OF THE UNITED NATIONS
|
|
|||||
| FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS |
ISLAMIC DEVELOPMENT BANK | |||||
Follow-up to the World Food Summit and the World Food Summit: five years later:
IsDB/FAO High-Level Meeting on Regional Programmes for Food Security
Director-General
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Your Excellency President Ahmed Mohamed Ali of the Islamic Development Bank
Distinguished Heads of Delegations
Your Excellencies
Ladies and Gentlemen
On behalf of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), I would like to express my gratitude to the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and in particular to His Excellency, President Ahmed Mohamed Ali, for hosting this important meeting and for extending to us the warm welcome of this great institution. The joint convening of this meeting reflects the excellent collaboration between the Islamic Development Bank and FAO and bears testimony to the firm commitment of both our institutions to supporting our membership in their efforts to enhance food security and alleviate poverty.
I wish to welcome the many professional organizations that are represented here today, concerned as they are with agriculture and development issues in the region. Their role is crucial to ensuring success in our efforts to develop agriculture and to combat hunger.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen
As you know, this region is characterized by an arid and semi arid climate with low and variable rainfall. It consists of a number of low and middle-income countries with a population of about 361 million people, of whom 44% live in the rural areas, and constitute 36% of the total labour which work in agriculture - including fishing and livestock. The population of the Near East which had doubled over the last 30 years is projected to reach 618 million in 2030, of which 413 will be in the urban areas.
The region faces several challenges and constraints to sustainable agricultural development. These include problems related to natural resources availability and management, environmental degradation, with an annual deforestation of 926 thousand hectares, the spreading of plant pests and animal diseases, and the concerns about food safety. Furthermore, the inexorable processes of globalization and of rapid change in the international and regional trade and economic environments impose additional challenges which call for sometimes painful adaptation. The emergence of multilateral trade agreements and of large economic blocks leave countries relatively powerless and at local level, inadequate food marketing systems constitute a major constraint to the availability and accessibility of food.
The prevalence of under-nourishment in the population is 12% and affecting mainly the rural areas as the total per capita food availability reaches 2800 Kilocalories per day against 2670 in developing countries. Poverty results primarily from low productivity. For cereal production the average is 2M tons per hectares against 3.1 for the developing countries. The annual average growth of crop production is 2.4% against 3.1% for the developing countries. This is the consequence of the present level of fertilizer use, 73 kg. of nutrients per ha of arable land against 116 in the developing countries, although impressive progress has been made in mechanisation with an average use of 18 tractors per ha of arable land against 9 in developing countries.
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen
In the Near East region, the key constraints are the limited arable land, only 6% of the world total, against 54.8 for the developing countries and in particular the scarcity of water availability 14000 cubic metres per capita against 6300 in the developing world. Agriculture is using 88% of the freshwater, against 84% in the developing world, to irrigate 33% of the arable land. More than 20 million hectares of land, equivalent to some 60 percent of the land with irrigation potential, are already irrigated. There is therefore urgent need for concerted efforts to adjust to water scarcity so as to withstand the increasingly severe competition between agriculture and non-agricultural uses (such as by cities and industries). Water is essential to raise agricultural productivity, but it must be used more efficiently: there must be "more crop for every drop".
The Near East is already vulnerable to erratic climate conditions. But uncertainty will also come from unreliable markets in a liberalised environment. The total agriculture trade deficit has reached 16 billion US$. There is therefore a need for improving social and safety nets such as through targeting of food support and providing health and nutrition assistance to mothers and children.
I am convinced that governments in the region are committed to do their best for their citizens in their individual countries. However, the region must seize opportunities for more supportive integrated regional development policies and strategies which will complement the efforts of individual member countries, such as:
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The role of active and progressive regional financial institutions like the Islamic Developing Bank in supporting regional and national efforts to fight hunger and achieve sustainable food security is recognized and appreciated. But there is a need for increased investment in agriculture in the region as recommended by the World Food Summit of 2002 and promised at Monterray. Total development commitments to agriculture in the Near East is only 645 million US$ constant price in 1995, against 11 billion for the developing countries.
I must take this opportunity to commend the Islamic Development Bank for supporting the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), which was launched by FAO in 1994. The programme is now operational in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. It has been formulated for Jordan and is being prepared for Kazakhstan, Turkemenistan, and Tajikistan. It is focusing on low-cost irrigation systems costing US$ 200 - 2,000/ha, crop production intensification, short cycle animal production, artisanal fisheries and aquaculture. It has demonstrated that it is possible to increase production and foster rural development with small investment at village level and mobilization of local labour. The Programme is reinforced by the FAO's South-South Cooperation initiative, which allows, at a modest cost, experts from more experienced developing countries, like Egypt and Morocco, to work directly with farmers in the recipient countries. The Islamic Development Bank is contributing about US$ 4 million to the SPFS and South-South Cooperation activities in two countries in the region. But the funding of the 11 m. US$ SPFS in the region represents only 2% of the total of 522 m. mobilized for the developing countries.
National action can be complemented with efforts at regional level: here Regional Economic Organizations can play a key role. They can implement sub-regional interventions to address cross-border issues such as trade, conflict and transboundary diseases and pests. They can also promote inter-regional infrastructure development, the fostering of trade harmonization and liberalization policies, economic integration and improvement of food quality and safety standards; export diversification and integrated early warning systems for the region. FAO is working closely with relevant Regional Economic Organizations in many parts of the world to ensure that appropriate strategies and programmes are designed, implemented and followed up to meet the major production, distribution, trade and investment challenges. It has already cooperated with most of the Regional Economic Unions in the preparation of Regional Programmes for Food Security, of which three are the Union of West African States, the Caribbean Community, and the Pacific Forum.
During the World Food Summit: five years later (WFS:fyl) held in Rome in June 2002, several Regional Economic Organizations presented their programmes for food security at side events to audiences that included potential donors. Included among them were the Arab Council for Economic Unity (CAEU), the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), and the Arab Organization for Agricultural Development. These side-event meetings proved to be extremely successful in raising awareness, with the active high-level participation. More importantly, these meetings allowed the Regional Economic Organizations to introduce to the international community their vision and expectations with regard to food security.
It is to follow up the constructive dialogue initiated at the WFS:fyl with the appropriate financial institutions and donors that this forum has been convened. Through today's meeting, the Islamic Development Bank in collaboration with FAO seek to sustain awareness and interest in regional food security issues as well as to highlight the needed follow-up actions. Meanwhile, ECO, CAEU and AMU have requested FAO technical support for designing, following-up and monitoring the regional programmes for food security, and to prepare bankable projects for consideration by financial institutions. This will enhance the capacity to support their twenty-five member countries, including five Central Asian countries.
I am sure that this meeting will permit further exchange of ideas and views among the Regional Economic Organizations attending and between them and development partners. The ideal is to quickly move beyond global sector programmes to bankable projects for implementation by member countries, for the welfare of their people.
I thank you for your kind attention, and wish you successful deliberations.
