RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The Concept of Rural Development Rural - Is an area, where the people are engaged in primary
industry in the sense that they produce things directly for the first time in cooperation with nature
as stated by Srivastava (1961).

A society or community can be classified as rural based on the criteria of lower population
density, less social differentiation, less social and spatial mobility, slow rate of social change,
etc. Agriculture would be the major occupation of rural area and this is applicable.

Development: It refers to growth, evolution, stage of inducement or progress. This progress or

growth is gradual and had sequential phases. Always there is increasing differentiation. It also
refers to the overall movement towards greater efficiency and complex situations.

Rural Development (RD):

Is a process, which aims at improving the wellbeing and self-realization of people, living outside
the urbanized areas through collective process.

According to Agarwal (1989), rural development is a strategy designed to improve the economic
and social life of rural poor. Scope and Importance of Rural Development Rural development is
a dynamic process, which is mainly concerned with the rural areas.

These include agricultural growth, putting up of economic and social infrastructure, fair wages as
also housing and house sites for the landless, village planning, public health, education and
functional literacy, communication etc.

Rural development is a national necessity and has considerable importance in South Sudan
because of the following reasons.

1. About more than 80 of South Sudanese population live in rural areas,

2. Nearly half of the country's national income is derived from rural areas,

3. Around seventy per cent of South Sudanese population get employment through agriculture,

4. Bulk of raw materials for industries come from agriculture and rural sector,

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5. Increase in industrial population can be justified only in rural populations' motivation and
increasing the purchasing power to buy industrial goods.

6. Growing disparity between the urban elite and the rural poor can lead to political instability.

Objectives: The major objectives of rural development are:

Specific objectives of Rural Development

The objectives of Rural Development can be summarized as follows:
1. To improve the standard of living or the wellbeing of the masses of rural people by
ensuring equity, security and provision of the basic needs.
2. To make rural areas more productive and less vulnerable to hazards and disasters. In
this case, Rural Development is aimed at improving the productive capacity in the rural
areas through ways that are not destructive to the environment and improve food self-
sufficiency.
3. To ensure that development is sustainable. This can only be through people's
participation. It is to ensure that development programmes, strategies and plans are
relevant to the local economic, social and administrative situation.
4. Rural development is to ensure local autonomy and less destruction to people's
traditional values, cultures, customs, norms etc.
5. To ensure that there is full and productive employment to the masses of rural people.
6. To improve productivity and wages of rural people

7. To guarantee increased and quick employment possibilities

8. To demolish unemployment and bring a notable decline in underemployment

9. To guarantee an increase in the standard of living of the underprivileged population

10. To provide the basic needs: elementary education, healthcare, clean drinking water,
rural roads, etc.

11. To achieve enhanced production and productivity in rural areas,

12. To bring about a greater socio-economic equity,
13. To bring about a spatial balance in social and economic development,
14. To bring about improvement in the ecological environment so that it may be
conducive to growth and happiness.

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 15. To develop broad based community participation in the process of development.

Only if these objectives were achieved, can the level and standard of living of the rural
population in South Sudan be improved.

Common problems of the Rural Sector

The rural sector in developing countries faces a variety of problems and in various levels of
significance and depth. Environmental conditions, levels of technology used, institutional factors,
and the level of political commitment towards rural areas mainly cause variations in the gravity
and effects of these problems from one country to another and within different regions and
economic sectors by national governments. The following problems are among the most serious
in rural areas and can be considered as symptoms of their underdevelopment.
1. Low Productivity
Low productivity is a typical problem among rural farming communities and other rural
occupations in the third world. This caused in most cases by a combination of factors such as low
level of technology, soil deterioration, primitive methods of production, limited access to credit to
obtain necessary inputs and of course the prevailing relations of production. All these cause the
drop out leading to low levels of incomes.
2. Underutilization of Human Resources
Poor resources, primitive technology, adverse environmental conditions or poor health standards
cause this problem. Low productivity in the rural areas whether caused by social, economic or
political factors, keeps the population to a large extend locked into a strict vicious circle of
subsistence economy, ignorance, poverty, disease, lack of appropriate skills and low levels of
production. In South Sudan where more than 70 to 80 percent of the population is found in rural
agricultural communities, and where public investment in formal education forms a substantial
proportion of the national budget, it should be a matter of great concern that the educational system
has so far failed to achieve the expected results. Within the context of Rural Development,
education and training should necessarily imply the inclusion of particular attitudes in work and
living conditions, which should aim directly at raising productivity and efficiency in labour
utilization as well as facilitating the necessary institutional reforms.

