CHAIRMAN: I declare the 14th Plenary meeting of the Conference open. Before I Invite the first speaker to speak, I would remind the Non-Governmental Organizations which have consultative status with the FAO, and who have obtained the right .to speak by decision of the Conference, that it is on the understanding that the maximum time limit of ten minutes will be observed.
Lino VISANI (Observateur de l’Alliance coopérative Internationale): Monsieur le Président, Messieurs les délégués, Mesdames, Messieurs, je vous remercie de m’avoir donné la parole au nom de l’Alliance cooperative Internationale. Perraettez-moi tout d'abord, Monsieur le Président, de vous féliciter de votre excellente présidence.
J'ai l'honneur en outre d'exprimer au nom de l’Alliance coopérative Internationale toutes nos félicitations au Directeur général de la FAO, le Docteur Saouma à l'occasion de sa réélection à la tête de la FAO. Son oeuvre sera trés importante face à la situation très complexe que nous vivons.
Permettez-moi de dire quelques mots à propos de cette situation. La perspective de la situation économique ainsi que la situation politique Internationale actuelle, est caractérisée par beaucoup de difficultés complexes.
L'agriculture et l’alimentation deviennent toujours plus interdépendantes avec les systémes économlques, lndustriels et financiers actuels.
L'agriculture et les paysans dans le monde entier, mais surtout dans les pays en développeinent, paient un prix beaucoup trop haut et insoutenable. Je me réfère en particulier au poids de l'endettementt, du service de la dette ainsi qulaux contradictions profondes du marché mondial et surtout du marché agricole alimentaire et des termes de l'échange.
II faut réfléchir sur la chute du marche mondial durant ces derniers mois pour ceux qui voient fléchir en ces années la valeur essentielle de la liberté du marché alors qu'eux-mêmes élèvent toutes les barrieres possibles pour défendre les grands intérèts existants dans leur économic
Encore une fois, on pose le rôle fondamental de l'agriculteur et de l'alimentation pour défendre les conditions de base pour une relance d'un développement équitable de l'économie et de la communauté mondiale afin de défendre l'environnement pour élargir la base productive mondiale pour une coopération Internationale basée sur la valorisation du facteur humain et pour un règlement du marché mondial.
Ces derniers temps, nous avons enregistré quelques évécnements importants: la reprise du discours mondial sur le désarmement, la reprise de l’initiative de l'ONU et aussi la derniére réunion du GATT à Punta del Este ont ouvert quelques espoirs pour la paix et pour l'agriculture ainsi que pour un règlement du marché mondial.
Tous ces événements sont des faibles espoirs de la coopération Internationale qui peuvent être réalisés avec le concours de tous les peuples.
L'Alliance de la coopérative internationale, avec ses 500 millions de membres associés, et les coopératives de 70 pays ont donné leur collaboration à ce mouvement pour l’esprit de solidarité sociale et lntercollaboration qui est à la base de l’action collective. Dans cet esprit, l'ACI soutient le renforcement du rôle de la FAO sur la base des principes fondamentaux qui déterminent l’action de I'ONU. Nous souhaitons que tous les pays qui adhèrent á la FAO avec cet esprit de coopération de solidarité Internationale, et de participation paritaire au développement de la communauté mondiale renforcent l’amelioration de l'efficacité de l’action de l'ONU.
Nous jugeons par conséquent positive l’action concernant le programme de travail et de budget pour les prochaines années. Toutefois, nous retenons qu'll faut donner plus d'importance à l’intégration entre le développement agrlcole et le développement rural, ainsi qu'aux rapports de l'agrlculteur avec le marché. Dans le cadre agricole et alimentaire équitable. nous soulignons le rôle des coopératives dans le domaine de la production, des services du crédit, de l'epargne, de la distribution comme une condition fondamentale pour réaliser la participation des ruraux plus faibles et le développement agricole et social ainsi que toutes les autres formes d'organisations populaires. Cette orientation est valable aussl pour la pèche et pour la foresterie.
Trente mouvements de coopératives de petits pècheurs sont membres de I'ACl.
Par exemple, pouvons-nous réaliser une politique équitable du développement de la pèche dans le cadre d'une politique alimentaire sans favoriser le renforcement de ce mouvement? A notre avis, cela est impossible .Nous souhaitons en plus qu’un rapport et une collaboration étroite s’instituent entre la FAO et l'ACI.
L'assistance à l’agriculture, à la pèche, aux prestations, est liée au développement rural L'efficacité d'une politique agricole et alimentaire de programmation est liée au développement des forces d'associations rurales et surtout des formes cooperatives capables de devenir libres et autonomes
L'ACI fait tout ses efforts pour assurer l’assistance au développement corporatif vers tous les pays en développement. Nous avons ouvert les Bureaux de Hoshi en Tanzanie, pour l'Afrique orientale, de Abidjan-pour la Côte d'Ivoire et l'Afrique occidentale, de Nouvelle-Delhi pour l'Asie.
Le dernier Comité central de l'ACI, en octobre, a approuvé l'ouverture du Bureau du Costa Rica pour l'Amérique latlne centrale ainsi que des autres Installations régionales pour renforcer l’action de l’assistance et du développement coopératif dans les pays en développement
L'ACI ainsl que la FIPA et les autres INGO, lors de la derniére réunion du Comite agricole de la FAO (COAG) a proposé de consacrer un point de l'ordre du jour de la prochalne réunion du Comité agricole au processus de la participation rurale et du développement agricole Nous avons appris que cette proposition a été acceptée par la FAO
Nous sommes trés heureux et 'nous donnerons notre collaboration à la preparation de cette importante séance
Nous prendrons. encore en consideration une proposition de La délégation gouvernementale de la Suisse pour la création d'un Comité d'agriculteurs, dans le but de réaliser un contact et une collaboration qui sera plus fertile au niveau central et local
Nous estimons que cette proposition est trés intéressante II est nécessaire de donner un cadre plus défini, moins occaslonnel aux rapports INGO et les ONG sur la base de l’exigence de l’Integration du développement agricole et rural
Nous retenons toutefois qu'il serait trés utile de préciser cette proposition aupres du Secrétariat de la FAC avec la collaboration des INGO, collaboration plus représentative de la réalité rurale, pour annoncer une proposition sur ce sujet lors de la prochaine Conférence
Merci,Monsieur le Président
Ms Lucia BRADER-BREUKEL (Observer for the Associated Country Women of the World): ACWW, the Associated Country Women of the World, is an international NGO which has been acting as an advocate of rural women and their families for over 50 years. Its multi-million membership is divided into some 180 member societies in over 70 countries and in every region of the world. It is a membership which flourishes at the grassroots level, focusing on the issues affecting rural women and is consequently deeply interested in the activities reported and done by FAO in the implementation of the WCARRD Programme of Action and in FAO's contribution to the Forward—Looking Strategies adopted by the 1985 Nairobi Conference on Women.
