70%
of the world's poor live in rural areas. But progress in reducing
rural poverty has stalled. In the 1990s, it fell to less than
one third of the rate needed to meet the United Nations’
commitment to halve world poverty by 2015.
Place
matters
The
majority of the world’s poor live in rural areas or
migrate to city slums in search of work. Many of them live
in chronic poverty - remaining poor for much or all of their
lives. Disaffection, stemming from their exclusion and deprivation,
is increasingly cited as a root cause of conflict and growing
insecurity.
To
break this cycle we need to rethink our approaches to tackling
rural poverty. Business as usual will not deliver the scale
of poverty reduction required – fast enough –
to meet the Millennium Development Goals.
There
are hard choices to be made on:
Public policy reforms to improve the enabling environment
and provide the rural poor with more livelihood opportunities
- including opportunities to migrate and flexible labour markets;
- Appropriate
allocations of public resources (including aid);
- Nature
of public goods in rural areas;
- Land
rights and customary land use; and
- Financing
of necessary improvements in rural infrastructure and service
delivery.
theIDLgroup’s
central principle is that these choices should be shaped by
rural peoples’ livelihood realities and respond to their
priorities.
theIDLgroup’s
ongoing research in Bangladesh shows that we need constantly
to review our understanding of rural realities. Our ‘Hands
not Land’ publication highlighted a fast- changing
context where powerful external economic forces, including
those of globalisation and the expansion of physical infrastructure
and the growth of marketing outlets, have radically transformed
village life. A follow-up study of womens’ and girls’
views highlighted how they are ‘Breaking New Ground’
– with poor women entering the labour force in increasing
numbers.
Our
contribution to getting rural development right
It
is the ownership of this understanding of rural realities
that is critical. theIDLgroup has over a decade of experience of working
with national governments, donors and civil society on the
design and facilitation of development processes which build
on and internalise an understanding of rural realities. And
collectively we have a wealth of partnerships to draw on.
We
provide services in the following areas:
- Research
on rural livelihood realities;
-
Facilitation of processes which seek to understand livelihood
realities, the root causes of rural poverty and the rules
of the game which frame livelihood opportunities;
- Design
and implementation of poverty and vulnerability assessments;
- Understanding
of rural-urban linkages;
-
Design and facilitation of policy reform processes which
put the priorities of the rural poor at the centre;
- Facilitation
of complex, highly political processes of national policy
and institutional reform;
- Support
to sector ministries’ efforts to contribute and respond
to the PRSP process;
-
Donor strategy and aid investments;
-
Development of donor rural sector strategies;
- Design
of complex cross sectoral and multi-institutional programmes
and projects;
-
Advice on the selection of appropriate aid instruments and
the configuration of aid investments;
-
Advice on appropriate participatory mechanisms and communications
for development practice;
-
Design of poverty and livelihood monitoring systems; and
-
Poverty and social impact analyses.
Examples
of Relevant Experience
How
to stimulate agriculture-based growth
theIDLgroup is a partner in the design of a 5 year DFID programme
which aims to improve the enabling environment for agricultural
business in Zambia. The programme aims to strengthen policies,
institutions and practices that increase pro-poor private
sector development, with an emphasis on agricultural competitiveness.
How
to extend the reach of rural services
theIDLgroup
have been deeply involved in promoting community-based approaches
to animal health service delivery in Africa and Asia. We have
examined the policy issues and practical challenges affecting
the delivery of these services including sustainable financing,
regulatory fieldwork, and the extension of their reach to
pastoral communities in remote areas.
How
to support livelihoods in situations of chronic conflict and
political instability
theIDLgroup’s
work on livelihoods and vulnerability in Zimbabwe highlighted
the breakdown in peoples’ capacity to cope with the
increasing pressures heaped upon them. Our findings have shaped
the debate on the institutional response – emphasising
the needs to protect human and social capital and support
coping strategies.
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