UN agencies call for increased aid for agriculture and rural development

(July 8, 2005) While welcoming recent donor initiatives to increase development aid and aid coordination, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) called today for more funding to help boost agriculture and rural development in the world's poorest nations where hunger is often the major cause of suffering.

The agencies said that despite the fact that the majority of poor people live in rural areas and that hunger is a major cause of poverty, initiatives aimed at agriculture and rural development and on direct food assistance have been sorely lacking.

"The poorest countries are those with predominately agricultural economies and societies, and the three agencies said there is ample evidence that transforming rural lives and livelihoods is essential for successfully reducing hunger and poverty," the agencies said.

The agencies called for increasing resource mobilization, combined with greater aid efficiency and focusing the aid where the poor are concentrated - in rural areas. They also called for better harmony between actions on aid and those on trade. Increasing developing country access to world agricultural markets and making their agriculture more competitive domestically and internationally will greatly enhance the impact of development assistance.

For the original information from the United Nations, see http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=14952&Cr=ecosoc&Cr1#

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