ACWW has, in fact, held Consultative Status with FAO since 1947. Over the years it has collaborated with FAO in several activities focusing on rural women or nutrition education. Indeed the aims of ACWW are close to the work of FAO since they include raising the living standards of rural women and their families and being an advocate for them with the international community.
When it comes to wresting a living from the land, with whatever resources may be available, rural women and their families have had considerable experience.' In the past certain misdirected development efforts sometimes led to inappropriate practices being recommended to supposedly "improve" a situation which, in fact, was probably already fully exploited. After all, the indigenous technical knowledge of the farmers has been acquired and tested through many years of "on-farm experimentation" and should be recognised for its true value and utilized! Not only can researchers learn from this local expertise but friends and neighbours can be encouraged to learn from the successful operator next door, whether in matters concerning food production or income-generation activities, fuel wood development or apiculture, to name just a few of the many activities in which rural women may be involved.
After a helpful neighbour an important agent of change may be the local women's organization. High returns may be expected from giving support, whether in terms of funds, transport or services, to assist such an organization to provide their members with the inputs needed to alleviate their workload and, possibly, increase their productivity. There is, in fact, much to be said in favour of concentrating development efforts on facilitating women's own forms of organization because experience has shown their value in providing a launching pad for rural women's progress. Some women's organizations have been successful in, for example, obtaining credit or in forming pre-cooperatives as well as in obtaining technical advice for their members in their manifold tasks. In addition, the programme planners and managers could also learn from the grassroots level groups: using them as valuable sources of both collecting and disseminating information; stimulating public interest in such matters as food security; and playing their part in national and regional technical cooperation networks.
It has been noted that in only a limited number of countries have farm women been specified as direct target beneficiaries of their national extension service. And yet at the 1987 ACWW Council meeting, a forum in which all our member societies are represented, stress was laid again on the importance of providing rural women with credit facilities and of training women farmers, especially in appropriate technologies and management skills. How is this to happen if extension services are not available and focused on women's needs? Such services may be expensive to establish and operate but working through an NGO using a participatory approach may make it possible to provide increased and more effective facilities at limited extra cost. In the same way, in the field of nutrition education, grassroots level organizations of rural women could well be involved in, for example, nutritional awareness campaigns or in efforts to promote the production and consumption of foods rich in carotene and vitamin A.
These are only a few of the areas in which national member societies of NGOs such as ACWW could be effective tools in the implementation of national programmes aided by FAO. ACWW, indeed, looks forward to increased collaboration with FAO especially through the involvement of our member societies in the programmes and projects to which FAO provides support to member nations, whether in Agriculture, Forestry or Fisheries, in their efforts to meet the joint challenges of hunger and poverty.
Glenn FLATEN (Observer for the International Federation of Agricultural Producers): Mr Chairman, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen: During the last FAO Conference, two years ago, which coincided with FAO's 40th Anniversary, speeches at this Plenary and the debate in the Committee obviously focused on the Organization's past achievements and the tasks ahead. We all recognized then, and recognize now the valuable and important work which FAO is carrying out in the development of agriculture. Despite the many achievements in world agriculture over the past 42 years, warning signals of a worldwide critical agricultural situation have been apparent over the past five years.
Recently, serious imbalances in international commodity markets are depressing prices to alarmingly low levels, often below the cost of production. Stocks of food commodities are accumulating and yet 400 million people, mainly in the developing countries do not have enough to eat. Food is usually available but there is too often inadequate purchasing power to buy even the most basic requirements.
Governments must take the lead in having their intergovernmental organizations, including FAO, concentrate their efforts to find solutions to these vital issues.
There is no single or miracle solution to the current crisis. In the longer term, we look to the GATT Round to resto’re more orderly international trade. But as this will take time, short- and medium-term solutions must be taken to bring supply and effective demand into better balance, reduce excessive stocks and improve the management of existing stocks. This will bring international commodity prices back to more remunerative levels, reduce the necessity of export subsidies and restore fairer trade conditions. Consequently farmer's incomes will improve, and it will also allow developing countries a better access to export markets.
Governments in the developing countries should give their farmers the right incentives to increase production and make it possible for them to raise their income.
A more rapid and sound development of agriculture would create greater purchasing power and more employment in the rural areas and would make it possible for agriculture to become the basis and the engine of overall development. This together with the-easing of the arduous debt burden of the developing countries would free financial resources for essential imports of farm inputs needed for increased production and also make it possible to purchase additional food supplies where necessary. Thus by the twin approach of supply adjustment and increasing effective demand many of the current agricultural difficulties could at least be eased.
You, the Ministers of Agriculture in FAO, are the main intergovernmental organization concerned with agriculture. You are the forum where Ministers of Agriculture debate the various aspects of the agricultural situation and discuss programmes to develop agriculture. It is to you, that farmers look for the creation of the right economic and political climate which makes it possible for them to function effectively. Without the right incentives farmers cannot and will not produce the required food and other agricultural commodities.
So while one recognizes that governments make the policy decisions, it is we farmers who produce the commodities and carry out the farming operations. Surely, farm leaders know best how producers are likely to react to policy proposals or market signals. Surely it is farm leaders who can best convey to governments and to an international forum such as FAO, how producers see the situation and what they feel should be done to resolve the many difficulties facing them.
And it is on behalf of farmers that I, as president of the International Federation of Agricultural Producers, have the pleasure and duty to address you today.
Our Federation represents over 60 national level farmers' organizations and agricultural cooperatives in over 50 countries, nearly half of them from the developing countries. We are the only worldwide body of farmers' organizations. We have often been aptly called the FAO of farmers.
Our organization provides a unique forum for farm leaders to meet regularly "to exchange views and experiences in order to reach a better understanding of each others' situations. On that basis we have been able to arrive at consensus and find solutions to many diverse issues. Our member organizations discuss the conclusions with their governments and IFAP represents their views in the international fora such as in FAO, OECD, GATT and International Commodity Councils.
The joint IFAD/IFAP workshops on "promoting greater farmer involvement in agricultural development programs and the strengthening of farmers' organizations" in Kenya, Tunisia and Nepal this year have clearly demonstrated the importance and value of this approach.
The current FAO/IFAP project on Promoting Farmers' Unions in Africa proves that FAO too attaches great importance to strengthening farmers' organizations. I can also quote the good example of the successful collaboration of IFAP, FAO, ILO and other INGOs in COPAC, especially with regard to development programs concerning cooperatives.
Governments and farmers must work together both at the national and international level to accelerate progress. I hope we can agree on that. Indeed in most, if not yet in ail countries, governments have recognized farmers and their own representative organizations as valid partners.
However, the farmers' voice is rarely directly heard during Conference or Council meetings, and then usually only at the end of a debate when most, conclusions have already been reached. IFAP has for many years stressed that the farmer is at the centre of the agricultural stage. It is essential, therefore, that farm leaders are at the centre of the stage when policies are discussed: when structural agricultural adjustments are debated, when changes in production are considered, or when measures to raise income, purchasing power and effective demand are examined.
