Most efficient exit from extreme poverty
By LENNART BAGE
Special to The Japan Times
For years, the world has looked to Asia as a leader in many areas,
particularly business and technology. Now Asia is serving as an important
example to follow in the international race to meet the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
Economic growth in the region has raised annual per capita incomes by 75
percent since 1990 and lifted hundreds of millions of people out of extreme
poverty. While the various approaches differed, one common lesson is clear:
Asian countries that saw the most growth were those that made significant
investments in agriculture and rural development.
As the region's leading economy and largest source of aid, Japan has been a
pivotal partner in Asia's "miracle" transformation. For more than 50 years,
Japan has been delivering development assistance throughout Asia and
successfully linking it to trade and investment. Today, Japan is the
second-largest source of aid in the world and one of the most active bilateral
donors.
The world needs Japan to continue to play its critical role in global
development. Despite economic advances in countries such as Indonesia and
Vietnam, Asia is still home to more than two-thirds of the world's 1.1 billion
poorest people -- almost half of them living in South Asia.
Human rights go hand in hand with development and security. No country can hope
to maintain security within its borders without peace and prosperity beyond
their shores. And in today's increasingly globalized world, once-distant shores
are now far more accessible, making endemic poverty and the problems it breeds
everyone's shared responsibility and risk.
The current crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, calls for global
cooperation. Poverty and malnutrition levels are on the rise, as armed
conflict, disease and poor governance continue to wreak havoc in the region.
There has been some progress in Africa in recent years, including increased
food production, but inefficient institutions and insufficient infrastructure
are inhibiting the continent's ability to lift itself out of poverty and
achieve the MDGs.
For this reason, Africa is now looking to Asia to learn more from their last 30
years of growth. Japan is well positioned to help guide this important process
and has already demonstrated its support by hosting the Tokyo International
Conference on African Development.
There is a special affinity between Asia and Africa. Both have large rural
populations that rely on agriculture for their survival. Together, South Asia
and sub-Saharan Africa account for about 70 percent of the world's poorest
people. In these regions and elsewhere, countries that are making the most
rapid progress toward meeting the MDGs are channeling high shares of public
expenditure to agricultural and rural sectors.
Broad-based development in rural areas can boost small-scale agriculture, which
increases the demand for seeds, irrigation, fertilizer, tools, processing and
transportation -- which in turn leads to more jobs in the off-farm sector. With
increased incomes, hundreds of millions of rural people are better able to
enter into the global economy and purchase manufactured goods and services.
I applaud Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's recent pledge to double Japan's
aid to Africa over the next three years. But for official development
assistance to be truly effective, Japan and other donors must ensure that
sufficient levels are targeting the rural and agricultural sectors.
At the African Union Summit in Maputo in 2003, African leaders set an important
example when they pledged to spend at least 10 percent of their national
budgets on agricultural development. It also signaled the aspirations and
commitment of Africans to take charge of their own future.
At the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), our experience
has shown that countries -- particularly local communities -- need to be at the
helm of development activities if they are going to be successful. As a
specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated exclusively to eradicating
rural poverty, IFAD aims to support the capacity of governments to respond more
effectively to the needs of rural poor people. By focusing on country-specific
solutions, IFAD develops and finances programs and projects that give rural
poor people access to the resources they need to overcome poverty themselves.
IFAD has had the privilege of working with Japan in many activities,
particularly in Asia, but also in Africa and Latin America. Over the last 28
years, Japanese contributions to IFAD have helped build rural roads and markets
in Bangladesh, improve food security in Rwanda, provide microcredit services in
Sri Lanka, care for poor women's livestock in Yemen -- and more.
IFAD and Japan also work together to support the New Rice for Africa
initiative, which uses biotechnology to combine the hardiness of local African
rice species with the high productivity of Asian rice and has already reduced
hunger, boosted nutrition levels and increased incomes in seven pilot countries
in Africa.
The international community must act to meet MDG targets this year -- or let
them pass. The good news is that we have the tools and the technology to ensure
that MDGs are met in every low-income country in the world. But we still need
more supportive policies.
Unless efforts are made on an international level to address the special needs
of poor countries, globalization will continue to increase poor people's
vulnerability and make them less able to cope with catastrophes, be it a
tsunami, flu epidemic or an economic crisis.
There are 192 ongoing IFAD-supported rural poverty eradication programs and
projects, totaling $6.5 billion. IFAD has invested about $2.8 billion in these
initiatives. Co-financing has been provided by governments, beneficiaries,
multilateral and bilateral donors and other partners.
At full development, these programs will help more than 100 million rural poor
women and men to achieve better lives for themselves and their families. Since
starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested almost $8.7 billion in 690
projects and programs that have helped more than 250 million poor rural men and
women achieve better lives for themselves and their families.
Lennart Bage is president of the International Fund for Agricultural
Development, a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to
eradicating rural poverty in developing countries. He lives in Sweden.
The Japan Times: June 2, 2005
(C) All rights reserved
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