of the international community should not be neglected. FAO possesses the technology necessary for accomplishing this international task. It has always made efforts towards raising funds and introducing foreign investment toward rural development. We hope that FAO will continue to play this role when establishing its future policy of action. We hope it will provide technical and financial aid to help the developing countries to promote agrarian reform and rural development so that small farmers in their hundreds of millions will be able gradually to eradicate poverty and hunger.
We also hope that FAO will continue to organize between various countries the exchange of experience on structural reform and comprehensive development of rural areas. For instance, along with the socialization of agricultural production and the commercialization of agricultural products, the relationship between agriculture and rural industry and commerce has become ever more close.
The trend of comprehensive development in agriculture, industry and commerce has taken shape in certain parts of the rural areas. This will no doubt affect the agrarian reform and rural development of different countries.
We hope that the work of organizations and the exchange of information experienced in this domain will be included into the projects for future action.
J.P. WARNIMONT (Belgique): La délégation beige s’associe aux féicitations déjà exprimées par les autres délégations et souhaite ajouter seulement quelques idées à la discussion sur la suite donnée à la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural.
Notre intervention sera brève et se limitera aux priorités que nous voudrions voir accentuer dans le cadre des actions à mener, afin de mettre sur pied une meilleure stratégie de développement rural.
On constate depuis longtemps un exode rural vers les grandes vllles. Les causes en sont connues, et cet exode s’accentue de plus en plus, et les problèmes autant. Il nous paraît que le seul remède se trouve dans une amélioration des conditions de vie dans les zones rurales. Pour y arriver, il faut que la vie en zone rurale devienne attirante, c’est-à-dire que le paysan puisse y retrouver les mêmes facilités et les perspectives d’avenir qui lui rendraient la vie urbaine moins attirante. Dans cette optique, nous voudrions insister sur une stratégie de développement rural axée sur une action intégrée et multisectorielle qui viserait en quelque sorte l’urbanisation rurale dans le sens de doter les zones rurales des infrastructures et des structures les plus nécessaires. Nous ne voulons pas soulever de nouveau le problème de la politique des prix agricoles ici, quoique ce problème reste quand même une condition préalable et essentielle à tout développement rural.
D’autre part, afin de permettre au paysan de pouvoir compter avec les ressources élémentaires de production, nous sommes d’avis que la réforme agraire peut jouer un rôle prépondérant. Mais pour pouvoir exécuter cette réforme avec efficacité et justice, une série d’études et d’informations sont primordiales avant toute application; ces informations se réfèrent à la disponibilité des terres cultivables, au recensement des personnes qui les travaillent et de ceux qui en sont propriétaires. Nous sommes convaincus que dans ce cadre la FAO a un rôle très important à jouer, notamment comme appui logistique aux gouvernements intéressés qui restent d’ailleurs les seuls maîtres de l’exécution.
Le rôle de la FAO se trouverait alors dans l’appui aux services de cadastre rural et de la cartographie des ressources, et nous voulons insister sur le renforcement des directions de la FAO qui s’occupent précisément de ces activités, sans oublier que l’axe principal de tout développement reste l’homme et que sa participation directe est une évidence en dehors de toute discussion.
ANBOOL (Yemen, People’s Dem. Rep. of) (Original Language Arabic): The delegation of Yemen wishes to compliment Dr. Nurul Islam on Document 81/23 which deals with the follow-up to the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development held in 1979. In this context Mr. Chairman, I can assure you that my country’s delegation gives its wholehearted support to the terms of this document. Agrarian reform indeed has been playing a key role in our country since 1970. We have cooperatives and we, in this way, are providing the necessary inputs. This is being done in order to improve the situation in rural areas. Our 5-year Plan, 1980/85 includes rural development projects, many rural development projects indeed which are funded internationally. This illustrates the importance we give to this aspect of development, and this is why we ask the donor countries to play a role in enabling us to reach a total of $20 million. This would enable our Organization to abide by the resolution of that conference and ensure the welfare of farmers in developing countries.
S.V. HAGEN (Norway): The joint statement from the Nordic countries this morning centred around the issue of participation of all groups of people which is essential for rural development to take place. My delegation would like to make a few further comments to this general point relating to the continued need to pay specific attention to women in all groups. This has, as you know Mr. Chairman, been of particular concern to all the Nordic countries for several years. The reason is that for still some time to come we can expect that development efforts will often have differential impacts on women and men. This is of importance Mr. Chairman, not only to women themselves but also in relation to their responsibility to raising and nurturing children and catering for other family members.
Furthermore they represent a great reservoir for the skills and experiences geared to maximum utilization of available resources which must be preserved and taken into full account.
We would like to congratulate FAO for the able and rapid way in which the Organization has managed to incorporate considerations of women in many parts of the Organization. We indeed find it encouraging that an issue, which only a few years ago was mainly ignored, or at best given token interest by the Organization as a whole as well as by most member states, now begins to get a firmer footing in the Organization. Many member states will already be aware of the enormity and able work carried out in FAO and the influence that this is beginning to have in others.
We are greatly looking forward to the forthcoming paper on women in the WCARRD follow-up that FAO is preparing for the next meeting in the Committee on Agriculture. In the preparation of this document we hope that FAO will lay emphasis not only on the need to prepare specific projects for women but that mechanics will be developed whereby all development projects will eventually give considerations to the specific needs and interests of women as producers and otherwise already at the initial steps of project formulation.
We would also like to emphasise that women should be considered not only in relation to traditional agriculture, which of course continues to be important, but also in connection with cash crop production. This however Mr. Chairman must be done in ways whereby women will be more centrally involved in the planning of such production, including setting the priorities for types of production and ensuring that they will directly benefit from the income of it. To this end the approaches to agricultural extension may have to be considerably reoriented in many cases.
Finally Mr. Chairman, and in line with the Nordic countries’ earlier emphasis of people’s participation, we think that a greater understanding and emphasis on women’s real participation at all levels will bring new insights in the conditions for realising peoples’ participation in general.
K.GADIS (Grèce): Je me contenterai de n’aborder que trois points dans mon intervention. Le premier se refère aux buts du suivi de la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural. Si on se trouve devant un choix et si parfois on doit choisir entre les effets à court terme de la réforme agraire et ceux à long terme, nous croyons que les buts de la réforme agraire et du développement rural s’adaptent mieux à une perspective de long terme.
Il y a des programmes d’aide alimentaire, il y a d’autres mécanismes au sein de la FAO et des organisations connexes pour remédier à court terme aux pertes, dégats ou désavantages naturels.
Les oeuvres d’infrastructure et la solidification de la situation agraire mondiale ainsi que l’accélération stable du rythme de développement rural c’est à dire une vision à long terme, doivent constituer les préoccupations primordiales du suivi de la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural, auxquelles ma délégation attache une signification toute particulière.
Le deuxième volet de mon intervention porte sur les relations entre les agents nationaux et internationaux. Tout d’abord, je voudrais rendre hommage à l’invitation du Programme d’action de la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural à tous les gouvernements de formuler leur propre stratégie de développement rural. Et comme c’est le cas dans la coopération inter-institutions, une coopération étroite entre les agents nationaux, internationaux, sera fructueuse, constructive et beaucoup plus efficace.
Le troisième point que je voudrais mentionner concerne l’importance accrue et au jour le jour indispensable du renforcement des structures juridiques pour l’accomplissement des buts de la Conférence mondiale sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural.
Enfin, parmi les mesures du Programme d’action prises dans des domaines précis, je ne manquerai pas de mettre l’accent sur l’éducation, la formation et la vulgarisation dont l’importance va sans dire.
A.M. IBRAHIM (Sudan) (Original language Arabic): I want to thank you and also the Secretariat for having so well prepared this document C 81/23. This document, Sir, describes the follow-up of the WCARRD conference. The Sudan delegation scrutinised this document in depth and we note with great satisfaction the efforts deployed by the Organization in this area where we really are at the forefront. This involves all measures taken on national, international and regional planes. We hope that this will make it possible for all the developing and developed countries to assume their roles when they are due to set up in this vital area.
