Sustainable Rural Development (January 2023)

Despite the rapid rate of urbanization over the past few decades, it remains true at the beginning of the 21st century that the vast majority of really poor people in low-income countries live in rural areas. The persistence of rural poverty may be attributed to many different reasons, for example, remoteness, adverse environmental change, seasonality, high livelihood risks, lack of markets, poor infrastructure, stagnating yields in agriculture and so on.
This module provides students with a good grounding in these factors, and in the practical efforts being made to find solutions that will enable individuals and families to move out of poverty. The module explores contemporary ideas in the policy and practice of rural development, centering on the sustainable livelihoods approach that has become a popular framework for organizing ideas about rural poverty reduction.