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| Expert Group discusses Africa 's readiness for Sustainable Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Transformation ECA Press Release No. 49/2008 Addis Ababa, 23 December 2008 - Some 30 experts and practitioners in the fields of agriculture and rural development met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 17-19 December to identify possible issues to be addressed to accelerate the expansion of the Korea-inspired grass-roots development project in African countries. The meeting focused on Sustainable Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Transformation (SMART), based on the Korean model called the “Saemaul Movement''. The “Saemaul Movement'' is a community driven development strategy for providing basic rural infrastructure services in a sustainable and efficient way. The World Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and other development partners have recognised (CDD) as a highly effective and successful example of rural development. Convinced of its effectiveness, the ECA and the United Nations Project Office on Governance (UNPOG) teamed up to organise the Addis Ababa meeting for experts in rural production, natural resource management, agribusiness development, rural agro-industrial development, marketing, and trade. Participants listened to a series of presentations by consultants working on the FSSDD/ECA SMART project. The presentations highlighted the unique features of agriculture in each of the 4 sub-regions in Sub Saharan Africa, and related implications for the achievement of green revolution and rural transformation. The experts initiated the development of the Sustainable Modernization of Agricultural and Rural Transformation index. The index, which is common to all the sub-regions will capture the whole picture of agriculture and can allow the planning and designing of Green Revolution in Africa . The expert group meeting unanimously agreed to develop and implement an initiative to apply the Saemaul Undong to promote SMART/GR in Africa . In this regard the expert group meeting produced and adopted an initiative entitled : The ECA – UNPOG SAEMAUL UNDONG Initiative on Green revolution and Rural transformation in Africa . This initiative consists of the objectives, approach and activities on the application of the Saemaul Undong approach in Africa over the next 5-10 years, through collaboration between ECA and UNPOG in partnership with other regional players on SMART/GR. The next step is for ECA in collaboration with UNPOG to finalize the project proposal and mobilize resources for its implementation using a partnership approach. Issued by the ECA Information and Communication Service Tel: 251 11 5445098
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