Introduction to Rural

Development

Introduction
 The Concept of Development

Development is a broad concept that entails

economic, social, political and human
development.
Human development constitutes the
foundation on the social, economic and
political concepts.
According to Burkey(1993), economic and
political development must translate in to
social development
As a broad concept development has been
extensively explored with a view to realise
economic growth and social development.
 Development is much about enrichment of the
lives of all the people in the society.
The shift moved from Holistic Theorization of
dev’t to local ‘participation’ and
‘empowerment’.
During the 1070s the concern of people living
subsistence lives in poverty turned the
attention of development economists to
people’s lives rather than their incomes.
Seers (1969) marked the change needed in
setting dev’t objectives. In that, the goal of
dev’t during the period was thus not limited to
economic growth but to concentrate on the
reduction of poverty, inequality &
Diseases, malnourishment and death that
happen in the every day lives of those from
the developing countries changed the views
of development goals dramatically.
A broader perspective of development goals is
hence necessary as reflected in the World
Bank’s Development Report (1991, p. 4) as
“to improve the quality of life. Especially, in
the world’s poor countries, a better quality of
life generally calls for higher incomes—but it
involves much more.
It encompasses as ends in themselves better
education, higher standards of health and
nutrition, less poverty, a cleaner environment,
 Definition of Development
Development means “improvement in
country's social and economic conditions”.
More specifically, it refers to improvements in
way of managing an area's natural and human
resources in order to create wealth and
improve people's lives.

The meaning of development is subjective,

thus, it needs to have a universally
acceptable aim to make for conditions that
lead to a realisation of the potentials of
human beings.
i. The capacity to obtain physical necessities,
particularly food;
ii. A job (not necessarily paid employment) but
including studying, working on a family farm
or keeping house;
iii. Equality, this should be considered an
objective in its own right;
iv. Participation in government;
v. Belonging to a nation that is truly
independent, economically and politically;
and
 The Core Values of Development
There are three core values of
development
[Link]: The ability to meet basic
needs- food shelter, health, and protection.
"Absolute underdevelopment" is when any of
these is absent or in critically short supply.
Without sustenance & continuous economic
progress, the realization of human potential will
be greatly hindered.

According to Human Development Report

(HDR1994), "The purpose of development is to
create an environment in which all people can
Besides, according to the Human Development
Report 2007/2008, UNDP; "... we must see the
fight against poverty and the fight against the
effect of climate change as interrelated efforts."

The reason is simple because climate change

affects the poorest most & makes development
projects more difficult when increase droughts,
extreme weather events, tropical storms and
sea level rises will affect a large parts of Africa,
many small island states and coastal zones in
our lifetimes. Therefore, development has to be
sustainable.
2. Self-Esteem: To be a Person. That is to
have a sense of worth and self-respect, of
not being used as tool for others' end.
Denis Goulet believes that development is
an important way of gaining self-esteem.

HDR 2000 also appears to make this link.

The cover of HDR 2000 proclaims
that "Human rights and human
development. Any society committed to
improving the lives of its people must also
be committed to full and equal rights for
all.“
3. Freedom from Servitude:
To be able to make political and economic
choice that does not infringe on the others'
rights.

Economic growth allows individual to expands

their range of human choice. Take for
example, a richer person can decide when and
where at to take a vacation but a poor wage
earner may not even have that choice
because a day without work may mean a day
without meal.
Todaro’s Three Objectives of Development
[Link] peoples’ living levels, i.e. incomes
and consumption, levels of food, medical
services, education through relevant
growth processes
2. Creating conditions conducive to the
growth of peoples’ self-esteem through
the establishment of social, political and
economic systems and institutions which
promote human dignity and respect
3. Increasing peoples’ freedom to choose
by enlarging the range of their choice
variables, example, varieties of goods and
services
 Alternative Interpretations of
Development (Mabogunje)
• Development as Economic Growth-
too often commodity output as opposed
to people is emphasized-measures of
growth in GNP.
Note here the persistence of a dual
economy where the export sector
contains small number of workers but
draws technology as opposed to
traditional sector where most people
work and is dominated by inefficient
 Alternative Interpretations of
Development
• Development as Modernization-
emphasizes process of social change
which is required to produce economic
advancement; examines changes in social,
psychological and political processes;
• How to develop wealth oriented behavior
and values in individuals; profit seeking
rather than subsistence and self
sufficiency
Shift from commodity to human approach
with investment in education and skill
training
 Alternative Interpretations of
Development
Development as Distributive Justice
- View development as improving basic needs
- People’s Interest in social justice which has raised
three issues:

