However, assistance is needed from regional and international organisations, especially the specialised United Nations organisations to achieve this goal. We pledge to use our best efforts to reinforce action to further reduce poverty among communities dependent on agriculture, fisheries, forestry and micro-enterprises for their well-being, stated the communiqué issued at the conclusion of a two-day UN Food and Agricultural Organisation meeting in St. Lucia last week on nutrition, education, and HIV/AIDS.

While we can certainly expect our governments, our civil societies, our business sectors and even rural people themselves and their communities to support local initiatives in education for rural people, we shall need and indeed require the support of the Caribbean Development Bank, the World Bank and our bilateral partners, the communiqué said.

The meeting brought together several Caribbean ministers of education, agriculture, and rural development, who noted that training and education had progressed at all levels in the region, despite setbacks from such natural disasters as hurricanes and volcanic eruptions, as well as an adverse world economy.

Conference participants stressed that poverty and indigence rates remained higher among rural people than in the rest of the population, and noted that more could be done to alleviate this situation with the help of civil society and the business sector.

They called upon regional and international agencies, specifically the FAO, and the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), two of the meetings sponsors, to help with the development of locally feasible systems of monitoring, evaluation and research to measure progress and devise strategies to deal with emerging issues.

FAO education expert, Lavinia Gasperini stated that education for rural people had a direct im-pact on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), In this respect, the Caribbean conference has helped raise awareness of the importance of education for rural people as a critical step towards eradicating poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education and promoting gender equality.