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3. Defects in the Agrarian Structure
a) The lack of credit facilities for agricultural producers.
b) Continuous decline of soil fertility through over cropping tat is imposed either by
population pressure or by the lack of use of soil nutrients or fertilizers.
c) Heavy reliance on natural conditions, particularly unreliable rainfall in the
marginal zones.
d) Human and animal disease
e) Inadequate marketing facilities and the depressed state of commodity prices.
f) Poor communication facilities and bad roads in rural areas.
g) Lack of effective agricultural extension policies or programmes relevant to the
local resources and the needs and interest of local farmers.
4. Poor living and working conditions
Rural areas in most underdeveloped areas lack good housing, social services etc. Public services
are almost absent, especially roads, piped water, electricity and other community services.
Besides, the wages earned from agriculture and other rural occupations are generally low which
undermines the possibility of local change.
5. Inappropriate Education
This applies to both education and training. Illiteracy is very high among the population, which is
responsible for the widespread traditional beliefs, attitudes, and practices, which also create
resistance to change, and the existing gap in technical knowledge and political understanding
between the small cadre of qualified elites and the great mass of illiterates in the general
population.
6. Inadequate Institutional frameworks
8. Population Growth and Migration

Basic Elements of Rural Development Policies

As defined earlier Rural Development is aimed at improving the social and economic conditions
of those who live in the rural areas. To achieve these, a number of policies have to be enacted.
These policies can be implemented through formation of policies. It is worth to mention that those
policies are not the end but only a means for enhancing the process of Rural Development. We
shall only concentrate on those relevant to our case.

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1. Land Policy
The issue of land is a big case in many developing countries. As a factor of production, it forms
an essential component in the process of Rural Development. Land deprivation has led many into
landlessness and the emergence of property owners etc. Thus we need to have a clear land policy.
This could be either communal or individual land system or commercial estate.
2. Technological policy
The rural people practice their simply technology that suits their conditions. We have to take to
the rural areas a technology that is labour intensive, cheap, appropriate and relevant to the local
conditions and cultures. A technology that is not sophisticated and must depend on the use of local
resources and skills. Through this, we can increase productivity and generate employment. The
technology in most third world countries is capital intensive and generally creates unemployment.
3. Employment Policy
Many Rural Development programmes and projects do not properly involve the rural people
in their programmes' employment. Such programmes in most cases need specialized
personnel. Therefore, the rural poor with no skills cannot join to work in such project. We
must prepare programmes that will create more jobs for the people. Through employment,
they gain skills so that they become self-employed. Rural people must be involved through
participation in any programmes that would affect their lives and destiny.
4. Education, Research and Extension Policy
Education is the key to development. As such, we need the education that is relevant to our
needs and aspirations. In Rural Development, emphasis should be placed on Adult Education
that provides knowledge and skills towards solution of practical problems of the day. Our
educational system should consider the formal and non-formal education to expand people's
capacities, to improve their attitudes and increase their productivity.
Also in Rural Development research is needed to study the problems that affect the lives of
people to know the attitudes, values, norms, cultures, power structures etc. Research forms
the basis for an effective planning. Likewise, we need to have a policy on extension. This
includes delivering policies on extension innovations etc. We need to use practical
demonstrations to enable people learn and accept innovations.
5. Policy on Linkages and relationship with rural institutions and other

