Rural reforms needed to achieve high levels of human development – UN backed report 

[February 10, 2003 - 10.30 GMT]

South Asia needs to carry out major reforms to build a system of agriculture and rural development that is both growth-oriented and human-centred, according to a report compiled with the aid of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Home to 1.4 billion people, the substantial progress South Asia has made in agricultural production has been ‘neither adequate nor equitable enough to reduce the region’s huge backlog of poverty’ according to the UN backed report.

It adds that the challenge for South Asia - covering Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - is to carry out major reforms in rural areas to achieve high levels of human development.

At present the agricultural reforms have not been adequate to reduce the region’s huge poverty rates. More than a third of the region’s people - or some 530 million in all – live on less than $1 a day.

According to the study conducted to compile the report, small farms should be the centre of the revival of agricultural and rural development.

The report calls women the “invisible and unrecognised backbone” of South Asian agriculture, but adds that in rural areas, they remain hostage to feudal traditions.

Henning Karcher, UNDP’s Resident Representative in Nepal, says, “Administrative structures have not shown adequate sensitivity to rural women’s needs, and as a result, women’s programs are still peripheral.”

The report stresses that human development and the economy are linked with each other. Education, healthcare, water supply, sanitation and other social services require resources. Human development can only be achieved through the equitable distribution of the benefits of economic growth among the people.

Recommended proposals for development are accelerated investment in agricultural research, technology, and infrastructure, including agricultural marketing and irrigation facilities.

The report also stresses that for South Asian countries to benefit from globalisation in agricultural trade, it is important that the “rich and prosperous proponents” of free trade in the North play a fairer game by eliminating large agricultural subsidies.

Anwarul Karim Chowdhury, UN High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States said, “Poverty eradication is critical in improving access to food. Food and nutritional security must be part of a larger framework of sustainable rural development and of poverty eradication.”

“Food aid for development purposes assists national governments and local communities to realize their development objectives by helping the hungry and the poor to create assets and skills that benefit them and their communities,” he said.

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Last Updated Date: February 7, 2003  - 11.30 GMT.