At a time of crisis, such as is the case at present, effective and frank dialogue between us is absolutely vital.
At this critical time,strong, representative and autonomous farmers' organizations are more important than ever. This is essential to promote the interests of agricultural producers, including small farmers and women farmers, and to assist governments in bringing about the necessary policy changes which will ultimately benefit the community and lead to overall economic development.
I would, therefore, like to put forward concrete and practical proposals which would result in closer involvement of farmers organizations in the work of FAO.
Our working relationship with FAO, especially at the Secretariat level is good. But cooperation and consultation between FAO and IFAP can and should be developed much further. We had the opportunity to discuss "how to improve our working relationship" with the Director-General of FAO in January. As a result, the first informal consultation with FAO's Commodity Division took place in September, This proved very successful and enabled both FAO and IFAP representatives to understand each others views far better. We found that we agreed on the analysis of the commodity situation and there were few differences with regard to the approach of seeking solutions. We would like to see such consultations repeated on a regular basis, on commodity issues as well as other matters of mutual concern.
We have had consultations with OECD’s Committee on Agriculture in which both the Agricultural x Division and country representatives participated.More recently, we have established a consultative process with GATT at the highest level in which country representatives also took part on one occasion. In July, an IFAP delegation met, with the International Wheat Council to discuss the grave situation in the international grain markets. All these meetings have been judged most useful by all parties concerned.
Based on this experience we are seeking an improved communication channel with FAO. In addition to informal consultations, we would like to see a method which would facilitate an exchange of views on a wider range of subjects including policy matters and issues relating to developing countries' programs.
The Swiss delegation has put forward a proposal to set up a FAO Farmers' Organizations Committee. We support the objectives and the involvement of representative farmers' organizations and also a close involvement of IFAP. The proposal needs further exploration as to membership, activities and its role.
We, in IFAP, want:
- Greater involvement of farmers' organizations through IFAP in FAO's development activities and
programs. FAO projects should pay special attention, and make specific budgetary provision to establish and strengthen farmers' organizations at the local and national level in developing countries.
- To see greater and regular participation of FAO in IFAP’s Commodity Groups and the Standing Committees on Agricultural Cooperatives and on Agriculture in Developing Countries. We, on our side, would welcome invitations to Expert Committees and Expert Consultations organized by FAO.
- FAO missions to contact farmers' organizations at all levels when countries are visited for project preparation, implementation and evaluation. It is also highly desirable that such missions get in touch with farmers' organizations in donor countries to seek their collaboration and advice. To facilitate this process IFAP is providing lists of its member organizations and we would like in return a list from them.
Furthermore, FAO should make use of the vast reservoir of experience and technical know-how of farmers' organizations and agricultural cooperatives, engage them as consultants and include them in their missions and employ them as management agents whenever and wherever possible. This would also establish a very useful farmer-to-farmer approach.
Mr Chairman, my time is up. Let me conclude by stressing the gravity of the situation in agriculture worldwide and which is aggravated by the current financial and economic crisis. The alarm bells are ringing.
We would urge member states and FAO as a whole to support our proposals and thereby assist farmers and their organizations.
Mikko PYHALA (Namibia): On behalf .of the United Nations Council for Namibia, the legal administering authority for Namibia until independence, I should like to join other delegations in congratulating you, Mr Chairman, and your distinguished colleagues of the Bureau on your election to these important posts, I extend my congratulations also to Mr Edouard Saouma for his third term as the Director-General.
The United Nations Council for Namibia would like to commend the role the FAO has played and continues to play in helping to alleviate the poverty and malnutrition in the world and specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Colonialism in Namibia resulted also in the wholesale seizure of land for the benefit of white settlers. This and the agrarian policies imposed by South Africa have led to the impoverishment of the Namibian people and have brought about severe ecological damage to their country.
Namibian agriculture is in deep crisis. Over-intensive, profit-motivated commercial ranching and over-crowded, impoverished peasant farming is seriously damaging the ecological base of the agricultural economy.
More than 90 percent of the dams and boreholes serve white-owned ranches and settlements. All agricultural support services, including agricultural credit, training and research, agricultural extension and veterinary services, agricultural inputs, transportation facilities and marketing organizations, are geared to the benefit of white farmers and ranchers.
The transformation of rural Namibia from extreme exploitation and ecological degradation to a productive, rational pattern of rural economy and society would be of vital necessity. To achieve this, comprehensive international assistance would be needed to support the transition and to help the government of a free Namibia to cope with disruptions and to institute its programmes for rural change and development.
When the United Nations General Assembly revoked South Africa's mandate over Namibia and took direct responsibility over the Territory more than two decades ago, it did so because South Africa had failed to fulfil its obligations under the mandate to promote to the utmost the economic, social and political development and well-being of the inhabitants of the Territory.
Having assumed direct responsibility of the Territory, the General Assembly established the United Nations Council for Namibia as the legal administering authority for Namibia until independence and charged it with the responsibility of representing, protecting and promoting the interests of Namibia and its people.
Since the launching of the Nationhood Programme for Namibia by the United Nations in 1978 and in response to the requests by the General Assembly, the FAO has executed in its own area of competence a variety of projects of assistance to Namibians in cooperation with the United Nations Council for Namibia. Most of these projects have already been -completed or are nearing completion. Just recently, in September 1987, a seminar was held at the United Nations Institute for Namibia in Lusaka, in which Nationhood Programme of Namibia research reports were discussed. Once finalized these reports together with the relevant parts of the recently published "Comprehensive study of Namibia” will provide outlines of policy option and recommendations for the development of important sectors of an independent .Namibia.
As for the future cooperation between the UN Council for Namibia and the FAO, I wish to refer to an evaluation of the Nationhood Programme as a whole. It is my understanding that during this forthcoming evaluation exercise careful consideration will also be focused on how the expertise of the FAO can be best utilized in preparing Namibia for independence.
While assistance from the FAO has been generous, the Council for Namibia believes that there continues to be a critical need for more assistance for the people of Namibia. Specifically, continued financing from the FAO's own resources or resources at its disposal, of individual fellowships for Namibians in agriculture and related fields is needed.
The Council would also like to request the FAO to continue to support the project on food and nutrition education for Namibians in the refugee settlements in Angola and Zambia by funding the 1988-1989 activities of this important project.
Furthermore, in accordance with the request by the General Assembly addressed to all specialized agencies, the Council would like to call upon the FAO to continue to grant a waiver of the assessment of Namibia during the period in which it is represented by the United Nations Council for Namibia.
