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 1

Theories and Concepts in

Rural Development

How do we understand rural development?

How to develop?

What should be developed and for whom?

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

improvement and growth of “underdeveloped areas“  the

concept “underdevelopment“ came to exist and changed the

meaning of the term “development“

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

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

 Development always implies a favorable change, a step from the simple to the complex, from the inferior to superior, from worse

to better

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

problems, like environment, population, hunger, women, habitat

or employment were brought sucessively to the forefront, but not yet sovled because of dispute among bureaucratic bodies

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

sustainable development

Concepts of Economic Development

the standards of living and well-being of

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

increase in industralisation relative to reliance on the agriculture sector (MIT Dictionary of Modern Economics, 4th edition)

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

education, less access to markets and public goods

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,

development levels, management

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

capitalist farmer (developed countries) or family farm enterprises (developing countries)

 In spite of rapid urbanization, a majority of the world poor

and underfed will remain in rural areas and levels of

poverty are typically much deeper in rural areas

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

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

3. A fairer distribution of income

4. Improving access to resources

5. Improving and expanding rural services

6. Increasing in grass-root democracy

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

 Inadequate agricultural extension services

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

 Improving crop varieties and livestock breeds

 Environmentally sustainable farming practices

 Effective subsidies

Goals of Rural Development

2 Raising farmer incomes:

 Better integration with markets (inputs and outputs)

 Better infrastructure, institutions, and access

• Better mechanism for income distribution

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

6 Increasing in grass-root democracy: bottom – up and real

participation

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)

- Development with balance in environmental management

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

 Dealing with risks and distress (social security systems)

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

 Managing natural resources in sustainable manner

 Cross – sectoral agreement on different types of use

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

 1970s : Redistribution with growth, basic needs, integrated

rural dev., state agric policies, state-led credit, urban bias, induced innovation, green revolution (cont.), rural growth linkages

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,

decentralization, critique of participation, sector -wide approaches, social protection, poverty eradication

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

PRSPs

Framework for Rural Development

Economic Subsystem

Culture (Value system) Institutions (Rules)

Resources

(Production

factors)

Technology (production function)

Cultural – Institutional Subsystem

A Theoretical Framework for Economic Development (Hayami, 1997)

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 model of dialectic social development

A Framework for Rural Development

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

 Putting people at the center of development

 Origins: The white paper

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

A Framework for Rural Development

 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

constraints faced by and promising opportunities open

to people regards of where, space, or level and builds

upon people’s own definition of their constraints and

opportunities

A Framework for Rural Development

that shape them are highly dynamic

strength rather than needs

macro level policy and institutions to the

livelihood options of communities and individuals

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

perform their functions over the long time

Framework for Rural Development

 Policies &

Institutions (Transforming Structures &

Human Social

• + Sustainable use of NR base

• + Income

• + Well-being

• Reduced vulnerability

• + Food security

Livelihood Strategies

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

 Financial capital: savings, supplies of credit or regular remittances or pension

 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

 Seasonality: of prices, of production, of health, of employment opportunities

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.,

providing incentives – from markets through cultural constraints, defining how to manage resources etc