Broadcast: February 21, 2003

UN Food Agencies, World Bank Announce Rural Development Strategy

Officials from several U.N. agencies as well as the World Bank met in Rome on Friday to announce a new rural development strategy to ¹⁾speed up efforts to reduce the number of hungry people in the world.

Three years ago, the international community set a goal of reducing the number of hungry people in the world by 50 percent by the year 2015. Fears that the goal may not be achieved brought officials of the World Bank and U.N. food agencies to Rome Friday to discuss what needed to be done.

The director-general of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, said if a new strategy was not adopted the risk was that the goal would be achieved only in 2050, 35 years later than originally proposed.

At the meeting in Rome, U.N. officials said that in recent years they have come to understand more clearly that greater investment is needed in rural areas, where most of the poor are located.

The president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Lennart Bage, said 75 percent of the world's poor are in rural areas. Mr. Bage added that U.N. officials and the World Bank agreed that in order to boost agricultural and rural development more ²⁾collaboration was needed between international aid organizations.

The World Bank's previous rural development strategy was launched in 1997. While it had a ³⁾decisive influence on global thinking, its results on the ground were disappointing. World Bank President James Wolfensohn said the Bank's new strategy would involve poor people much more directly. "It's a program that is based, very significantly, on ⁴⁾empowerment of poor people, of working in community based development, of ⁵⁾addressing the issues of the rights of women particularly and bringing together the technology and the social and the ⁶⁾infrastructural elements that go along with the rural development program," he said.

The World Bank's new strategy, called "Reaching the Rural Poor", is designed to respond to the local circumstances and needs of the people who have the greatest ⁷⁾stake in its ⁸⁾implementation. U.N. officials are hoping that closer cooperation with the World Bank will enable them to realize the goal they set out to achieve three years ago - a 50 percent reduction in the number of hungry people in the world by the year 2015. They have only 12 years left.

Sabina Castelfranco VOA news, Rome.

 

1) speed up  加速

2) collaboration [kE7lAbE5reiFEn] n.协作，合作

3) decisive [di5saisiv] adj.决定性的

4) empowerment [im5pauEmEnt] n.授权，能力

5) address [E5dres] vt.从事，处理

6) infrastructural [5infrE5strQktFEr(E)l] adj.基础设施的

7) stake [steik] n赌注

8) implementation [7implimen5teiFEn] n.执行

 

 

播报时间：2003年2月21日

联合国粮食机构和世界银行公布农村发展战略

星期五，来自联合国机构和世界银行的官员在罗马公布了一项新的农村发展战略，该战略旨在加速进行减少世界饥饿人群数量的行动。

三年前，国际社会制定了一个要在2015年以前把世界饥饿人群数量减少50%的目标。但对于这一目标可能不会圆满完成的忧虑促使世界银行和联合国粮食机构的官员于星期五在罗马召开会议，商讨对策。

联合国粮食及农业组织的总干事雅克迪乌夫说，如果不采取一个新战略的话，潜在的风险就是，这一目标将在2050年实现，比预期晚35年。

在罗马会议上，联合国官员说，近几年，他们更清楚地认识到，聚集着绝大多数穷困人口的农村地区需要更大规模的资金投入。

国际农业发展基金组织的主席莱纳特巴格说，世界贫困人口有75%生活在农村地区。巴格先生补充说，联合国官员和世界银行一致认为，国际援助组织间需要进行更多的合作以便促进农业和农村的发展。

世界银行上一份农村发展战略是在1997年发起执行的。虽然这份战略对于全球的思维方式产生了决定性的影响，但它的实际收效却是令人失望的。世界银行总裁詹姆斯沃尔芬森说，该行的新战略将直接涉及与穷困人群相关的更多内容。“非常显著地，这个战略的基础是，穷困人群的能力、基于发展的社区运作能力、特别是妇女权利问题的处理能力以及与农村发展战略相平行的科技和社会基础因素的融合能力。”他说。

被称为“向农村贫困人群伸出援手”的世界银行新战略是为了应对当地环境以及对实施该战略寄予最大期望的人们的要求而制定的。联合国官员希望，与世界银行更加密切的合作将使他们能够实现他们在三年前制定的目标--在2015年以前，把世界饥饿人群的数量减少50%。他们只剩12年的时间了。

这是“美国之音”新闻部的塞碧娜凯索弗兰可从罗马发出的报道。