1. Nature of goods and services provided by

governments
2. Matter of access of these public goods to different
social classes
3. How burden of development can be shared among
these classes
• Target groups include small farmers, landless, urban
under-employed and unemployed
 Contemporary: Sustainable
Development
Defined as development that is likely to achieve
lasting satisfaction of human needs and
improvement of the quality of life and
encompasses:
 Help for the very poorest who are left with no option
but to destroy their environment to survive
 Idea of self-reliant development with natural
resource constraints
 Cost effective development using different economic
criteria to the traditional; i.e. development should
not degrade environment
 Important issues of health control, food self-reliance,
appropriate technologies, clean water and shelter for
al
 People centered activities are necessary- human
beings are the resources in the concept
 Chapter Two
Overview of Rural Development
 Concept of Rural Development
• The concept of rural dev’t has a
comprehensive aspect, which takes into
consideration, number of factors.
• For several decades, the concept of rural
dev’t focused solely upon economic change
• But at a later stage, the concept got
extended to take into account, economic,
political, social, cultural, technological and
psychological frame of the society
• In other words, RD focuses upon the dev’t of
social, economic, political, cultural, technical
and religious aspects as well
 Definitions of Rural Development
 The term ‘rural development’ is of major concern,
particularly when one is focused upon promoting
effective growth and development of the country
 The term ‘rural development’ can be used in a
divergent state
 As a concept, it can promote overall development of
rural areas
 RD can be seen as a comprehensive basis that
improves in the overall quality of life of the rural people
 RD is a strategy to enable a specific group of
individuals to acquire opportunities for themselves for
the purpose of sustaining better livelihoods for
themselves and their families
 The scope of “rural” areas differs by country
and region.
Rural Development is improvement in
livelihood of people in rural areas (poverty
reduction)
The term "Rural Development" refers to a
distinct approach to interventions by the state
in the economies of underdeveloped countries,
and one which is at once broader & more
specific than 'agricultural development'.
According to Harriss, Rural Development can
be viewed as either of the following:
a state-led activity and a focus for
development policy
 Objectives of Rural Development
The overall goal of rural development is a
sustainable improvement of livelihood for
rural people.
Four Development Objectives
1. Improvement of Economic Capabilities (Agri
income improvement, non-agricultural income
improvement, improvement of industries, and
dev’t of infrastructures)
2. Improvement of Human Capabilities (General
health improvement & development of
educational standards)
3. Improvement of Protective Capabilities
(Conservation of environment & natural
 Significance of Rural
Development
• RD aims to improve LHs by implementing comprehensive
development for rural areas where the majority of people
live in poverty
• RD can contribute to reduce urban poverty by reducing
excessive population influxes from rural areas
• RD enables effective use of external and internal resources
of rural areas as needed
• Helps to target the poor and reduce food insecurity. Food
security is a major rural development problem in Ethiopia.
Since the agriculture sector is largely made up of
subsistence farming and is entirely dependent on rain,
reoccurring and severe droughts make farming a precarious
way of life
• Large parts of the country continually suffer from food
insecurity and are, at one time or another, dependent on
foreign aid
 Measurement of Rural
Development
Basic Measurements of Aggregate Rural
Development
There are many methods that development experts
use to quantify and compare the development of
different countries. These measurements have
different strengths and weaknesses.
[Link] Indicators
These are numerical indications of development
i. Gross National Product (GDP): measures the value
of all the goods and services produced in a country,
excluding those produced by foreign companies.
We use GDP because GNP does not measure whether
the money produced is actually improving people's
lives.
ii. Social (demographic) Indicators: include
the birth, death and fertility rates
iii. Health Indicators: include nutrition
(calories/day, percentage with
malnutrition), infant mortality &
population per doctor.
iv. Economic indictors: include
unemployment rates, energy consumption
and percentage of GNP in primary
industries.
v. Composite Indicators: combine several
quantitative indicators into one figure and
Vi. Human Development Index (HDI): is the
most widely used composite indicator.
It is calculated b/n zero (0) and 1, it
includes;
 GNP per capital
 Adult literacy rate
 School enrollment rate and
 Life expectancy.
B. Qualitative Indicators:
Include descriptions of living conditions and
people’s quality of life. They are useful in
analyzing features that are not easily
converted to numbers such as freedom and
Major Rural Development Challenges of Ethiopian

• Poverty and Food security is a major

rural development problem in Ethiopia
• Since the agriculture sector is largely made
up of subsistence farming and is entirely
dependent on rain, reoccurring and severe
droughts make farming a precarious way of
life
• Large parts of the country continually suffer
from food insecurity and are, at one time or
another, dependent on foreign food aid
• The local grain markets are also unstable
and underdeveloped with bumper
harvests leading to collapsed prices and
therefore, discouraging farmers' attempts
to move away from subsistence farming.
• Export markets are practically non-
existent when measured by the impact
they make in the lives of a large part of
Ethiopia's rural population.
 Chapter Three:
Rural Poverty, Measurements of
Poverty and Food Insecurity
 Meaning and Definition of Poverty
Introduction
 Poverty is as old as the history of human beings

itself.
 Since the first scientific poverty study in the

early 20th century, numerous poverty studies

were done both in the developing and
developed world.
 There are several concepts and definitions

attached to poverty. Some are broad and others

are pretty narrow.
 The traditional definitions of poverty are uni-

dimensional whereas the modern ones are

multi-dimensional.
Definitions:
Poverty is the lack of basic necessities that all
human beings need to have; such as food, water,
shelter, education, medical care, security, etc. As a
multi-dimensional issue, poverty exceeds all the
social, economic, and political boundaries.

Generally, Poverty is defined by;

the cost of unmet basic needs
Share of income or expenditure (standard of living)
Absolute poverty line (food basket)
Level of expenditure/consumption necessary to
provide adequate diet and basic necessities of life
Selected characteristics of age, sex, education
social status, marital status & household
characteristics
Unit of measurement is household/individual
The State of Poverty in the World in 2010
Nearly 1.02 billion people across the world are
hungry
300 million children around the world suffer
from hunger
2.5 billion people still lack access to improved
sanitation facilities
Almost one fifth of the world's population lives
in areas where the water is physically scarce
101 million children are not attending primary
school, more than 50% of these children are
girls
The UN estimated that approximately 2.5
million people are trafficked each year
The 2009 World Refugee Survey estimated
that there are close to 14 million refugees
and asylums in the world
4.4 billion people live in developing countries.
Of these;
 Three-fifths (3/5) lack basic sanitation
 Almost 1/3 have no access to clean water
 A quarter do not have adequate housing
 1/5 have no access to modern health
services
 Why?

