FAO and IFAD present renewed efforts on eradicating poverty

On 31 October, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) co-hosted a high-level event on “Renewing efforts to address rural poverty to meet SDG1 by 2030”. Held in the United Nations (UN) Headquarters, the event supported ongoing discussions in the General Assembly about the eradication of rural poverty.

Over the past decades, the world has made strides in tackling poverty and hunger. Poverty, however, is a multidimensional issue, linked not only to income but also to malnutrition, lack of access to basic services, and scarcity of employment opportunities. It is estimated that today there are still 1.3 billion people living in poverty; over 80% of them reside in rural areas.

“Rural poverty is undoubtedly a very complex issue”, stressed event moderator Maximo Torero, FAO Assistant Director-General for Economic and Social Development, “and the key to overcoming it, lies in establishing reliable partnerships”.

Liu Zhenmin, Under Secretary-General for the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, noted that rural poverty “is a major concern in mid-income countries where rural areas are left behind in terms of access to infrastructure.”

In his presentation, Benjamin Davis, FAO Leader of the Strategic Programme on Rural Poverty, outlined FAO’s framework of action to eradicate rural extreme poverty by explaining that “There are four entry points related to FAO’s contribution on eradicating rural poverty: ensuring food security and nutrition, promoting economic inclusion, fostering environmentally sustainable and resilient livelihoods, and preventing and protecting the extremely poor against risks and shocks.” Eliminating poverty is one of FAO’s three global goals, along with the eradication of hunger, and the sustainable management of natural resources. To address rural poverty in particular, the organization provides normative frameworks, recommendations, and guidance to Member States, as well as development assistance to developing countries.

In turn, Thouraya Triki, IFAD Director of the Sustainable Production, Markets and Institutions Division, presented IFAD’s revised operational guidelines on targeting and engaging groups from the private sector in order to mobilize funding.

Mirgul Moldoisaeva, Permanent Representative of the Kyrgyz Republic to the UN, offered a perspective centered around the ways that her home country is tackling rural poverty: “In our country more than half of the population lives in the countryside, particularly in mountainous terrains where infrastructural development is challenging to achieve.”

Xu Zhongsheng, Chief of the Economic Section of the Permanent Mission of China to the UN, affirmed that his homeland is expected to altogether eliminate extreme poverty by 2020.

For more information on the event, including a concept note, the presentations, the webcast, as well as FAO’s strategic programme to reduce rural poverty, go to our Events page.