February 20, 2003
The World Bank is launching a new lending and lobbying initiative to try to improve agricultural development in poor countries and protect poor farmers against the impact of subsidies in richer countries. Bank President James Wolfensohn was scheduled to announce the initiative on Friday at a press conference in Rome with U.N. officials.
The reason for the new push is to try to raise awareness about the plight of the rural poor, who make up about 70 percent of the world's impoverished, said Kevin Cleaver, director of the World Bank's Rural Development Department.
"Economic growth and poverty reduction will not occur unless there is agricultural growth," he said in an interview Thursday.
To push its rural development strategy, the World Bank is increasing its lending for agricultural programs by 20 percent for the 2003-2004 fiscal year, for an increase of about US$400 million.
Cleaver acknowledged the "very powerful wall" of opposition against lowering farm and export subsidies, particularly in Europe. Developing countries say such subsidies make it impossible for their farmers to compete with wealthier producers. But he said the World Bank was joining the long-standing U.N. call to help the rural poor because "the industrial world is still not doing anything significant about it."
The initiative comes as the U.N. agency that deals with the rural poor — the International Fund for Agricultural Development — wrapped up a two-day conference in Rome marking its 25th anniversary. World governments attending the meeting pledged a 20 percent increase in the agency's resources to combat rural poverty — US$560 million over three years, a statement said.
More General Analysis on Poverty and Development
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