The Sudan delegation does not need to assure you that rural development is the result of the social and economic development of a country where the target is the raising of the general standard of living in an equitable manner to all. This then also percolates to all parts that are under scrutiny in this gathering and in international fora. We need a positive volition, we need the efforts of all in order to accept and assume this role and to reach these lofty targets. Here the Sudan delegation wishes to spur you on further to adopt all measures in the rural areas involving everyone concerned ‘ and we also would wish that developed countries should raise their contributions as soon as possible because this is the very basis for the implementation of the measures and targets described in this document. We feel that the follow-up of the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development is a basis for all further regional conferences, particularly for all further seminars that might be organised and all pilot surveys that should be pursued with a view to further general action.
We are satisfied with the setting up of regional centres and we would want other regional centres to follow this example, that they may be crowned with the success they would wish. All countries who have not joined in should follow suit as soon as possible. Agricultural development is in actual fact the very basis of all that must be done in the rural sector, of course. In this area we need financial and technical support and this can be done by coordinating within the confines of international organisations, so as to implement the resolutions which national, regional and international bodies have adopted.
We would also want backward regions to be involved in this and the general basis of services provided should be further broadened.
The Sudan delegation supports all suggestions and proposals contained in the document, particularly the ones referring to funding. We also support the Indian proposal of raising direct funding so as to implement the programme of action.
H. POPP (Suisse) (Langue originale allemande): Ma délégation appuie tous les efforts allant dans le sens de la réforme agraire. Elle félicite en particulier les pays qui, dans le domaine de la réforme agraire et autres formes institutionnelles, ont apporté et apportent leur propre contribution pour améliorer les conditions de vie dans les zones rurales, pour augmenter la justice et pour assurer le progrès social.
Nous souhaitons que la FAO, ainsi que d’autres organisations internationales, appuie de tels efforts chaque fois qu’elle le peut et là où elle le peut; qu’elle considère que les réformes institutionnelles sont une condition préalable à l’aide qu’elle apportera et qu’elle exige que de telles réformes aient lieu avant de fournir une aide.
Nous savons tous que la lutte contre la faim est un problème qui présente de nombreux aspects. Nous appuyons les délégations qui ont exprimé l’avis qu’à plus long terme seule une stratégie multidimensionnelle conduira au résultat recherché et que c’est là une condition préalable, insdispensable au succès.
Dans cette stratégie multidimensionnelle certains éléments méritent selon nous une attention particulière.
Il y a tout d’abord les mesures destinées à augmenter la production alimentaire, particulièrement dans le sens de l’autosuffisance, et de l’autoapprovislonnement si possible.
II y a ensuite la politique démographique, c’est-à-dire des mesures concrètes pour réduire la croissance démographique dans les pays où le rapport entre la population et les ressources est précaire. Nous estimons qu’à ce dernier point, dans le cadre des stratégies, on a accordé trop peu d’importance.
Enfin, Monsieur le Président, je peux affirmer que les pays qui entreprendront des efforts dans ce sens, dans le cadre de notre aide bilatérale, pourront compter sur l’appui que nous pourrons leur apporter.
CHAIRMAN: The President of the International Federation of Plantation, Agricultural and Allied Workers has passed to the Chair a written statement and has asked for it to be included in the verbatim. We will act accordingly.
Ms. S.M. MAIER (Netherlands): My delegation is very happy to see how much has been done since the WCARRD was held in July 1979. The follow-up activities can be recognised in many of the conference documents before us.
In the document on regional and national development strategies for instance, which recommends policies for the 1980s, it can be found as well.
The thread of the recommendations of WCARRD is really being interwoven not only throughout FAO’s programme, but also in the UN system as a whole. The moment has been reached at which we can truly state that the WCARRD conference has proved to be very successful.
The international developments since 1979 have only reconfirmed the Tightness of WCARRD’s approach.
The concept of national food strategies, which was reintroduced in the last few years, encloses many elements of the WCARRD action programme.
We have always seen the development of national food strategies within the context of rural development. The improvement of national food production has to be realized first and foremost by the small farmer. The increased food production at all costs is not an end in itself.
It has to go hand-in-hand with more employment and the generation of income, thus leading to the creation of an effective demand.
It is remarkable to see how strongly the question of rural energy has come up since the adoption of the programme of action of WCARRD. It only implicitly deals with it. We are glad to note that FAO has immediately picked up this question, which is now even more highlighted as a consequence of the recent conference on New and Renewable Resources of Energy.
The FAO will certainly not have had an easy job when it started reorienting the organization in the direction of the WCARRD. We feel that time and experience will enable a clearer definition of work programmes and division of responsibility, thus making frequent and lengthy discussions more and more redundant. It is certainly encouraging to read in the documents that most projects could be modified to have greater effect and impact on poverty alleviation and equity.
The ACC Task Force on rural development has selected three major areas of focus for the coming years; one is joint action at country and regional levels; two is promoting people’s participation in rural development; three is monitoring and evaluation.
The concerns of rural women are to be integrated in all three major areas of work.
Action at the national level needs in our opinion more attention than action at the regional level.
It goes without saying that the national governments are the ones who can draw up policies benefitting the local level. This could certainly usefully be complemented by action on the regional level, but the creation of heavy regional structures would carry the inherent risk of removing the problem from the rural areas where they must be solved. The regional level is further removed from the local level at which the rural development efforts are eventually directed.
The people’s participation programme is still a relatively modest programme which has to be geared towards felt needs instead of observed needs.
Of course, the same principle of felt needs applies to the attention given to the concerns of rural women. This element should be integrated within the people’s participation programme as well as in all other FAO programmes. It is an established policy of our governments to consider every programme or project proposal in the light of the way it takes into account the effects on the position of women. We ask agencies to do the same before submitting a proposal to us for possible funding.
The people’s participation programme calls for involvement of non-governmental organizations. FAO has already established contacts with international NGOs, and the NGOs from their side respond very positively to these contacts. We are happy to note that separate meetines have taken place in the past years with ngo’s, international trade unions and within the framework of the Freedom From Hunger Campaign.
These are all positive developments and we hope that all concerned will be able to mobilise the assistance of the local voluntary ngo’s. The local farmers’, workers’ and women’s organizations can eventually best interpret the felt needs.
The national machineries for the advancement of women of course have a clear role in the formulation of specific programmes for poor rural women in close cooperation with NGOs. Participation would mean the involvement of the local rural organizations in the identification, formulation and execution of projects.
Wherever such activities can be linked with or imbedded in already existing activities, like for instance the farm water management programme, this should be done, thus having the best chance of taking root.
FAO’s orientation towards rural development includes an orientation towards a small-scale approach. Large projects can also be built up out of many smaller projects.
Having taken the lead in the process of agrarian reform and rural development, FAO could increasingly start serving as a kind of clearing house for projects by comparing them with the recommendations of WCARRD. FAO could become a clearing house for all rural development projects, whether bilaterally executed, or multi-bilaterally executed or when so desired executed by a non-governmental organization.
An orientation towards small-scale projects bring with it a larger work burden for FAO headquarters and FAO field structures. We feel that by taking up a kind of clearing house function the effects on FAO’s workload could be kept within reasonable limits.
We can only commend the FAO and the developing countries concerned for the way in which national monitoring and evaluation systems are being set up. This will enable us to assess at the next conference where we all stand in trying to give an effective follow-up to WCARRD. The setting up of such systems bears witness of a courageous undertaking and a firm commitment to realize WCARRD action programmes.
N. DIMITRIU (Roumanie): La Conférence mondiale pour la réforme agraire et le développement rural a adopté en juillet 1979 un programme d’action pratique voué à contribuer effectivement à la solution des problèmes auxquels sont confrontés les pays en développement dans le domaine de l’agriculture et de l’alimentation.
Ma délégation remercie M. le Professeur N. Islam pour sa brillante introduction et ses décisions ont été considérées par la Conférence elle-même comme contribuant directement aux efforts visant à l’instauration d’un nouvel ordre économique international et s’inscrivant dans la stratégie générale du développement. Plus de deux années se sont écoulées depuis cette réunion de grande ampleur et les résultats ont commencé à se faire sentir sous différentes formes, positives en général.
Examinant les documents C 81/7-COAG, CL 79/9 et C 81/23, nous pouvons affinner avec satisfaction que le programme d’action adopté lors de la Conférence mondiale pour la réforme agraire et le développement rural est soutenu par la FAO, qui, compte tenu de celui-ci, a réorienté son propre programme pour secourir avant tout les pays les plus pauvres.
