Evolution of Rural Approach in Latin America

Traditionally, rural areas were classified based on their statistical and demographic categorization (lower density than urban regions), their direct linkage with the agricultural sector (sectoral approach), or simply based on exclusion, as any non-urban, poor, dispersed area isolated from the main vital flows of countries.

This definition led policymakers to direct funds to rural areas under a compensatory approach, i.e. subsidies for extreme poverty care and emergency measures in the face of climatic or social calamities. It also concentrated technical interventions mainly on agricultural modernization—which of course remains of great relevance.

Between the 1990s and 2000s, several entities kicked off a debate on the “new rural” and formed the Interagency Group for Rural Development: FAO, IICA, IFAD, IDB, WB, GIZ, USAID, AECID and ECLAC. Under this framework, attention focuses on the constraints of the purely sectoral approach as an oversimplification that undermines the great complexity of stakeholders and territorial dynamics, while ignoring the potential input of other sectors of the economy. Today, global value chains, modern agribusinesses incorporating technology and standards across borders, and the rapid development of urban agriculture in controlled environments further weaken rural-agricultural identity.

Rafael Echeverri emphasizes the territorial approach that led the debate since then, pointing out that ”a territory is rural when it relies on natural resources and its economic base is structured around the environment it uses for sustenance.”</em Under this perspective, approaches such as Integral Watershed Management began to gain relevance as instruments for rural development in line with territorial management processes. Concepts and applications such as Eco-system Services Compensation further contribute to expose trade-offs between service users (drinking and irrigation water, for example) and the rural space where they are generated and preserved.

Even today, development agencies continue to face the challenge of stepping out of their comfort zone and starting to look beyond agro-productivity projects: Depending on the area, non-agricultural rural income is estimated at 40% or more for families. Thus, understanding the livelihoods of rural economic units with a broad view of diversification is an important starting point for policy and program design.

Obviously, it is complex to move from exposing only the primary link of a sector to addressing rural development with a systemic vision, recognizing also large investments, extractive industries and energy generators as indisputable stakeholders of the territory, while also emphasizing tourism opportunities, creative industries, chains and clusters, ecosystem services, financial systems, among many other elements that overlap in the territorial ecosystem. The most complex challenge for institutions in our countries lies in facilitating and strengthening governance mechanisms for a harmonious and productive coexistence of all these stakeholders and the system.

Currently, the FAO notes that 78% of the 169 Sustainable Development Goals depend exclusively or mainly on actions undertaken in rural areas of the world, while it highlights that without the 500 million family farmers it would be impossible to meet the main goals (SDG1 – eradicating extreme poverty and SDG2 – hunger and malnutrition). In addition, Latin America and the Caribbean contribute 45% of global net food exports, above Europe and the United States. But many of the SDGs (health, education, etc.) have larger gaps to overcome in rural areas, and cannot be reached by 2030 if they are not coordinated under multi-sectoral strategies aimed at ensuring effectiveness in these areas and their dynamics.

In its 50-year history, CAF has an extensive experience of high-impact interventions in rural areas throughout Latin America, in terms of roads, logistics, connectivity and communications, education, sanitation, irrigation, productivity for agro-export, financial inclusion, agricultural insurance, among many other dimensions, in addition to more recent measures to support policies and programs of agri-food and rural sectors of the countries. Regarding knowledge, we participate in the “Alliance for Governance and Institutions of Rural Development, Agriculture and Food in Latin America and the Caribbean,” led by FAO with the support of Colombia’s Hernán Echavarría Olózaga Institute of Political Science. We have also been participating at top level events such as the First Rural Colombia Summit (October 2019) and other relevant meetings in the region.