IFAD urges govt and donors to focus aid on rural poor

JAKARTA (JP): The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has urged the government and international donors to focus their assistance on Indonesia's rural poor.

IFAD Country Portfolio Manager for Indonesia Mattia Prayer Galletti said on Monday that the economic crisis had shown that the country's rural poor was more adaptive to economic change than the destitute living in urban areas.

"The rural poor can, and should, be considered as credible partners in development work. The government and foreign donors should focus more on the development of rural areas," he told The Jakarta Post.

The majority of international financial assistance provided to Indonesia, including in the form of food subsidies, credit for income-generating activities and public works programs, benefits mainly the urban poor.

IFAD fears the government has made drastic cuts in its spending on rural infrastructure as part of its budget adjustments during the crisis.

Galletti said IFAD, which could arrange additional funds for Indonesia, wanted the lion's share of the aid to be directed to develop infrastructure in rural areas to create more job opportunities.

"The real challenge is to ensure that a substantial part of these funds is allocated to the rural sector and that the rural poor benefit through employment generation in rural areas," he said.

He said the government should realize the country's remote areas were in need of greater assistance.

Rural areas have not only been affected by the financial crisis but have also borne the brunt of a drought and massive forest fires.

"The incidence of poverty is greater in these areas, which are mostly inhabited by indigenous people. This includes parts of Kalimantan, Irian Jaya, East and West Nusa Tenggara and Maluku. We should pay more attention to these areas," he said.

Ministry of Agriculture Secretary-General Syarifuddin Karama said the government had made rural development its long-term focus.

"The economic crisis has created much unemployment for city dwellers, migrants and temporary workers who are being forced back to rural areas," he said.

"With limited land and technology, this reverse worker migrational flow will be a great burden to rural areas. We should create jobs for them through infrastructure development," he said in a speech at an agricultural development workshop.

The three-day workshop, which opened on Monday, is being jointly held by IFAD and the Ministry of Agriculture to identify the effects of the monetary crisis on agricultural development and the projects needed to be financed in the future.

IFAD, a Rome-based agency under the United Nations, began its operations in Indonesia in 1981. To date, the agency has provided US$219 million in soft loans to finance 10 agricultural projects. It is currently involved in five ongoing projects.

IFAD assistant president Klemens van de Sand said the agency was interested in fostering a more targeted, innovative and community led resilience-building program in the future.

He said IFAD was currently formulating a special program concentrated on the rehabilitation of rural infrastructures through irrigation networks, access roads in remote and hilly areas and the building of small-scale water control schemes. (gis)