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Any Rural Development programme does not work in an isolated environment. There are
others that operate in the rural areas. We cannot developed rural areas on our own. We
need the medical personnel, teachers, traders, religious institutions etc to achieve mutual
progress. The focus of the Rural Development programme is the well-being of the people
regardless of their race, religion, tribe and place of origin. We must be willing to work;
live with the people we are to serve. Sit, drink and eat with them and even learn to speak
their language.
The rural people are organized. They have their chiefs, elders, and religious leaders etc,
who decide the fate of their area. Other institutions in rural areas are the local council,
popular committees, village development committees, parents’ council. These bodies are
very powerful and can easily divert people from any activities. We must work with such
bodies hand in hand but care must be taken of the elite bias.
6. Price policy
The rural people practise some form of trade. They are involved in producing material and
resources for sale. So we need to have good policy that would not discourage the producers
from selling their produce. Also we have to purchase inputs that encourage the rural people
to produce more by introducing credit facilities and co-operatives to safeguard the people's
interests.
Guiding Principles in the Management of Rural Development Programmes
Rural Development strategies usually take the form of programmes/projects which are
implemented in a specific rural area. Such programmes form the basis of most government
and non-governmental efforts to assist rural areas, and they include both agricultural and
non-agricultural projects. Specialized staff supply the expertise required, while
governmental or other organs provide the necessary financial resources. External aid is
also usually channelled into such programmes in the rural areas. We are not going into the
detailed principles for effective planning but only suggest some of the broader principles
which could be followed by rural development practitioners. These principles act as guides
to implement rural development programmes.
Principle One:
Access. Under this principle, rural development programmes should be open to all
members in the area. We should try to make sure that the benefits of our programmes reach

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 those in need and to take care if some members have access to the programme while others
do not. Many rural people become frustrated when they see that there is nepotism,
segregation and this it becomes difficult to register their support for future development
efforts.
Principle Two:
Independence. A rural development programme should be made in such a way that it
helps and supports the farmer and does not make his/her livelihood dependent upon the
programme. This helps build the road to self-reliance.
Principle Three:
Going forward. The technological aspects of rural development programmes should help
the rural man take the next step in his development and not demand that he take a huge
technological leap. It is better to secure a modest advance, which can be sustained than to
suggest a substantial advance which is beyond the ability of most. Programmes should
begin with what the people know and build on them. It is better to move one-step with
1,000 people than move 1,000 steps on one’s own.
Principle Four:
Sustainability. This principle suggests that rural development programmes must ensure
that the programme’s plans and strategies are relevant to the local economic, social and
administrative or cultural situation. Short-term solutions may yield quick results but long-
term programmes that are suitable to the local environment have greater success.
Principle Five:
Participation. This principle demands the involvement of people in development
programmes. Always try to consult the local people, seek their ideas and approval and
involve them as much as possible in the programme.
Principle Six:
Effectiveness. A programme should be based on the effective use of local resources and
not necessarily on their efficient use. Of course, efficiency is necessary, but its
requirements are often unrealistic and expensive. An effective use of resources, which is
within the capabilities of most farmers, will have a better chance of a wider impact.
Rural Development Biases

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Robert Chambers, one of the advocates of rural development in his writings on rural
development biases argued that those who are concerned and preaching rural development are
not themselves from the rural areas nor are they poor. According to him most of these
advocates are outsiders whom he gave the name “Rural Development Tourism/Tourists) in the
sense that their visits to the rural areas are often short or brief and done in a hurry. These
visitors may include headquarters staff of a particular line ministry, consultants and
professionals.
These hurried visits to Chambers do not give these outsiders enough time or they are not
allowed to see the nature of rural poverty and thus, their experiences and knowledge about
rural problems may be limited to theses short and brief hurried visits from the urban centres.
These short and hurried visits reflect six biases, which according to Chambers prevent the
outsiders from coming into contact with and learning from the rural people. The result of this
is that the poor rural people are little or less seen and the nature of their poverty is less
understood.
This state of ignorance about the real rural poor is not only limited to outsiders but also even
those researchers and local field staff who work and stay in the rural areas.
In his analysis of the rural poverty, Chambers identified six biases:
• Spatial Bias (urban, tarmac, and roadside biases):
These biases are brought about by influences brought by the urban, tarmac road and road
side effects. Thus, rural visits are often concentrated near the town peripheries and
administrative centres, which are more prosperous. The poor as is often the case are located
in far remote and isolated areas and therefore are unseen by the so-called rural development
experts. Similarly, the tarmac road influence draws the attention of the outsiders to those
who are less poor from those who are poor. Because of these most of the visible
development activities tend to be concentrated along the main roads e.g. schools, health
centres, factories, offices, market centres etc where the better-off people live with the better
services.
• Project Biases:
This is sometimes referred to as regional bias. Rural development workers and researchers
are attracted to areas with well-established projects i.e. regions or areas that are more
developed rather than the less developed. Thus, projects are directed to areas where there

