Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday urged the development partners to invest in sustainable rural economies to ensure resilience to agricultural crisis as the inclusive and sustainable rural transformation hold key to eliminate poverty and hunger.
"The development partners have to be a little more generous in order to eliminate poverty and hunger. The world appears to me to be ready now for it. I would like to urge you to invest in sustainable rural economies," she said.
The Prime Minister made the call while delivering her keynote speech in the 41st Session of the IFAD's Governing Council held at the Headquarters of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at Rome in Italy with its president Gilbert Foussoun Houngbo in the chair.
The theme of the session was 'From fragility to long-term resilience: Investing in sustainable rural economics'.
Sheikh Hasina said, "We believe that in order to ensure resilience, investment in rural economy is a key factor. This, we believe, cannot be achieved without global partnership and cooperation."
Noting that sustainability cannot be achieved without creating long-term resilience she said, "A comprehensive sustainable rural economy requires investment in the development of the rural social fabric and climate resilience."
Focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030, the Prime Minister said, "Inclusive and sustainable rural transformation is the key to reaching the goals of poverty and hunger elimination and leaving no one behind."
Mentioning that Bangladesh having over 160 million people is the most densely populated country in the world, she said it is poised to achieve the SDG goals well ahead of 2030 and it estimates that poverty will be eradicated altogether by 2024.
But Bangladesh faces other formidable challenges as it is likely to lose 40 percent of its productive land by 2080 if sea levels rise 65 centimetres only. "Changes in crop production due to the impact of climate change will increase the number of people living in poverty. Therefore, significant resources must be tapped in order to ensure better adapted and resilient agricultural practices," she added.
Talking about the remarkable achievement of Bangladesh, the Prime Minister said the country has been very lucky with stable governance for almost a decade. "We formulated our strategy of socio-economic growth very carefully over a period of about four years. And then we tried to implement it in the last nine years."
Fortunately, she said, the development partners came forward with eager and generous hands and jointly made the proud progress, reports UNB.
