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| Thursday, 20 January 2005 |
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The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is committed to mobilising an initial US $ 100 million in new resources for countries affected by the tsunami. As the UN agency dedicated to eradicating poverty in rural areas, IFAD will help people affected by the disaster to rebuild their communities and their livelihoods, the IFAD said in a release yesterday. "You cannot prevent an earthquake," said Lennart Bage, president of IFAD. "You cannot prevent a tsunami. But you can minimise the effects." "We see that earthquakes in rich countries have much less impact in terms of casualties. You see huge hurricanes hitting Florida, and you have a system for dealing with it. You see big earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan and there the casualties are much, much lower. So there is ultimately a strong link between poverty and the ability to protect yourself against nature, and that's an important lesson," he said. When natural disasters strike it is the poorest people who are most vulnerable who endure greatest hardships and have the least ability to cope. It is because of poverty that they live in disaster-prone areas. They live in fragile shelters that are easily destroyed by natural forces. "Countries like Indonesia and Sri Lanka, which have invested in rural development, are likely to see major reversals in their recent gains overcoming poverty," says James Carruthers, assistant president of IFAD. "These and other countries will need longer-term assistance and debt relief to overcome these setbacks and get them back on track to eradicate poverty." IFAD's initial commitment to mobilising US $ 100 million in new resources will be deployed through new and established projects and programmes and through new regional, country and community grants. In Sri Lanka, IFAD and the Government are expanding a project to meet the needs of fisherfolk, and developing new initiatives to help them rebuild their livelihoods. IFAD will respond to requests for debt relief from Indonesia, Maldives and Sri Lanka. |
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