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Chapter 1 Introduction 41
livelihood strategies, but also on improving the broader environment of rural
economies as a source of both risks and opportunities.
Throughout the report, continuous emphasis will be placed on the crucial role
that policies, investments and good governance can play in harnessing new
opportunities and helping reduce and better manage risks underlying rural poverty.
However, new forms of collaboration between state and society also need to be
cultivated, involving rural people and their organizations, the business sector and a
variety of civil society actors. We will see, for instance, that these are crucial to develop
effective tools to manage or mitigate risks related to climate change, market volatility
or market power asymmetries, and also to develop context-specific solutions for a
more sustainable kind of agriculture, or to strengthen individual capabilities in terms
of rural people’s access to good quality education.
Creating spaces for such collaborations is important, but may be particularly
difficult where states have limited capacity in policymaking and/or implementation,
or where they face substantial legitimacy challenges. However, engagement of state
and non-state actors around specific issues of importance for rural development
(e.g. infrastructure, financial services, agricultural research and development, or
education) can contribute not only to achieving better solutions for rural
development, but also to better governance and more effective states. In addition,
facilitating this engagement requires that the conditions for ‘active citizenship’ are
created, 20 by strengthening the individual and collective capabilities of poor rural
people, and by strengthening approaches and tools for accountability for public
policies, institutions and investments that are relevant for rural growth and for rural
women and men. We will return to this theme throughout the report, stressing the
importance of strengthening the individual and collective capabilities of the primary
stakeholders in rural development, in an overall context of improved governance.
Turning to the structure of the report itself, the link between vulnerability and
rural poverty will be discussed in chapter 2, in the context of a brief overview of the
state of rural poverty, including an analysis of the interlocking disadvantages
underlying the multidimensionality of poverty. Chapter 3 will address this link more
specifically, stressing the renewed importance of confronting it in a changed
environment characterized by new risks for poor rural people. Chapter 4 will address
vulnerabilities and opportunities for smallholder producers related to participation
in agricultural markets; and chapter 5 will look at how smallholder producers can
intensify their farming systems at a time of growing demand for agricultural products
and growing concerns about environmental sustainability and climate change.
Chapter 6 will look at the rural non-farm economy as an important source of growth
and opportunities for mobility out of poverty. Finally, chapter 7 will outline an
agenda for action around the need for a comprehensive approach to developing rural
economies as sites of growth and opportunities to move out of poverty.