English - IFAD

228
Rural Poverty Report 2011
budgets. Subsidies and taxes to promote the adoption of certain technologies or
approaches and discourage the use of others may form part of the policy agenda.
The Washington consensus about the limits of governments’ role is being increasingly
questioned, and there is a growing debate on what may be an appropriate level of
engagement by governments in the rural economy. Indeed, the issue may no longer
be whether state policies or investments may be needed to reduce the risk environment
that smallholder farmers face; rather the question is how interventions can be made
in a way that pursues national policy priorities in the most effective, least costly and
most sustainable manner. Much will depend on the country’s capacity to design and
manage such initiatives, and its commitment to ensuring good governance.
Finally, civil society is growing stronger and more diverse in many countries, with
more and more interest groups establishing organizations that represent their interests
(e.g. as rural producers or as women) or that reflect their concerns relative to a range
of issues (e.g. food safety, corporate ethics, environmental degradation or, simply,
rural poverty). Some groups actively carry out development activities, while others
conduct research and engage in advocacy. All have roles to play in promoting the
agenda proposed here. There is a desperate need for effective organizations to create
opportunities for poor rural people in agriculture and the non-farm economy:
to work with youth; to promote improved risk management; to conduct education
and training where the state is absent; and to support the organizations of poor rural
people. Equally, governments and the private sector are most responsive to the needs
of citizens when they are pushed to be so: there is a key role for civil society in
advocating for improved public policies and corporate behaviour and, where
necessary, for exposing government corruption and corporate malfeasance.
Supporting this agenda: the role of
the international development community
In the aftermath of the food crisis with which we opened this report, the international
donor community has taken a number of initiatives that demonstrate a commitment
to support developing countries’ efforts to promote agriculture (notably smallholder
agriculture) and rural development. For instance, the Comprehensive Framework
for Action developed through the United Nations High-Level Task Force on the
Global Food Crisis and the 2009 L’Aquila Food Security Initiative bear testimony to
this at the global level. Other initiatives have taken place before or after the crisis,
also at the regional level in some cases. At the same time, the international
community has signalled a commitment – if not yet a sufficiently robust one – to
support developing countries’ efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change, for
instance through the Copenhagen Accord under the UNFCCC.