English - IFAD

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Rural Poverty Report 2011
Without a mitigated, better managed risk environment, and without improved risk
management capabilities, access to the assets and resources flagged by the previous
Rural Poverty Report cannot sustain stable mobility out of poverty for rural women
and men, nor can pro-poor rural growth take place. The basic notion put forth by
this report is that reducing and better managing risks and increasing resilience are
critical for sustainable growth in the rural economies, and for growth to enable rural
people to move out of poverty. This requires appropriate investments in rural areas
to help generate new opportunities, capture those that are emerging in a changed
environment, and reduce or better manage risks – those that result from new
circumstances and those that result from the long-standing marginalization of rural
economies and rural people.
How can rural economies become sites of pro-poor growth at a time of increasing
resource scarcities, and amidst changes in the climate, demographics, governance and
market context of rural areas? This report argues that agriculture – and specifically a
kind of agriculture that is better suited to meeting new environmental and market
risks and opportunities – is likely to remain a primary engine of pro-poor growth
across the developing world, critically so in the poorest countries. This includes
agriculture that is smallholder-based, but also that can increasingly provide
employment opportunities for part of today’s rural population. We will also argue
that, in all countries, overcoming the marginality of rural economies and creating
new opportunities for rural poverty reduction requires a comprehensive approach to
rural development that includes both agriculture and the rural non-farm economy.
It seeks to make the most of local drivers of rural growth and poverty reduction –
some of which are linked to the new environment described above.
Supporting a comprehensive approach to rural development requires effective
public policies and investments in rural areas and agriculture, and an improved
overall environment (physical, economic and institutional) for rural economies to
enhance opportunities and mitigate risks. It requires robust investment in the human
and social capital of rural areas – women, men and youth in particular, and their
individual and collective capabilities – both to generate and seize opportunities and
to mitigate, or better manage, the risks they face. It also requires new and, in many
cases, innovative ways for different stakeholders to work together across sector
boundaries and mandates. In this regard, better appreciating the links between risk
and poverty in today’s environment for agriculture and rural poverty reduction
requires bridging traditional separations between initiatives targeting poor rural
people’s human capital (e.g. through health and education) and those targeting them
as economic agents (e.g. through support to agriculture, organization and
infrastructure). It requires much better appreciation of the roles that agriculture and
non-farm livelihoods play in the risk management strategies of poor rural people and
in their mobility out of poverty. It also requires focusing not only on household