1. Reconciling the different dimensions of rural: the role of the rural animator
Betty-Ann Bryce
Administrator
Rural Development Programme
Regional Development Policy Division
Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate

2. Roadmap
About OECD Rural Programme
Common trends in Rural areas
Rural Policy and the New Rural Paradigm
Common policy threads
Rural areas: opportunities and growth
Role of the animator

3. ABOUT THE OECD RURAL WORK

4. Rural Development Programme work
First phase
Second phase
Third phase
Rural Studies
2006->
Rural Policy Reviews
Forthcoming Rural Publications
2006 The New Rural Paradigm
Rural Case Studies
Rural
(and Territorial) Database
Mexico, Germany
Turuel (Spain)
Sumerke (Greece),
Siena (Italy)
Finland,
Scotland UK,
Netherlands
Renewable
Energy
Multi-Level Local
Governance: Italy
Rural-Urban links
Policy Analysis
Micro-Regions (Mexico)
Extremadura, (Spain)
Basque Country (Spain)
Tuscany (Italy)
Lake Balaton (Hungary)
Crete (Greece)
Active Regions (Germany)
Local Strategic Partnerships (UK)
Community Futures Programme (Canada)
Spain, Italy, China
England, UK Québec, CA Rural Services
Rural Conferences
October 2012
Krasnoyarsk, Russia
2008 Cologne, Germany
2006,
Edinburgh, Scotland
2007 Cáceres, Spain
2009 Québec Canada
2002,
Siena, Italy
2004,
Virginia, US
2005,
Oaxaca, Mexico
“Innovation and
Modernising
Rural economies”

5. Common trends in rural areas

6. Common trends in Rural areas
Each nation has roughly the same rural issues:
Declining role of agriculture and a historic rural policy focus on agriculture
Aging demographics
Increasing demands for more and better public services
Tension between preservation and development
Difficulty in devolving power to lower levels
Only a vague sense of new economic opportunities
For EU countries an additional problem of reconciling EU priorities with national priorities
rural-urban disparities
macro or international impacts.
Devolution
migration which can be divided into
rural-to-urban,
urban-to-rural, and
changing mobility patterns.
Out-migration of young people and In-migration of retirees
Local public service provision that is sometimes not in sync with the changing demographic structure

7. Common trends in rural areas
changing economic profiles of rural economies
Farming is still important but employment opportunities in agriculture are declining.
Difficulty establishing the necessary: critical mass of facilities; producer services; and, infrastructure to support economic development.
GDP per capita. Why: low population density and low critical mass. In fact, critical mass can be so low that it impacts basic infrastructure services. But: over the last ten years, in one out of three OECD countries, the most dynamic region in terms of employment creation was a rural area.
macro or international impacts. e.g. Globalisation, the effects of EU enlargement, Common agricultural reform, trade negotiations and other big international issues with direct impact on rural areas. Regions are competing directly with each other, like companies, creating new challenges for rural regions
Devolution - more responsibility at lower levels of governments, this is happening across OECD countries at varying speed. In general terms, that means that sub-national authorities, and rural regions have more spending responsibilities.
migration which can be divided into rural-to-urban, urban-to-rural, and changing mobility patterns. In France and England, the key challenge for policy makers is urban-to-rural migration which is creating a challenge in terms of service delivery because it is increasing critical mass. changing patterns in mobility. the distance that people are willing to cover during one day to do different things. This is changing dramatically to better infrastructure, cheaper transport cost and more and this distance, this radius around urban areas, increasingly extends into rural areas.
changing economic profiles of rural economies - the stereotype that “rural is synonymous with decline” is no longer true. Likewise, we see that “rural as synonymous with agriculture” does not work either. Rural employment represents less than 10 percent, i.e., agricultural employment in rural areas is less than 10 percent, and agriculture represents around 2 percent of national GDP of our member countries.

8. The OECD NEW RURAL PARADIGM and Rural Policy

9. Basis of analysis:evolved from the New Rural Paradigm…
Two principles characterise the “new rural paradigm”:
1) a focus on places instead of sectors and
2) a focus on investments instead of subsidies.
Old approach
New approach
Objectives
Equalisation, farm income, farm competitiveness
Competitiveness of rural areas, valorisation of local assets, exploitation of unused resources
Key target sector
Agriculture
Various sectors of rural economies (ex. rural tourism, manufacturing, ICT industry, etc.)
Main tools
Subsidies
Investments
Key actors
National governments, farmers
All levels of government (supra-national, national, regional and local), various local stakeholders (public, private, NGOs) .