.....In 2000 the richest 5th of the world’s population

had 74 times the income of the poorest fifth.
The top three billionaires have assets greater than
the combined GNP of all LDCs & their 600million
people.
Irrespective of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights that states;

(Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the

health and well-being of him/(her)self and his/(her) family,
including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary
social services... Everyone has the right to education)
 Dimensions of Poverty
• Poverty is “welfare level below a
reasonable minimum.”
• Poverty has various dimensions
 Income poverty
 Security poverty
 Education poverty
 Health Poverty
 Nutrition Poverty
 Multiple deprivation
• Poor people’s perception of poverty
level
 What do we mean by “Poverty”?
The primary focus is on individuals or groups
suffering from multiple deprivations
Security Education
Poor poor

Health Income
Poor Poor
Poverty Dimensions and Indicators
 Causes of Poverty

Some of the causes of poverty in Ethiopia are:

Arid conditions leading to irregular production in the
agriculture sector
Improper marketing strategies of agricultural products
Degrading ecology
Technological know how being poorly developed
Transportation facilities are poorly developed
Failure of the rural people in participating in awareness
programs meant for them
Absence of sufficient rainfall
Shortage of food products owing to several conditions.
Absence of proper socio-economic infrastructure. This
includes lack of potable water, proper education and health
cares.
Unstable political scenario
HIV/AIDS pandemic is driving poor people even deeper
 MDG, Targets and
Indicators
? MDGs were set by all Government leaders at
the UN Millennium Summit, September 2000)
? All UN organisations decided to be guided by
MDGs in their future action: unity of purpose,
coherent action, synergies and strategic
approaches by the UN system as a whole
(guided by CEB)
? Leaders pledged to strive, individually and
collectively, towards these goals through
international, regional and national action,
concerted by the UN.
? The Idea emanate from UN Summits and
? ……. Proposed in the UN Secretary-
General’s Millennium Report: ”We, the
peoples: the role of the United Nations in
the 21st century”
? … Endorsed in the United Nations
Millennium Declaration (8 September 2000)
? …. A framework of 8 goals, 18 targets and
48 indicators to measure progress towards
the MDGs was adopted by a consensus of
experts from the United Nations Secretariat
and IMF, OECD and the World Bank.
 Millenium Développent Goals

? Goal 1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger

? Goal 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education
? Goal 3. Promote Gender Equality & Empower
Women
? Goal 4. Reduce Child Mortality
? Goal 5. Improve Maternal Health
? Goal 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria & other Diseases
? Goal 7. Ensure environmental sustainability
? Goal 8. Develop a Global Partnership for
Development
 Basic Measurements of poverty

Social scientist recognize two types of poverty;

[Link] poverty
refers to a situation in which people could not
meet their minimum subsistence needs. It is often
known as ‘subsistence poverty’. This means that
absolute poverty is limited to material deprivation.

Absolute poverty is generally measured by:

 Pricing the basic necessities of life;
 Drawing a poverty line in terms of this price;
and
 Defining as poor people whose income falls
below that figure.
 2. Relative poverty
o It is defined in relation to the needs and demands
of a given society.
o It is measured by comparing the economic
condition of those at the bottom of the society
with other segments of the population. Thus,
poverty in Eth may not be the same as poverty in
USA.
o In this case there is an index to measure poverty
(Human Poverty Index)
o Human Poverty Index (HPI): is used to calculate
the percentage of people in a country who live in
relative poverty. HPI is further divided into HPI-1
& HPI-2.
HPI-1: used in developing countries,
calculated based on:
 The %age of people not expected to survive
to 40 years
 Adult literacy rate
 The %age of people without access to safe
water, health services, and
 The %age of children less than 5 who are
underweight
HPI-2: used in developed countries, calculated
based on:
 The %age of people who do not survive to
 Poverty Lines and Poverty Measurement
• Poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or
breadline, is the min. level of income deemed adequate
in a particular country.
• Poverty line is usually calculated by finding the total cost
of all the essential resources that an average human
adult consumes in one year.
• The WB sets two poverty lines for low-income countries.
One poverty line is set at an income of $1.25/day per
person and the other at $2/day/person.
• The international poverty line, currently set at $1.90 a
day, is the universal standard for measuring global
poverty. It helps measure the number of people living in
extreme poverty and helps compare poverty levels
among countries.
• As the cost of living increases, poverty lines increase too.
Two Issues in Generating Poverty
Estimates
[Link] a poverty line: Identification
2. Measuring
Methods of Fixingpoverty: Aggregation
Poverty Lines
Cost-of-basic-needs method (Food-share
method)
– Cost of basic food needs
– Cost of basic non-food needs

Food-energy method
– Expenditure level that meets the food energy
requirement
– Based on calorie-income relationships
– Fitting and tracing calorie-expenditure graph
 Cost-of-Basic-Needs Method
Total Poverty Line = Z
Z = ZF + ZN …where, ZF = Food Poverty Line
ZN = Non-food Poverty
Calculated
Line as follows;
[Link] average household (HH) size
2. Find min reqm’t of daily per-capita calories for
WHO
3. Find the typical food bundle of the relative
poor HH
4. Calculate the calories of this food bundle
WHO’s
5. Determine theaverage
cost of this food bundle
minimum calorie Cost of
Z=F
requirement * average food
Calories in average food
bundle for relatively bundle
 How to Calculate the Non-food Poverty Line
1. Find typical Household (HH) on the food poverty line
2. Calculate the non-food expenditures of the HH
xF = per capita expenditures on food
XN = per capita expenditure on non-food
X = total per capita expenditure

