Towards inclusive rural development is a new publication focusing on Agricultural value chains, local economic development and stakeholders’dynamics along with Contribution of Belgian development projects to the elaboration of a regional and sectoral vision on rural development in the Andes.
This new publication originated in a regional seminar hosted by BTC in Lima in 2009. This publication emphasizes two approaches which are quite often used in agriculture and rural development with a name the value chain approach and the local economic development approach. In the initial phase, these approaches are incorporated in the perspective against the evolving background of the Belgian and international agricultural sector. However in the next phase, these approaches are analyzed as part of specific experiences in the regional project portfolio implemented by the bilateral cooperation.
Five elements emerge from this work:
- The political and institutional context in each country is determining in defining approaches and implementation modalities. Bolivia where the notion of the “productive complexes” assigned a new role to the State as a full economic actor is a good example in case
- Decentralized entities and their actors are gaining significance in the planning and management of production aspects of regional development and open for actions set up by international cooperation in the matter
- The nature of agriculture and of the value chains imposes a multiple-stakeholder vision with attention for private and public actors in their respective roles and missions
- A “pro-poor” vision of the support to the value chains cannot be limited to a strictly commercial approach of the value chains but imposes a social economy approach, whether for fairness or inclusion or to strengthen the social capital and share the wealth generated between the actors
- The interventions can be sites for innovation, as the examples from Peru and Ecuador illustrate
This seminar confirmed the relevance of such meetings which aim at facilitating and encouraging capitalization through the exchange of experiences between the different projects of the Belgian Development Cooperation along with the partner countries.
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