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'Rural voices and viewpoints' |
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News & Views
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A collection of short statements from participants of the Second European Rural Forum.
Ranging from Africa to Europe, from multilateral to civil society and from international to local and collected during the Second European Forum on Sustainable Rural Development, on June 18-21, 2007.
For more information about the Forum, visit  www.ruralforum.info.
Wilson Nyabonda, Zimbabwe Commercial Farmer’s Union
“What is needed is support to farmer’s unions and commodity associations — this would create wonders in Africa’s rural areas.”
Olivier Husson, CIRAD, Madagascar
“Conservation Agriculture as a locally adapted and economically profitable soil and crop management approach is already well established in Brazil with 25 million hectares cultivated area. Meanwhile, in Madagascar the demand for experts in conservation agriculture for scaling-up exceeds our capacities.”
El-Hadji Sene, Hyela International
“Quickly changing paradigms in donor organizations are not necessarily supporting local initiatives and real development.”
Hanne Carus, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark
Agriculture needs to be seen in its broader context – the social and political integration of local actors.
Dr. Regine Andersen, Fridtjof Nansen Institute
“The single most important environmental factor for smallholder farmers in Africa is agro-biodiversity. It is the factor that makes it possible to adapt food production to changing climatic conditions.”
Michael Bruentrup, German Development Institute
“Just as much emphasis spent on the participatory planning of developing activities, should also be devoted to measures aiming at creating an enabling environment for business opportunities, e.g. along agricultural value chains.”
Priya Deshingkar, Overseas Development Institute
“Recognizing the importance of mobility and the facilitation of rural-urban links is probably one of the most important changes required at the policy level.”
Ian Goldman, Khanya-aicdd, South Africa
“South-East Asia did not achieve what they did because of aid. They made it because they knew what they wanted and they went for it. We have to stop to control the content of partner countries’ strategies, and start to support country-led processes as a true partner.”
Elizabeth Atagana, Plateforme Regionale des organisations Payasanne d’Afrique Centrale, Cameroun
“Capacity building for young farmer leaders and female leaders will work like an injection of fresh blood and contribute that agriculture and rural development can fulfill its important role.”
Kevin Cleaver, International Fund for Agricultural Development
Do we need 30 bilateral donor agencies? Do we need three UN-Agencies in Rome, all dealing with agriculture? If we don’t increase our effectiveness, (…) if we don’t work together, we are really, really lost.
Malcolm Damon, ZAF Economic Justice Network
“The Economic Partnership Agreements don’t take into account the current configuration of African states under the Regional Economic Communities (REC), and therefore are undermining the REC’s. EPA deal mostly with market liberalization and trade and lack the development dimension.”
Abbas Ibrahim Zahreddine, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona
“The majority of the problems are local. Since we live in a very well connected and globalized world we should think about local solutions, based on reciprocity and policy dialogue.”
Ibrahim Mayaki, HubRural Senegal
“Concerning donor support in Africa, we need clear exit strategies, and have to strengthen civil society organizations and the private sector to enable them to take over when donors quit their support.”
Dr. Sizya Lugeye, Irish Aid – Tanzania
“Once it is moving, an agricultural SWAp is the best way to utilize scarce resources provided for the sector.”
Ndiogou Fall, ROPPA, Senegal
“We have to stop the system of donor-financed programs that draw the best educated people out of the structures of African states. We have to allow these states that well qualified civil servants fulfill their positions.”
Daniel Kalbassou, Credit du Sahel S.A.
“Donors should coordinate their activities on a long term basis, and consult with local people in the planning phase.”
Christoph Kessler, KfW
“Africa’s Regional Economic Communities should – according to the principle of subsidiarity – clarify and concentrate on tasks that they have a comparative advantage and not duplicate efforts already made at the national levels.”
Makanjuola Arigbede, United Small & Medium Scale Farmers’ Association
“If the African governments would become more clear about the rights of farmers, would be more faithful in their relations with farmers, and would not hand over the responsibilities to donors, I believe that the food and poverty problems in Africa would be more easily overcome.”
Elise Suzanne Behanzin Epouse Djogbenov, Ministère de l’Agriculture de l’Eevage et de la Peche, Benin
What is very important to us in Benin is land tenure. By informing on the new law from January 2007 we hope that land certificates – handed out by the authorized communities and recognizing land ownership – will provide land security to small-holder farmers.
Liz Drake, DFID seconded to the World Bank, Rwanda
“Four key questions: Where can we scale-up investments in ARD? Are we clear on public and private roles? What aid modalities work best? What are the key challenges for aid effectiveness?”
Frances Wandira, Office of the Prime Minister, Kampala, Uganda
One should be very careful discussing the sectoral budget support as an alternative of the technical assistance. Freezing accounts (as it often happens in reality) can be dangerous especially in the field of Agricultural and Rural Development. Donors should also coordinate and harmonize their benchmarking system. We do not have the capacities to reach the diversity of benchmarks set by every individual donor.
Francis Chachu Ganya, Pastoralist Integrated Support Programme, Kenya
We talk about donor alignment. Who aligns to what? What we experience- it is often the local organizations that adjust their objectives to donor priorities to get financial support and not vice versa as it should be.
Michael Wales, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
The donors should become more manageable. Long term commitments and flexibility on the side of the donors is as indispensable as the consultation processes for the local governments.
Willi Graf, Swiss Development Cooperation
Capacity development especially in Africa shall become an essential part of the donor agenda. It is what our partners need take the ownership of their own development.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 August 2007 )
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Disclaimer
The articles in this section, while carefully researched and reviewed, are informal news-style summaries. None of the content is binding on either the Global Donor Platform or on its members, and cannot be taken as the endorsement, formal viewpoint or intention of these organisations. Quotes directly attributed to named persons in this section do not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy of the organisations they represent.
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Newsletter
Detailing Platform achievements in late 2007
 Platform News No 2, November 2007 (193KB)
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