SIERRA LEONE - SIERRA LEONA

Her Excellency Patricia Tejan Kabbah, First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone

I bring you all greetings and the best wishes of my husband, President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, who unfortunately cannot be here with us today due to other pressing matters of State. He has, however, designated me as his special envoy to this Summit and it is therefore on his leave and with a sense of humility and honour that I address you on this historic occasion. Let me also congratulate you, Mr. Chairman, on your election to steer our work and wish you and your Bureau the best of success. My Delegation will give you its fullest support to facilitate the success of your tasks.

This Summit could not have been called at a more appropriate time. If there is any area of the world today that is threatened by lack of food and by insufficient food production it is our own continent, Africa. Africa today is not only plagued by wars and national disasters but is suffering from abject poverty, constant hunger and malnutrition. A substantial number of people on the African continent are only surviving today thanks to various forms of food aid from the international community. That is why my delegation wholeheartedly welcomes this Summit. It is the expectation of my delegates that, through the discussions we are going to hold at this very high level, we will be able to come up with measures and actions that will facilitate our fight against hunger and provide food security for all our people.

For me personally there is also a specific area of concern which I hope this Summit will be able to effectively address and that is the area of hunger as it affects women and children. You are all aware, distinguished delegates, that to talk about the alleviation of hunger in the world today is to talk about how to adopt measures that will help lighten the burden of millions of women in Africa, Asia and Latin America who toil day in, day out in order to place a meal on the family table at the end of the day. Sometimes they do so only with their raw energy and with the added determination to give sustenance to the members of their family. Often they have no technical know-how or financial resources to significantly improve their work and their lot. And the children depend upon them for their daily sustenance and survival. In our extended family situations, in developing countries, one can imagine the tremendous burden that is placed on our womenfolk in their day-to-day existence.

My Delegation therefore believes that to hold any meeting for discussion on the subject of combatting hunger and improving food production worldwide, the starting point should be in addressing the situation of our women, leading hopefully to the adoption of clearly mapped out strategies to tackle their problems. This is the message and the cry that I bring to this Summit from the women of Sierra Leone and I should emphasize that this situation I am describing here is a desperate one. Time is not on our side; we must act and act quickly and effectively if we are to succeed in improving the lot of more than half of humanity. It is against this background therefore that I wish to specially commend the FAO Director-General, Dr. Jacques Diouf, for the very laudable initiative taken by him to organize this meeting. Indeed, it was here in Rome in 1995 that the idea of a Summit, devoted solely to the issue of food, was proposed to and accepted by the Member States of this Organization and subsequently endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in December of that same year.

My country, Sierra Leone, has experience over two decades of serious economic decline compounded for the past five years by a savage rebel war which has ravaged farmlands in the most productive areas of our country. Per capita food and agricultural output have significantly declined over this period. As a result, poverty has been on the increase overwhelming in particular our rural communities. Recent statistics indicate that some 80 percent of the people in Sierra Leone can be classified as poor, out of which 50 percent can be said to be absolutely poor. This gloomy picture is applied to Sierra Leone, but I am equally sure that there are many situations with similar characteristics in many other parts of the developing world.

That is why my Delegation is here to advocate coherent and effective policies and strategies on poverty and food security underpinned by sustained support on the part of the international community. For too long we have all merely played to the gallery rendering nothing more than lip service to the subject of agricultural development. It is now time for change, a change that would lead to better days for our farmers and for our rural folk. A change that would make these agents partners in the implementation of whatever policies and strategies emerge from our discussions here in Rome. The tremendous agricultural potential existing in developing countries has been vividly described in many academic and cited journals and government studies. However, this is not enough to widen the place which the agricultural sector can fill in the economies of these countries. Quite often investment in the agricultural sector is borne solely by governments, the donor community and small-scale producers.

In Sierra Leone for example, large-scale commercial ventures in food and agricultural production by the private sector are virtually non-existent. At the moment, the agricultural sector contributes far below its capacity to the economy, i.e. some 49 percent of GDP and 13 percent of total export earnings. Surely this picture has to be reversed without delay if we are to go anywhere in agricultural development.

