Lecture 1 Theories and Concepts in Rural Development

 Normally, the rural is defined as those areas which are not urban in nature and distinguished from the urban by lower levels of infrastructre development, commercial goods4. producti[r]

Lecture

How we understand rural development? How to develop?

Concepts of Development

 At the end of WWII, United States became a formidable and incessant productive machine and the center of the world

 All the institutions created in those years, even the UN charter echoed the US constitution

 Americans wanted to consolidate their hegemony and make it permenant and realized their purposes by conceiving a political campaign at a global scale and a appropriate emblem to identify the campaign

 January 20, 1949 President Truman took office and opened a new era of development by launching a bold new program for the

Concepts of Development

 Orginally, development, in biology, describes a process through which the potentialites of an object or organism are released, until reached its natural, complete and full-fledged form

 Between 1759 (Wolff) and 1859 (Darwin), development evolved from a conception of transformation towards the appropriate form of being to a conception of transformation towards an ever more perfect form

 In the last quarter of the 18th century, the biological metaphor of development was transfered into the social sphere

 Justus Moser (the conservative founder of social history), from 1768, used the word Entwicklung to allude to the gradual process of social change

 Towards 1800, entwicklung begane to appear as reflexive word And a few the decades later, development became the central category of Marx´s work

 The late of 18th century, development appeared in English, and some time used as interchanged with evolution or growth

 By the begining of the 20th century, the new use of the term became widespread and connoted urban development and colonial

Concepts of Development

 Throughout the century, the meanings associated with urban development and colonial development concurred with many others to transform the word “development“ step by step, into one with contours that are about as precise as those of an

amoeba and its meaning depends on the context in which it is employed

 Therefore, development cannot delink itself from the words with which it was formed – growth, evolution, and maturation and those who use the word cannot free themselves from the web of meanings that impart a specific blindness to their language,

thought and action

Concepts of Development

 Since the Trumans statement, development was reduced to

economic growth and consisted simply of growth in the income per person in economically underdeveloped areas (1950s)

 In the 1960s: The development thinking turned to pay attention on integration of development by including both social and

economic aspects (the Proposals for Action of the First UN Development Decade)

 In the 1970s: The integration of physical resources, technical progress, economic and social change was recognized Major

Concepts of Development

 In the 1970s (cont.):

 Development should not be to develop things but to develop

man

 Development requires of fundamental economic, social and

political changes

 Human – centered development  Integrated development

 Endogenous development (recognizing different systems of

values and diverse cultures)

Redefining Concept “Development”

 The past development efforts have achieved only short-lived gains

 Redevelopment – Sustainable development defined as

development that “meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (the 1987 report of the Brundtland

Commission)

 Recently, the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document: sustainable development as economic development, social development, and environmental protection

 The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversification (UNESCO 2001) includes cultural diversity as the fourth policy area of

Concepts of Economic Development

 Economic development: the process of improving

the standards of living and well-being of

population of developing countries by raising per capita income This is usually achieved by an

Concepts of the Rural

 There has not been yet a accurate definition about the rural area that is widely recognized

 Normally, the rural is defined as those areas which are not urban in nature and distinguished from the urban by lower levels of infrastructre development, commercial goods

production, and people´s livelihoods

 Agricultural economists define: The rural is where in which inhabitants are mostly (peasants) famers, low population density, less developed infrastructure, low level of

Concepts of the Rural

 Peculiarities of the rural:

 Dominated by farmers and agricultural production  Depending on the urban in many different aspects  Low levels of income, living standards, technological

innovation, democracy, and social equity as compared to that

of the urban area

 Diversity in social, cultural, economic conditions,

Peasants or Farmers in the Rural

 Peasants as communities rather than single individuals or

households consisdered as transition, markets and exchange, subordination and internal differences

 Peasant farm households as a family and enterprise:

- The economic unit of production and consumption

- The small scale farmer (kleinbauern)

- Production relies primarily on family labour - Partially integrated into incomplete markets - Engaging in multi - activties

- Land is often a source of securing the family livelihoods

- Maintaining the option to withdraw from the market and still survive - Subsistence-oriented livelihoods

 Farmers: the large scale agribusiness entrepreneur or modern

Rural Poverty

 Nearly 75% of 1.3 billion world poor who subsist on $ or less per day live and work in rural areas

 75% of the world 800 million underfed also live in rural areas

 Roughly 850 million people living in chronic hunger are small farmers

 In spite of rapid urbanization, a majority of the world poor and underfed will remain in rural areas and levels of

Rural Poverty

 The rural poor face enormous challenges: limited economic opportunities, underdeveloped markets, less access to public infrastructure and services, less able to engage in advocacy with decision-makers, resource pressure and environment

degradation

 Rural poverty can also creates serious negative externalities on a country’s metropolitan population

 Rapid migratory flow to urban areas displace rural poverty to the urban slums

Goals of Rural Development

 Small farmers play an important role in many

developing countries’ economy, helping farmers will significantly increases economic growth potential

 Fighting rural poverty:

1 Raising small farm productivity

2 Increasing in real income per capita A fairer distribution of income

4 Improving access to resources

Goals of Rural Development

1. Raising small farm productivity:

 Why productivity remains low?

