New York, Sep 6 2005 - On the eve of an international
meeting on development and education, the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) today said that
education provides the best route for the rural poor in
Sub-Saharan Africa to work their way out of poverty.
"Illiteracy is a correlate of poverty and hunger and is
mainly a rural phenomenon which hinders rural development and
food security, threatens productivity and health and limits
opportunities to improve livelihoods -- particularly for rural
girls and women," FAO education expert Lavinia Gasperini said
in anticipation of a ministerial seminar in Addis Ababa that
opens tomorrow.
"Since the vast majority of the population in sub-Saharan
Africa are rural, and since agriculture is a key sector for
rural development and economic growth, more efforts are needed
in educating the rural poor and helping them to apply improved
technologies to make small-scale farming viable and
profitable," Ms. Gasperini added.
The Addis Ababa seminar will focus on the current situation
of education for rural people in sub-Saharan Africa and ways
and means to improve it. The elimination of gender
disparities in education will present an important
topic.
Ms. Gasperini said the meeting would gather, for the first
time, ministers of education, agriculture, fisheries and rural
development from several African countries. In addition,
representatives from the African Union, civil society
organizations and bilateral and multilateral development
bodies will attend.
The meeting, which will run from 7-9 September, is
organized by FAO along with the UN Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Association for the
Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), in partnership with
Ethiopia's Ministry of Education and with the support of the
Italian Development Cooperation (DGCS) and the Norwegian Trust
Fund for Education in Africa (NETF).
For more news vist the
UN News
Centre website. To learn more about the
Goal 2,
click here.