10. The New Rural Paradigm
In the NRP, the focus is on enhancing competitiveness of rural areas using local assets, in a manner that taps all aspects of the local economy, relies on investments over subsides , involves all levels of government (private and public stakeholders) and allows for decisions to be taken at the appropriate level.

11. What is Rural Policy?
Not a coherent set of policies and programs – amalgam of independent pieces that evolves through time.
Two levels
Narrow Rural Policy – those policies that are designed to explicitly affect rural areas – agriculture, rural broadband, rural doctors
Broad Rural Policy - those policies that have no specific geographic focus but have major rural impacts – national health insurance, education policy, investment policy

12. OECD framework for Rural Policy
Somewhere between “narrow-niche” policy and “broad-grand plan” policy
Narrow Rural Policy – those policies that are designed to explicitly affect rural areas – agriculture, rural broadband, rural doctors -far larger effects than narrow policies – more money and they hit more people, but have very little, if any, rural intent.
Broad Rural Policy - those policies that have no specific geographic focus but have major rural impacts – national health insurance, education policy, investment policy. Focusing on narrow policy runs the risk that adjustments to broad policy swamp any measurable effects from narrow policy.

13. COMMON POLICY THREADS IN OECD COUNTRIES

14. Common policy threads (1)
In the aggregate, rural economies are seen as similar to urban regions.
However, below the aggregate level, there are different types of activity, skills utilized, value-added, wage levels and organizational complexity.
In some cases, the difference between rural and urban economies is not considered

15. Common policy threads (2)
Focus of most rural policy is on remote rural.
Very little policy targets peri-urban areas or more intermediate regions, even though the majority of the rural population is found in these places.
Need for a focus on intermediate regions and urban-rural linkages

16. Common policy threads (3)
National average for rural masks significant pockets of rural deprivation.
In terms of broad socio-economic indicators the aggregate rural population is near national averages, and in some nations above.
Service delivery in rural areas is an increasingly important issue.

17. Common policy threads (4)
Devolution: more responsibility, limited resources.
Most national governments accept that rural development requires devolution of responsibility to local authorities, but are reluctant to provide financial capacity.
Central governments often struggle with overcoming their own sectoral approach in favour of an integrated policy approach to rural development.

18. Common policy threads (5)
No country sees agriculture as a way to achieve major rural development objectives
Tourism and other amenity based activities are seen as providing growth opportunities
Different use of EU funds “defining” domestic rural policy, and/or “supplement” an indigenous policy.

19. Rural areas: opportunities and growth

20. Declining fiscal resources to local govts. Tourism Forestry
Threats
Single Industry towns
Demography
Climate change
Declining fiscal resources to local govts.
Opportunities
Tourism
Forestry
Renewable Energy
Local Foods

21. There is strong growth potential
Rural regions can in fact be potentially important sources of growth, but a different policy approach is needed to tap that potential
Across the OECD area, predominantly rural regions have, on average, enjoyed faster growth than intermediate or urban regions with an average rate of growth of 2.33% for rural regions close to a city, 2.24% for rural remote regions as compared to the OECD average of 2.06% over

22. some rural areas outperforming urban areas
Transport infrastructure is one factor (e.g. but it can be a positive and a negative)
Endogenous resources drive development
Each region have different combinations and different levels of endowment: what is important is the availability of one form of capital and the. ability to properly exploit it.

23. The Rural Animator

24. Some key issues from the perspective of the OECD for the Rural Animator
What: – What key issue(s) are rural policy makers trying to address?; What are the drivers of these issues?; Do the issues vary by country or by regions within countries? What issues get the attention of government decision-makers?
Why – Why is it important for government policy makers to take rural considerations into account? Why is it important to take rural-urban linkages into account?

25. Some key issues from the perspective of the OECD for the Rural Animator
How –How can regional rural differences be communicated clearly to other policy makers within government?
Which approaches to integrating rural considerations into policy making are achieving promising results?
Who are the key actors in these promising approaches?  
Tools - What tools have proved to be helpful? What improvements are needed for greater effectiveness? Should rural-proofing, or the application of a rural lens to policy and program initiatives, be mandatory or voluntary?      

26. Rural Animator
Today the rural “voice” is much more diffused partly due to decentralisation and new firms and sectors in rural areas.
The issues and stakeholders have multiplied
RA need to be able to:
Advocate – diff levels of govt
Negotiate -- diff levels of govt
Rural proof – diff levels of govt

27. Navigate complexity

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