3.1.1 The Views of the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development

Porn 12 20 July, 1979, the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and
Rural Development (WCARRD) organized by the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) of the United Nations was held in Rome. It was not the
objective of this conference, to which the governments of 145 nations had
sent representatives, to develop new, ideas and knowledge on that subject.
This would have required the organization of a conference of experts. The
aim of this political conference was to prepare on a world wide scale a
programme of action for agrarian reforms and rural development which would be acceptable to all. It was to show means and ways of coping with the problems of agrarian reform and rural development. At the same time, the conference, which met with world wide interest, brought to attention the
key position rural development 1 s in the overall development process.

After detailed discussions, which had partly already been conducted at preliminary conferences, the conference passed a policy statement and approved a programme of action for agrarian reform and rural development. The most important items in these two papers are summarized in the following chapter.