Effective Approaches for Rural Development

Effective Approaches for Rural Development

  • Although the trickle-down theory was based on the belief that an expanded macro economy could improve the living standards of impoverished people, its effectiveness has been questionable. 
  • However its failure does not necessarily mean that efforts should be concentrated at the grass-roots levelonly. 
  • This is because the development of rural areas cannot be achieved without attention to urban areas, which are the main consumers of agricultural products.
  • If conventional development projects were effective, rural poverty would haveimproved more significantly. 
  • Therefore, it is clear that the traditional rural development approach needs to be improved, rural development depended on external assistance from foreign countries. 
  • However external inputs have been restrained due to donors’ current poor financial conditions. 
  • As a result, the promotion of rural development requires effective external inputs to generate sufficient results and is capable of engendering further improvements. 
  • Development issues must therefore be comprehensively and cross-sectionally understood for this to be realized.
  • Maximum use of human and material resources in rural areas is also necessary. 

Some potential approaches are described as followsbelow.
Endogenous Development

① To emphasize comprehensive local development for human rights advocacy, human development and qualitative progress of living standards based on environmental conservation and sustainable social development.

② To adopt a development approach that promotes inter-industrial relationships through the comprehensive utilization of local resources, techniques, industries, human resources, cultures, and networks placing value on mixed economic working situations.  Also, to implement necessary regulations andinstruction to promote cooperation between cities and local economy.

③ To facilitate community participation in policy-making.  To establish local autonomy through community participation, decentralization and resident self-governance.  At the same time, to develop project implementation bodies based on regional realities.
Participatory Development

  • The promotion of the development of human and physical resources in rural areas requires recognizing the fact that local people themselves are the main implementors of development projects.
  • If the people participate passively in projects, they become inactive and will depend on external inputs. 
  • In order to avoid this situation, local decision-making in project planning and implementation is important. 
  • In other words, a project that the local people themselves plan and implement is given priority as local materials and human resources are utilized effectively by the local people’s initiative and responsibility. 
  • Local independence and sustainable development of project outcomes are enhanced by the effective use of local resources.

Development Objectives

1. Improvement of Economic Capabilities (Agricultural income improvement, non-agricultural income improvement, improvement of industries, and development of infrastructures)

2. Improvement of Human Capabilities (General health improvementand development of educational standards)

3. Improvement of Protective Capabilities (Conservation of naturalenvironment and natural disaster prevention measures)

4. Improvement of Political Capabilities (Decentralization and improvement of policy-making capabilities)