ZN = E {XN|xF= ZF} …… for the poor

(Non-food poverty line is the per capita non-food expenditure level
when the per capita food expenditure level is equal to the food
poverty line)

ZN = E {XN|x= ZF} ……. for the ultra (extreme) poor

(The non-food poverty line is given by the per capita non-food expenditure
when the total expenditure is equal to the food poverty line. The food
poverty line in essence becomes the total poverty line for the ultra poor)

Z = Z F + ZN
Measures of Poverty Lines
Incidence of Poverty - poverty rate
Percentage of people living below the poverty
line
Use the headcount rate to calculate the
poverty rate of the % of population below the
poverty line
Depth of Poverty – how far a person is below
the poverty line
Poverty Gap – aggregation of depth of poverty
Poverty Severity – aggregation with weights
 Head-count Index of
Poverty of population whose consumption (y)
Proportion
is less than the poverty line (Z)
Y1 , Y2,..…Z, ..…Yn
q
H =q/n
H = Head-count index
q = number of poor
n = size of the population
Eg: if n=100; q=50 then H=0.5 or 50%
Problems
– Insensitive to the depth of poverty
– H will not change when a poor persons welfare
changes if he/she remains below the poverty line
 Example of the Head-count Index
Calculation
Income of 4 individuals in a sample: 1,2,3,4
Poverty Line (Z) = 3.0
Head Count Index (H) = q/n =3/4 = 0.75 or
75%

Self check question

Income of 10 individuals in a sample of
4,,5,4,6,7,8,8,7,5 and 7
What will be H, if Z = 6.0?
 Poverty Gap Index (PGI)
Aggregate short-fall of the poor relative to
the poverty line Z

Y1, Y2,…, Yq; Yq  Z

Poorest Least poor

q Mean proportionate
PG = 1/n Σ [(Z-Yi)/Z]poverty
= gap across the
i=1
whole population
(zero gap for the non-poor)
 Example of Poverty Gap Calculation
Income of 4 individuals in a sample: 1,2,3,4
Poverty line = Z = 3; n=4

PG = [(3-1)/3 + (3-2)/3]/4
= [(2/3) + (1/3)]/4
= [(3/3)/4]
= ¼ or 0.25
Limitation: Poverty gap index does not capture
differences in severity of poverty.
 …Why….
Region A = (1,2,3,4)
Region B = (2,2,2,4)

Poverty line = Z = 3
HA = 0.75 HB = 0.75
PGA = 0.25 PGB = 0.25

Poverty gap will be unaffected by an income

transfer from a poor person to another poor
person who remains below the poverty line
 Poverty Analysis

Income/Consumption Poverty Profile

Correlates poverty with:-
Gender- women headed household
Age- No of economically dependent age group
Residential location- access to services and
proximity production areas
Social characteristics- work culture
Income source- diversity of incomes
Employment sources- permanent or
temporary
Share of food/ non food consumption-
household expenditure
Education outcomes- education level of
household head
 Qualitative Analysis of Poverty
 Role of informal sector?
 Social analysis of poverty?
 Institutional analysis of poverty reducing
institutions
 Intra-household distribution of resources

Use of Qualitative Methods

 Subjective meaning of poverty
 Intra-household dimensions of poverty
 Poor people’s priorities for action
 Social, political, and cultural factors, gender roles,
and traditional beliefs
 Participants help in designing household surveys
 Assess the validity of HHS results at local level
 Why we need to measure Poverty?
There are four main reasons why we measure poverty
(Haughton & R. Khandker, 2009).
1. It keeps poor people on government’s development
agenda.
2. It enables to identify the poor to target appropriate
interventions.
3. It facilitates monitoring & evaluation of projects so as
to direct policy interventions geared to poor people.
4. It helps to evaluate the effectiveness of institutions
whose goal is to help poor people.
That is why, researchers have been attempting to
measure poverty for decades.
Definition and Concepts of Food Security
Food Security means that all people at all times have
physical and economic access to adequate amounts
of nutritious, safe, and culturally appropriate foods

