A MORE ACTIVE ROLE BY GOVERNMENTS IS NEEDED TO OVERCOME RURAL POVERTY AND SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Guatemala City, 28 April - An exhaustive report on the activities undertaken by the FAO over the 2002-2003 period and a set of priority aspects to be considered in the design and execution of policies and programmes aimed at rural development and food security in the Region were submitted at the FAO Regional Conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, currently under-way in this city.

The Report was presented by Gustavo Gordillo, Assistant Director-General and FAO Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean, who informed on FAO's work in the Region in various areas, such as food security, sustainable management of human resources, productive partnerships for agricultural and rural development and international trade of agricultural and fish products.

With regard to trends and challenges for the rural world of the Region, Gordillo stated that "the Region is characterized by an important degree of food insecurity, dependence of the agricultural sector, rural poverty and social inequality, demanding the enactment of innovative public policies."

These policies should be oriented towards alternative proposals that foster productive reconversion, promote the development of new scientific and technological options and defend the rights of rural families.

According to Gordillo, if we effectively want to achieve the goal set forth at the "World Food Summit: five years later" of halving the number of hungry people in the world by the year 2015, it is important to grant priority attention to various elements, among which the following can be highlighted:

- To foster decentralization as a requirement for the dynamic development of rural spaces and the application of territorial development policies that ensure that all regions will be able to maximize their development opportunities;
- To promote the development of urban agriculture so as to support the food security of the poorest within cities;
- To promote policies directed at strengthening the capacities of family farmers and of poor rural families, granting special attention to the growing feminization of rural economies, where women perform an increasingly central role;
- To reconstruct institutional architecture for rural and agricultural development allowing private, social, governmental and non-governmental actors to play a more articulated role; and
- To identify new instruments and methods for impact evaluation that permit an assessment of the real effects of intervention on a target population.

"The new agenda for development must set its bases on the political will and commitment that translate into a more active role from the State", affirmed Gordillo in his presentation.