 Soil and water degradation, depletion and scarcity

 Lack of know-how and resources to used improved crop varieties

Goals of Rural Development

 Conditions for improving farm productivity  Improving roads, ennergy and communication

infrastructure

 Improving soil management and rehabilitation

 Improving small-scale water management

 Public and private investments for improving water

managment (strorage, harvesting, and use)

 Improving post harvest storage

Goals of Rural Development

2. Raising farmer incomes:

 Better integration with markets (inputs and outputs)

 Better infrastructure, institutions, and access

Goals of Rural Development

4. Improving access to resources: Good institutions

environment and well-defined property rights systems 5. Improving and expanding rural services: Health,

education, energy, and communication

Concepts of Rural Development

 Rural development (agricultural economists):  Improving rural standards of living and well-being

 Achieved largely through increases in agricultural production, output, and incomes

 In developing countries, this generally with small farms

 Sustainable rural development:

 Combining the improvement of economic and social living

conditions, focusing on a specific group of poor people in the rural area with assuring a sustainable environment:

- Focusing on people (bottom – up approach) - Multisectoral (integrated approach)

Four Dimensions of Rural Development

1. Political and Institutional

 Building community ownership

 Decentralizing and formalizing public participation – principle of subsidiary

 Granting fair access to limited resources and opportunities  Intelligent service system solutions

2. Socio-cultural

 Rediscovering/Building of local/regional identities

Four Dimensions of Rural Development

3. Economic

 Creating new (job) opportunities through diversification  Value added in the locality/region

 Strengthening capacities to cope with markets

4. Ecological

Rural Development in Timeline

 1950s: Modernization, dual economy model, backward agric., community development, lazy peasants

 1960s: Transformation approach, technology transfer, mechanization agric Extension, growth role of agric., green revolution (start), rational peasants

Rural Development in Timeline

 1980s: Structural adjustment, free markets, getting prices rights, retreat of the state, rise of NGOs, PRA, farming system research, food security & famine analysis, RD as process not product, women in dev., poverty alleviation

 1990s:Microcredit, participatory rural appraisal (PRA), actor-oriented RD, stakeholder analysis, rural safe nets, gender & devt (GAD), environment and sustainability, poverty reduction

 2000s: sustainable livelihoods, good governance,

Dominant and sequential themes in rural development

1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

1950s 1960s

Dominant Paradigms and Switches

Modernization, dual economy

Rising yields on efficient small farms

Process, participation, empowerment SL Approach

Some sequential popular RD emphases

Community devt

Small farm growth

Integrated rural devt

Market liberalization

Participation

Framework for Rural Development

Economic Subsystem

Culture

(Value system) Institutions (Rules)

Resources (Production

factors)

Technology (production

function)

Cultural – Institutional

Subsystem

A Basis for Analyzing Economic Development  Economic growth requires changes in social

organizations and value systems

 Need to understanding how changes in the

economy interact with institutions and cultures in such a way as to support significant, sustainable growth

A Framework for Rural Development

 Livelihood Approach:

 A way of thinking about the objectives, scope, and priorities

for development

 Putting people at the center of development

 The sustainable livelihood framework

 Origins: The white paper

 Objectives: to increase the sustainability of poor people’s

A Framework for Rural Development

 Core concepts of the SLF

 Putting people at the center: starts with analysis people’s

livelihoods and how these have been changed over time, fully involved people and respect their views, focuses on the impact of different policies and institutional

arrangements upon household and people, and work to support people achieve their own livelihood goals

 Holistic: attempts to identify the most pressing

A Framework for Rural Development

- Dynamic: people’s livelihoods and the institutions

that shape them are highly dynamic

- Building on strengths: starts with an analysis of

strength rather than needs

- Macro-micro links: emphasizing the importance of

macro level policy and institutions to the

A Framework for Rural Development

- Sustainability: a key of SL approach

• Environmental sustainability is achieved when the productivity of life-supporting natural resources is conserved or enhanced for use by next generations

• Economic sustainability is achieved when a given level of expenditure can be maintained over time

• Social sustainability is achieved when social exclusion is minimized and social equity is maximized

• Institutional sustainability is achieved when prevailing structures and process have capacity to continue to

Framework for Rural Development

 Policies & Institutions (Transforming Structures & Processes)

 Structures

 Government

 Private Sector

 Processes

 Policies

 Culture

 Laws

 Institutions

Livelihood Capital Assets

Human Social

Physical Financi al Natural Vulnerability Context • Shocks • Trends • Seasonality Livelihood Outcomes

• + Sustainable use of NR base • + Income • + Well-being • Reduced vulnerability • + Food security

Capital Assets

 “A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks and maintain or enhance it

capabilities and assets both now and future while not undermining the natural resource base”

 Natural capital: e.g land, water wildlife, biodiversity, environmental resources

 Social capital: e.g social network, membership of groups, access to wider institutions of society

 Human capital: e.g the skills, knowledge, ability to labour, good health

 Physical capital: e.g transport, shelter, water, energy and communications

Vulnerability context

 Vulnerability context: Frames the external environment in which people exist People’s livelihoods and the wider availability of

assets are fundamental affected by critical trends, shocks and seasonality

 Trends: Population trends, resource trends,

national/international economic trends, trends in governance, technical trends,

 Shocks: Human health shocks, natural shocks, conflict, crop/livestock health shocks

Transforming structures and process

 Structures: Public sector, private sector, civil society

 Structures exist at various levels that set and implement policy and legislation, deliver services, purchase, trade and perform all manner of other functions that affect livelihoods

 Structures make process functions

 Processes: Policy, legislation, institutions, culture, power relations They determine the way in which structures – and individuals – operate and interact

 Processes are important to every aspect of livelihoods, e.g.,

Livelihood strategies

 Livelihood strategies:

 Natural resources – based, Non-natural resources based,

migration

 Intensification, diversification, migration  Coping, adaptive

 Livelihoods strategies: Dynamic, diversity at every level within geographic areas, across sectors, within households and over time

Livelihood Outcomes

 More income

 Increased well-being

 Reduced vulnerability

 Improved food security

 More sustainable use of the natural resource base