La délégation roumaine se déclare d’accord avec les constatations et les recommandations faites et insiste en même temps pour qu’on prenne en considération les propositions faites par notre pays lors de la Conférence mondiale, relativement au développement de la production agricole et des capacités propres à la formation de personnels professionals et techniques pour tous les secteurs de l’agriculture et de l’élevage, à la participation directe des organisations internationales, à la réalisation de projets de développement agricole et rural dans les pays en développement pour écarter les barrières et les discriminations pouvant exister dans le commerce et la coopération économique internationale.
En ce qui nous concerne, nous militerons aussi à l’avenir pour que les problèmes complexes du monde contemporain, ayant de profondes implications dans l’évolution de l’humanité, dans la cause du progrès, de la collaboration et de la paix dans le monde, puissent trouver une solution concrète dans le contexte d’un nouvel ordre économique international qui permette d’assurer l’essor indépendant de chaque nation pour le bien-être des hommes du monde entier.
Ma délégation soutient toutes les recommendations présentées dans les documents examinés.
J.C. McCOLL (Australia): The Australian delegation wishes to indicate strong support in both principle and practice for the programme of action adopted by WCARRD. Referring specifically to the Document C 81/23, and in particular to the items 1 to 9 on pages 8 and 9, which address the major issues, we would like to provide the following comments:
With regard to items 1-3 inclusive, the recommendations in part 1 of the Programme of Action are addressed to national governments of developing countries, and we consider that the overt acknowledgment by developing countries of their vital and essential responsibilities in the fields of agriculture and rural development is of considerable importance, and this has been underlined today by a number of delegations. There is no substitute for sound domestic policies to ensure effective agricultural and rural development. National policies on pricing, land reform, taxation, institute building, etc., are at least as important in influencing economic and social development as the total flow of resources to a particular country. Australia, therefore, supports the Secretariat’s recommendations to the Conference under these items.
With regard to item 4, we support continued regional follow-up consultations, and we believe that the regional rural development centres mentioned in item 5 have distinct potential, particularly with regard to activities for research, training, information, dissemination and other aspects pertaining to rural development. They can be a very useful mechanism for further developing the concept of TCDC, and thereby improving the level of self-reliance amongst developing countries.
Item 6, Australia considers the involvement of NGOs in WCARRD follow-up would have a very positive effect, particularly with regard to promoting people’s participation.
Concerning finance mentioned in item 7, we recogniwe the inevitability of the Conference calling on agencies of the UN system and bilateral donors to contribute more resources. As far as Australia is concerned, we have directed a high proportion of our bilateral aid to supporting aericultural and integrated rural development proiects. Aid to sectors exclusively related to rural development, such as agriculture, flood control, land settlement, etc. constitutes 30 per cent approximately of our total project aid. Assistance ranges from agricultural orientated research and development through integrated rural development projects, cooperative management training, to storage, food handling and marketing projects. Projects within other sector areas which have substantial linkages with rural development, for example, electricity, water supply and transport, constitute a further 40 per cent of the programme. We have particularly
emphasized the training component with a range of short courses aimed at supporting rural development. We support the Secretariat’s suggestion in item 8 on the need for greater interagency cooperation and, finally, concerning future action referred to in item 9, we consider that when assessing the degree of adequacy and direction of follow-up FAO should continue to emphasise its technical expertise and competence in regard to agro-technological factors. Naturally within the wider context of the WCARRD approach, recognizing that increasing the role of production base, and people capability, is an essential prerequisite for self-sustained rural development.
F. D’ALMEIDA (Bénin): La délégation du Bénin soutien fermement les principes des programmes d’action des recommandations et toutes les résolutions proposées par le Secrétariat.
Je voudrais profiter aussi de l’occasion pour remercier le Directeur général et la FAO pour l’attention toute particulière qu’ils ont accordée au Bénin en lui envoyant une mission dans le cadre du suivi de la Réforme agraire pour le développement rural. A l’issue de cette mission, une enquête rurale sera financée et demandée à la FAO et elle sera suivie par la FAO. Cette enquête rurale doit nous permettre de connaître la situation exacte de notre agriculture, à savoir la taille, la forme et la dimension des fermes et des unités de production. Comme vous le savez, le problème de l’alimentation et de la nutrition est prépondérant au niveau de l’Afrique. Un certain nombre d’accès sont contenus dans le cadre de la réforme agraire. Il s’agit en particulier de l’accès à l’eau, de l’accès à la terre et de l’accès aux intrants. Nous pensons que, compte tenu de la situation que nous vivons actuellement, étant données les variations d’intempéries, un accent particulier doit être mis sur l’irrigation, l’accès à l’eau afin que les paysans disposent de façon permanente de l’eau et que malgré les intempéries le manque de pluies, on puisse accéder à une meilleure production.
Nous mettons aussi un accent particulier sur l’accès d’intrants et tout spécialement sur l’accès des engrais. C’est pourquoi nous demandons qu’au niveau de la FAO le Programme Engrais soit repris et revu car, dans les pays en voie de développement, c’est un élément qui revient excessivement cher pour les petits paysans.
Nous pensons aussi qu’il faut pouvoir donner aux petits paysans la possibilité de survivre, et comme vous le savez, les crédits sont les grands moyens qui interviennent dans le monde rural. C’est pour cela aussi que nous souhaiterions qu’un système d’étude pour les crédits pour les petits fermiers soit étudié et proposé dans le cadre des différentes possibilités d’aide des banques pour les pays en voie de développement.
La participation des femmes au développement rural prend un accent particulier en ce qui concerne notre agriculture puisque l’on a remarqué que l’exode rural est monnaie courante actuellement et il apparaît que ce sont les femmes qui sont le groupe qui s’exode le moins et en conséquence il leur revient une plus grande tâche, celle de tenir la paysannerie. Il ne faut pas oublier aussi que la femme est gardienne des traditions et, par ce moyen, elle est nécessairement tenue à la terre.
L’orientation que prend actuellement la FAO dans le cadre de l’aide et de la participation au développement rural nous réjouit parce qu’elle transcende les habitudes autrefois connues à la FAO et elle transcende le problème de l’économie familiale pour faire de la femme un véritable agent du développement.
Nous souhaiterions que cette expérience soit poursuivie de façon que nous puissions étudier avec la FAO les structures adéquates pour rendre de façon réelle l’activité de la femme dans le développement rural.
Je voudrais en terminant féliciter le Professeur N. Islam pour la façon dynamique dont il a présenté son document.
J. GAZZO (Perú): Me quiero referir a las acciones que está desarrollando mi país para promover la participación popular en el desarrollo del mismo.
Como ya lo había iniciado nuestro Presidente constitucional, Fernando Belaunde de Terry, en su primer Gobierno entre 1963 a 1968, y está apoyando ahora la participación popular rural en su segundo Gobiemo constitucional, me refiero a la Organización denominada Cooperación Popular, cuyo jefe tiene rango y asiento de Ministro de Estado. En este organismo se ha recogido la vieja tradición incaica del trabajo comunitario o minga. Con este sistema, el Estado participa en las obras comunales proporcionando los insumos para las mismas, tales como lampas, fertilizantes, tractores, etc. El pueblo aporta el
trabajo para hacer estas obras como son preparación del campo agrícola, cosechas, obras sanitarias, aguas, desagües, pequeñas irrigaciones, caminos, escuelas y hospitales. Esta es una perfecta complementación del capital estatal con el trabajo gratuito aportado por el pueblo para la ejecución de este tipo de obras que lo beneficia directamente, y de las cuales es el principal usuario. Este tipo de acciones constituyen una verdadera participación de la pobiación rural en el desarrollo del país.
Financiaciones especiales con préstamos blandos a los agricultores más deprimidos está siendo proporcionada por el FIDA con excelentes resultados. Es interesante, señor Presidente, asistir a la ceremonia de inauguración de estas obras comunitarias, en las cuales se puede notar el fervor popular al ver la obra que ellos ban hecho. La ceremonia es muy austera y no se colocan placas alusivas a los gobernantes bajo cuyo período se hizo la obra; solo en una placa muy simple se dice: El pueblo lo hizo. No hay grandes discursos.
La mujer igualmente está participando activamente en el desarrollo del país. Las agencias de extensión agrícola, que son más de 50 en todo el país, tienen en sus oficinas mejoradoras del hogar, que enseñan a la mujer campesina a usar dietas alimentarias balanceadas a base, preferiblemente, de productos locales; a coser, tejer y al desarrollo de alguna actividad artesanal que use materias primas de origen local.