Food security is not just a poverty issue; it is a much

larger issue that involves the whole food system and
affects every one of us in some way. Issues such as
whether households get enough food, how it is
distributed within the household and whether that
food fulfils the nutrition needs of all members of the
HH show that food security is clearly linked to health
The four dimensions of food security
1. Availability 3. Utilization
2. Access 4. Stability
 The three pillars of food security
AVA I A Food availability: The
LABI C UTILIZ amount of food physically
LITY
C ATION
available to a household or
E
SS at national level
Access to food: The
physical and economical
ability of a household to
acquire adequate amounts
of food;
Food utilization: The
intra-household use of the
food accessible and the
S TA B I L I T Y individual’s ability to
Food Availability
The physical presence of food stocks in the area
of concern through:
Food produced in the area
Trade: food brought in through market
mechanisms
Stocks held by traders or in govt. reserves
Transfers of food by govt. or aid agencies
Food Access
• Own production
• Hunting, fishing or wild foods
• Purchase
• Barter/exchange
• Gifts
 Food utilization
(a) households capacity to make use of food
and
(b) an individuals ability to absorb & metabolize
nutrients; depends on:
Storage, processing and
preparation
Feeding practices
Intra-household sharing
of food
Health status of each
household member
N.B. food utilization
includes nutrition and
consumption
Food Security will become an Increasingly global
Problem
The world is facing a potential crisis in terms of food
security, The challenge is to produce & supply safe &
enough nutrition foods in a sustainable way
The FAO reported that almost 870m people were
chronically undernourished in the years 2010-2012. This
represents 12.5% of the global population, or 1 in 8
people. Higher rates occur in developing countries,
where 852 million people (about 15% of the population)
are chronically undernourished
The UN noted that about 2 billion people do not
consume a sufficient amount of vitamins and minerals.
In India, the second-most populous country in the world,
30 million people have been added to the ranks of the
hungry since the mid-1990s and 46% of children are
Effects of food insecurity
Stunting and chronic nutritional deficiencies
Many countries experience ongoing food shortages and
distribution problems. These result in chronic and often
widespread hunger amongst significant numbers of people.
Human populations can respond to chronic hunger and
malnutrition by decreasing body size, known in medical
terms as stunting or stunted growth.
Kwashiorkor
is the most common and widespread
nutritional disorder in developing countries.
It is a form of malnutrition caused by not
getting enough protein in the diet.)
Things affecting food security today include
Food security is one of the biggest challenges
facing humankind. There are many factors
which have combined to make food security
such a large issue. This includes:
1. Increasing population- In 2009, the world
population was 6 billion. By 2050, it’s predicted
to reach 9 billion. Our current output of food is
not enough to feed a population of 9 billion.
2. Changing diets- As countries develop and
people become richer they tend to eat a more
varied diet, including more meat, which requires
more energy to produce. This also means there
is more competition for the same types of food.
3. Reduced arable land- The drive to produce
more biofuels for transport uses edible crops
and has reduced arable land.
4. Transport costs- The relatively high price of
oil in recent years has increased the price of
food storage and distribution.
5. Climate change- Climate change is leading
to a warmer world which will affect what crops
can be grown where. Climate change can also
lead to more frequent extreme weather events
(e.g. floods) which can damage crops.
6. Pests and diseases- Pests and diseases are
becoming more resistant to pesticides and
sprays. The changing climate is also bringing
pest and diseases into new areas where they
could not previously survive
 Food Insecurity and Famine in
Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s silent famine, 2009-10

The Ethiopian gov’t

hidden the extent of
the food crisis
happened

Dismissed the word

“famine” and,

Admitted that about

6.2 millions of Eth
need food aid
Areas affected
 The causes for food insecurity in Ethiopia

1. Drought and flooding

Mid-June to mid September-”kiremit”-wet seasons
90% of the country’s rain falls that cause flooding
October to May-dry seasons
In 2008 & 2009 rain was late to arrive and the dry season
prolonged
2. Land degradation
Over population → overgrazing and over cultivation→ soil
exposure →wind and water erosion
Around 28% is either degraded or severely degraded (FAO)
50-100tonnes of soil eroded in the uplands
40 sheep are grazed on 0.1hectares of land
Traditionally soil structure and fertility were maintained
using dung
 Vulnerability, Hunger, Malnutrition &
Poverty
3. Shortage of land
Rapid population growth resulted in sub division
of land
There is small incentives for farmers to improve
such small plots
4. Political Conflict such as Internal & External Conflict;
• Has disrupted infrastructure & access to market & food.
• Diverted national government money away from agriculture
5. Food aid
Emergency aid other than assistance aid
 Created Dependency
 Undercut market for locals
 Reduce their income
 Can not decide on what is appropriate for them
 Largest food aid programs, but the lowest rate
of official aid per capita in sub Saharan Africa
6. Population growth
Africa’s second populous country( more than
110m people)
Doubled in the past 25 years (Malthusian
increase)
Highest average fertility
7. Rise in world food price
Price of maize doubled, and wheat has gone up
by 40% (WFP, 2008)
Unable to afford to buy the staple food they
need to keep going.
[Link] of trade
Agriculture
50% of GDP, 85% of export,80% of employment
Coffee provides 35% of Ethiopia's foreign
exchange
….. Possible Solutions…..
• Improving health service
• Improving access to food by increasing farm
and off-farm income
• Intensive farming
• improving crop and animal production
through irrigation
• Diversifying crop and animal production
• Improving access to micro-credit mechanisms
• Developing “safety-net” programs to limit the
erosion of productive capacity in the event of
the crisis
 Ways to Improve the Food
In Security
order to alleviate the problem in a
sustainable manner we need to have
sustainable food systems.
Sustainable Food Systems

A healthy, sustainable
food system is one that
focuses on Env’tal
Health, Economic
Vitality, and Human
Health & Social Equity.
Environmental Health– ensures that food
production and procurement do not
compromise the land, air, or water now or for
future generations.
Economic Vitality– ensures that the people
who are producing our food are able to earn a
decent living wage doing so. This ensures that
producers can continue to produce our food.
Human Health & Social Equity– ensures that
particular importance is placed on community
development and the health of the
community, making sure that healthy foods
are available economically and physically to
the community and that people are able to
Important Role of Governments in
Achieving Food Security
Governments play an important role in helping
achieve food security
1. Supporting smallholder farmers
2. Investing in agriculture
3. Reducing environmental impact

