Rural Poverty Reduction Programme

Jobs are a scarce commodity in the United States and overseas. The tobacco companies have been taking severe hits over the last several years and there seems to be no let up. Now 21 states have come together on new laws that say that a prospective employer does not have to hire a future employee if they test positive for nicotine in their blood, cutting of that person’s livelihood. Many employers have made the decision that they simply will not hire a smoker and it makes no difference if they only smoke at home. Researcher has come up with the electronic cigarette in order to help people quit their nicotine addiction in order to get and keep employment.

The tobacco industry relies on specific countries to harvest tobacco plants. These companies have scores of employees in countries such as Mongolia. These jobs are helping to feed families and are providing many people the means to rise up out of a poverty level of living. On second thought, the question should be are tobacco companies really helping to curb poverty in many countries?

Research and reports written on this subject found quite the opposite. There is a relationship to increasing poverty in many countries, especially Mongolia, and the tobacco industry. This is not what the tobacco industry claims. Most tobacco workers in countries are nicotine addicted, living in poverty, and what monies they do have for household expenses goes toward their tobacco addictions. The basic necessities are not a #1 priority. This addiction takes money away that could be spent on food, education, and health care. Of course the tobacco industry claims differently as first stated. Some of these issues must somehow enlighten the public eye on the poor working conditions, poor pay scales, and child labor in these countries.

Research in this subject found that poverty stricken homes using tobacco had a higher incidence of infections in children. Newborns from nicotine addicted mothers had a low birth weight, and malnutrition from breathing the second hand smoke.

Researcher found key topics that would help to reduce poverty and tobacco use in these tobacco focused countries.
. Apply a higher tax on tobacco and prices
. Initiate tobacco control
. Educate households on the dangers of smoking around children and the ill effects smoking causes children
. Educate tobacco workers that this type of employment will not sustain them or their families
. Educate populace that tobacco production is working just the opposite. It is feeding poverty in many countries such as Mongolia, with very low pay to workers and nicotine addiction of the workers
. Institute a program for electronic cigarettes  to curb monies spent on tobacco

All research has gone into how the tobacco industry and poverty go together must have made a strong enough remark to gain the attention of the policy and law makers of these individual countries. The policy makers and media must be motivated enough towards the thoughts of positive tobacco control and what part tobacco plays on poverty stricken nations. More information about e cigarettes – http://www.new-smoke.com

The Programme was developed in 2000-2001. The Loan Agreement of the Programme was signed by the Minister of Finance and Economy of Mongolia and the President of IFAD in November 2002 and the Loan Agreement was ratified by the Parliament of Mongolia in January 2003.

The Programme started to be implemented in Arhangai, Bulgan, Huvsgul and Hentii provinces in August 2003. The programme will be implemented for 7 years.

The long term goal of the RPRP is to achieve sustainable and equitable poverty eradication for vulnerable rural households living in an environment with increasingly degraded natural resources. The overall objective is to achieve a sustainable increase in productive capacity for herders, cultivators and the general public and to offer increased access to economic and social resources, including education, health and social networks.

The total Programme cost amounts to about US$ 19.1 million, of which about US$ 14.8 million are financed by an IFAD loan under highly concessional conditions, XacBank contributes US$ 1.6 million and the Government of Mongolia matches the external funds with US$ 2.7 million.
The loan has service charge of 0.75% per annum. Loan maturity is 40 years. Grace period is 10 years.

Ministry of Food and Agriculture is the implementing agency of the Programme.

The RPRP has the five components

• Managemant
• Livestock and Natural resource management
• Social development
• Other economic activities

Rural financial services

Mongolia joined the membership of IFAD in 1994. Mongolia has the status of the developing country.

Since Mongolia became a member of IFAD, the two projects have been implemented. In 1996, the Government of Mongolia obtained USD 5 million worth of “Rural Poverty Alleviation Project”. This project has been implemented in Arhangai and Huvsgul provinces of Mongolia and the project has “restocking” and “vegetable production” components. The project implementation was completed in June 2004.

The second IFAD funded project – “Rural Poverty Reduction Programme” (RPRP) was started in July 2003.

Delegates of the Government of Mongolia and IFAD have permanently participated in the conferences and other events, organized by the two parties.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the United Nations, was established as an international financial institution in 1977 as one of the major outcomes of the 1974 World Food Conference. One of the most important insights emerging from the conference was that the causes of food insecurity and famine were not so much failures in food production, but structural problems relating to poverty and to the fact that the majority of the developing world’s poor populations were concentrated in rural areas.

Through low-interest loans and grants, IFAD works with governments to develop and finance programmes and projects that enable rural poor people to overcome poverty themselves. Since starting operations in 1978, IFAD has invested more than US$ 9.6 billion in 738 projects and programmes that have reached more than 300 million poor rural people.

Mr. Thomas Rath, Country Programme Manager for Mongolia, is responsible for the project and programme, being implemented in Mongolia. Please get more information about this Fund from the web site- www.ifad.org.

Mr. Sun Yinhong, portfolia manager is responsible for programme and projects implementation in Mongolia.

UNOPS is the cooperating institution appointed by IFAD for supervision and loan administration of the Rural Poverty Reduction Programme.

Asia and the Pacific office of UNOPS is located in Bangkok, Thailand. Mr. Kishan Gill, portfolia manager is responsible for programme and projects implementation in Mongolia.

One of the main activities of this office is to formulate projects and make evaluation&monitoring and supervision on the projects, funded by the UN agencies. Please get more information about this Fund from the web site- www.unops.org.