Strategic Elements for the Reduction of Rural Poverty in Latin American and the Caribbean
By Ruben Echeverrķa (07/98, ENV-112, En, Es)
Introduction
In relative terms, poverty can be said to be a rural phenomenon throughout most of the region. Over 60% of the poor in Mexico, Central America and the Andean countries live in rural areas: Rural poverty is also more extreme than urban poverty. The number and diversity of circumstances in which the rural poor find themselves makes it difficult, in many cases, to understand the causes and possible solutions to this problem.
The objective of this document is to propose a menu of strategic approaches for reducing rural poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean. The document constitutes the basis for the Bank's rural poverty reduction strategy (IDB 1998a). It combines the Bank's own experiences and those of other organizations in designing options and instruments for use in programs carried out with the support of the Bank. The proposals made in this document are consistent with a number of strategic initiatives already drawn up or in preparation by the Bank, in particular those aimed at poverty reduction (IDB 1997), education, microenterprise (IDB 1996a), rural finance (IDB 1998b), agriculture (IDB 1998c) and development of indigenous communities (Deruyttere 1997). In addition, several actions have been recently proposed in the agriculture sector at the highest level of the Bank (IDB 1998d) either through policy dialogue or via lending operations.
Some of the elements included in this document have been discussed at the technical level at the Bank in recent years (BID 1994a, Aristizabal et al 1992, Benito 1991). The document is based on Echenique (1996) and includes experiences of the World Bank (Lopez and Valdes 1997, World Bank 1997, Binswanger 1995, Binswanger and Deininger 1997); IFAD (IFAD 1992 and Monares and Parera 1995); IFPRI (Garrett 1996 and 1995); IICA (1995, 1993, 1990, 1987 and de Janvry et al. 1989); USAID (1987, 1994), and GTZ (1996). It also takes into account a variety of experiences ranging from the new demand for rural development arising in Latin America at the start of this decade, to the international discussions held in connection with the World Food Summit (FAO 1996a and 1996b).
This document has been framed in accordance with the Eighth Replenishment of the Bank (IDB 1994b), which places priority on poverty reduction and social equity, modernization and integration, and the environment. As part of that exercise, investments aimed at reducing poverty are defined as those that target areas where low-income groups live, or programs and projects with a significant majority of poor beneficiaries. Because of the diverse and complex nature of poverty, initiatives meeting this definition have been designed in a variety of fields including: education, health, the food sector and housing. Similarly, urban and rural development activities have been designed to create employment and generate income with particular emphasis on microenterprises and small businesses. Finally, projects relating to the environment and modernization of the State are also aimed at reducing poverty. Rural development programs fall naturally into the category of poverty-targeted investments whether aimed at regions or individuals, in accordance with the social equity and poverty reduction objectives established in the Bank's Eighth Replenishment.
Depending on the needs of individual countries, some of the proposed options could be used to define a rural development agenda, with the necessary modifications on a case-by-case basis. Their flexibility will allow the use of these options to solve specific problems at the national, regional and even municipal level.
During the process of preparing this document several seminars and technical workshops took place, at the regional level and at IDB headquarters, with the participation of experts in rural matters. This document incorporates input from those consultations and is the result of a team effort by several agriculture, rural, environment, social, poverty and gender specialists from a number of Bank units.
Last updated: 05/08/07