1. Supporting smallholder farmers

Provide training & practical support– Smallholder
farmers need training in agricultural best practices
and access to inputs, credit, storage and technology
to increase their productivity in a sustainable way,
which raises their own living standards and producer
surpluses to help nourish others.
2. Investing in agriculture
Greater investment in agriculture by the public &
private sectors is necessary to increase global food
production. A boost in funding and attention in the
following key areas is needed: transportation,
distribution, storage and energy infrastructure;
agricultural research and development; agricultural
science, extension, education and the promotion of
best practices; and governance around legal and
business structures to encourage private sector
investment
3. Reducing environmental impact
As populations continue to grow and incomes rise,
the need to produce more food will place increasing
demands on the environment and intensify the
challenge of protecting high conservation value
 Chapter Five
Approaches to Rural
Development
Community Development Approach
Integrated Rural Development
Approach
Sustainable Development Approach
Capability Approach
Community driven development
approach as:
A process: empowering rural community to
begin control of their life
A method: it’s a means of engaging the
population in social development projects –
usually in line with national interests (e.g.
housing, agri, health, etc)
A Program: when organized and
administered by separate staff at national,
regional, or Woreda level
A social Movement: to the extent that it
represents interests of the people it serves
 Community development values & Beliefs
Values
People have the right to participate in decisions
that have an effect upon their well-being
People have the right to strive to create that
environment which they desire
Certain Belief
Maximizing human interaction that will increase
the potential for human development
Participatory approach is a superior method of
conducting community affairs
CD is concerned with developing the ability of
human beings to meet & deal with their
environment
 Three Approaches to
community development
Technical Assistance
Emphasizes a technical process of social
problem solving
Rationale, deliberately planned, and
controlled change is a central theme
Top-down and little participation
Building “community” or facilitating
fundamental social change is outside the
parameters of this approach
 Three Approaches to community
development
Self – Help
Major goals are increasing community
capacity and integration
The basic strategy is encouraging local
community to involve in studying and
taking action on their own problem
Consensus strategies such as small group
discussion and fostering communication
The practitioner is an enables, a catalyst, a
teacher of problem solving skills and a
resource liaison
Embers of the power structure are
collaborators in the change effort
 Three Approaches to community
development
Conflict
The community is composed of a hierarchy
of privilege and power with the existence
of clusters of deprived or disadvantaged
groups
Hence, goals includes the shifting of
power, resources, and decision making
Interests b/n and among groups are in
contest and not easily reconcilable due
reluctance of the powerful
The basic strategy involves crystallising
issues and organizing indigenous
population / deprived groups to take action
 Comparing approaches to CD
CD Approaches
Self – help Technical Conflict
Variables Assistance

Assumpti Eclipsed An arena Hierarchy of

on about community of power and
communit problems privilege
y
Change Communit Problem Power
goals y solution acquisition
competenc (task) (task/process
e (process) )
Change Collaborati Planning confrontation
strategy on al
 Comparing approaches to CD

CD Approaches
Self – help Technical Conflict
Variables Assistance

Role of Facilitator, Technician, Organis

change educator advisor er
agent advocat
or
Orientation
towards Collaborato Employers Enemy
power rs
structure
Speed of Slow Moderate Fast
Community Development and Participation

People’s participation is the cornerstone

of CD that emphasises self-help and
sustainability
Participation is one of those contentious
issues which means many things to
different people
Participation as a way to collaborate and
provide information
 the concerned people provide
information
Important decisions are taken by the
 CD and Participation Cont…

Participation and participatory

organization
A specific interest group may be involved
in organizing themselves to make the
most of local development efforts
Cooperative movements are good
examples of such venture. However,
Often constrained by too much red tape or
hijacked by the elite
Lack capacity to do what they have been
created for – lack information & training
Hence, their track record- especially in
Africa- is not good
 CD and Participation Cont…

Participation as empowerment
Here participation is equated with structural
change & access to resources in an attempt to
alleviate poverty
Two issues are involved here:
the identification of socio-economic groups that can
function as a social unit
the use of non-formal education to create an
awareness among those involved
This view on participation is a typically radical
approach and reflects the influence of the
dependency paradigm
 Obstacles facing Participation
Operational:- such as too much centralization
of power, limited capacity, and limited co-
ordination
Culture of poverty:- the vicious circle that
keeps people trapped in poverty must be
broken, but it is extremely difficult for those
at risk to make a meaningful contribution
Lack of structural support:- appropriate
structure are necessary for participation.
The existing structure may not be suitable
 Integrated Rural Development Approach

Background & rationale

- Lesson from the earlier CDA
-the necessity for local input remains valid
- there needed to be a bottom-up
‘feedback relationships’ to adapt
programs to local realities
- The observation that growth in rural
income didn’t assure either the availability
or equitable access to social services
- emergency of systems thinking in
program design and implementation
 Integrated Rural Development Approach

Channelling assistance where poor

community was concentrated.
Providing appropriate social and economic
infrastructure for the rural poor through
integrated RD projects.
World Bank developed rural sector policy
paper emphasising:
o Providing minimum package of inputs to
increase agricultural production.
o Expanding off-farm employment; and
Increasing entrepreneurial opportunities for
the rural poor.
 Integrated Rural Development Approach

USAID Program sought to increase

productivity and income and to extend access
to services and facilities to those who were
previously excluded from participation in
productive economic activities.
o Improve access of smallholder farmers to
appropriate technology, new production
inputs and market for their products;
o Creating and strengthening local
institutions, such as cooperatives, farmers
organizations, and government units to
ensure coordinated service delivery; and
o Creating or strengthening between rural
villages, market centres, smaller cities and
urban regional centres to integrate the
 Integrated Rural Development Approach

