CIRDAP countries have commonalties of rural development priorities: Dipu Moni  

DHAKA, Bangladesh, July 21 (BSS)- Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni today
said the countries of Asia and the Pacific have commonalties of  rural development priorities
and they must build on these commonalties to secure human lives as well as ensure their overall development.

The foreign minister was addressing a briefing session of ambassadors on the occasion of the Second Ministerial Meeting on Rural Development to be held in Dhaka on January 24-28 in 2010.

LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam, Foreign Secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes and Director General of CIRDAP  Dr Durga Prassad Paudyal also spoke on the occasion held in the  UNCLOS Conference Room of the foreign ministry here.

Dr Dipu Moni hoped that the Second Ministerial Meeting on Rural Development would adopt an extensive, holistic and multi- pronged action plan for integrated rural development in Asia and the Pacific.

She said the core concept of CIRDAP was building an effective network of the national rural development institutions and other stakeholders with the regional institutions.

The foreign minister cited an example of Bangladesh, where CIRDAP has successfully integrated its activities with our national rural development organizations such as Bangladesh Rural Development Academy (BARD) and others.

She, however, said that most of the CIRDAP countries could not reduce rural poverty substantially despite good economic performance.

For example, she said, the recent FAO report shows that the level of poverty in the Asia-Pacific region has increased in 2007 despite the consistent economic growth in most countries and poverty has been concentrated in rural areas, particularly in the South Asian region.

Dr Dipu Moni underscored the need for better implementation of rural development policies and programmes, saying that regional consultations can be critical for sharing our experience in this area.

"Rural development, we believe, was as important today as it was in 1979, the year of establishment of CIRDAP and Bangladesh takes pride in hosting the CIRDAP Headquarters," she added.

As the host country, Dipu Moni said, Bangladesh has taken keen interest in developing and maintaining the infrastructure of its Secretariat.

"The government of Bangladesh has allotted the historic campus called Chameli House in a prestigious location of Dhaka city to CIRDAP and we are now providing financial and technical support to construct an international conference centre on the CIRDAP campus for hosting the forthcoming Second Ministerial Meeting," she said.

Mentioning that rural development policies have been the key national agenda of most of the CIRDAP countries, she said there was a need of rural development institutions at national levels which can provide professional services such as development of  operational manuals, capacity building of the functionaries, monitoring the implementation process and review and feedback the achievements and issues.

Similarly at the regional level, she said, sharing the experiences at regional level and learning from each other's experiences would help to achieve better results.

Dr Dipu Moni said the 16th Governing Council (GC 16) meeting in Manila, in May 2007, noted that since CIRDAP's establishment in 1979, there have been vast changes in the contemporary national and international policy context.

Therefore, she said, CIRDAP may require repositioning itself  through new approaches and dimensions of "Rural Development" and "Poverty Alleviation" to remain contextual as well as develop new partnerships with the relevant stakeholders at national, regional
and international levels. 

"Accordingly, it decided to review the rural development policies and programmes in CIRDAP member countries, evaluate CIRDAP from its institutional and strategic perspectives and hold the Second Ministerial Meeting in January 2010 to reaffirm the new mandate to CIRDAP," the foreign minister said.

She said several countries such as Australia, Bhutan, China,  Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Cambodia, Fiji, Japan,  Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, the Maldives, Mongolia, Nauru,  Republic of Korea, Samoa, Singapore and Tonga attended the founding meeting of CIRDAP in Kuala Lumpur in July 1978 but  subsequently did not join CIRDAP.

"Now some of the countries like Japan, Australia and New Zealand are major Asian donors having priority programmes on poverty alleviation and rural development," she said, adding that similarly countries like China and South Korea have successful experience on transformation of rural economy.

"It would be in our collective interest if we could benefit from experiences of these countries," she said.

Dr Dipu Moni said it is from this perspective that the CIRDAP  Governing Council has very rightly decided to invite the non- CIRDAP members as well to attend the forthcoming Second Ministerial meeting, and to encourage these countries to join CIRDAP.

From web site of Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)

url: http://www.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=8&id=47395&date=2009-07-21