30th Aug-2nd Sept 2003:

"The fight against poverty can no longer be postponed" Jammeh tells UN Conference in Cuba.

President Jammeh has underscored the need to intensify the fight against poverty. Speaking at the 6th Session of the Parties to the Convention to combat desertification which ended in the Cuban capital Tuesday September 2nd, the President said desertification, which affects more than one billion people around the world has resulted in widespread poverty, degradation of rangeland and decline in soil fertility and structure. Jammeh told the UN forum that Subsaharan Africa bears the brunt of the scourge, with a staggering 260 million people living in extreme poverty, the highest proportion in the world.

Dr. Jammeh called for an urgent implementation of Chapter 12 of the UN's Agenda 21 which identifies combating desertification as the strategic task for a sound environmental management and sustainable development. He said the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is a tool designed not only to address the causes, but also the global, social, political, economic and cultural consequences of desertification and drought, such as poverty, migration, food insecurity and natural disasters. He said the inextricable linkage between desertification and socio-economic development and the multisectoral nature of the fight against desertification and poverty underscores the need to incorporate issues of desertification in overall national priorities as a prerequisite for achieving the desired goals.

President Jammeh said with extreme poverty, environmental degradation, underdevelopment, unsustainable production and consumption patterns and inequality in income distribution, international cooperation should be the unifying factor in the quest to build a common objective of improving the living conditions of present and future generations. Jammeh deplored the present level of resource allocation and technology transfer and challenged rich industrialized countries to do more in this regard.

On the home front, the President said the Gambia' socioeconomic and natural resource management efforts have been facing a number of Critical Constraints since the eighties but that his government's major development goals have always aimed at reducing poverty through sound policies. With a population of 1.3 million and an annual growth rate of 4.2 percent, his government fully realises the human pressure on limited natural resources, resulting in serious social, economic and environmental problems. The President said his government's decentralization policy, the poverty reduction strategy paper and the strategy for Poverty Alleviation Phase II, support the mainstreaming environmental issues in all poverty reduction activities. He said this approach strongly encourages the full commitment and participation of all Gambians in collaboration with development partners. " Such development strategies have been sustained since 1994 to guarantee a decent standard of living for the entire citizenry."

At the end of the two day summit, leaders reaffirmed their resolve to work together to fulfill the plan of implementation adopted at the World Summit on sustainable development, which recognizes the UN Convention on desertification as one of the important tools for eradicating Poverty and Confers on it a fundamental role for achieving that objective.

On the sidelines of the summit the Gambian and Cuban Foreign Ministers signed a new agreement within the context of the existing bilateral framework.

The agreement which was signed by the two foreign ministers calls for closer collaboration between the foreign ministries and also abolish visa restriction for officials of the two sides.

Report by Kebba Dibba of GRTS