Finally, it needs to be pointed out that, as the General Assembly has repeatedly stressed, the distortions inherent in Namibia's agricultural economy and the deteriorating conditions of Namibia's rural populations are a direct consequence of its continued illegal occupation by South Africa and the racist regime's refusal to cooperate in the implementation of the United Nations Plan for Namibia's independence contained in Security Council resolution 435 (1978), the only internationally accepted basis for a peaceful solution of the Namibian question.
South Africa's presence in Namibia has been called illegal by the General Assembly, the Security ' Council and the International Court of Justice. The apartheid regime's refusal to withdraw from Namibia has been universally condemned. The case for the independence of Namibia has been in the international limelight in the recent months and weeks, firstly at the High-Level Ministerial fleeting of the Council for Namibia, secondly at the Special Session of the Security Council on Namibia, and thirdly, when the General Assembly just last week adopted a number of resolutions on Namibia. It is significant that the General Assembly once again adopted these resolutions without anyone opposing them.
The struggle of the Namibian people for self-determination and independence is inextricably tied to our common endeavour to promote the universal principles of equality, justice and peace.
Reuben OLEMBO (UNEP): At the outset, Mr President, it is my great pleasure to repeat in public the message of congratulations which Dr Mostafa Tolba, UNEP's Executive Director conveyed to Mr Edouard Saouma on his unprecedented re-election as Director-General of FAO for another six-year period. For us in environmental work, Dr Saouma is not only a colleague and fellow toiler for the cause, but is one of the shapers of the international cooperative environmental action, for his personal interest in environmental matters goes back to the time he was Chairman of the Inter-Departmental Working Group on Environment set up to prepare FAO's participation to the Stockholm Conference. We believe that the existing spirit of collaboration in this matter will continue to grow during this new mandate you have given him.
Fifteen years have passed since the UN Conference on Human Environment in Stockholm, June 1972, which was the cradle of UNEP's establishment. Fifteen years of fruitful relations with all its foster parents in the UN System and around the world.
UNEP had to settle in a small niche surrounded by fully-fledged organizations, many of which had already over 20 years of experience in multilateral cooperative development action. Its mandate was specified by nearly the same countries that are here today, and it was a rather difficult and novel one as it was requested to assume coordination leadership in environmental activities of the entire UN System consisting of the big and the small although the resources made available to it in staff and -budget were rather small. It was, moreover, asked to take the lead responsibility for an area of concern only vaguely defined at Stockholm, and still yet poorly understood nor accepted as being in the mainstream of the development debate. It has now taken some time to get clear lines of action, to better understand the close, connections between environment and development, establish links and agreements and develop programmes and projects to promote this linkage. Today we can look back into UNEP's programme and action and also in the programmes and actions of other bodies and nations, and realize that even if the terrain was not an easy one, new tracks have been opened up and important landmarks stand at their junctions.
Most of our member nations have established ministries, committees, and training programmes related to environmental matters. They have signed conventions, agreements and accepted policy guidance which facilitates a better use of natural resources. The UN System has actively orchestrated much of this activity and has woven environmental imperatives into its own different programmes. Best of all, the complicated web of environmental interactions is much better understood today than it was in the mid-1970s. And with the recently published report of the World Commission on Environment and Development called "Our Common Future" and headed by Norwegian Prime Minister Brundtland, we have a new international consensus and blueprint for a new form of development which we are now popularly calling "sustainable development". But the environment, the world, if you wish Mr Chairman continues to change, and not always-in the right direction. We now have confirmation from the United Nations Fund Population Activity that the world's population has now increased to over 5 billion people and will nearly double in the next 40 years. Newcomers to this vast community will continue the age-old habit of eating, needing shelter, job opportunities and security, and each will be striving for a better and higher standard of living, sound aspirations which unfortunately our fragile natural resource base will be straining to the limits to cope with.
Living natural resources still grow at the old pace set by natural evolution. Economies have collapsed, risen, levelled and collapsed again on account of many factors, one of which and the most serious one is, an ecological cause. Drought, soil erosion, forest depletion continue to threaten the ecological balance. In the meantime the world has not yet found peace nor the way to equitably share in’the bounties of our natural resource harvest, and hunger persists. On the brighter side, we have reached a better understanding of and grip on problems like atmospheric pollution, the depletion of biological diversity and the linkages between environment and , development, and with these, we should now resolve to do a better job of natural resources husbandry and conservation.
From some of the papers in front of you we see statistics of net increases during the 1980s in wood timber production, output of processed wood products, fishery harvests and so on, but we also know that tropical forests are still disappearing at a rate of over 11 000 000 hectares per year. Top soil is literally going down the drain and what little is known of the global marine stock of productive biomass is discouraging, and genetic resources essential for agriculture development are disappearing at alarming rates. Biological diversity is also threatened in many regions of the globe.
In order to.perform our role in the UN system, we have fostered and followed the System-Wide Medium-Term Plan or SWMTEP as a framework for coordination and action within the UN system. We are moving to a new version of this agenda in close harmony with the UN's agencies and governments. A special session of the UNEP Governing Council will meet in four months' time to finalize a SWMTEP II which will then constitute a model for interagency cooperation and coordination in environmental matters for the 1990s.
In the history of collaboration between FAO and UNEP we wish to point to such landmarks as the establishment of the Ecosystems Conservation Group,the development of the State of Knowledge on Tropical Forests. The Tropical Forest-Resources Assessment which is still the best available study
of its kind and on which we are now moving towards its updating and enlarging its scope. The initiation, following two expert meetings in 1980 and 1982, of what is today the Tropical Forestry Action Plan. Various forms of collaboration to safeguard genetic resources in crops, animals, fisheries and forests. The hammering out of the World Conservation Strategy. The Strategy has inspired the formulation of many national strategies and more are in the process of preparation. The International Undertaking on 'Plant Genetic Resources, the World Soils Policy, the FAO Charter of Soils and many other joint endeavours are instruments now at our disposal which can be best used in doing a better job. We have just concluded the second FAO/UNEP/WHO International Conference on Mycotoxins in Bangkok and we wish to express UNEP's continued interest in the areas of monitoring, prevention and control of mycotoxins contamination. In the field of biological diversity a concrete example is the shaping up in joint FAO/UNEP activities in Latin America and the Caribbean which will assist in strengthening the national capacities for managing wildlands, protected areas and wildlife and for utilizing the full potential of wild plants and animal resources on a sustainable basis for enhanced economic and soil development there UNEP is most grateful for FAO hosting two interagency consultative meetings to review the UNEP supported and sponsored activities relevant to the development and protection of the marine and coastal environment in 1978 and 1979. Most of these actions have opened up new ground and some have now been taken into the FAO programmes as major items in their own right.
The record, then, is promising. Yet now, more than ever, we still need to be active and innovative partners, constantly seeking and finding new areas and new approaches for collaborative achievements. We are pleased to note, for example, that in consultations with UNEP's Global Resources information Database, FAO is establishing a GRID compatible geographical information system of its own.
