This publication includes the presentations
given at the regional Seminar organised by ECLAC's Social Development
Division. It comprises several conceptual approaches of social
capital, public programmes assessments, reflections based on
rural poverty programmes, etc.
In the nineties, farmworkers' economic
organisations in Central America had to face an context of less
intervention and support by the State, a greater movement between
the internal and external market and the subsequent transformation
of the institutions that regulate economic activities. The experiences
included in this document show a great variety of forms of association
created for specific goals of economic and social development
of their union members based on profitable productive activities
and sustainable organisational structures.
Considering the importance of non-agricultural
employment and income for rural population nowadays both in
Mexico and in Central America, this paper analyses the main
influential factors based on econometric models. The interdependence
between some variables is studied (gender, age, ethnic group,
schooling level, etc) and the importance of education is highlighted
as a decisive factor in order to obtain a non-agricultural rural
job.
The economy, education and employment
- priority public policy areas - are sectors that exert direct
influence on the development of rural women and one of the great
challenges regarding the identification of are priority areas
of public policies is the use of the gender perspective in their
design, elaboration and implementation. Therefore, this paper
suggests that in the future a more thorough analysis should
be done about rural women's situation in order to reinforce
its specific concept within the field of national and sectoral
public policies from the point of view of gender.
In this publication, poverty is presented
as one of the most long-lasting features of Latin American society
that has proved to be resistant to the conventional policies
that were shaped to reduce it or eradicate it. The amount of
rural population who live in conditions of poverty at practically
all levels requires analysing the long-lasting aspect of this
phenomenon in the context of a continuous emigration to urban
areas or to countries outside the region.
David, María Beatriz de Albuquerque.
(Comp.) Desarrollo
rural en América Latina y el Caribe. (Rural development
in Latin America and the Caribbean). Santafé de Bogotá:
ECLAC/Alfaomega, 2001. 164p.
This book approaches, from a historical
point of view, agriculture and rural development focusing on the
effects of macro-economic policies of the sector, the structural
changes that have been observed and the strategies in order to
achieve sustainable development. Productive re-structuring of
the sector in the last years is also described as well as the
effects on productivity, competitiveness, employment and equality
highlighting the existing heterogeneity and the way in which this
has worsened during recent years.
In the year 2000, during the Millennium
Summit of the United Nations, leaders from 189 nations gave support
to the millennium goals. One of them is to halve, by 2015, the
proportion of people who live in extreme poverty. There is hope
that a vigorous debate about the links between such goals and
the priorities and political choices of each country is promoted.
However, although there is a growing awareness that the goals
regarding poverty reduction cannot be achieved if rural poverty
is not reduced, the region had not given a "rural look"
to the goals. This document intends to be a first step to fill
in this space.
Nowadays, the people in charge of managing
agricultural farms are usually senior citizens; this does not
seem to favour a dynamic development of rural areas. Therefore,
questions rise about how these social and legal institutions function
with respect to the intergenerational transfer of use, ownership
and decisions concerning family property and whether these actions
adapt spontaneously to new situations. Therefore, it becomes necessary
to adopt measures to favour young people who may be interested
in settling as farmers so that they may have more possibilities
to do so.
The emergent paradigm of social capital
suggests that programmes intended to overcome farmworkers' poverty
and to strengthen rural civil society would have better results
if they considered the social and cultural systems of the communities.
The theory on social capital offers a particularly adequate framework
to study the rural society since it offers a prospective and pro-active
view of rural social development. This book is not only intended
to analyse the particular forms of social capital included in
the social and cultural systems of rural communities, but it also
seeks to understand what is going on in the interface area where
this system meets that of State institutions.
Although most of the total population and
poor population of Latin America and the Caribbean can be found
in urban centres, poverty is rather still a rural phenomenon of
the region. The purpose of this article is to highlight the different
alternatives of action to reduce rural poverty in the region and
to describe three types of possibilities of action to generate
or raise the income of such population: the growth of the agricultural
sector, the sustainable use of natural resources and the increasing
rural economic activities that are developed outside agricultural
farms
IFAD's (International Fund for Agricultural
Development) strategy to reduce poverty in Latin America and
the Caribbean is presented by establishing a regional overview
that contributes with general information about rural population
and, particularly, about the extent and recent evolution of
rural poverty. Besides, there is a presentation of the main
strategies developed by such institution in order to approach
the issue and authorise the work together with the people involved.
