The future of rural development

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This book offers a practitioner's perspective on rural development through a German lens, reflecting on 40 years of efforts characterized by various models and approaches. Despite these initiatives, the outcomes are sobering: rural mass poverty remains largely unaddressed, particularly in many developing regions. The text explores the reasons behind this failure, highlighting that many rural development strategies suffered from organizational and managerial flaws and overlooked structural and political distortions in poorer nations. Even when donors recognized that projects would fail without a supportive policy environment, they persisted with their initiatives. The author advocates for a rural development approach that emphasizes popular participation, beneficiaries' self-organization, and decentralization, favoring smaller, self-managed projects over large, top-down programs. Success in the 1990s hinges on creating an enabling policy environment and effectively linking sectoral programs with related projects. Key areas for cooperation in enhancing poverty alleviation include land and tenure reforms, rural financial systems, basic social services, and social security systems.