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 are projects than areas without. These projects are well staffed, have sufficient money,
thus visitors are usually directed to these projects as a sign of success and they ask for more
money. E.g. of such projects are the Gezira scheme, the Chilalo agricultural project in
Ethiopia the Comilla project in Bangladesh and the Ujamma villages in Tanzania.
• Person Biases (the elite bias, the male bias):
Most rural development benefits tend to flow to what are called the progressive or
innovative farmers. As it is often the case, the rural people are a composition of laggards,
innovators, early majority late majority etc. The innovators are the elites who have the
resources, ability and information. They are articulate, speak and entertain visitors and it
is they who receive the largest share of whatever benefits come to the area. The poor are
seen as poor, powerless, not articulate and considered last in the line and are hard to find
and difficult to learn from. Similarly, project benefits are directed toward meeting the
needs of men rather than women.
• Dry season Biases:
Rural visits are conducted during the dry season. In the wet season, nobody dares to see
the rural areas. It shall in fact be during the wet season that rural development officers
should be with the people. It is at this time of the year that the people experience hardships,
deficiencies, sicknesses, lack of food, poor sheltering etc. The fear of car stacking is
another factor that threatens the wet season visits of the officers. Officers should visit rural
areas during the wet season to access the living conditions as to initiate a project.
• Diplomatic Biases:
In most societies people from outside are not exposed to the poverty situation that exists in
it. The dwellers will not expose that poverty is a problem to them or that a project is a
failure. On the other hand, the outsiders keep their distance from getting closer to find out
the existing poverty within the people who in one way are their entertainers or hosts. They
do not want to hurt their feelings especially the chief and elders. This usually presents the
finding out of the actual existing poverty situation.
• Active present and the living Biases:
It is that those who are active and present represent the village. It is from this that project
officers assume the readiness of the people to join a project. Thus, the users and adopters
become the first project beneficiaries. Most of the adopters and users of new systems are

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 usually the rich. Consequently, the poor are the losers. They need more time to understand
the new change needed. For this the active, present and the living cannot represent the
whole people, e.g. the children of the rich who go to school cannot represent all the children
in the village including those of the poor who do not go to school.
These biases as Chambers explained are responsible for perpetuating rural poverty because
enough is not revealed and understood about it so as to formulate realistic and pragmatic
solutions. All these biases as such need to be reversed to address the rural poor and their
problems who are last to be the first in the line. To quote Chambers:

• Professional Biases:
• This bias comes as a result of influences brought about by conflicts between disciplines.
Lack of coordination among disciplines makes professionals to compete and undermine
the activities of others who work in the same community. E.g. Agricultural experts may
undermine the work of rural development or community development agents working in
the same community.
Basic Principles of Rural Development Planning
There are ten basic principles for a better rural development planning. They can be summarized
as follows:
• Principle One: Availability of accurate and precise forecast: This principle suggests
that rural planning requires reliable data. This can be based on existing or past information
which can be derived from research. Here we need to apply the techniques for forecasting
which can be provided through training for those who are to be involved in project design
and programming.
• Principle Two: Acceptance of the project or programme:
This means that a project or programme must be accepted and endorsed (blessed) by the
beneficiaries and the technical staff all of whom are going to be involved in the
implementation of the project. This means that participation and involvement of these
groups in the planning process will increase the degree of acceptance, commitment and
enthusiasm, which may constitute a precondition for starting the project or programme.

