Ensuring the Right of All to Remain in Dignity, Peace and Security in their Countries of Origin

Thank you for giving me the floor.

 

I would like to congratulate the Holy See Mission and all organizing partners of this side event for shining the light on the importance of “Ensuring the right of all to remain in dignity, peace and security in their countries of origin”.

 

Protecting rural livelihoods is a critical factor to ensure the right to remain exists.

 

In Syria, for example, the ongoing conflict has devastated the agriculture sector. Food production is at a record low. Food markets, supply chains and productive infrastructure has been destroyed. And, yet, the agricultural sector, still accounts for about one-quarter of Syria’s GDP and represents a critical safety net for the 6.7 million Syrians who still remain in rural areas, including those internally displaced.

 

FAO recently conducted the first comprehensive nationwide assessment on the cost of the war to the agriculture sector, interviewing more than 3500 households in over 380 communities. Around 95 percent of the communities surveyed felt that receiving basic agricultural would reduce the number of people abandoning rural areas and encourage the return of migrants and internally displaced people.

 

Opportunities for rural people in developing countries must be created in order to enable them to stay in their homes, when it is safe for them to do so. It is a way to make migration a choice and not a necessity, or a desperate last resort. And when it is time for those who have left to return, we must support them through durable solutions when rebuilding their lives and livelihoods, supporting economic recovery and ensuring relapses into conflict are avoided.

 

Thank you for your attention.