La reforma agraria en el Perú ha sido una realidad que ha redistribuido cerca de 10 millones de hectáreas entre los campesinos; sin embargo, nos hemos dado cuenta de que la redistribución de tierras es sólo el comienzo, y que sin apoyo técnico y financiero se puede fracasar. Hemos aprendido que a menudo los nuevos propietarios carecen de capacidad administrativa y gerencia y hay que darles un apoyo sustancial a este respecto.
Pensamos que algunas definiciones políticas o slogan deben ampliarse. No sólo debe decirse la tierra es del que la trabaja, sino la tierra es del que la trabaja y la hace producir. Si ello no sucede el proceso de reforma agraria se desvirtúa y luego, entonces, toda la pobiación tiene que pagar su poca eficiencia y cubrir a base de sacrificios fuertes el elevado costo social de la misma si con ella no se aumenta la productividad.
Creemos que nuestro proceso de reforma agraria es aún perfectible y se están realizando los ajustes necesarios para su actualización.
F. MARTINEZ GOMEZ (México): Es indiscutible que con el transcurso del tiempo, la Declaración de Principios y el Programa de Acción de la Conferencia Mundial de Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural, se revalora como un marco conceptual operativo, sobre todo en estos momentos donde cada día que pasa la producción de alimentos de los países en desarrollo se convierte en una tarea prioritaria, en virtud de las tendencias poco favorables en el abastecimiento y producción de sus alimentos.
Los principios en que está basada esta Declaración contienen cambios muy favorables para todos los países. Las recomendaciones en política agrícola, sustituyen modelos antiguos que han résultado ineficientes en su tarea de producir, y sobre todo distribuir alimentos en la mayoría de los países.
Por este motivo, nuestra delegación apoya una vez más la Declaración y el Programa de Acción de la Conferencia Mundial sobre Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural. Asimismo consideramos que todas las acciones que realiza la FAO deben ser consecuentes con estos principios.
El desarrollo de la tecnología y la economía mundial nos permite observar, que conceptualizar la reforma agraria y el desarrollo rural dentro del ámbito de los problemas de la tenencia de la tierra y la producción agrícola es muy limitado. Pensar que con políticas que modifiquen positivamente estos factores, se va a resolver el problema, es aventurado.
En este orden de ideas reconocemos que estos principios y el programa de acción no están exentos de los efectos de la crisis actual, que se refleja en alto índice de inflación, desempleo, modificación monetaria, y otros desajustes que se generan en muchos de los casos, fuera de los países en desarrollo, con consecuencias más drásticas para estos que para los países más poderosos. Es por ello, que nuestra insistencia de buscar mecanismos y acciones encaminadas al logro del establecimiento de un Nuevo Orden Económico Internacional.
Mexico, coincidente con los principios de la Conferencia Mundial sobre Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural ha elaborado un sistema alimentario, donde el Estado, a través de diferentes medidas tales como asistencia técnica, aumento de los precios de garantía de los productos básicos e insumos estratégicos subsidiados, ha logrado incrementos en los ingresos de los productores; se ha aumentado la producción
de básicos y se ha afectado favorablemente a los problemas de desempleo y subempleo en el medio rural. Estas medidas han permitido el acceso a la mayor utilización de tierras y aguas apoyados por acciones concretas que, en estas áreas, realiza el Gobierno de México.
Nuestra delegación reitera la sugerencia de solicitar a los gobiernos un informe sobre las acciones realizadas para combatir la pobreza de las zonas rurales y de las actividades efectuadas en materia de reforma agraria y desarrollo rural. Además consideramos conveniente la elaboración, por parte de la Secretaría, de un informe de todos los países, para su análisis durante el 21° período de sesiones de la Conferencia de la FAO.
Las consultas regionales, a través de los foros ya establecidos, constituyen una acción que se debe continuar porque permiten constantemente que los gobiernos sugieran medidas que mejor respondan a las necesidades cambiantes de los países.
Reiteramos nuestro interés por que se logre el volumen de recursos financieros de, por lo menos, 20 millones de dólares en contribuciones voluntarlas, que se solicita en la Resolución 7/79. También en virtud de la importancia de estas actividades, apoyamos la cooperación económica de otros organismos de Naciones Unidas, que estén en posibilidad de aportar recursos.
La promoción de la participación popular es un elemento fundamental en el desarrollo rural. Nos complace que la FAO haya comenzado a identificar y formular proyectos de participación popular en el marco de un programa de donantes múltiples, mediante organizaciones de autoayuda. También consideramos fundamental el papel de la mujer en el desarrollo rural. En este sentido, en los países en desarrollo, la mujer juega un papel muy importante, por lo cual su participación es no sólo importante sino indispensable en estas actividades.
Finalmente, consideramos sumamente importantes los esfuerzos que, en materia de capacitación y extensión, está desarrollando la FAO, teniendo en cuenta los lineamientos y principios de la Conferencia Mundial sobre Reforma Agraria y Desarrollo Rural.
AMIDJONO MARTOSUWIRYO (Indonesia): First of all, I should like to thank Professor Islam for his introduction.
In many developing countries growth rate of food production lags behind growth rate of their population. Incidences of food shortages still persist in many localities in some developing countries. National governments and international organizations like FAO, which primarily deal with the development of food, agriculture and farmers, still have to take more action and make more effort to assist farmers in order to produce more food and other agricultural commodities.
Rural development and agrarian reform is, among others, the right scheme with which to pave the way towards producing more food and agricultural products. It will lead directly to the elimination of hunger and malnutrition and to efforts towards increasing farmers’ incomes, if properly implemented by application of appropriate systems. It will accelerate efforts and facilitate the creation of a just and prosperous society.
I should like to express my government’s full support that the focus of WCARRD follow-up action should be at country level, where primarily responsibility for implementation is the prerogative of the government concerned.
Agrarian reform and rural development have been carried out in Indonesia and occupy an important place in the development activities. Re-orientation and activities constitute an integrated approach rather than a single one. This principle has become the quality of my Government under the forum of coordinating activities and various development programmes. The Ministry of Home Affairs acts as coordinator of the implementation of agrarian reform and rural development where people participate.
The Indonesian National Committee of the UN Agencies has been established which, among others, has assumed responsibility for channeling communication between the Government of Indonesia and FAO, as well as other organizations.
My delegation is of the opinion that, for the South Asia Region, where the man/land ratio is high, a tenancy reform aimed at establishing a guaranteed income for share-croppers should be introduced. Tenancy agreements should provide for maximum cash rent to be paid. It should provide for the length of time of the rent agreement and conditions under which it can be terminated. In addition, all agreements should be clearly written and recorded. The provisions should motivate share-croppers to use high value inputs and/or make necessary long term investments in land. My delegation very much hopes that this point will be taken into consideration by FAO.
As regards the Programme of Action of Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, the Government of Indonesia has taken action in several specific areas in line with the views expressed in paragraph 36 of the document under discussion.
Being aware of the importance of the exchange of experience in agrarian reform and rural development, the Indonesian Delegation has offered to host a regional work shop on WCARRD follow-up action under the auspices of FAO, and I suggest that the matter should also be included in the FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific which will be held in Djakarta in June, 1982.
In conclusion, I should like to refer to the financial side of the WCARRD follow-up which has given rise to some concern because the minimum voluntary contribution of $20 million decided on two years ago has not been realized. Representing a developing country, my delegation can only invite the kind attention of the more prosperous countries to giving substance to the relevant resolution passed by the 20th session of the Conference, so that the proposed minimum contribution may soon become a reality.
M. ARAFAH (Jordan)(original language Arabic): First of all, I should like to thank the Secretariat for this excellent document on the follow-up of the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. I also thank Professor Islam for his brilliant introduction to this theme. I would like to talk to you about the cooperation that took place between Jordan and the Organization. We have been able to implement the following projects, after having scrutinized the situation in Jordan and after noting the targets to be achieved. First of all, to help the National Planning Council to define its strategy for the rural development in Jordan within the context of the five-year plan, 1981-85; second, to carry out a survey of our general land register system in conjunction with the Jordanian University; to study everything that can be done and to take note of the progress that has been made in the context of the National Development Plan; and to implement the targets of the World Conference in two areas as pilot projects and furthermore to promote the cooperative movement in Jordan so that it may become the foundation for development and help farmers in rural areas.
Our government set up a specialized centre to this end and we would like this to be a regional centre for training.
In conclusion we wish to support all FAO activities and express the hope that these Conference Resolutions will be further followed up.