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• Principle Three:

The project must be sound and viable: This principle suggests that the objectives and
goals must be thoroughly discussed and understood. Positive criticisms must be allowed
which may give room for alternative course of action.

• Principle Four: Local organizations (project organization):

The principle tries to emphasize that a project should have an established organization that
is responsible for its management. Such organizations should include local bodies such as
local development committees, various cooperative societies, peasants’ associations,
religious institutions and other specialized bodies e.g. youth, women parents’ council
committees. All these bodies are to be assigned responsibilities or functions with
accountability. Their main functions or roles are to assist, advise and mobilize resources.
• Principle Five: Objectivity:
• This principle warns of the tendency to be optimistic and over ambitious as people are
always inclined to look at the positive aspects and short-term objectives of a project. In
some cases, this may prove to be impractical or unattainable. To avoid this, we must have
accurate and precise information which brings in the role of research to drive in realistic
goals and objectives that can be achieved based on the available resources
• Principle Six: Project Appraisal: A project or programme must be appraised. The means
the cost or the value of the project. It is important because the cost of the project must be
within the available resources. Another aspect is to access the needs and satisfaction of a
project in terms of the services rendered to the beneficiaries.
• Principle Seven: Advance Decision Making:
The principle advocates the need to have the ability to decide well in advance to address
the unforeseen circumstances. This decision may be a decision on the criteria or method
for either to abandon the project or to find an alternative course of action.
• Principle Eight: Setting up of a monitoring system:
There is need to have a body to regularly review and modify a project. It is a common
practice in project design and practise that there must be a continuous review of progress

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 of work, which may be once a month, quarterly or yearly. This is in case of unforeseen
problems in which a project or programme can be redesigned or modified. This again must
be based on accurate precise and timely information so that rectification of a problem is
made possible. Thus, a project must be flexible and subject to constant modification.
•
• Principle Nine: Revision of the project:
This refers to project evaluation itself. It means looking back at the progress of work that
has so far been done and sees how far the predetermined objectives or goals have been
achieved.

• Principle Ten: The project environment:

This means a project must fit into the actual situation or environment in which it is to
operate. The project environment can be divided into three: the control environment; the
appreciated environment; and the influence able environment.

Rural development as policy and as process

Rural development emerged as a distinct focus of policy and research in the 1960s and gained full
momentum in the 1970s, as observers increasingly realized that, whilst economic growth and
industrialization were important, rural areas and rural development had important and different roles to play
in a country's development.

According to Harris, rural development can be viewed as either of the following:

• a state-led activity and a focus for development policy

• a broader process of change in rural societies, which may or may not involve state
intervention

These are two angles, if you like, from which we can consider rural development. Implicit in the first of
these is the notion of government intervention of one sort or another. Admittedly, policy can be
characterized by non-intervention or a laissez-faire attitude to rural development. The withdrawal of

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government from rural development activities can also be considered to be a policy. However, in this unit
when we talk of rural development as policy we are referring to a policy of active state engagement with
the rural development process.

An area-based approach

In relation to rural development policy, Harriss identifies a number of important characteristics, perhaps
the most obvious of which is that it is an area-based approach to development. In other words, rural
development policy targets particular geographical areas (rural areas) rather than an economic
sector (eg agriculture, manufacturing, education) or a particular group of people (eg small farmers,
female-headed households, ethnic minorities) - even though individual sectors or groups of people may
be targeted as part of a broader rural development strategy.

Given that the livelihoods of the majority of the world's rural population depend, either directly or
indirectly, on the agricultural sector, agriculture is an obvious sector in which to concentrate efforts to
promote growth. Indeed the promotion of agricultural development and smallholder agriculture, in
particular, has always been a central feature of rural development policy.