The rebel war to which I referred earlier has not helped the situation of our agriculture. It is indeed disheartening to note that out of Sierra Leone's estimated population of 4.5 million, 2.3 million are displaced. Seventy percent of these are farmers who have lost all their property, including seeds and tools, in the cause of this disastrous war. Today we have a massive floating population including youth for whom, in a weak economy such as ours, little provision is made. The social repercussions in terms of human suffering are grave, particularly when most of these youth are women and children held behind rebel lines against their will with their human dignity and rights constantly violated by the rebels. What is so gratifying, however, is that in the midst of this dismal situation these affected people, who have managed to get free from captivity or are in displaced camps in free areas, have continued to display a sense of understanding, commitment and strong will to cope with their lot aided by the sympathy and support of government, friendly countries and the donor community in general. Fortunately, Sierra Leone is endowed with natural resources,sufficient arable land, abundant water, fish and forest reserves. There is already a national conscientiousness in the judicious use of what we have and a strong determination to reverse the enormous food shortages, given our country's potential in terms of human and natural resources. What we need now is urgent help from the international community to maximize these advantages for the benefit and wellbeing of our people.

I must say that though our present situation may be desperate, yet we are a determined nation. Indeed, it was this quality that enabled us to fight for and achieve democracy which we are now enjoying and value so dearly. I can assure you, therefore, that this disposition will enable us, with the help of friends and the international community, to achieve similar progress on the agricultural front. We believe that the most effective way to achieve our objective in agricultural and food production generally is to involve the farmer at the grassroots level in what we are doing. For it is they who will transform words into bread for the people. In this regard our civil society has been adequately sensitized through a series of workshops and training sessions organized to restructure the local government machinery and mobilize local communities for the formation of viable farmers' associations and cooperatives to facilitate the decentralization of the development process particularly in agriculture. Furthermore, in our plans for agricultural development, Government is determined to provide the enabling environment and stimulus for success through greater coordination and collaboration with the key players, and by improving marketing infrastructure.

With the pressures that are now being brought to bear on the rebels, thereby enhancing the prospects for peace, Government will accord the work of post-war resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction top-most priority. An appeal has already been made to the donor community to help us in this vital area. It is clear that unless roads are rehabilitated to make farms and farmers accessible, it will be virtually impossible to create the required impact on agricultural development that would lead to increased food production to meet the needs of our population. Attention will therefore be paid to the rehabilitation of feeder roads and to making credit and rural financing available to farmers. In all these endeavours, we would welcome the assistance of the international community gathered here.

All the ideas I have highlighted in this statement are to a large extent developed in the bedrock policy framework for agricultural development in Sierra Leone, i.e. the agricultural masterplan which was recently adopted by Government. I cannot therefore end this statement without turning your esteemed attention to a Donors' Conference which we intend to convene in Freetown in the very near future to solicit support for the implementation of that master plan. We are convinced that its effective implementation will enable us to tackle the perennial problems of food production and food security with the overall objective of eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition - a cause for which we are all gathered here. We look forward in due course to your acceptance of our invitation and your support for the plan.

Before concluding this statement, I would like to say that Sierra Leone fully endorses the African common position adopted in Yaoundé, Cameroon in July 1996 on the subject of food security and agricultural development. In that context, I wish to inform you that we have already embarked on Food for All campaigns through the media, drama and cultural groups, workshops and field days. Let me assure you all that we are ready to join our unrelenting efforts with those of the international community in the fight to eradicate hunger, not only from the African continent, but from the world as a whole.

Finally, in reiterating the best wishes of our President for the success of our gathering, let me assure you that the Sierra Leone Delegation has come to this conference ready to participate actively so as to ensure that our common endeavours in Rome, on this lifeline issue of food, end in ways that will be beneficial to all mankind.

Long live FAO, long live international cooperation in agriculture. I thank you all for your attention.