Many of FAO's activities can be carefully adjusted to spearhead environmentally sound and sustainable development. There is a need, for example, to backstop the whole spectrum of FAO's work in the field of tropical forests, fisheries, agricultural development, and rural development, especially that part of it which involves technical cooperation, advisory services and design and implementation of field projects in developing countries, by environmental impact analysis and environmental cost-benefit analysis of alternatives. Moreover, agricultural sectoral policy guidance needs to be related to economic policies and incentives to bring about sustainable development, for example, prices of agricultural inputs and outputs, agricultural taxation, export subsidies or taxation as recommended by the Environmental Perspective to the Year 2000 and Beyond and the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development. Apart from a greater emphasis in FAO's programme on environmentally significant initiatives such as for example, integrated pest management, integrated approaches to improving soil productivity using organic matter, it is important to work towards making the whole of FAO's Programme on technical cooperation, investment projects, training, assistance and advice, contribute strongly, and systematically, to environmentally sound and sustainable agriculture. There is therefore scope for closer UNEP/FAO collaboration in this connection.
One item in UNEP's work has been very much in the news lately. I refer to the ozone question. Only recently, UNEP succeeded in getting 24 countries and the EEC to sign the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This historic agreement, signed on 16 September of this year, marks a major step forward in mankind's commitment to protection not only of the ozone layer, but of human health and the global environment. I need hardly call to your attention the recent alarming news of the worst thinning yet observed in the ozone layer over the Antarctic. Depletion of the ozone layer bodes ill for agricultural productivity, as then sun's ultraviolet rays are widely believed to have a damaging effect on the DNA of a variety of plants and animals, potentially including important crop an livestock species. Many newspaper accounts of this achievement rank it as the most important environmental concensus of the decade. The New Scientist described it as "not far short of a miracle".
We know something about the greenhouse effect but we are not yet sure of what total effect forest cover has on CO2 and on the carbon cycle as a whole. The subject of climatic change will loom large in environmental fora for the coming decade, and no other issue bodes greater danger for human livelihood than its likely impact on agricultural and natural resource productivity.
We are beginning to obtain more information about the effects of various toxic chemicals, in particular pesticides, on human health and the environment. Various countries have taken decisions, for one reason or another, to ban sales of a chemical domestically, while continuing to export
that chemical to other countries. At its most recent session, the Governing Council of UNEP adopted the London Guidelines for the Exchange of Information on Chemicals in International Trade. These Guidelines complement the FAO Code of Conduct on Pesticides, providing for exchange of information among exporting and importing countries with respect to chemicals in general, including pesticides. The Governing Council has requested the UNEP Secretariat to develop modalities of prior informed consent and other approaches which could usefully supplement the London Guidelines, and we at UNEP will shortly be calling on FAO for its advice in that regard.
The Governing Council of UNEP, also at its most recent session, adopted the Cairo Guidelines on the Environmentally Sound Management of Hazardous Waste, and called upon UNEP to develop a global convention on the control of transboundary movements of such waste. In the light of FAO's expertise in a number of areas related to this field in particular, for instanco, the issue of landfilling, we are looking forward to the participation of FAO in this effort.
My last remarks relate to the regional aspects of this problem, particularly the question of Africa-At regional level, UNEP has been working to establish mechanisms for exchanging information and encouraging coordination between governments, but more should be done to integrate our findings with those of other bodies like FAO. The first African Ministerial Conference on the Environment is one example of an opportunity to do just that. The implementation of its recommendations should be the business of governments; United Nations bodies should also work hand in hand to keep the necessary action on course.
In the sense that Africa has yet to find its own model of development to enable it to stand on its own and for ever banish the crises of famine and drought, it is indeed the sick continent on which all our cooperative endeavours should be concentrated. We have the Desertification Control Action Plan, the Lagos Plan, the UN Programme on the Economic Development and Recovery of Africa, the FAO African Agriculture Plan in the next 25 years, and the AMCEN Cairo Plan of Action for Cooperation on the Environment. These instruments should now be translated from theoretical paper exercises to practical programmes of action at field level with increased multilateral cooperation to enable the peoples of Africa to be human beings who can be sure of their bread, their water and their shelter, the minimum requisites for guaranteed survival. Because of our own location in Africa, being the only global United Nations body based in a developing region, we think we have an advantage of perspective which we can share with others who might not have the benefit of insight from, or the advantages of being in situ.
Our collaboration with FAO and other agencies and organizations is not a matter of will or choice, though we would naturally choose that course as may be. It is our duty not only to our sovereign members, but also to the men, women and children of today throughout the world, and to the unborn generations oí tomorrow. We take pride in this partnership. I wish this session of the FAO Conference resounding success.
Tran HUU HAI (Observateur de la Confédération mondiale du Travail): C'est avec beaucoup d'intérêt que la Confédération mondiale du Travail participe à cette vingt-quatrième Conférence de la FAO. Elle tient à lui rendre hommage pour ses efforts et ses réalisations dans les domaines de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation et lui assure sa coopération. Les rapports de la FAO constituent pour elle une source de référence et de réflexion très précieuse.
Pour sa part, la Confédération mondiale du Travail, à travers ses services d'étude et d'information et ses organisations affiliées, est toujours présente dans les campagnes d'information, de sensibilisation, de promotion et de la lutte en faveur d'un développement authentique en matière d'agriculture et d'alimentation dans le tiers monde, et d'un système de commercialisation de produits agricoles plus juste et plus efficace, aussi bien au niveau national qu'au niveau international.
La Confédération mondiale du Travail ne prétend pas pouvoir apporter des idées nouvelles à cette Conférence, sur des sujets abondamment étudiés et analysés par la FAO et d'autres organisations eminentes; elle voudrait seulement insister sur quelques aspects qui lui semblent fondamentaux, dont la réalisation permettrait de relever, ensemble, le défi de la famine et du sous-développement agricole dans le tiers monde.
Ses expériences sur le terrain lui ont permis d'arriver à la conclusion suivante: on ne pourrait pas résoudre- le problème de la faim et développer réellement l'agriculture dans un pays et particu-
liérement dans un pays en développement si on n'avait pas réalisé: la solidarité nationale et internationale; la participation volontaire et effective des paysans; la paix et la liberté pour la population.
Il est évident que pour beaucoup de pays en développement, pauvres en ressources, confrontés aux effets cumulés de la crise économique et monétaire mondiale, de la détérioration des termes de. l'échange des produits de base, de leurs dettes extérieures, de leur croissance démographique importante, des conflits locaux et des calamités naturelles,il est extrêmement difficile de faire lace aux problèmes de la famine et du développement sans une solidarité réelle, active et efficace au niveau national et au niveau international.
L'absence de solidarité, ou une solidarité inadéquate, a entraîné, dans certains pays du tiers monde, des coûts élevés en termes de souffrance humaine et de désordre social dramatique. Au moment où les uns meurent de faim, où le droit à la nourriture de survie est devenu un mirage pour les masses affamées, et où les autres vivent dans l'abondance, il est anormal, il est inhumain de continuer la logique du profit et de pratiquer la loi du plus fort.