This document systematises the experiences,
strategies and impact of the work carried out by Local Agricultural
Research Committees (LARC) committed to poverty reduction and
the promotion of a more protected environment. The CIAT (International
Center for Tropical Agriculture) promoted this collection which
is the result of the debate among various researchers about
the achievements, weaknesses and strengths of various experiences
of participatory research with agricultural producers and farmers.
Giarracca, N. (Compiler) ¿Una
nueva ruralidad en América Latina? (A new rurality
in Latin America?). Buenos Aires: CLACSO; ASDI, 2001. Working
Team on Rural Development
This is a collection of a series of meetings
carried out between 1998 and 1999 by the Working Team on Rural
Development (GTDR) of CLACSO. It describes several debates that
promoted the questioning of the definition of rural development
and the possibility of thinking of a "new rurality"
and a heterogeneous rural world (entrepreneurs, transnational
"economic groups", farmworkers, medium-scale producers,
ethnic groups and new unemployed) where the different actors
try to impose themselves, adapt and resist the new rules of
the political, economic and social game.
Ocampo, José Antonio. (Coord.)
Equidad,
desarrollo y ciudadanía. (Equity, development and citizenship).
Santiago, Chile: ECLAC, 2000. 334p.
This document introduces the beliefs of
the institution regarding the development challenges of the
region in today's world. The legacy of the nineties, issues
regarding equality and economic matters which affect the social
dimensions and sustainable development are here analysed. The
publication also tackles stability, economic growth, productive
development, specific problems of small economies and the regulation
of public services, reflections about citizenship and social
cohesion. The chapters have been prepared so that they can be
independent and they can therefore be read separately.
Rural development has traditionally lacked
a business and marketing orientation because effort was concentrated
on traditional production, which is characterised by a rural
market supply that did not respond to market demands. In other
words, priority was given to seeking ways of marketing what
was already being produced, rather than on studying market demands
to propose additional alternatives of agricultural production.
This manual is a tool for promoting market orientation within
the rural sector of small-scale producers living in a given
micro region. It describes a methodology to identify, evaluate
and take advantage of marketing opportunities.
The increase in the levels of poverty
and extreme rural poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean
promotes a description of poor rural population and an introduction
of a deep analysis of the processes and phenomena that have
caused the deterioration of their living conditions. Furthermore,
the paper provides input for the design and implementation of
intervention activities oriented to the promotion of development
and growth strategies in the rural environment.
In response to the 2001 call for proposals
125 submissions were received from 18 countries in the region.
During 2002, 12 projects were selected and implemented in 9 countries.
Once the projects were completed, an electronic conference was
held, involving 650 people from all countries of Latin American
and the Caribbean, as well as other regions. This report is a
compilation of this entire process.
The purpose of this report is to analyse
poverty and inequality and their relationships with rural institutions.
It is not aimed at studying poverty or the institutions; on the
contrary, it seeks to analyse the relationship between them and
the types of roles involved. There is thus a conceptualisation
of poverty and institutions, an approach that intends to analyse
the links between them, the available information about the dimension
of poverty in the region under study and the strategies followed
by rural families in order to overcome poverty.
This document resorts to worldwide and regional
(particularly from Latin America) bibliography about rural development
in order to set the basis of the analysis of rural poverty in
Central America and in order to assess the main way-outs of poverty
as well as some strategies of rural development support. There
is thus a description and analysis of the problems and difficulties
connected with issues such as family agriculture, non-agricultural
rural economy, urban migration and social welfare or security
systems related to rural labour.
This article of the magazine published
by UNESCO describes the difficulties and problems encountered
in the promotion and continuity of formal education processes
in rural areas Since it has been noticed that living in a rural
region often means growing up without a decent education, the
political, economic and social aspects are particularly considered
when implementing social policies that may aid the improvement
of living conditions of rural population in general and the
access to training and education in particular.
In 1996, the International Development
Research Centre (IDRC), together with other institutions, designed
and carried out an evaluation of its programme PRODAR (Rural
Agroindustry in Latin America Programme) and of its potential
to increase the impact of agroindustry and the companies of
the region. This publication describes the findings and challenges
of the Programme and gives reasons to continue with experiences
of this type of intervention by trying to promote an increase
in investments on resources for rural development in Latin America.
Furthermore, the information of this document can become a model
for the development of rural enterprises in other developing
countries.
The Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development
in Vocational Training (ILO/Cinterfor)
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