Italy, China hold forum on poverty reduction with partners

Over 90 representatives from Rome-based United Nations (UN) agencies, civil society, academia, and the diplomatic corps joined a poverty reduction seminar in the Italian capital Friday.

The seminar on "Global Partnerships for Poverty Reduction" was hosted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese government.

Participants discussed how to increase awareness and knowledge on the role of agencies like Italian Development Cooperation, the International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) in poverty reduction at country, regional and international level.

Pietro Sebastiani, Director General for Development Cooperation at Italian Foreign Ministry, said the world has come a long way in reducing poverty, "but if we want to achieve complete poverty eradication, the needs of those who are more marginalized need to be addressed in a concerted effort".

"That means that each of us plays a major role in making that goal achievable. Making every citizen whether in the public or private sector responsible for eradicating poverty," he said.

Tan Weiping, IPRCC deputy director-general, said China is tackling poverty in a systematic and well-structured way. He said China has already achieved zero hunger "but we are interested in learning how to address malnutrition".

"We as IPRCC are happy to be working with FAO and IFAD in developing and implementing together initiatives that contribute to the achievement of poverty reduction goal," he said.

According to Tan, China just signed a 5 million U.S. dollar agreement with IFAD for South-to-South cooperation.

"We are also looking forward to establishing new channels of cooperation with the Italian Agency of Cooperation and Development and with the Italian Government," Tan added.

China Internet Information Center (CIIC) Vice President, Li Fugen, emphasized the important role of ICTs in reducing poverty, in particular in remote areas by offering innovative solutions for trading goods and giving access to information to everyone.

IFAD Director of Global Engagement, Knowledge and Strategy Division, Ashwani Mutthoo, said IFAD is contributing to increasing knowledge sharing not only on past experiences but on innovative solutions that can contribute to overcoming the present challenges that several member countries are facing.

"There are still almost 800 million people living in poverty and that three-quarters of those people are living in rural areas. So addressing rural poverty and making sure that no one, near or far, is left behind is essential to achieve the eradication of poverty," Mutthoo said. Endit