Plus que jamais, la solidarité à l'intérieur de" chaque nation et entre les nations, doit être mise en oeuvre, concrètement et réellement.
Sur le plan national, la solidarité la plus efficace devrait se situer au niveau politique. Moins de corruption, moins de sectarisme, moins de dérive idéologique, et. plus de partage et de justice dans la politique des prix, des crédits, d'impôts et d'investissements en faveur des régions et des masses défavorisées et appauvries, sont nécessaires et indispensables. Dans cet ordre d'idées, la Confédération mondiale du Travail se réjouit de la volonté de certains gouvernements des pays du tiers monde de donner désormais leur priorité au développement rural.
Mais, face à l'ampleur des difficultés, la solidarité nationale reste insuffisante. La solidarité internationale, pour beaucoup de pays en développement, demeure indispensable, au moins, dans une perspective à court et à moyen terme. Ceci est particulièrement vrai dans les domaines de l'aide extérieure sous toutes ses formes, du commerce international et de la dette. Est-il raisonnable de continuer à chercher des profits, et uniquement des profits dans le commerce avec les pays pauvres et au détriment des pays pauvres, sans tenir compte de leurs impératifs de survie et de développement? Il serait absurde d'exiger des pays pauvres et endettés de payer leur dette par la ruine économique et sociale, il serait trop facile et irréaliste de prêcher les efforts de développement auprès des gens dévorés par la faim et la misère, surtout quand on est suralimenté, quand on dispose de moyens techniques performants et de stocks énormes de produits alimentaires excédentaires non utilisés! Combien de gens sont morts par manque de nourriture, combien de paysans sont épuisés par manque d'outils de travail adéquats et performants, combien de récoltes sont perdues par manque d'insecticides et d'engrais nécessaires. C'est dans ce contexte que la Confédération mondiale du Travail souscrit pleinement à la proposition de la FAO d'établir un réseau de stockage avancé dans des régions à risques, dont l'intervention rapide et efficace permettrait d'éviter bien des dégâts et de souffrances inutiles. Elle souhaite aussi que la conférence internationale sur la dette, organisée par le BIT à Genève ce mois-ci, aboutisse à des solutions équitables garantissant la poursuite des programmes de développement des pays endettés et pauvres. En un mot, le défi de notre temps est de réconcilier la logique du profit avec celle de la solidarité et du développement authentique. Le relever ne serait pas du domaine de l'impossible, d'autant plus que l'avenir de l'humanité en dépendrait.
Pour la Confédération mondiale du Travail, aucune politique de développement ne peut se réaliser et réussir sans la participation effective et volontaire de la population dans son élaboration et dans sa mise en oeuvre. Pour le développement de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation, en dehors des condi-tions techniques et financières nécessaires, la participation volontaire des paysans est une condition primordiale de succès. Pour avoir négligé ce facteur, beaucoup de gouvernements ont connu des échecs de leur politique de développement agricole. Des régimes totalitaires, avec leur bureaucratie arrogante et paralysante, et leur conception idéologique inadéquate, ont réussi pour leur part à transformer des pays jadis exportateurs de produits agricoles et alimentaires en des pays ravagés par la a sous-alimentation et la famine. En refusant le rôle moteur au paysan, en l'écartant de tout processus de décision, on l'a transformé soit en un automate travaillant sur ordre et sous la contrainte, soit en un être résigné, parfois révolté, toujours frustré, dont le présent est sombre et l'avenir incer-tain.
La Confédération mondiale du Travail pense que les paysans doivent être maîtres de leur destin et pouvoir jouer un rôle d'acteurs économiques actifs et responsables.
Pour cela, il faut qu'on respecte leur identité et leur besoin de liberté. Sans liberté d'association, de circulation et d'expression, il est illusoire d'espérer que les paysans s'engagent effectivement et avec enthousiasme dans le processus de développement agricole. Il est indispensable que la vie rurale s'active, que les associations de paysans se forment, que les syndicats de travailleurs agricoles s'organisent,que les coopératives agricoles se développent pour redonner aux paysans leur voix et leur place dans la vie politique, économique et sociale de leur pays.
Dans la logique de la participation de la population rurale, il est évident que lé développement agricole devrait être inclus dans un cadre plus vaste d'un développement rural intégré. Autrement dit, on ne pourrait pas résoudre durablement les problèmes de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation des pays en développement, sans une revalorisation de la vie rurale, sans une amélioration drastique des conditions de vie et de travail des paysans.
Pour les paysans, la guerre et l'insécurité sous toutes ses formes sont des facteurs déstabilisateurs de la vie rurale les plus redoutables et les plus dévastateurs. Ils représentent une calamité d'origine humaine la plus catastrophique pour les efforts de développement agricole.
Par leur nature, les activités agricoles ont besoin d'espace et de temps pour se.réaliser. Hélas, pour les pays en guerre, cet espace vital s'est souvent transformé en champ de bataille, et la durée nécessaire pour les travaux des champs est souvent perturbée par l'éruption des combats.
Dans ces conditions, il est illusoire de demander aux paysans de s'accrocher à la terre, de continuer à travailler, à investir et à se sacrifier pour un développement agricole aléatoire.
L'état d'insécurité inhérente à une situation politique et sociale incertaine affecte aussi et surtout la population rurale et provoque l'exode rural, l'abandon des terres, et un freinage dans la production agricole.
Dans certains pays, l'absence de guerre armée ne signifie pas la paix. Il y a en effet des régimes qui font la guerre contre leur propre peuple, soit par idéologie, soit par intérêt personnel ou partisan. On peut citer l'absence de vraie réforme agraire en faveur des paysans sans terre, le maintien des privilèges commerciaux en matière agricole, la collectivisation forcée et bureaucratique, les déplacements de population rurale mal préparés, l'établissement de nouvelles zones économiques inadéquates ou l'installation d'un climat de crainte et de suspicion comme les causes très significatives de la démotivation et de la frustration des paysans.
La Confédération mondiale du travail estime qu'on ne peut pas résoudre le problème de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation sans créer les conditions de paix authentique pour la vie rurale. Par paix authen-r-tique,'elle veut englober la sécurité, l'harmonie sociale, la joie et la liberté de vivre et de travailler pour tous. La Confédération mondiale du travail quant à elle lutte de toutes ses forces et de toutes ses convictions pour que cette paix authentique revienne sur terre, et en particulier sur les pays pauvres, victimes des fautes des hommes.
Lors de sa 18ème session, la Conférence de la FAO a approuvé la résolution 3/75 dans laquelle elle parle de la "réalisation du nouvel ordre économique international, dans le domaine de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation".