M. MORIMOTO (Japan): First of all, my delegation would like to commend Professor Islam for his excellent introduction. We welcome and appreciate the progress made in its activities by the FAO, such as assistance with projects at country level, intergovernmental consultation on a regional basis and the role undertaken by the FAO of coordinating activities amongst the international organizations concerned.
In the light of this need to support such international activities, my government is ready to contribute US$165 000 to assist the activity of the Centre for Integrated Rural Development in Asia and the Pacific in the 1981 fiscal year.
The post-war agricultural and land reform in Japan enabled farmers’ to purchase their own land. This greatly increased their will to produce and led to the encouragement of Japanese agriculture. I believe it is of vital importance that developing countries solve their problems from a long-term perspective, on the basis of FAO’s Declaration of Principles and Programme of Action.
Finally, my delegation would like to emphasize the need for development of human resources. Therefore, it is important to take every opportunity of educating and training the decision-making people in the expertise required for rural development in the developing countries.
S. PRACHIMDHIT (Thailand): My delegation notes with satisfaction the preparation by the Secretariat of the Document C 81/23 which passes under review the progress made in the implementation of Conference Regulation 7/79 on the follow-up of WCARRD. My appreciation also goes to Professor Islam for his excellent introduction of the topic under discussion.
My delegation would like to stress that the Royal Thai Government over the past two years has taken a number of steps following the recommendations of WCARRD as well as the recommendations adopted within the First and Second Government Consultation for Asia and the Southwest Pacific on the follow-up of WCARRD.
The Thai Government has declared the 1980’s as the Rural Development Decade. In compliance with this, a rural development work plan for 1982-1986 has been put into effect. Under it, rural development is strongly area-oriented. The poor areas selected cover nearly half the entire kingdom. The main objectives for these target areas are firstly, to foster self-reliance among the rural poor; secondly, to guarantee minimum basic needs; thirdly, to promote people’s participation through decentralization and involvement in the decision-making process; and, lastly, to search for and adopt appropriate low-cost technology for the rural population.
The agrarian reform programme is now well into its sixth year and much still remains to be done. The pace at which this reform is moving is rather slow. However, a national agrarian reform plan is also provided for further implementation in the next national five-year plan, commencing in 1982. The future targets of agrarian reform are quite modest, reflecting past experience and achievements.
On other fronts, a national small farmers’ development programme is now taking shape and is likely to go into full operation by 1982.
In conclusion, my delegation fully supports the action at country level being undertaken by FAO. In this connection, my delegation urges FAO to carry out a biogas project from crop and livestock residues something which is badly needed for poor rural people. Furthermore, a similar project on fuelwood for energy in the rural areas is also very important and is one that FAO should take into consideration in the hope of making it available for the improvement of rural conditions, especially the project for growing trees for fuel wood at farm level.
A. RODRIGUES PIRES (Cap-Vert): Je vous remercie de m’avoir donné la parole,
Permettez-moi de féliciter vivement le secrétariat de la FAO pour l’excellent document préparé à l’intention de notre Commission.
Nous voulons appuyer sans réserve toutes les actions et activités de la FAO en ce qui concerne la réforme agraire. Nous sommes convaincus que la FAO constitue le cadre idéal pour traiter tous les problèmes de la réforme agraire surtout dans les pays en voie de développement, compte tenu des expériences acquises par la FAO durant trente-six ans, qui ne sont un secret pour personne.
En ce qui concerne mon pays, je commencerai par dire qu’on ne peut pas parler de l’agriculture, du développement rural sans la réforme agraire. Après quelques siècles de colonisation portuguaise et de systèmes archaïques d’exploitation des terres, il est urgent, au Cap-Vert, de transformer les modes de faire valoir qui dominent actuellement dans l’agriculture, affranchir ceux qui travaillent la terre des relations archaïques auxquelles ils sont encore soumis et d’améliorer la situation économique et culturelle des paysans.
Dans ce contexte et dans cette perspective, le Cap-Vert, a participé activement à la Conférence mondiale de la réforme agraire organisée à Rome par la FAO en 1979. Mon pays a attaché une très grande importance à ses travaux et il a appuyé sans hésitation son programme d’action et ses résolutions. Bien plus, il a décidé de donner, au Cap-Vert, une priorité absolue à la réforme agraire et il a déjà mis en oeuvre une série d’actions préparatoires qui se situent exactement dans la ligne préconisée par la Conférence mondiale. Il nous semble en effet que dans tous les pays qui ont récemment conquis leur indépendance et en particulier dans ceux qui ont longtemps vécu sous la domination coloniale, une réforme des systèmes socio-économiques s’impose afin que les ressources productives soient équitablement distribuées.
Parlant toujours de notre pays, la terre est une ressource productive de grande importance; c’est pourquoi nous pensons qu’elle ne doit pas être seulement un moyen de garantir une position sociale ou une sécurité économique, mais qu’elle doit être une source dynamique de production dont la nécessité est vitale.
C’est en s’inspirant de ces principes que mon gouvernement a pris la décision d’entreprendre une réforme agraire et en particulier la restructuration des modes d’exploitation des terres cultivables, pour permettre aux exploitants effectifs d’accéder à la propriété des terres qu’ils cultivent. Les réformes envisagées comportent aussi l’organisation des masses rurales et leur participation à toutes les étapes du processus de dàveloppement. L’organisation des coopératives tient une place importante dans ce programme d’actions.
Enfin, nous attachons une très grande importance à l’intégration des femmes dans le développement rural car au Cap-Vert leur rôle est encore plus important qu’ailleurs du fait de l’émmigration masculine. Plus d’un tiers des femmes rurales en effet y sont chefs de famille et d’exploitation. C’est pourquoi la formation des femmes et l’assistance à leurs organisations et activatés est une des priorités auxquelles le gouvernement attache le plus d’attention.
Dans ce contexte, nous remercions vivement la FAO d’avoir envoyé chez nous une mission de haut niveau. En plus de la collaboration de la FAO à de grands projets dans le domaine du reboisement, de la conservation des sols, des pêches, etc. Cette mission a pu identifier quelques domaines prioritaires pour une action immédiate.
Pour terminer nous voulons attirer l’attention des éminents représentants des pays amis qui participent aux travaux de notre Commission sur le fait que leur aide, soit bilatérale soit dans le cadre de la FAO, est indispensable pour la concrétisation de nos programmes dont le but principal est l’exploitation nationale pour le bien-être de la population. Le Cap-Vert appuie avec intérêt et enthousiasme l’idée d’un Centre régional pour le développement intégré pour l’Afrique et il a déjà signé et ratifié l’accord pour sa création; nous espérons que nous y participerons comme membre et que ce Centre sera un appui pour la réforme agraire dans notre pays.
D. AMBOULOU (Congo): Le document C 81/23 qui est sounds à notre attention intéresse au plus haut point notre pays et notre délégation soutient les propositions qui y sont formulées. Ceci est tout à fait à l’honneur du secrétariat de la Conférence et du prof. Islam qui a si brillamment introduit notre discussion. La République populaire du Congo a participé il y a deux ans à cette Conférence sur la réforme agraire et le développement rural et nous pouvons dire que les lignes générales développées dans ce document de base recueillent notre agrément. En effet, la République populaire du Congo va mettre en oeuvre de 1982 à 1986 un plan quinquennal de développement économique et social qui fait de l’agriculture un secteur de base orienté notamment vers l’auto-suffisance alimentaire, la recherche des moyens d’équilibre spatial, l’amelioration du revenu des paysans et la production de matières premières en vue de la promotion de l’industrie locale. Nous espérons que l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture nous apportera son concours pour la mise en oeuvre de ce plan.
D’ores et déjà nous aimerlons profiter de l’occasion qui nous est offerte pour remercer le Directeur général de la FAO pour l’envoi d’une mission pluridisciplinaire de haut niveau en vue de nous aider à mieux formuler des actions concrètes dans le cadre de la problématique de l’auto-suffisance alimentaire dans le contexte propre de notre pays. Nous avons également, dans ce même cadre, bénéficié d’une importante mission de la FAO pour l’évaluation de notre politique de l’élevage. Cette mission a identifié et formulé d’importants projets en matière de production bovine et de petits ruminants, ovins et caprins notamment.
