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The changing paradigm of rural governance for sustainable development: Defining the niche and role of GIS
2. Rural development – a refocus
Many international institutions such as UNDP, OECD, the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank have adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration of halving
poverty worldwide by 2015 (Hanmer, et al., 2000). As 75% of the world’s poor live in rural
areas, this target cannot be met without giving greater focus on rural development.
Recognizing that there has been declining donor support for agriculture and rural
development and disproportionate government spending in urban areas, the World Bank
recently formulated a new strategy for rural development entitled “Reaching the Rural Poor”
(The World Bank, 2001). This new strategy has a distinct rural focus to redress the problems
of persisting rural poverty and natural resource degradation. The strategy aims at fostering
broad-based rural growth by increasing productivity and improving the competitiveness of
both agricultural and non-farm rural activities. To achieve this, the strategy stresses the need
for policy and institutional reforms, and for developing rural physical and financial
infrastructure services. Emphasis is also placed on improving social well-being and managing
risks and vulnerability through human capital development, particularly on programs and
projects that provide access for the poor, women, and ethnic minorities. Programs enhancing
the sustainable management of natural resources by limiting land and environmental
degradation, improving water management, and safe exploitation of forest resources, will also
be supported. Similarly the Asian Development Bank, in its poverty alleviation drive, is
placing more importance on rural development (ADB, 2001).
2.1 Rural development hinges upon use and management of the primary resource base
In the case of rural development, there is heavy dependence on the primary resource base as a
source of rural livelihoods, and it is likely to remain so in the foreseeable future in most
developing countries. Whether rural economic activities are agriculture, forestry or fishery
based, increasing pressure to produce more using less land, water, forest and biodiversity
resources raises concern that human economic activities may not be sustained in the long term
when the natural resource base is being eroded.
2.2. Issues in rural development and demands on rural governance
The key issues in rural development relate to judicious use and management of the resource
base on which the rural people depend for their livelihoods. This is to ensure that while
present economic activities draw dividends from the natural resource base, they do not draw
down on the natural capital (i.e. the ecosystem goods and services) so that future generations
will continue to depend on. Rural governance has a vital role to ensure this.
The rural poor will remain poor unless they are able to produce surplus and sell it under the
most favorable market conditions, or to divert their surplus labor to economic activities that
are not primary resource based. Good rural governance should be able to provide services
such as timely market information for producers to benefit from market changes, as well as
open up opportunities for a broader based rural economy to diversify livelihood strategies.
Education, health and social well-being are crucial to human productivity, while social safety
nets are vital support mechanisms to cope with crises. The role of rural governance in
providing these services remains important, particularly to rural communities that are both
physically and economically isolated. Lack of informal and formal education restricts the
capacity of rural people to take advantage of alternative job opportunities. The incidence of
chronic ill-health due to poor accessibility and affordability to health services and its effect on
reducing rural labor productivity has been grossly under-estimated (Flores, 2001).
In other words, it is even more important that rural governance goes beyond mundane public
administration of civil services, and should be a seamless extension of planning and
management of the entire rural space.
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