English - IFAD

196
Rural Poverty Report 2011
applied selectively or not at all, increasing the transaction costs of doing business, or
quite simply stopping businesses from operating.
A survey of constraints to rural businesses conducted by the World Bank in
Nicaragua, Sri Lanka and the United Republic of Tanzania, 317 found that the top five
constraints were public utilities (particularly electricity), the availability and cost of
finance, marketing, governance and transport. Other constraints included ‘red tape’,
taxes and weak or misguided sector policies. While the relative importance of these
constraints may vary in different contexts, in general they increase the risks and
transaction costs of doing business, and ultimately constrain the emergence of the nonfarm
economy. Resolving those issues that matter most in specific contexts can help
rural businesses flourish and create jobs for poor rural people, including many of today’s
children and youth who are unlikely to find pathways out of poverty through agriculture.
Building capabilities: strengthening access to education
Improved skills and education are consistently found to be prerequisites for
individuals to access higher-income, off-farm activities. 318 With the second MDG
being the achievement of universal primary education, it is perhaps not surprising that
many developing countries, and especially the poorer ones, have focused their
education efforts on this area rather than on others.
Yet education also needs to be of good quality, and
most primary schools attended by poor rural
“My thoughts, what I dream of and
think of, is that at the time I’ll be older,
will have changed my position, I’ll be
older having many children, and my
children will all know something, they
will all be in school, there will have
been some progress… I’ll have
grown children who will support me.
They will learn, get an education so
they can work.”
children have a way to go. In addition, many poor
rural children do not get as long an education as
they need, and second chances at non-formal
education are often required. In addition, education
through urban-based curricula will not necessarily
best serve rural children, since much of its content is
not immediately relevant to the opportunities open
to graduates in the rural areas.
Technical and vocational skills development
(TVSD) is particularly important to develop the
capabilities of rural youth to access economic
opportunities both in rural and in urban areas.
The term includes three main types of education or training: public school-based
technical and vocational education, in the form of junior and senior secondary
education; public vocational training centres and industrial training institutes; and
training in the informal sector (most relevant for people who did not complete basic
education), which often includes traditional apprenticeship training or traditional
forms of training offered at artisan workshops. While access to primary education
has improved across the developing world (though less so in rural areas), access to
Ranotenie,
female, 46 years, Madagascar