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The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will this year give priority support in West and Central Africa to programmes on food security, rural financial services, decentralisation, poverty reduction, natural resources management, including anti-desertification efforts.
The programmes to be supported, IFAD Coordinator of Communications and Public Affairs Taysir Al-Ghanem told IRIN on Wednesday, are intended to help eradicate poverty in the region by 2015.
IFAD President Lennart Båge launched a regional rural poverty assessment report on Monday at a seminar organised by the UN agency in Senegal's capital, Dakar; which was attended by representatives of 30 countries, international organisations, NGOs, and donors.
Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade told participants that the time had come for "concrete action", and defined the poor as "the person who is capable of producing but cannot produce for his own survival", news agencies reported.
Lack of human and social capital development, poor macroeconomic and sectoral policies, low farmer productivity, lack of access to capital and the slow development of rural infrastructure were the obstacles to poverty reduction in the region, news agencies reported IFAD officials as saying at the seminar.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