Douze années sont passées et le problème reste d'actualité. Nous sommes conscients que la question est complexe et la réponse exige de la coopération et de la solidarité à l'échelle mondiale. Mais le défi mérite d'être relevé et la FAO devra poursuivre ses efforts pour parvenir à ce but. Dans cette perspective, elle aura tout le soutien de la Confédération mondiale du travail et de ses organisations affiliées dans tous les continents.
Ms Zdenka INDRUCHOVÁ (Observer for the World Federation of Trade Unions): We hope that this afternoon's package of statements by trade unions and other international NGOs can be interpreted as FAO's intentions so that our voices are heard properly at this Conference and will not be lost.
Mr Chairman and distinguished delegates, on behalf of the World Federation of Trade Unions, which has enjoyed consultative status with the FAO since 1946, I would like to congratulate the Director-General not only on his re-election but also on his realistic assessment of the current world food and agriculture situation.
Our organization fully shares FAO's deep concern about increasing hunger and malnutrition in the world and highly appreciates all FAO's efforts aimed at eradicating famine and in improving economic and social conditions of the rural people.
In these efforts, FAO is fully supported by the world trade union movement which permanently campaigns for effective national and international actions to promote long-term solutions through agricultural and rural development programmes.
Thus, the 11th World Trade Union Congress - which was held in Berlin, GDR, September 1986 and which represented nearly 300 million organized workers from 147 countries - came to the following unanimous conclusion:
"A key aspect of the present development crisis in many countries is the deterioration in the agricultural situation. This is directly linked to the failure to enforce democratic agrarian reforms, to end large landownership as well as feudal and semi-frudal land relations and to eliminate the stranglehold over agriculture and farm produce exercised by the transnational corporations."
This Conference will discuss the second Progress Report on WCARRD follow-up.
I feel obliged to remind you in this connection that the trade unions extended their full support.and invested much hope in WCARRD and welcomed the adoption of its comprehensive programme now known as "Peasants' Charter".
We are convinced that - had the WCARRD Programme of Action been duly implemented - the last 9 years could have seen real progress in rural development based on land reforms ;and genuine people's participation. It could have significantly contributed to world food security.
The truth, however, is that even proclaimed reforms are sabotaged in practice. The big landlords are resisting any reform and they terrorize many rural regions with death squads and private armies. The basic right to association is denied and, in fact, there is veritable suppression of human rights of the rural masses in many parts of the world.
We wish to reiterate from this rostrum our urgent demand for the strict and effective implementation of the WCARRD Programme of Action by all governments that adopted it nearly a decade ago.
The accent has to be on providing, to those who till the land, the access to the large possibilities for modern management of agriculture and the inputs from the new technology and access to processing and marketing. Cooperative forms of organization, including agro-industrial comlexes, have made great headway in the countries with a socialist economy and should be promoted by FAO as encouraging examples for developing countries.
Mr Chairman, many distinguished delegates have referred here to the lack of resources for rural development. It is widely recognized - and it was also very clearly stated in the report of Prof. Mayer at the beginning of Conference - that the biggest obstacle to a lasting solution to the present problems of hunger, poverty and underdevelopment is the arms race and the colossal wastage of resources on armament. We believe that the transfer .of means saved from arms budgets to finance projects of economic and social development, to assure world food security, should become a principal concern to this Conference, especially on the background of the conclusions of the United Nations , Conference on the relationship between disarmament and development.
We brought all these opinions and suggestions to FAO's attention during the 10th consultation between FAO and international trade union organizations held in Rome in April this year.
In this connection, we would like to express our satisfaction at this type of meeting which, in our opinion, provides an important instrument for an exchange of views on matters of common concern and also a starting point for our complete operation in the field of people's participation in rural development that is central to the approaches of trade unions and FAO alike.
Consequently, the WFTU has examined the Draft Programme of Work and Budget for the next biennium with great interest and in the light of concerns of the 214 million workers it represents.
The WFTU especially welcomes FAO's affirmation that the direct participation of rural people, through their own organizations, will continue to be promoted. Here, we have to insist once again that such a participation cannot be attained unless trade union rights and freedoms are fully respected. In this sense, FAO should join trade unions in their constant efforts to oblige the governments to ratify and to enforce all respective ILO Conventions and Recommendations concerning rural workers' organizations.
Moreover, experience shows that genuine people's participation in development creates tremendous training and educational needs. We are convinced that the FAO could provide greater support to the efforts of rural workers' organizations in the matter of training and that the cooperation between FAO, UNESCO and ILO in the field of agricultural education (as foreseen in the Programme of Work) should also involve international trade union organizations.
We also think that the FAO could greatly increase its activity concerning the problems of women in agriculture, especially in the context of the proposals made in the WCARRD Programme of Action.
The 40th Session of the WFTU General Council which met three weeks ago, adopted,of course, among other documents a resolution calling for action by workers and trade unions in all countries to implement recommendations of the Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, mentioned also in the FAO Programme of Work. The WFTU, therefore, fully supports the FAO’s initiative to strengthen substantially its activities related to environmental impact assesment.
At the same time, we deplore all financial restrictions in the Programme and Budget that are due to the efforts by the US Administration to apply political and financial pressure against FAO and its work.
In this connection, the WFTU would like to assure the FAO that it will act in the spirit of the Declaration of Support for the United Nations Organization and its institutions, adopted by the 11th World Trade Union Congress. For the benefit of strengthening the United Nations, the Congress made an appeal to the workers and trade unions "to act with greater vigour and unity in order to defeat the obstructive tactics and financial pressure applied by reactionary forces against the institutions and decisions of the United Nations".
In conclusion, the WFTU reconfirms its readiness to actively participate in the implementation of the FAO Programme of Work aimed at the improvement of economic and social status of the rural workers and peasants as well as at the final solution of the problems of hunger and poverty in the world.
Ms M. Teresa GUICCIARDI (Observer for the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions): The 24 General Conference of the FAO takes place at a time of great economic hardship worldwide and especially in the most highly indebted developing countries. Low growth rates and depressed commodity prices are depriving developing countries of the basic revenues on which they had counted for their development. The only encouraging element of the present situation is that world food production has reached record levels. But in the midst of plenty there remains need, and the poorest people have no guarantee of meeting their food requirements. Independent rural workers’ organizations can provide the poor with the strength to organize for their own development. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) which represents 85 million working people in all five continents, has been involved in this area for some considerable time, in close cooperation with the International Federation of Plantation, Agriculture and Allied Workers (IFPAAW). We are pleased to be given the opportunity to present the ICFTU statement to this important Conference. The full text is available to the delegations, and I should like briefly to introduce now my Organization's concerns and views in the field of tasks and competences of the FAO.
