Despite the fact that three quarters of the world's poor live in rural areas, the level of international development aid directed at rural areas has continued to decline over the last decade, particularly in terms of the agricultural sector. In 2001, lending for agricultural projects was the lowest in the World Bank's history. This publication presents the World Bank's new rural development strategy based upon a results oriented approach which stresses practice, implementation, monitoring and empowerment aspects. The strategy seeks to highlight rural development efforts, focusing on the needs of the rural poor, fostering a broad-based economic growth and addressing the impact of global developments on client countries.
In the wake of globalization, the concept, philosophy and methodologies of extension system has gone under rapid change. In order to face the emerging challenges, there is need to develop synergistic and coherent strategy for enhancing crop productivity and providing livelihood options to the rural masses. For the purpose, an initiative was taken to document the salient contributions and approaches of esteemed personalities who are involved in agricultural and rural development process as the scientific expert, policy planner and stakeholders. This book entitled "Extension Strategies for Agriculture and Rural Development" devoted on five sub-themes (i) Policy initiative in extension education (ii) Market-led extension and commercial farming (iii) ICT application and methodological advances in agriculture (iv) Entrepreneurship development and innovative approaches in extension and; (v) Gender mainstreaming in farming system. The topics covered in the book have got tremendous variation and move around with the strategies and recent approaches by which agriculture can become more productive and income generating enterprise leading to turn economically viable and socially acceptable profession. This book is more useful for the scientists, development professionals, teachers, extension workers and policy planners who are involved in the area of agriculture and rural development.
This book offers a unique perspective on rural development, by discussing the most influential perspectives and rendering their risks and benefits visible. The authors do not present a silver bullet. Rather, they give students, researchers, community leaders, politicians, concerned citizens and development organizations the conceptual tools to understand how things are organized now, which development path has already been taken, and how things could possibly move in a different direction. Van Assche and Hornidge pay special attention to the different roles of knowledge in rural development, both expert knowledge in various guises and local knowledge. Crafting development strategies requires understanding how new knowledge can fit in and work out in governance. Drawing on experiences in five continents, the authors develop a theoretical framework which elucidates how modes of governance and rural development are inextricably tied. A community is much better placed to choose direction, when it understands these ties.
Addressing rural development is key for Ethiopia's growth process. A series of government-led structural reforms have contributed to sustained growth in the country over the last two decades as well as to considerable poverty reduction in rural areas. However, Ethiopia faces critical challenges it will need to overcome to meet the needs of a growing rural population. In practice, this will require updating the existing rural development strategy in order to better integrate the interaction of rural and urban areas. Policy approaches that account for the fast urbanisation process experienced in the country will therefore be key to improving the well-being of rural populations and promoting national growth. This report takes a spatial approach to study Ethiopia's rural development strategies. It highlights the need to develop stronger and more functional linkages between rural and urban areas. As such, the development of intermediary cities and small urban centres provides large scope for inclusive rural transformation. The report is the result of rigorous analysis, and extensive consultations with national and international stakeholders. It identifies some of the key challenges faced by rural areas and provides a series of recommendations to enhance Ethiopia's rural development strategies.
Religious studies and research have gained a lot of interest and attention from researchers, policy makers, and practitioners over the last few years, but the socio-economic impacts have not been explored. Taking into account the profound economic impact the tourism and hospitality industries can have on regions and cities around the world, further research in this area is critical to analyze the extent of such impact and the ramifications that are associated with it. The Handbook of Research on Socio-Economic Impacts of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the social and economic factors in faith-based journeys. While highlighting topics such as tourist spending, spiritual tourism, and local development, this publication explores religious tourism in the middle age, as well as the methods of modern religious tourism. This book is ideally designed for business managers, cultural preservationists, academicians, business professionals, entrepreneurs, and upper-level students seeking current research on religious tourism and its socio-economic impacts.
In 2020, a Special Issue titled "Sustainable Rural Development: Strategies, Good Practices and Opportunities" was launched, in which 16 papers were published. The aim of this monograph was to study a problem that is occurring on a global scale and, above all, in the most developed countries, which is the population emigration from rural areas to urban areas due to the labour and service opportunities offered by the latter. This is causing a demographic deterioration of rural areas, and those that remain show high rates of ageing, masculinisation, or low demographic growth. In addition, and interrelated with this demographic deterioration, there is economic and environmental degradation. Rural areas are territories with increasingly lower purchasing power, job opportunities, and services for the population, which are classified as "spaces in crisis". The papers in this Special Issue evidence the many public and private strategies that are being pursued to achieve sustainable rural development in declining areas. The diversity of approaches offer a vision of the practical application and the obstacles or difficulties that many of them are having to achieve their objectives. All of these strategies are intended to achieve economic dynamism that is respectful of the environment and from there to be able to reduce the regressive demographic processes in rural areas. These are different approaches that allow us to contribute, from scientific, holistic, and multidisciplinary knowledge, and they can help decision making in public policy and planning strategies.
Three billion people live in rural areas in developing countries. Conditions for them are worse than for their urban counterparts when measured by almost any development indicator, from extreme poverty, to child mortality and access to electricity and sanitation.
This book investigates the role of wealth in achieving sustainable rural economic development. The authors define wealth as all assets net of liabilities that can contribute to well-being, and they provide examples of many forms of capital – physical, financial, human, natural, social, and others. They propose a conceptual framework for rural wealth creation that considers how multiple forms of wealth provide opportunities for rural development, and how development strategies affect the dynamics of wealth. They also provide a new accounting framework for measuring wealth stocks and flows. These conceptual frameworks are employed in case study chapters on measuring rural wealth and on rural wealth creation strategies. Rural Wealth Creation makes numerous contributions to research on sustainable rural development. Important distinctions are drawn to help guide wealth measurement, such as the difference between the wealth located within a region and the wealth owned by residents of a region, and privately owned versus publicly owned wealth. Case study chapters illustrate these distinctions and demonstrate how different forms of wealth can be measured. Several key hypotheses are proposed about the process of rural wealth creation, and these are investigated by case study chapters assessing common rural development strategies, such as promoting rural energy industries and amenity-based development. Based on these case studies, a typology of rural wealth creation strategies is proposed and an approach to mapping the potential of such strategies in different contexts is demonstrated. This book will be relevant to students, researchers, and policy makers looking at rural community development, sustainable economic development, and wealth measurement.
Policy-relevant and up-to-date, Rural Development deals systematically with all aspects of socioeconomic rural development, using India as a case study. The Second Edition includes an integrated treatment of the principles, policies and management of rural development; new research and statistical data; illustrations and examples from current situations; the latest measures of rural development; and a new methodology for project monitoring and evaluation.
