Opening and Closing Remarks by Ambassador Pietro Sebastiani
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Opening and Closing Remarks at “Global Partnerships for Poverty Reduction”
Ambassador Pietro Sebastiani, Director General for Development Cooperation, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
April 28, 2017, Rome, Italy
Opening Remarks
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentleman,
On behalf of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, it gives me a great pleasure to welcome you to the building of the Farnesina.
First of all, let me thank the International Poverty Reduction Centre: they launched the idea of this Seminar and shaped it with us. I also want to thank our partners, FAO and IFAD, that enthusiastically supported its organization.
Let me say that, after almost 30 years of Italian bilateral development cooperation in China, we are happy to seat at the same table today with China, to speak about partnerships for poverty alleviation in partner countries.
This is a most welcome development.
It testifies the extraordinary path of development China has gone through in recent years; in this regard, let me say that we are proud to have contributed, through substantive development aid and technical assistance in different sectors, to the success of the Chinese experience of poverty reduction.
It is also the expression of the important role China is now playing, with its substantial financial weight and expanding global engagement, in the international debate on development.
I’ll just mention the very successful G20 Chinese Presidency last year, that launched many relevant initiatives, among which a Plan of Action for G20 implementation of the 2030 Agenda that is very much related with our discussion today.
It testifies also the openness that has always characterized the Italian Development Cooperation towards innovative ways of fostering global development, that has allowed and allows us to walk hand in hand, emerging and traditional development actors, going beyond conceptual or ideological prejudices, in supporting Triangular and South-South Cooperation.
Finally, it testifies the bilateral confidence that we have built with China over the years that makes possible today to exchange ideas on our joint endeavour to eradicate global poverty and make our societies, our economic systems, our planet more sustainable for our and future generations.
According to the latest estimates, around 767 million people still live in extreme poverty, close to 800 million are suffering from hunger and nearly 2 billion from malnutrition, with women and girls affected particularly severely.
Before this gloomy picture of today’s world, we cannot give up hope, but instead we must double our efforts towards poverty reduction.
The international community set an ambitious goal, in the framework of the sustainable development Agenda: by 2030, eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere and reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty.
In order to achieve such goal, we need to work hard, developed and developing countries alike, to devise and implement medium and long term anti-poverty policies, along with humanitarian actions aimed at ending food insecurity worldwide.
And we especially need partnerships. Partnerships among national governments, including both traditional and new development protagonists, such as China; partnerships with International Organizations engaged in poverty eradication, especially in rural areas, such as FAO and IFAD; partnerships with the civil society, the private sector and academia, which are also well represented in this hall.
Today’s Seminar is particularly significant because it is a concrete expression of the willingness of many relevant actors to cooperate in this collective effort.
Poverty reduction, rural development, food security, are long-lasting priorities of the Italian Development cooperation, and Italy - also in its role of non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and with its Presidency of the G7 - is doing its best to make them emerge as a clear priority within the whole international community.
We cannot forget that poverty is among the root causes of large movements of migrants and refugees that have become a pressing global challenge. If we want to seriously address the issue of intra-African and across the Mediterranean migration flows, we must start from developing comprehensive and effective anti-poverty policies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
We now look forward to taking advantage of Chinese domestic development experience, and are very willing to reflect upon sustainable development with China, whose engagement in Africa is well established; we hope to find ways to join forces and create productive synergies in this common endeavour.
Speaking to an audience largely made of students, let me underline the fundamental role Young People, as important agents of change, could play in achieving the SDGs both in developed and developing countries. Your energies, knowledge and values will be critical in the struggle to meet the challenge of ending poverty and making our planet more sustainable and fair.
I wish all of you a very fruitful and interactive discussion and look forward to sharing some comments with you and possibly draw some conclusions at the end of this meeting.
Closing remarks
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentleman,
I think that this Seminar has offered a unique opportunity to policy makers, International Organizations, experts and researchers who gathered here today to exchange views and opinions on the fundamental issue of poverty eradication.
The debate clearly highlighted that poverty eradication is a complex and multidimensional goal, that must be pursued through different but integrated tools and that partnerships, all kinds of partnerships, are key to implement the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development.
Rural transformation, sustainable urbanization, improved access to basic services, social protection for the poor and vulnerable, resilience to environmental shocks, infrastructure expansion, access to innovation and development of new technologies and financial services, should all be part of a comprehensive approach aimed at tackling global poverty.
Standing by the commitment undertaken in the framework of Agenda 2030, Italy is playing its own role at the forefront in the fight against poverty, both at national and international level.
We renewed our development cooperation system in order to make it more capable to meet the challenges we face, and we considerably scaled up our ODA in recent years.
However, we are perfectly aware that no country can make a difference at global level on his own. This is why partnerships are so important, and this is why this Seminar is particularly significant.
It has been highlighted the importance of platforms and networks for making solutions and best practices of poverty reduction available to all relevant stakeholders, with a view to turning knowledge into action.
Our relationship with FAO and IFAD is a long-lasting and consolidated one, but it has been useful to exchange updated views on our respective strategies towards rural and agriculture development and food security.
The Seminar also gave us the opportunity to investigate the potential of triangular cooperation with China aimed at fighting poverty in partner countries.
China’s approach towards development cooperation has been influenced by its domestic context and experience and in recent years has undertaken a series of high-profile actions focusing on developing physical infrastructure and improving regional connectivity.
It is worth it to continue exploring ways and means for acting together, bringing our respective capital of development knowledge and experience. In this regard, I believe that it might be useful to reflect on the possibility of elaborating convergent or joint actions to foster sustainable development.
Sub-Saharan Africa, the world region where three quarters of LDCs are located, where rural poverty and food insecurity are deepest, where sustainable agriculture development has the highest potential and, eventually, where external assistance can still make a difference, could be the geographical focus of our reflection.
The title of today’s Seminar “Global Partnerships for Poverty Reduction” is not just a slogan; it captures the very core of our daily efforts towards the achievement of this overarching development goal and we now look forward to partnering with China in this common endeavor.
I thank once again IPRCC, FAO and IFAD for their valuable contribution to the organization of this event, and all of you for your participation, and I leave the floor to Mr. Tan Weiping for his closing remarks.