Experts call for incorporation of the territorial (area-based) approach into national rural development agendas
San Jose, Costa Rica, February 27, 2014 (IICA). On the coast of Ecuador, the inhabitants of the cantons of May 24, Santa Ana and Olmedo, in the province of Manabí, provided the proponents of new organizational arrangements for local stakeholders with convincing evidence that, to be effective, such arrangements should be complemented with the existing organizations, as part of a process that should always include innovation as well.
“When promoting policies for the development of rural territories, institutional innovation is essential, since each territory may be organized in a particular way,” explained Silvana Vallejo, former Deputy Minister of Rural Development of Ecuador. “Promoting this approach is not only the government’s responsibility; private-sector stakeholders give the new policies currency,” she added.
Vallejo took part in the workshop held to evaluate the project Innovative Policies for Rural Area-based Development in Latin America (PIDERAL), held at the Headquarters of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), in Costa Rica, and involving leading experts from Latin America and Spain.
Financed by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and implemented by IICA, PIDERAL was carried out in Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. It was designed to promote ways of meshing the development priorities of organized rural territories (two per country, eight in total) with national agriculture and other policies that impact the rural milieu.
The project set out to demonstrate that close coordination was possible and would bring about an improvement in the social, economic and environmental conditions of rural dwellers in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“It is unrealistic to talk about the agricultural sector without recognizing its links with rural territories. For this reason, one of the lines of action that IICA has included in its 2014-2018 Medium-term Plan is efforts to improve the governance of sector institutions, so that they also represent rural dwellers,” observed the Director General of IICA, Víctor M. Villalobos.
“Although the project is approaching its completion, we hope that the rural area-based development approach has made its mark and will be retained on national agendas, to create more equitable and inclusive societies,” remarked Manuel Blázquez, acting General Coordinator of AECID in Costa Rica.
Byron Miranda, Manager of IICA’s Agriculture, Territories and Rural Well-being Program agreed: “The design of public policies to strengthen rural area-based development in Latin America and the Caribbean is essential,” he commented.
The Coordinator of PIDERAL, Francisco Amador, pointed out that the situation with regard to RAD in the countries was contradictory. Although political intervention was clearly needed to spur the development of rural territories, governments had yet to take a firm decision about the adoption of the approach.
Results of PIDERAL
In Ecuador, the project selected territories in the central-southern region of Manabí (cantons of May 24, Santa Ana and Olmedo) and Chimborazo (cantons of Colta and Guamote). The project’s arrival coincided with the formulation of the National Plan for Good Living, aimed at rural areas. Therefore, it was proposed that the project be used to complement the plan and lay the groundwork for a public policy of rural area-based development, geared specifically toward governance, capacity creation and economic inclusion in the selected territories.
In Ayabaca and Lamas, the areas selected by PIDERAL in Peru, the project supported the creation of local area-based development organizations, with their respective plans. A public policy for RAD was proposed for the country as a whole, but recent changes in the government structure mean that the proposal will have to be promoted once again.
Furthermore, organization for local development and the accompanying action plans were supported in Barahona Norte and Barahona Sur, in the Dominican Republic, where the project also helped lay the groundwork for a future public RAD policy.
In Costa Rica, PIDERAL assisted in the creation of the country’s first Rural Territorial Development Council, in Talamanca–Valle de la Estrella, the area defined as a territory. Similar bodies are expected to be set up in two more territories (Sur Alto and Sur Bajo) where the project also helped improve management capabilities.
In the same country, PIDERAL played a key role in the implementation of a law that transformed the Agricultural Development Institute into the Rural Development Institute (INDER).
According to Francisco Amador, due to the progress made with implementation of the Central American Strategy for Rural Area-based Development 2010-2030 (ECADERT) the PIDERAL project had a bigger impact in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic than in the Andean countries.
For more information, contact:
byron.miranda@iica.int