This document reviews and systematizes the contributions of researchers, multilateral cooperation and civil society in contrast to the proposals and practices of the public sector.
57-policy-strategies-for-rural-development-in-peruThis exercise reveals the existence of some agreements and coincidences in topics and general guidelines about rural development, which, however, do not translate into an operational and practical strategy in this field.
The original document is summarized below, prepared at the request of the Economic and Social Research Consortium (CIES) and the Permanent Seminar on Agrarian Research (SEPIA). The first part presents a balance of the issue based on two axes: the validity of the debate on rural development and the issues on the rural development agenda. The second part presents a brief review of rural development practice and interventions.
“At the national and international level there is also a renewed interest in this field. However, academic production on rural development is heterogeneous »
The third part shows the reasons for the disagreement between the guidelines of the National Rural Development Strategy, the consensus at the proposal level, and the State's interventions. Finally, recommendations are presented on the role that researchers play regarding the described problem.
Rural development strategies
The proposals of researchers and international cooperation agencies have experienced, in this new century, a kind of debate and generation of consensus on rural development. Next, it will be discussed about the validity of
rural development in the work agendas of the actors involved and about the issues, new or old, that are dealt with in this debate.
The validity of rural development in the academic agenda and of international cooperation agencies The review of SEPIA's production by Maletta (2005) 3 shows fifty articles on rural development, published in ten volumes. This indicates, at least, that the issue is present on the agenda of the agrarian researchers gathered at SEPIA. At the national and international level there is also a renewed interest in this field. However, academic production on rural development is heterogeneous. For example, within SEPIA itself, Maletta pointed out a kind of involution, which goes from the broader treatment, based on theoretical considerations about the economic and social transformation of the rural environment, of the first volumes of SEPIA,towards more and more concrete works that reflect on very specific aspects
and specific.
Along with the texts published in the annals of SEPIA, there are other texts on rural development published in the last ten years, in which the same dichotomy can be found, a trend towards specialization and analysis of specific aspects (credit, technological innovation, provision of infrastructure, etc.) and a limited effort in more comprehensive reviews of rural development. Along these lines, the texts produced by authors such as A. Diez, M. Glave, M. Valdivia, J. Escobal, C. Degregori, among others, account for the former; while the contributions of researchers with a longer experience on the subject, such as Plaza, Eguren and Gonzales de Olarte, would account for the latter4.It should be mentioned that an important part of the contributions on rural development has not been published and has remained in manuscripts and reports of limited circulation.
