Rural Development: February 2009
Rural Development: February 2009
Rural Development: February 2009
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RURAL DEVELOPMENT
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Introduction
It has been argued that rural development is the key to meeting the Millennium
Development Goal (MDG) on poverty reduction (IFAD 2004). Statistic shows that
about three quarters of 1.2 billion people that live in extreme consumption poverty
works and living in rural areas (rural poverty report 2001, p. 1). Moreover, in these
poor rural areas, human development indicators have been continuously
deteriorated. Foege (2000) reports that more than 900,000 children under five still
die each year from measles; Neonatal tetanus kills 200,000 each year; 370,000
under-fives die from whooping cough and 50,000 from tuberculosis per year; Half of
all pregnant women are not immunized against maternal tetanus, which kills 30,000
women every year. The other 30,000 young children die every day caused by a
major earthquake. Besides, the statistical evidence issued by the Joint United
Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) estimates that over half of the 28 million
people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa live in rural areas (FAO, 2002).
These statistics indicate that a negligence of rural areas is a global phenomenon. It is
reflected by the absence of infrastructures and basic services such as health services
as well as limitations of job opportunities. Foege (2000) perfectly pictures such
conditions by saying that “They die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth,
far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and
weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”
From the explanation above, it could be argued that there are two main reasons for
improving the live of the people in the countryside. The first is humanity reason.
People should be treated equally regardless its gender and political, social,
economical, geographical as well as cultural background. The second is to prevent
the proliferation of poverty and other social problems. It is evident that rural to
urban migration has caused serious problem such as an increasing number of poor
people and social problems such as crime rates. Moreover, the fact that about 1250
million people in the Third World dependent on agriculture (Webster 1990, p. 22)
then it is obvious that shortages of food or famine is also one possible threat of rural
urban migration. It is for these reasons rural development has become a main
concern of international community. A large number of programs and projects had
been implemented for this purpose but the reality showed unexpected outcomes.
Rural poverty remains unperceived. This paper seeks to discuss what Robert
Chambers calls ‘rural development tourism’ and the biases that keep rural poverty
unobserved. It begins with providing some theoretical background that has caused
rural neglect. It further explains a recent approach to development and then it
discusses the notion of rural development tourism. Some conclusions are presented
in last part of this paper.
The development priority then changed in the period of 1970s and early 1980s
toward promoting more equitable distribution of the benefits of development,
reducing disparities in income and wealth between urban and rural areas and among
regions, and increasing the productivity and income of the poor (Rondinelli in Smith
1992, p. 103). This shift, unfortunately, only in a level of rhetoric or it was
Chambers explains that the above phenomenon is caused by incomplete, very partial
and inappropriate evidences collected to formulate development policy. There is a
strong argument that one of the key reasons for the failure of many rural
development approaches stems from the fact that they are derived from
inappropriate methodologies which have failed to fully understand the dynamics of
rural life. It is because, rural development is initiated by outsiders who are neither
rural nor poor (1983, p.2). For the outsiders which he also calls urban-based
professionals, the major source of direct experience of rural life is rural development
Chambers (1983, pp. 13-22; 2006, pp. 28-32) identifies several biases that keep rural
poverty unobserved. The first is spatial biases that include urban, tarmac and
roadside. Most learning about rural condition is mediated by vehicles. Urban bias
concentrates rural visits near towns and especially near capital cities and large
administrative centers while tarmac and roadside biases direct attention towards
those who are less poor and away from those who are poorer. In this sense, the
poorest rural people that are mainly concentrated in the remoter area will remain
unseen since it is hard to be reached either by vehicles or foot. Chambers (2006, p.
17) shows some examples in which the poorest rural people live in remoter areas,
such as: north eastern Brazil, Zambia away from the line of rail, lower Ukambani in
Kenya, the Tribal districts of central India, the hills of Nepal. The second is project
bias in which those concerned with rural development and with rural research
become linked to networks of urban-rural projects. The third is person biases. It
consists of elite bias, male bias, user and adopter biases, active, present and living
biases. Those are usually the main source of information in rural area for rural
development tourism. The fourth is dry season biases. The most difficult time of the
year in the poor rural area is usually wet season. Food is short, food prices are high,
work is hard, and infections are prevalent. Malnutrition, morbidity and mortality all
Even though in his conception Chambers underlines the importance of the poor
people’s experiences, knowledge, and capacity to solve problems, he puts heavy
emphasis to the outsiders to help it comes through. This is interesting as well as
challenging idea since most of the outsiders are relied on limited funds provided
either by government or donors. How could they afford to finance this very high cost
Conclusion
Rural development has become the major concern of international community for
humanity reason and for the purpose of preventing the proliferation of poverty and
the other social problems such as criminality and famine. Rural backwardness is, to
some extent, caused by the existing development approaches which are typically
top-down and in favor of city rather than countryside. Such policies have widened
the rural-urban gap and led to a rampant urbanization. A large number of rural
development programs and projects implemented have failed to improve the quality
of rural life and rural poverty remains unobserved. In the crossroad of development
theory, populism and neo-populist present a new approach to development in terms
of analytical and normative aspects. These schools advocate community
involvement in the development process. Each person is seen as a capable entity. Its
values, cultures, experiences and knowledge are all valuable for help reshaping their
community which has been destroyed by existing development strategies. Chambers
shares a faith with populism and neo-populist. However, Chambers offers more
practical rather than theoretical perspectives. Chambers assumes that the failure to
improve rural life is caused by inadequate evidence used to assess the real condition
of the rural people since it is based only on a wrong generalization. There are several
biases that according to Chambers hinder the efforts to generate comprehensive
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