MRS. L. BRADER (Observer for Associated Country Women of the World): On behalf of the Associated Country Women of the World, ACWW, I wish first of all to record our appreciation that within FAO’s actions the role of women in rural development, as well as the effects of agricultural development on women, are increasingly taken into consideration. I beg to quote especially from the opening statement of the Director-General of the 21st Session of the Conference: “Improvement of the women’s life needs to be a constant objective of agricultural and rural development schemes”. Listening to the interventions today we are glad to remark that these objectives seem, in most countries, to be an accepted principle today. We applaud especially the apt and concise formulation of the objective which replaces very long statements, and we trust that the principle of the importance of women’s rights will be a guideline in all FAO’s actions.
Since the 1979 conference ACWW has observed especially an increased emphasis on women’s involvement in various programmes within FAO. To cite examples: in programmes on marketing, credit and cooperative associations in social and forestry programmes, in improved plant protection, prevention of food losses, fisheries projects, and last but not least in the various projects that fall under the umbrella of “Women in Rural Development”. ACWW especially appreciates the fact that all the various roles of women are considered, be it in the house, at the farm, or in the community.
We also applaud the stronger emphasis on people’s participation through their own organizations and the recognition given to the action in the field by national and international non-governmental organizations. In this respect we support strongly para. 36 of Document C81/23, and we offer our cooperation at national, regional and international levels.
Referring to para. 12 of Document C81/23, I am glad to report at the Conference in Hyderabad, NGO’s were also involved although it does not look like it from the report.
The ACWW representative took part in the deliberations and organized a similar ACWW Workshop for representatives of women’s organizations from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. They formulated projects for rural development which could be executed by women’s organizations in the context of national rural development programmes. Projects such as training of voluntary leaders, women’s cooperatives, prevention of food loss training, projects on poultry breeding to generating income in villages and other similar projects.
A similar ACWW Workshop will be held in Bangkok in March 1982 for representatives of women’s organizations in 5 other countries in Asia.
However, the formulation of projects is only one step in the development process and ACWW is concerned that sometimes there are obstacles which tend to prevent the implementation of these projects. We therefore would like to draw the attention of the conference to the role of the so-called national machineries for the advancement of women. They were already referred to today in some statements. In many countries they are the formal structures to initiate and coordinate programmes for women, but it is also true that not in all countries is their action especially geared to rural development. ACWW therefore requests FAO and governments to strengthen the role of the national women’s machinery in rural development projects and to reinforce, where necessary, the involvement of women’s organizations.
I would like to thank many delegates who have referred today to the work done by women’s organizations in their own countries. Women’s organizations have a long tradition of working for rural people at village level they are rural people themselves. ACWW and its affiliated societies offer their collaboration to improve conditions of rural life, in the home, on the farm and in the community.
E. HAMERNIK (Observer for World Federation of Free Trade Unions): The World Federation of Trade Unions considers the WCARRD Follow-up as one of the most important priorities of the programme of the FAO for the next period. You might remember that the World Federation of Trade Unions devoted great effort to get the other trade unions’ organizations at a time of the preparation of the WCARRD, and this resulted in strengthening the final documents of the conference, in particular as far as the people’s participation in rural development is concerned.
FAO, as the pilot institution within the UN system in the follow-up of the WCARRD, has proved its special responsibility by presenting various programmes among which is the programme on people’s participation in rural development which is of highest interest to our Organization as it opens up new possibilities for united trade union actions in favour of genuine agrarian reform.
We are very satisfied to inform you that FAO has encouraged the international trade union organizations to come up with concrete projects and indicate what kind of FAO’s support they would need to meet their demands and resulting problems at national level. In this respect we have already had talks with the FAO Representatives on the possibility of undertaking during long term, pilot projects during the period of 3 to 5 years which would be carried out in cooperation with some of our member organizations and with the support of the respective governments. As the preparatory phase is coming to an end very successfully, we hope to present the projects to the FAO Director-General for approval as soon as possible. While estimating very positively the FAO’s work on the WCARRD follow-up we have to express here our concern on the cooperation with institutions at the policy making level. It is with deep regret that the trade unions do not see any evidence of vital political desire on the part of many governments to arrive at genuine radical and democratic agrarian reform and real participation of the people in rural development. In order to enable the trade unions to play their proper role in agriculture, governments must recognise the right of rural workers to associate in the unions and to respect those trade union rights and freedoms, especially in conformity with the respective stipulations of the conventions and the recommendations of the International Labour Organization.
We are concerned by the fact that several governments are waiting too long to ratify the ILO Convention No. 141 concerning the organizations of rural workers and their role in economic and social development. Until now only 21 countries have done so. On this occasion we would like to launch another call to governments to ratify and implement this Convention, because without recognition of the rights of rural workers all attempts at people’s participation would remain an illusion. Thank you very much.
AZIZUL HUQ (Observer for Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and Pacific): The World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development, among other things, recommended the establishment of regional institutions to foster the promotion of agrarian reform and rural development activities. Fortunately, the Centre for Asia and the Pacific is already operational. Steps have been finalized for the establishment of a centre in Africa; negotiations are in progress about the centre in Latin America and exploration is in progress, I am told, about the centre in the Near East. This is by no means a mean achievement and I believe the FAO deserves to be congratulated on this. Along with the FAO, those other members of the United Nations family and bilateral donors who have assisted in the foundation of these institutions deserve to be complimented. But above all the people of the countries concerned have to be remembered with admiration at this Conference.
These centres are inter-governmental institutions. These are intended to assist national action through national mechanisms to increase production, to improve distribution with special attention to the poor and the disadvantaged in the rural areas. Their clientele is vast, their task is complex and their efforts have to be impressive if not massive. Their goal is to catalyze the process of growth with justice, as Professor Islam emphasized yesterday. Their activities fall into three categories: research, training and dissemination of information about which many of the delegates have made very useful observations.
Document C 81/23 coupled with Professor Islam’s initial statement calls for special attention to things like operational’ guidelines for development, monitoring and evaluation and finally investment in rural areas. During the last two years of its existence the CIRDAP has been associated with these basic needs of development strategies in the rural areas.
The second inter-governmental consultation of the Asia and pacific region was organized jointly by the regional office of FAO and the CIRDAP in May this year. The report has been published by the FAO in June 1981. CIRDAP has been specifically asked by the countries of the Asia and the Pacific region to intensify activities for the people’s organizations, land use, land reform, rural banking and the dissemination of essential development information.
Among CIRDAP’s current activities special mention has to be made in this context of the work being done in respect of preparation of country profiles of integrated rural development programmes and institutions for inter-country use; the study of systems of delivery of inputs for agricultural development, the study of systems of price support procurement and incentives for agricultural production; integration of women in agriculture and rural development through national mechanisms about which the ACWW has just spoken; the role of NGO’s in rural development, particularly in mobilizing people’s participation; the role of rural youth in development, services available to rural children, etc.
We have also had joint conferences on rural technology, rural institutions and the rural poor in collaboration with the ideas of Sussex; We have had similar joint conferences in respect of employment generation with local resource mobilization in collaboration with the ARTEP of the ILO.
Studies on these subjects are followed by dissemination of information among the member countries of the region and are then followed by appropriate training programmes in different countries on a regional or sub-regional basis. These activities are conducted in collaboration with the designated national institutions and on a national sub-regional and regional basis. The centre is funded by country contributions from the FAO and most importantly, from donor countries. In the case of CIRDAP we have been generously assisted by the government of Japan and the government of the Sudan for which we are deeply grateful.
The support of the U.N. family is still modest but we are optimistic. The World Bank who authored the “Empty Poverty” slogan has recently reiterated its interest in respect of agricultural and rural development. Of course, I do not see the World Bank represented here.
The UNICEF, WHO, ILO and UNDP and the regional offices of the U.N. have assisted us considerably but the national and regional offices of the U.N. agencies have their difficulties because they do not have funds or resources for regional projects in which we are engaged.
Turning to document C 81/23, paragraph 32 which deals with contributions in response to the Director-General’s request for a $ 20 million extra-budgetary allocation for the follow-up of agrarian reform and rural development activities, we are somewhat disappointed to see that not even half the demand has been received by the Director-General of FAO up to now. I am afraid this is an eye-opener. I hope I shall not be misunderstood if I tend to believe that the family of nations as a whole seems to be indifferent to the modest needs of the rural millions. Developing countries are often accused of urban
bias in their development planning, possibly in the human family as a whole there is a non-rural bias in the matter of the allocation of resources. Development costs, money and rural development are no exception to these general rules, but investments in rural development in my assessment pay high dividends and as such qualify for very deep consideration.
