Retreat for Senior Officials in-charge of

Rural Development and Inter-Ministerial Summit

In the era of globalisation, the need for a well-structured policy for rural upliftment seems to be imperative, especially because it is in the rural areas that poverty and its various manifestations such as illiteracy, mal-nutrition predominate. Therefore, AARDO envisages to organize a 5-day Retreat of senior officials of rural development in member countries during the triennium 2006-2008 in India, in collaboration with Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.

Retreat on “Rural Development: Afro-Asian Perspective”,
Hyderabad, 8 - 11 January 2007

Afro-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India organised a retreat on the above titled theme at the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD), Hyderabad, India on 8-11 January 2007. The Retreat was inaugurated by H E Mr Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Hon’ble Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India. Dr Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, Hon’ble Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and H E Mr Abdalla Yahia Adam, Secretary General, AARDO delivered their addresses during the inaugural session.

The Retreat was attended by 29 participants from 17 AARDO member countries, namely, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, R O China, Egypt, Ghana, India, Jordan, R O Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria and Zambia. In addition, expert papers from Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) and Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Africa (CIRDAfrica) were presented. One keynote paper and four theme papers were presented by experts from India. Besides, the country papers were also presented by the respective delegates of the participating countries.

In order to arrive at appropriate recommendations, the participants were divided into four syndicate groups to deliberate on the following themes:

i)       Poverty Alleviation in Rural Areas – Priority and Policy Framework,

ii)      Gender Issues and Role of Women in Rural Development,

iii)     Successful Approaches/Practices of Rural Development, and

iv)     Bilateral, Regional Partnership for Rural Development and Marketing of Rural Products.
 

Inter-Ministerial Summit on “Rural Development : Afro-Asian Pers-pective”,

 New Delhi, 12 January 2007

The Inter-Ministerial Summit on Rural Development was organised by Afro-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) in collaboration with the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India at New Delhi on 12 January 2007. The Summit was inaugurated by H E Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, President of the Republic of India. The Summit was addressed by Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Hon’ble Union Minister for Rural Development, Government of India, Mr Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Minister of State for Rural Development, Government of India and H E Mr Abdalla Yahia Adam, Secretary General, AARDO. It was attended by, among others, the Hon’ble Ministers of nine AARDO member countries, namely, Republic of China, Arab Republic of Egypt, Republic of Ghana, Republic of India, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Malaysia, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Syrian Arab Republic. The recommendations of the Retreat, after due modifications, were adopted by the august house as the “New Delhi Declaration”.