Introduction to livelihoods and urban development
Policy planning and implementation overview: rural-urban linkages
DFID overview on rural-urban linkages and livelihoods
Authors:
; Department for International Development
Publisher:
Overseas Development Institute, London, 2002
This key briefing paper in the DFID series is concerned with the changing relationship between the rural and the urban and its implications for policy makers. Its clear format provides a concise overview of key issues in decision making on policy.
The briefing notes that the classic ideal view is one of rural-urban symbiosis, where for example, towns function as service centres for their rural hinterlands. In many countries this relationship is changing as urbanisation produces more diverse patterns of interaction with rural socio-economic life. The traditional rural-urban divide has been blurred giving way to what have been called ‘network regions’.
Changing patterns of governance have impacts on rural-urban linkages and livelihoods. For instance, decentralisation is posing new challenges to the efficacy and accountability of local government in addressing rural development and service provision. Of importance is recognising the relative importance and interpolation between production and consumption which link rural with urban economies. For example, poorer areas may enjoy little more than consumption linkages and financial linkages will have different outcomes for rural economies.
Flows of rural migrants to urban centres is a prevailing issue, raising a number of questions for policy makers in terms of rural market development and the costs and benefits of increased rural entrepreneurship. Policies must be tailored to the specific context and avoid one-size-fits-all policy fixes. One conceptual approach is that of regionally embedded clusters for local economic development; businesses are linked within a geographical location with the potential to encourage and contain the gains from regional economic growth. The authors note that the increasing withdrawal of the state from its public service function and the interpenetration of global business in local economies, makes service provision in rural areas a key issue for policy makers.