Paragraph 35 of the document speaks about economic and technical co-operation among developing countries for the overall promotion of agriculture and rural development. Regional institutions such as CIRDAP and CIRDAFRICA are appropriate institutions or instruments for such purposes.
Paragraph 36 (v) therefore suggest that bilateral donors and U.N. agencies may directly contribute to these centres or to selected aspects of these centres’ programmes. This coupled with the activities of the U.N. inter-agency committee and finally the ECOSOC should possibly make desired improvements in this respect.
In conclusion, I once again compliment FAO on the earnestness with which post-WCARRD activities have followed up and urge the support of those who afford to support the line of action indicated in paragraph 36 of the document under consideration.
U. CANULLO (Observer for International Co-operative Alliance): On behalf of the International Co-operation Alliance let me state again our interest in the WCARRD promising developments. As evidence of our commitment there is the continuous consultation undertaken with FAO’s staff, in the framework of People Participation Programmes, both at international and regional level, which has followed a long-established collaboration in other fields, such as Energy in Agriculture (point 8 of the Agenda), Food Production and Rural Development (point 12) and so forth.
In more than 70 countries of the world, as you know, co-operatives contribute to the social and economic development, along with other voluntary forms of organizations; that is to say, they carry on tasks which are not an extension of government services, but very often represent an original and creative effort in offsetting the causes of rural poverty.
I am sure that you already know that the United Nations General Assembly’s debate on The Secretary General’s report on “National experience in the promotion of the Co-operative Movement” ended a few weeks ago, with a resolution urging inter alia the United Nations and its Special Agencies to assist in the development of co-operatives. Let me add that the Third Committee’s majority easily agreed on the participatory nature of the cooperative institution.
Through the exercise of defining the collective interets of their own members, in fact, co-operative organizations, in different economic contexts and cultural frameworks, proved to be important tools of popular effective participation; referring to the WCARRD Action Programme, I have to say that their suitability, either at grass-roots or on national level does not imply an immediate capability of shaping good-standard projects.
Experience has shown that even identifying project ideas requires a certain understanding of methodologies used in feasibility studies, at least. Small and weak organizations - as all development agencies know very well - will find themselves helpless in the following stage of preparing an adequate project, which might be funded and implemented.
I wanted to call your attention to this point, because we are convinced that any significant improvement of I.C.A.’s assistance capability within the PPP will have a positive impact on our constituency’s involvement; similar groups would be encouraged to get better organized; the self-reliance of local communities concerned would be consequently increased.
CHAIRMAN: If there are no further comments from delegates on the item we have been debating I would now invite Professor Islam to comment on some of the points raised during the debate.
N. ISLAM (Assistant Director-General, Economic and Social Policy Department): We are very grateful to the delegates for their appreciation of our efforts in the implementation of the WCARRD programme of action. Your suggestions and comments will, indeed, help us in our continued work in the future in this area. We are very grateful to you for your support of our Programme of Work on Socio-Economic Indicators, and the suggestion we have made regarding the reporting to the next. FAO Conference on the progress in agrarian reform and rural development based upon country reports and socio-economic
indicators. As I had stated earlier, this report would not only be a statistical report but an analytical report revealing policies and programmes in the field of agrarian reform and rural development.
Many distinguished delegates have referred to priority areas of action within the Programme of Action, to which we should pay greater attention. We can assure you that we have taken careful note of various suggestions you have made. In our document, of course, you have illustrated the kinds of projects for which we have already received requests, requests from the member governments, and your suggestions will, of course, be very valuable in our further work in responding to requests from member governments.
Questions have been asked as to how have you organized within FAO our work, with a view to orienting projects and programmes in various departments within the framework of WCARRD’s Programme of Action. I have already mentioned the role of the interdepartmental committee on rural development, and various sub-groups, which coordinate and guide the preparation of programmes and projects in the various units of the organization within the framework of the WCARRD Programme of Action. We have formulated operational guidelines for the application of the principles of programme of action. This is for use not only for our own staff members in the field and at Headquarters, but also by other UN and bilateral donors, as well as the Member countries in preparing their requests for assistance from international organizations, including FAO. These guidelines as far as we are concerned within the organization, are intented to help to formulate projects keeping the WCARRD concerns in view. These are now being applied in various units and departments of the organization. We have also prepared operational guidelines for preparation of projects in the area of women in development, and people’s participation. Of course, these are all new areas as far as we are concerned. Therefore, we would be learning by experience, and learning by doing. For example, to illustrate, in response to questions asked on, let us say, women in development, as a step towards incorporating women’s concerns in the development projects, various units and organizations are screening their projects with a view to distinguishing between such projects which are explicitly meant for women; projects not explicitly meant for women but with direct impact on them; and projects which are not ostensibly meant for them, not for women. Various units are preparing check lists for their respective technical areas, and adopted to their special needs, which will enable them to incorporate women’s concerns in their projects.
As far as the guidelines for the preparation of investment projects are concerned, FAO investment centre in consultation with the group working on the guidelines, is examining their existing guidelines with a view to incorporating concernes which are prominent in the WCARRD Programme of Action.
Insofar as staff orientation of the organization is concerned, we are having continuous briefing sessions and discussions with various units within the organization, as well as with officials, staff members in our regional offices. We are planning in the future to have special briefing sessions for our field staff members. As far as new field officers are concerned, they are always briefed before they embark on their mission with the main contents and objectives of the programme of action.
How does FAO help toward orienting Member Governments towards the objectives of WCARRD Programme of Action? Here, as I have mentioned in my introduction, we pursue this objective in various ways: firstly, the WCARRD follow-up missions, which are intended to review programmes and policies with the countries concerned, and suggest changes or recommend priority areas in terms of programmes and policies. Lastly, to help them, assist them, in formulating new style extra poverty-oriented projects within the context of the programme of action. Seven such missions have already been completed, and we are planning four such follow-up missions early next year. We have also sent special project formulation missions to formulate projects which will be of a catalytic nature. Also in our UNDP/FAO joint programming missions, in order to formulate projects at the country level for seeking funds from the UNDP, we are also participating with the view to formulating projects which are oriented towards the Programme of Action. Of course, one must recognize that at the country level implementation of the WCARRD Programme of Action remains the ultimate responsibility of the Member Governments, and international organizations like FAO can only stimulate, sensitize, pursuade, with dialogue and discussions. It could demonstrate to new projects how poverty orientation can be incorporated in the programmes and projects, and this dialogue has to be a continuous process, time consuming at all levels through all types of contexts. Various countries necessarily differ in their approach and attitude in responding to the Programme of Action. We hope at the time of reporting in 1983, at the time of the next FAO Conference, we will know more about the way in which Member Governments have responded to the call of the Programme of Action of WCARRD.
Mr. Chairman, I have a specific question to answer, in reply to a question of the distinguished delegate of Colombia. The question was when is the date for the next intercountry consultation on extension and training in Latin America? This date is scheduled between 29 March and 4 April 1982 in Bogota, Colombia. Six countries from the region are to be invited to this meeting. Each country will be represented by two delegates. We hope that this type of activity would also be extended to other countries in the region in the future.
Lastly, Mr. Chairman, we are very happy to note the distinguished delegates endorsed support for the various suggestions for the follow-up activities of WCARRD, which we have enlisted on pages 8 to 10 in our document.
CHAIRMAN: I thank Dr. Islam very much for his excellent comments to the debate, and that brings us to the end of the debate on the follow-up to the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. Forty-eight countries participated in that debate, and we also had the benefit of contributions from four observers. Many delegates underlined the great importance rural development activities are having on the socio-economic development of people in rural areas. They stress the need to have rural development activities based on the aspirations of the people concerned.
Delegates also stressed that it will be important to motivate people to get fully involved in the rural development process, and to allow them to articulate their aspirations with regard to the shaping of the socio-economic and cultural environment.
The role of women in the rural development process has been regarded as of particular importance. Delegates also stressed the need to build up development countries own capacity to design and implement programmes in the field rural development and agrarian reform. That experience gained should in turn be made available to other developing countries. In this field there is certainly ample space and scope for international cooperation.