Multi-sectoral

However, rural development is not just about agricultural growth and, whilst agricultural growth is a very
important dimension of rural development, it is not enough on its own to ensure economic growth in rural
areas. Other sectors or dimensions come into play in the process of rural growth, such as health, education
and economic activities outside the agricultural sector. Rural development is multi-sectoral. It embraces a
variety of different economic and social sectors. These are summarized below:

• agriculture and natural resources - crops, livestock, fishing, forestry

• the non-farm sector - services to agriculture (including input supply, marketing, transport,
finance, agricultural processing), rural manufacturing, mining, and other rural services
• rural infrastructure - roads, transport, energy, water
• education
• health

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The primacy of agriculture debate

Despite a multi-sectoral approach, current opinion is divided concerning the relative importance of
different sectors and of agriculture in particular. On the one hand, there is the view that agricultural
development, driven by growth in the small farm sector, is a pre-requisite for the wider development of
the rural economy; that, in the poorest parts of the world, it needs to be the driving force in efforts to
reduce poverty; and that rural development policies should focus on making small farmers more
productive through improved access to technology and markets.

A contrasting view is that excessive focus on agriculture fails to take account of the complexity and
increasing diversity of rural livelihoods, and the importance of income-generating activities located
outside agriculture. Whilst not denying the role of agriculture in the development process, this view gives
agriculture, and particularly small scale agriculture, less emphasis and calls for policies that are more
tailored to individual circumstances within a very varied rural environment.

A third view plays down the importance of agriculture in local development processes and argues that
while access to cheap food is important, this may be best obtained from imports or from large-scale
agriculture rather than small-scale agriculture.

Superimposed upon this debate are questions about global food security and whether we are now moving
into an era of food shortages. The optimism of recent decades is giving way to greater pessimism about
the ability of supply to keep pace with demand, especially given the uncertainties surrounding climate
change. We return to these issues later, but for now, it is worth noting that this has reinvigorated the
debate about the role of agriculture in development.

The environment and sustainability

Another central concern in rural development is environmental sustainability. Although Harriss' definition
does not make any mention of the environment, the subject is clearly of particular importance in rural
development, since so much economic activity, notably agriculture, is both dependent on natural
resources, as well as having a very direct impact upon them, through for example deforestation, soil
degradation, and loss of biodiversity.

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 One of the biggest challenges, both now and into the future, relates to climate change. Global climate
change is likely to have a major impact upon the climate and natural resources of rural areas, affecting
both the productivity of rural resources as well as the livelihoods of people who are dependent upon them.
Agriculture is also a major contributor to the greenhouse gases that cause climate change and may well be
affected by future efforts to reduce carbon emissions. We shall examine these issues further in the final
section of this unit.

Rural poverty

Most approaches to rural development, at least in terms of stated goals, have had, and continue to have a
strong poverty focus. Many people, including Harriss in 1982, viewed this concern as a distinctive feature
of the study and pursuit of rural development, setting it apart from traditional approaches to development
- the latter were mostly concerned with macroeconomic growth and how to stimulate output in the
productive sectors of the economy; they assumed that poverty would fall automatically once these issues
had been addressed. Interventions in rural development have often focused more directly on the problem
of poverty - eg by addressing the basic needs of the poor in terms of food, health etc and looking to
improve the productivity of the activities that the poor themselves are engaged in .The attention given to
poverty in the field of rural development has much to do with the high prevalence of poverty in rural
areas in South Sudan. Most of the world's poor live in rural areas and it is in the rural areas that poverty
and associated deprivations are typically at their most extreme. However, the world, and poverty itself, is
becoming increasingly urbanized . Indeed, the problem of urban poverty is now high on the international
development agenda, so it would be wrong to say that poverty concerns are exclusive to the field of rural
development. The Millennium Development Goal objective of halving the number of people living in
poverty by 2015 highlights the mainstreaming of poverty as a focus of policy.

Types of Rural Development Planning Strategies (Approaches )

This one is more technical centralize systems of planning, those who are academician , Its centralized
because its plan at the central level at the top level and pass down to the people at the lower level .
This mean that once, its centralize because the authority is at the center, top –bottom. it pass down for
implementation.

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It is centralizing in the sense that it’s not involving the other sector. Its independent to carry the work .
Centralize planning is narrow based, because its confine with individuals who want to carry work.
It’s not democratic because it’s not involve the participation of others and beneficiaries. Because its
confine with individuals who want to carry work.
Vertically in nature, directives also come from the center downward.