What makes IRD different from its

predecessor?
It was a comprehensive and integrated
approach by design making effort to
simultaneously improve productivity,
market access, economic & social
infrastructure
Limitations
Limited ability of farming population to
observe simultaneous changes at a time
Scaling up was difficult when successful
due to resource limitation, and limited
 Integrated Rural Development
Approach
Lack of decentralized governance limited local
program adaptation through experiential
learning
Limited collaboration among line ministries
Resource concentration led to regional inequity
Donor-driven & managerial position mainly
staffed with foreigners
Separate structure was used in some cases to
implement IRD program – led to
unsustainability
Disabling policy environment led to increased
land rent /tenants eviction
 Basic Human Needs
Emerged in the mid 1970s as an alternative approach to
channelling assistance to the poor.
Previous development strategies in most LDCs had not led
to a reduction of poverty & unemployment.
Major shifts would be needed in national & international
development strategies to provide full employment and
adequate income for the poor as soon as possible.
According to ILO basic needs include two components:
 adequate food, shelter, clothing, household equipment and
furnishings; and
essential community services such as potable water, sanitation,
health services, education facilities & public transport.
Policies for basic needs be accomplished through self-
reliant development and internal resource mobilization.
The World Bank also saw the provision of basic goods and
services as a precondition for:
 increasing the productivity and income of the poor and,
 to enable the poor to contribute more efficiently to national
development.
 Basic Human Needs
Others argued that the aim was to ensure the access
of the poor to a bundle of essential goods & services
as a Basic Human Right.
The distinctive features of a targeted BHN strategies:
 Meeting the needs of the poor as a legitimate goal aside
from its contribution to productivity;
It stresses the importance of alleviating poverty;
Supply management so that the increased income of the
poor is not offset by rising prices of good & services that
they may purchase;
Restructuring of the production so that have greater
access to basic goods and services despite their
disadvantages in the market;
Divorce production decisions directly from market-based
consumers’ choices in situation where income
distribution is extremely uneven; and
Needs encompass a variety of non-material needs, such
as a sense of purpose in life and work, that are often
satisfied as a result of obtaining material needs.
 Assistance to Special Publics
Emerged in the mid 1970s as a third approach to
channelling aid to the poor majority due to three
reasons:
Poverty has spatial, social and political
dimensions; those living in poverty are
heterogeneous groups:
 The poorest often live in remote and hard-to-
reach areas & suffer their greatest deprivation
during wet season.
Poverty is associated with particular classes or
groups such as rural female-headed households,
landless labourers, ethnic minorities.
People have limited choices and have no ability
to make themselves heard or to
influence/control what happen to them
 Assistance to Special Publics
The problems of the poor cannot be addressed
entirely by general poverty policy
 Even within communities, poor people’s priorities and
experience can be different, depending on their gender,
age, marital status, and ethnicity.
Unless the productivity and income of these groups
are raised, overall economic growth would be difficult
to attain.
 People who are unskilled or sick make little contribution
to a countries economic growth.
 Development strategy that by-pass these large group
cannot guarantee sustainable economic growth.
 Programs & projects that are specifically tailored to the
needs of particular groups of the poor ensures their
participation.
Process Approaches to Rural Development
A switch occurred during the 1980s and 1990s
from the top-down or ‘blueprint approach’
characterized by external technologies and
national policies to the bottom-up, grassroots
or ‘process’ approach.
Rural Development is a participatory process
that empowers rural dwellers to take control of
their own priority for changes.
Many factors triggered this shift:
 The advent of FSR & the failure of Green
Revolution to raise income in CDR
environment, particularly SSA;
a growing acknowledgement of the validity of
IT & the ability of the poor to contribute to the
 Process Approaches to Rural
Development
 the advent of an ‘actor-oriented’ perspective
on rural policies- multiplicity of actors with
diverse perspectives;
 Disenchantment with public sector
performance, the call for ‘smaller government,
and structural adjustment and economic
liberalization;
 The emergence of NGOs and other new actors,
and changing roles and relationships;
 Reduction of the role of theory as a useful guide
to actions and increasing emphasis on the
uniqueness of local & individual/group
experience; and
 The rise of gender as a concern in RD and
 Sustainable Development
Approach
The assets and diverse strategies of poor households
Increasing tendencies among rural HHs’ involvement
in off-/non farm activities:
 Declining farm size due to continuous sub-division of land
at inheritance; and
 Increasing roles of remittances and transfers in rural LHs,
as are wages and salaries from non-agricultural activities.
SLF embodies no prior requirement for the poor rural
individual or HH to be a ‘small farmer.’
Takes on open-ended view of the combination of assets
and activities that turn out to constitute a viable livelihood
strategy.
 Increasing roles of remittances and transfers in rural
livelihoods, as are wages and salaries from non-
agricultural activities.
 Sustainable Development Approach
Sen’s (1981) food security and famine
analysis later resulted in ‘asset vulnerability
framework’
 Factors that make rural HHs vulnerable to
shocks, and
policies and processes that enhance rural
livelihoods resilience in the face of risks and
uncertainties.
Poverty is multidimensional– income,
vulnerability, lack of voice, etc.
Poor have some assets, used for multiple
livelihood strategies and outcomes.
They often manage a portfolio of part time
 Chapter Six
Developmentalıst Theorıes of Economıc Development