The pessimistic predictions of those who expected population growth to outstrip world food supply have been proven wrong. Indeed world food output has reached its highest ever levels in every continent save Africa. However, this situation of plenty has yet to bring about the eradication of hunger for the poorest sections of society; improved technical abilities to produce food have not meant any more equality in its distribution. The central question of the present time is how to ensure that access to food is extended to every member of the population. Almost every case of a major famine this century did not result from a shortage of tood, but from the lack of purchasing power of the rural poor. The distribution of income and wealth is as important as agricultural production in determining whether people are able to feed themselves.
The most important way food security can be increased is to give people control over the production of their own food. Yet many in developing countries are not in a position to do so alone and unaided. Therefore, bringing the benetits of progress to ordinary people will necessarily entail the formation of organizations of rural workers able to take control over their food needs, whether this means spreading the cost of investments among all the farmers and sharing out the tasks equally, or forming a union tor effective negotiations to obtain the full return for their efforts.
While the lack of food in Africa is no longer as critical as in 1984-85, pockets of famine remain in Mozambique, Angola and southern Sudan, and the FAO has warned that famine may again grip Ethiopia by the end of 1987. If famine is to be conquered, a higher priority must be assigned in future to the collection of information on likely substantial food shortages. The FAO has already made an excellent start in this regard. Further, there must be clear international agreement that following the diagnosis by the FAO of a likely food crisis situation, the FAO should be able to count on automatic contributions from Member Nations with adequate food supplies. If this system had existed when the FAO launched its first warnings about the Ethiopian famine in 1984 many thousands of deaths could have been prevented.
We are extremely concerned about the prospects for famine in Mozambique and other Front line scales as a result of the disruptive activities of South Africa impeding the normal process of crop production. Economic support programmes to the Frontline states should be stepped up.
Collective organization of the poorest groups in rural society is the only way of ensuring that agricultural innovations become widely known and used by those who need them most and food production increased and for this reason it is important that ILO Convention No. 141 on Rural Workers be ratified by all countries. As the ICFTU General Secretary said in his address to the 1986 Session of the International Labour Conference:
"There is a great need for the promotion of organizations of rural workers through which the poor themselves can actively participate in the development of their societies by taking collective initiatives and engaging in economic and social cooperation among themselves. Governments and employers should not put obstacles in the way of progress and legislation should comply strictly with the provisions contained in the relevant ILO instruments. This aspect of the situation is, unfortunately, far from satisfactory in quite a number of ILO Member States."
Despite all the efforts of the International Free Trade Union Movement and the existence of ILO standards., rural workers in many cases continue to be threatened, imprisoned and even murdered when they attempt to unite with the aim of securing even the most meagre improvement in their way of living.
For many countries the collapse in commodity prices has left export earnings inadequate to provide for food imports. Many countries have also devalued in an" attempt to boost exports, further increasing the price of food for local people. But there exist many ways of protecting the poor from the brunt of the crisis by helping them to assure their own food needs and even small sums of aid, productively employed, could enable economies which are currently monocultural to reverse dependency on food imports by growing more and a wider variety of food at home.
Aid should be channeled to those small farmers and agricultural labourers who normally would have no access to credit. Special attention must be given to promoting the position of women in the , development process through such aid allocations.
In devising measures to deal with the chronic instability of commodity prices and ensuring their recovery from the present slump, commodity agreements, where they .can be negotiated, will be useful, as will the UNCTAD Common Fund on Commodities, particularly for its "second window" providing for research into marketing and means of diversifying the possible uses of commodities.
One of the problems faced by developing countries in seeking to influence commodity prices is the control of markets by transnational corporations. Foreign direct investment should be accepted when it fits in with a country's long-term development plans and on the basis of mutually-understood agreements for transnational activity, reflecting the respective responsibilities of both parties. There is a pressing need for the remaining obstacles to the completion of the UN Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations to be speedily resolved so that the obligations of TNCs undertaking agricultural investments are clearly understood by all parties. TNCs should also abide by the ILO Declaration of Principles on Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy.
Of great concern is also the development of biotechnologies controlled by the same multinationals, with an immeasurable impact on agricultural production and employment, mainly in developing countries.
The ICFTU supports the opening up of world trade in agriculture. While subsidies to assist particularly disadvantaged groups will be needed, agricultural support should focus on the maintenance of adequate income levels and not encourage uneconomic production and the déstabilisation of world markets.
Food crises create the need for a generous response on the part of countries in the fortunate position of food surplus. However food aid should be granted only in the event of crisis and should be accompanied by measures to help restore long-term agricultural capacity in the region in need. Short-term food aid programmes must be planned together with longer term efforts to boost food production in the region.
External financial assistance for agriculture in developing countries remains crucial. Official commitments to aid for agriculture in developing countries have stagnated in the last few years in real terms, and in 1985 were 30" percent below the FAO target. The share of such assistance provided on concessional terms has also fallen. Moreover the increase in population pressure in developing countries means that the food requirements of such countries will increase in the years to come and so there will be a great need for increased food production. The ICFTU call on aid donor countries to step up their aid efforts accordingly.
As to the role of women in development, for new participative approaches to rural development to succeed, they must take as their starting point the fact that most rural workers are women. In the past, women have too often been neglected by development policies and programmes, including training and modernization schemes which often failed because it was wrongly assumed that men were the agricultural producers. In most developing countries, women perform the greater part of the work in harvesting, transporting crops, storage, processing, and marketing. In addition as has been shown by the rates of mortality in recent cases of food shortage, women and girls are also the most likely to suffer from malnutrition as they take their food from the family cooking pot after the men. An important element in integrated rural development policies must be support services specifically for women, aimed at improving the productivity and remunerative value of women's work in agriculture. Legislative reforms to remove discrimination against women with respect to land ownership and land inheritance rights are also frequently necessary. In plantation agriculture, specific policies on women workers must be undertaken to eliminate sex discrimination in wages, to improve job security, and to accord women independent status as wage earners, as opposed to unpaid family helpers.
Pesticides still cause the death and serious illness of hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers every year. A first step has been taken towards dealing with these hazards in the FAO Code of Conduct on Pesticides, adopted in November 1985 following a long process of consultation in which the international free trade union movement played a full and active role, and the ICFTU urges all governments to ratify the Code.
In conclusion the ICFTU believes that true development will never come about until there is respect of fundamental human rights, including freedom of association, and considers that the FAO should take this fully into account as it performs its vital role of promoting food security and the development of agricultural resources. We welcomed the FAO's determination to cooperate more closely with the international trade union movement and to promote the participation of our organizations in rural development, thus recognizing the important contribution organized rural workers can make to the economic and social progress of their countries.
CHAIRMAN: I would like to thank the distinguished Observer Representative of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.
This brings us to the end of this afternoon's programme of work. Before closing the meeting, I would like to ask the Secretary-General if he has any announcements to make or information to give? I see that that is not the case. The meeting is therefore adjourned: we will continue our work of general debate in this hall at 9.30 tomorrow morning.
The meeting rose at 16.45 hours
La séance est levée à 16 h 45
Se levanta la sesión a las 16.45 horas