Positive aspects of centralize planning

Consultation is not exercise by the government –non-governmental organization.

For example, the schools need to be built with the involvement of all stakeholders. Agencies sometimes
are involve in this. Any planning done by experts is more scientific but what are lacking are these
elements.
This type of plan can achieve a tangible result within short time. This type of planning is not based on
people resources or contributions. Its working against the principle of rural development , development
is about people, the people should be allow to participate with this type of plan strategy development is
not going to be sustainable., because people are not involve . Development is about people and they
ensure development is sustainable.

2. The none centralizes planning approach

The non-centralize planning in a sense that not only one sectors involve, but all units are involve,. In
decentralize system, its brought base strategy. There are many people and units come together and sit to
plan, it does not mean that those who are trained are the one to get involve, it’s the wider perspectives to
the issues, like environment, education, sanitation and all are taken on broad.
It is bottom –up planning approach. This is where the information, knowledge, and resources are based,
decentralize system it is allows people participation particularly the people who are going to be
beneficiaries of the project,
It is also horizontal in nature because it allows consultation, coordination between all the units that are
involved.
Decentralize allows people to own the project, to have collective responsibility and accountability. This
type also makes people (beneficiaries) to become committed towards planning, implementation,
monitoring and evaluation. The credit goes to all the as one body.

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An area –based approach
An area-based approach takes a small, homogenous, socially cohesive territory, often characterize by
common traditions, a local identity, a sense of belonging or common needs and expectations, as the target
area for policy implementation. Having such an area as a reference facilitates the recognition of local
strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities, endogenous potential and the identification of major
bottlenecks for sustainable development.
Area-based essentially means local. This approach is likely to work better than other approaches because
it allows actions to be tailored more precisely to suit real needs and local competitive advantage. The
area chosen must have sufficient coherence and critical mass in terms of human, financial and economic
resources to support a viable local development strategy. It does not have to correspond to predefined
administrative boundaries.
The definition of a ‘local area' is neither universal nor static. On the contrary, it evolves and changes with
broader economic and social change, the role of farming, land management and environmental concerns,
and general perceptions about rural areas.
In order to achieve economic and social development the Local Action Groups area must be small enough
to be cohesive and large enough to ensure that development can be generated from within the area. The
generation of development from within the area depends on the capacity of its inhabitants.

BOTTOM –UP -APPROACH

The bottom-up approach means that local actors participate in decision-making about the strategy and in
the selection of the priorities to be pursued in their local area. Experience has shown that the bottom-up
approach should not be considered as alternative or opposed to top down approaches from national and/or
regional authorities, but rather as combining and interacting with them, in order to achieve better overall
results. Of the eight features of leader the most distinctive one is the bottom-up approach. Rural policies
following this approach should be designed and implemented in the way best adapted to the needs of the
communities they serve. One way to ensure this is to invite local stakeholders to take the lead and
participate. This holds true in both the of but is equally important in countries aspiring to where there
are structural problems in agriculture and many opportunities to improve the quality of rural life.

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 The involvement of local actors includes the population at large, economic and social interest groups and
representative public and private institutions. Capacity building is an essential component of the bottom-
up approach, involving:

• awareness raising, training, participation and mobilization of the local population to identify the strengths
and weakness of the area (analysis);

• participation of different interest groups in drawing up a local development strategy;

• Establishment of clear criteria for selection at local level of appropriate actions (projects) to deliver the
strategy.

Participation should not be limited to the initial phase but should extend throughout the implementation
process, contributing to the strategy, the accomplishment of the selected projects and in stocktaking and
learning for the future. There are also important issues of transparency, which need to be addressed in
the mobilization and consultation procedures in order to reach consensus through dialogue and
negotiation among participating actors.

Many would recognize the Bottom-up approach of leader as its anchor tenet. By involving local
communities in rural development, planning and implementation leader has breathed new life into
communities facing unprecedented challenges.

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