ECOSOC High-Level Segment: Promoting an integrated approach for poverty eradication

The final meetings of the ECOSOC High-Level Segment took place in Geneva, Switzerland from 30 June to 2 July, with the participation of national cabinet ministers, chiefs of international agencies and other high officials who discussed topics related to this year's main theme: "Promoting an integrated approach to rural development in developing countries for poverty eradication and sustainable development".

The Ministerial Declaration of the High-Level Segment strongly supported an integrated approach to rural development by stating that "Rural development should be pursued through an integrated approach, encompassing the economic, social and environmental dimensions, taking into account the gender perspective and consisting of mutually reinforcing policies and programmes. This approach should be balanced, targeted, situation specific, locally owned, include local synergies and initiatives and be responsive to the needs of rural populations." The declaration also called for the reduction and elimination of agricultural subsidies and urged developed countries and members of the World Trade Organization to implement the commitments made at the DOHA trade conference in 2001.

The High-Level Segment is an annual substantive session organized by the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), to deal with cross cutting issues related to development. This year's High-Level Segment had a very high participation of representatives from the various UN System agencies.

The Segment focused on the importance of a coordinated UN System approach to rural development in order to meet the internationally agreed development goals, such as those established in the 2000 Millennium Declaration and in other international conferences - International Conference on Financing for Development, held in March 2002, World Food Summit : five years later, held in June 2002 and World Summit on Sustainable Development held in August 2002.

ECOSOC President, Gert Rosenthal, in his concluding remarks, referred to the High-Level Segment as a success and mentioned the proposed Public Private Alliance for Rural Development as a significant outcome of the session.

Rural Development slowly is becoming one of the priority issues on the development agenda given the wide participation of Heads of UN System agencies in the first day's series of ministerial roundtable discussions that focused on four main topics:

• Natural resources and rural development in developing countries
• Integrated approach to implementation of Millennium Development Goal's in the area of rural development
• Global partnerships for rural development
• Rural/urban interface and slums

The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in his report for the High-Level Segment, underlined that the integrated approach to rural development should be able to "tackle the causes of poverty in rural areas (where three quarters of the world's poor live) by using a multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional approach".

Among the issues mentioned during the debates were: the importance of agricultural productivity, the need of an enabling macro and micro economic environment, access to resources (land, water, technology, financing, markets, training, etc.), the impact of HIV/AIDS, among many others.

For more information on the outcomes of the High-Level Segment please click here.

To read the documents and the Ministerial Declaration of the High-Level Segment please click here.

Read the articles issued in the April and June updates of the Website regarding the sessions held in preparation of the High-Level Segment.