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Jacques Diouf, Director-General, FAO
While rural people are still in the demographic majority in less-developed regions of the world, they
are an often-neglected political minority. Although at the global level, the proportion of the population
living in urban areas has reached 50 per cent, in the less-developed regions, the 50 per cent level will
only be reached just after 2020. These data indicate that while from an overall global demographic
perspective, urban people have now equalled the rural population, in less developed regions the
percentage and the absolute number of rural people are such that this demographic group cannot be
ignored. Between 2010 and 2030, the rural population worldwide will remain almost constant at about
3.4 billion persons.
FAO and UNESCO have consistently supported efforts aimed at providing stronger linkages between
food security and education. The food crisis, exacerbated by the financial and economic crisis, has
given impetus to a renewed effort of the international community to reduce the impact of these events
on poor people and to prevent future emergencies. The Education for Rural People (ERP) Partnership,
for which FAO is the UN lead agency, has been considered an essential part of this endeavour. The
great majority of the so-called ‘hard-to-reach children’ are concentrated in rural areas. Giving these
children wider access to education is one of the crucial factors for sustainable development.
Jacques Diouf,
Director General, FAO