Posted 30 June 1999
The Task Force on Rural Development and Food Security in Yemen is achieving concrete results in supporting country-level action by major partners in alleviating poverty and achieving food security. Since news of the group's formation was posted on this site last year, the Task Force has been providing inputs for the reform of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MAI). The proposed reform process, known as the Aden Agenda, would be implemented over a three- to five- year period and target field services, human resources and budgetary concerns. The agenda aims to improve the efficiency of the public services to agriculture, including restructuring public services and privatising some activities, in order to create sustainable and equitable growth from agriculture, particularly for the poor. The development of the agenda has been supported by the World Bank, with FAO collaboration on specific items, and is likely to be taken to the Cabinet for approval in mid-1999.
The Task Force in Yemen is also proving an important forum for the dissemination of knowledge on activities and programmes implemented by different partners in the country. One important theme for discussion, for example, is the EC Food Security Programme in Yemen, which aims to promote national and household food and nutritional security within the framework of the liberalization of the economy. The programme supports reforms that are likely to contribute to a more efficient and equitable reallocation of resources and to fostering the private initiative and self-reliance of the poor.
For further information about the Thematic Group in Yemen, contact FAO Representative, Mr S. S. Mahdi at FAO-YEM@field.fao.org
Inter-agency collaboration was strengthened recently with the signing of agreements between FAO and the other UN Rome-based food agencies, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). FAO's Director-General, Mr Jacques Diouf and WFP Executive Director, Ms Catherine Bertini signed an agreement to expand their existing cooperative activities related to the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS), while an agreement signed by Mr Jacques Diouf and the President of IFAD, Mr Fawzi Al-Sultan, underlined the need to boost food production and increase access to food in low-income food-deficit countries in the context of the SPFS. The two agencies agreed to cooperate more closely in the field and to use existing joint operations as a basis for developing further collaborative activities.
The Special Programme for Food Security offers considerable opportunities for joint cooperation and action in the field. Launched by FAO in 1994, the Programme helps farmers in low-income food-deficit countries (LIFDCs) increase food production and improve access to food in order to meet growing market demand and eradicate food insecurity. At present, the Programme is under implementation in 39 LIFDCs and is being formulated in 34 others.
Four Thematic Groups working within the framework of the ACC Network - in Burkina Faso, Cambodia India and the Philippines - are actively promoting SPFS activities in their agendas.
How and when to best partner with the private sector for development? This topic is currently being assessed by the Africa Region of the World Bank and is the subject of a recently initiated electronic discussion in English and French, 'Partnerships with the Private Sector for Development'. Although the World Bank has heightened its focus on partnerships, there has been insufficient identification of best practices for working with the private sector to build capacity, invest in health and education, or to create environments with good governance, infrastructure and service delivery. The current e-discussion, co-sponsored by Agence francophone pour l'enseignement supérieur et le recherche (AUPELF-UREF), seeks the views of all actors in Africa's economic growth, the global corporate sector and the communities within which they operate and serve.
Another electronic debate of relevance to ACC Network members focuses on the "Social and Environmental Impact of Privatization". The discussion, launched by the Enterprise Reform and Privatization Thematic Group of the World Bank and the World Bank Institute, will focus on how privatization programmes should be designed so that they can create beneficial social and environmental, as well as financial and economic, impacts.
Anyone who has e-mail can subscribe to these discussion lists.
To join, send an e-mail to: majordomo@jazz.worldbank.org.
Do not enter a subject. In the body of the message, type the text: SUBSCRIBE PARTENARIATS for the discussion, 'Partnerships with the private sector for development and type the text: SUBSCRIBE SE-IMPACT for the discussion, 'Social and Environmental Impact of Privatization'.
For additional information on these and other on-line discussions launched by the World Bank, visit the World Bank's pages.
Youth can make a significant contribution to fighting hunger and malnutrition around the world. Yet action must be taken to improve their access to essential resources and services such as land, training and credit, so that these young men and women can be productive and innovative partners in achieving national food security goals. A study in Nigeria in 1992, for example, discovered that an increase in the average education of farmers by one year increased the value added to agricultural production by 24 percent. In addition, involving youth in programmes for sustainable rural development can serve both to slow the pace of migration to cities and to increase production and availability of food in the areas where it is most needed.
FAO is underlining the potential of young men and women to achieve the food security by naming 'Youth against Hunger' as the theme of this year's World Food Day and Telefood campaigns. The annual World Food Day commerorates the anniversary of FAO's founding on 16 October 1945, and aims to heighten public awareness of the plight of the world's hungry and to encourage action on all levels to find solutions to the problem of global hunger. Telefood, launched in 1997, is a worldwide media and fund-raising campaign which has already mobilized global solidarity and commitment amongst governments, non-governmental organizations, civil society, private business, artists and the media, to secure "Food for all". The money donated through Telefood funds small grassroots development projects benefiting the rural poor in more than 110 countries.
News of initiatives in rural programming can be found in Youthworks, a twice-yearly
newsletter in English, French and Spanish for government and non-government (NGO) professionals implementing educational programmes for rural youth.
To be placed on the mailing contact: R. William Seiders, Rural Youth Officer FAO, SDR Division, D-404, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy,
e-mail: william.seiders@fao.org; fax (396)5225-3152.
Despite the 20th century revolution in health which has led to a drop in birth rates and dramatic gains in life expectancy, over a billion people will enter the 21st century without having benefited from these advances. This is a clear messsage of The World Health Report 1999: Making a difference, recently released by the World Health Organization.
As the report underlines, combatting poverty through better health makes sound economic sense. The Report speaks of the need to reduce the burden of ill-health suffered by the poor and to counter potential threats to health resulting from economic crises, unhealthy environments or risky behaviour. It also calls for the development of more effective health systems and increased investments in expanding the knowledge base that made the 20th century "health revolution" possible.
WHO says many countries need to increase overall spending on health if they are to make even the most inexpensive and effective health measures available to the whole population. The UN agency calls for a more equitable system - in terms of both
sharing the financial burden of health care and allowing equitable access - based on "risk pooling" systems financed by central government tax revenues.