That distinguished delegates, brings us now to the end of the agenda of Commission II. What remains over the two days we still have at our disposal are the following matters: I would suggest that we take on the draft resolutions that are so far known to be handled by Commission II on Monday morning. These draft resolutions, three in number, deal with the World Food Day; secondly, a draft resolution moved by Mexico on the establishment of an international planned germ plasm bank of agricultural interest, under the custody of FAO, and during the debate this afternoon I was informed that a third resolution, a draft resolution, will be available on Monday on the subject of resources for food production and agricultural development. These three draft resolutions we have to deal with and debate on Monday, and conclude the debate on these draft resolutions. A conclusion is essential because on Tuesday, the last working day available to Commission II, we will have to approve the draft report that is being prepared now by the Drafting Committee. The draft report will have to go at the latest by Tuesday evening for further processing to the services concerned, with an aim to be submitted on Wednesday to the Plenary.
I have now outlined the work still ahead of us. I hope on Monday we can, in a refreshed manner, start the debate on the three draft resolutions, and I hope the debate on the approbation of the rapport of Commission II will be performed in a constructive spirit and expeditiously.
T. BAVIN (Observer for the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and observer for the International Federation of Plantation, Agricultural and Allied Workers): As the representative of both ICFTU and IFPAAW at this Conference, I congratulate the Director-General on the manner in which in his address he outlined the Current situation and need for action by governments of the countries of both the developed and developing world if the position of the underprivileged is to receive that radical change which is necessary.
Few could disagree with this realistic assessment though some might feel that the degree to which the privileged sector of the countries of the developing world have a major responsibility in maintaining the status quo at the expense of the underprivileged, was understated as compared with his assessment of the responsibilities of governments of the developed world.
Even so, few could quarrel with his assessment of what is wrong as also the urgent need for change, particularly NGOs such as ICFTU and IFPAAW for whom I speak and who - over the past 30 years have been implementing programmes of assistance, education, training and project development in direct contact with the rural underprivileged in many countries of the developing world. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, the organization I have the privilege to represent welcome and support this masterful analysis of the current position which in our view in no way exaggerates the overall problem.
It is therefore with regret that I am compelled to express reservations on the proposed implementation as indicated to date of what now appears to be a major factor in the future FAO approach to these problems.
I am referring, Mr. Chairman, to the envisaged Programme for Peoples Participation in Rural Development Through the Promotion of Self-Help Organisations (PPP) which in our view, in relation to the rural impoverished, is hardly within the capacity of any inter-governmental, as distinct from tripartite organisation, to operate while safeguarding those international standards set by the ILO for which we, together with other representatives of the low income group, have been successful in establishing over the years since the formation of this the only tripartite organisation within the UN family.
Here, not only are there recognised departments which specialise in cooperating with governments, employers and workers’ organisations but - much more important - the three groups participate in all phases of decision-making at international level, both in the annual Labour Conference and in the Governing Body while member governments which do not accept the standards set by majority decision fare the risk of constant pressure if such standards are over blatantly ignored.
In such circumstances, many governments, even if not accepting such standards in their entirety, are hesitant in being openly opposed to allowing some degree of freedom of association to workers, both urban and rural, upon the development of which true and responsible pressure for change, necessary in so many countries, is dependent.
In short, Mr. Chairman, it is - in our view - only tripartite organisations which can compel governments to answer for policies of oppression upon free and representative organisations before an international forum which has agreed lines of conduct with which such policies are not in accord.
In contrast, the FAO remains regrettably an inter-governmental organisation although - like the ILO -it is dealing with such basic aspects as food and hunger which are of fundamental importance to all the peoples of the world.
Many of these people in countries where need is greatest are represented by governements which, in some instances, they have had no opportunity to elect nor would have elected if the choice were theirs.
All too often, such governments exist to protect the interests of the privileged, as is demonstrated in too many countries by the harassment of legitimate organisations where these, in a climate of almost continuing hostility, have been able to develop.
In others, and despite the limited degree of protection ensured by their government’s membership of the ILO to which I have referred, they are still fighting for recognition and the right to service members whose needs need no elaboration here. Their difficulties have not been lessened by the enthusiastic acceptance by such governments of programmes of UN agencies aimed at community development and development of cooperatives which, carefully limited in size and “advised” by government nominees - in our view - have been and are being used to prevent the emergence of true and effective organisations capable of exerting legitimate pressure for necessary change.
Because the limitations of such an approach have been increasingly recognised it would appear that the FAO, possibly in conjunction with other agencies, are now seeking to move into “promotion” through governments of the type of organisations which these same governments to date have done all possible to discourage.
We welcome this new awareness but view with some alarm this new approach particularly in relation to the word “promotion”. This alarm is accentuated by the fact that when this new approach was first discussed by the FAO Trade Unions Consultative Committee, we indicated that cooperation in such programme would be dependent on the following:
a) That the overall activities would be advised by a joint committee of trade unionists and sponsoring agencies,
b) that an assurance would be given that these donor agencies now funding programmes similar to those envisaged would not be drawn upon.
In our view such a committee would do much to prevent governments hostile to the development of free organisations using such fund, to develop government-controlled and sponsored organisations, thus further harassing those who for so long and at considerable personal risk have sought to build the free and responsible organisations to which I have referred, while b) would have prevented funds from donor agencies being used for countervailing purposes.
Unfortunately, although at first favourably received, we were later informed that it was not constitutionally possible to establish such a committee and that instead the Director-General would appoint a Committee of Experts for this purpose. Insofar as sponsoring agencies were concerned, such an assurance cannot be completely given.
This reply confirmed that the FAO as an inter-governmental organisation could not ensure that participation in overall supervision and advice which for NGOs in this field is basic to workers; cooperation in this sector in operations with the ILO. It also clearly revealed that as FAO projects must of necessity De run through and in conjunction with governments, the possibility of tripartite consultation rests and must rest upon will of the government concerned.
This of course is unacceptable in view of the degree to which both national and international organisations have participated in programmes in this sector run by our respective organisations in conjunction with the appropriate division of the ILO. It is also unacceptable that governments or an international agency such as the FAO should “encourage” development of such organisations in circumstances lacking the protection of internationally agreed standards as were referred to by the Director-General. How far the FAO has progressed in this direction is indicated by the Regional Centres being established in separate continents for implementation of this programme.
Understandably because of the limitations imposed upon an inter-governmental organisation, no provision is or can be made for participation by NGOs as a basic right in the deliberations of such centres. Instead, the decision as to whether such participation is possible, is permitted and by what organisation, will remain in the hands of governments concerned which in too many instances have already demonstrated their hostility to free associations.
Time is pressing and I cannot elaborate the many instances where this is so. I can however mention those instances where appointed military advisers have been placed - in certain countries - in supervision of. what were once free trade unions.
I could also indicate the degree to which in other countries participation at regional level in what were originally free organisations, are now part of the party-political machine, not permitted to hold the international links which is their fundamental right.
Since many feel as we have been assured that because the FAO has claimed it is willing to hand over projects to organisations seeking its cooperation, the fears expressed above may appear exaggerated. However, IFPAAW has carried out projects worth 7 million dollars over the past seven years and has worked in complete harmony with governments which accept the basic ILO standards for their people..
We were, however, also assisting embryonic organisations through programmes of education, training, organising and projects in these “grey” areas where association with the new FAO approach would necessitate government involvement.
In such circumstances we note the omission of the Director-General of any positive reference to the role of international NGOs in page 8. of his statement relating to participation in development Here he states:..... “ideally, such organisations should be spontaneous, not sponsored from outside. In practice, some degree of encouragement may be necessary, and FAO in cooperation with governments is now in the early stages of a programme for this purpose”. “Encouragement” is a strange word. How many of the millions of the world’s refugees have received governments “encouragement” to adopt such status. We are confident that the Director-General was not using this word in that context but clearly it is governments who will finally determine what in their individual approach is the quotation given. In relation to this we can only reiterate the views expressed only a few weeks ago in Peru when these matters were discussed in a forum at which the FAO was by invitation represented as an observer. Here, delegates from IFPAAW affiliates in 9 countries expressed definite apprehension at any programme designed to assist them which must come from or through governments.
As their International we must hear and share these apprehensions. Hence the inability of both IFPAAW and ICFTU to participate in the envisaged programme at this time and in the absence of greater assurances in relation to the points raised above.
Instead this matter will remain open to be further considered at a joint meeting of representatives of both organisations when decisions appropriate to the majority decision of those represented will be taken 1/.
The meeting rose at 17.45 hours
La séance est levée à 17 h 45
Se levanta la sesión a las 17.45 horas
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1/ Statement inserted in the verbatim records on request