BASIC CHARACTERISTICS:
• Post-WWII Pioneers of Development Economics
• Loose school of thought; less theoretical; more historical and
practical approach to the question of how to develop
• Optimistic, believe in the inevitability of development as a
linear process that all nations go through
• Emphasize large-scale industrialization as the key to the
development process
• Profound respect for market forces yet support large-scale
government intervention to force economic growth
• Similar to Keynesians in regard to advocacy for government
intervention and also that poor economic performance reflects
a lack of aggregate demand
LEADING THEORETICIANS:
• Theory of the Big Push: Rosenstein-Rodan
• Theory of balanced growth: Ragnar Nurkse
• Unbalanced Growth: Hirschman
• Growth with Unlimited Supply of Labor: Lewis
• Stages of Growth Theory: Rostow
 Theory of the Big Push
Paul Rosenstein-Rodan
 Hidden potential in developing economies
 Large-scale industrialization and
infrastructural development is key
 More investment is needed in many places
at one time
 but this cannot be left to the market due to
information and appropriation failures
(“externalities”)
 The big push needs to come from the state
to escape the low-level equilibrium trap
 Theory of balanced growth
Ragnar Nurkse

• Export pessimism: exports cannot be

depended upon as the source of growth
• Massive injection of new technology,
machines, production processes is the key
to development
• hence need for domestic industrialization
• large scale industrial investments (i.e.
expanded supply) would also generate large
scale demand, hence leading to:
BALANCED GROWTH
 Industrial Linkages & Unbalanced
Growth
Alfred Hirschman
 Resource constraints in developing countries
necessitate prioritization as to where to invest
first;
 the big push should be only for a limited no of
industries, hence initially unbalanced growth;
 this will initially result in unbalanced growth such
that induce development in key sectors first will
create overcapacity here; cheapening their output
due to economies of scale;
 this will stimulate upstream investments:
 eg. oversupply electric power; as electricity
becomes cheaper this will stimulate investments
in those sectors that use electric power in big
amounts.
 The key sectors for initial investment should be
 Growth with unlimited supply of labor
Arthur Lewis
• Main difference b/n North and South: the relative
weight of agricultural versus industrial production and
employment.
Hidden potential of developing countries for growth lies
in unlimited supplies of rural labor inherent in their large
agricultural sector ready to be pulled into the modern
urban sector.
• In the South, coexistence of the two sectors is
dualistic such that:
 agricultural sector provides labor to industry; and
industry buys food from them; but there is little
connection between them
 productivity in agricultural sector is so low that there
is disguised unemployment; i.e. surplus labor
 Growth with unlimited supply of
labor
Arthur Lewis
Distribution of Income:
• Higher level of savings and investment in the
industrial sector is key to development; but
• only capitalist class is capable of savings and
investment.
• A limit will be imposed on this growth process
as L surplus is depleted and wages increase →
undesirable from Lewis’ perspective.
• Hence Lewis advocates income distribution in
favor of the capitalist class and against labor.
 Critics of the Lewis Model

• Advocacy for pro-capital; anti-labor income

distribution; hence increasing inequality for
the sake of growth
• No consideration of Institutional Factors
influential in wage determination such as
minimum wage policies, labor unions and
collective bargaining practices

• Assumption about Capitalist Strata as a

source of investment and growth can be ill
founded
 Stages of Growth
Theory
(Walt Whitman
Rostow)
The Rostowian take-off model
claims to be a universal historical
model of economic growth which
was developed on the basis of the
economic history of Britain.
The model claims that economic modernization
occurs in five basic stages, in changeable time
period.
[Link] society
[Link] for take-off
[Link]-off
[Link] to maturity
[Link] of high mass consumption
Rostow argues this is a universal historical
categorization of stages of growth that all
 Traditional Society
• Output consumed by producers rather than traded
• Trade carried out by barter; goods exchanged for
other goods
• Agriculture→ dominating sector; labor-intensive
• Resource allocation determined by traditional
methods of production than scientific knowledge
• “pre-Newtonian” or “pre-scientific” society
dominated with a perspective of long-term fatalism
• Landholders plays a dominant and important role in
the determination of political and economic power
 Pre-conditions for Take-off

 Destruction of traditional society through

outside forces such as colonialism
 Emergence of entrepreneurial and
managerial class
 Development of a financial sector and
increase in investment
 Infrastructural development
 Modern business using new and
sophisticated methods of production
 Emergence of “reactive nationalism”
Take-off into sustained growth

 Increasing industrialization, production and

employment switches from agriculture to
manufacturing
• Growth concentrated in a few regions of the
country & in one or two manufacturing
industries
• Investment reaches over 10% of GNP
• Evolution of new political & social institutions
supporting the industrialization
• Growth becomes self-sustaining as investment
leads to increasing incomes in turn generating
 Drive to Maturity

• The economy starts spreading into new areas

• Technological innovation providees expanded
range of investment opportunities.
• The economy starts producing a wide range
of goods and services and there is less
reliance on imports
• This diversity leads to greatly reduced rates
of poverty and rising standards of living, as
the society no longer needs to sacrifice its
comfort in order to make certain sectors
more productive.
 Age of High Mass Consumption

• the economy is oriented towards mass

consumption
• service sector becomes increasingly
dominant
• society is now devoted to the
pleasures of consumer choice, the
pursuit of security, and the
enjoyments of the arts and leisure
 Critics of the Stages of Growth
Theory
by Rostow
• Attempts to universalize the experience of a
particular country (Britain) in a specific period
of time (16th to 20th century)
• External factors such as colonization /
imperialism can hinder the process of
development in the colonized nations
• Descriptive; no analysis of how the pre-
conditions for take-off are to emerge
• Empirically not validated
 Chapter Seven
Processes of Agricultural Changes
Agricultural Transformation,
Commercialization and Diversification
 Three Different & Closely Related Processes

Agricultural Transformation:- measures value

added in agriculture, per agricultural labour
force, that inevitably accompany economic
growth.
Agricultural diversification:- the diversity of
food & other products
This can be measured using a simple
concentration index such as the Herfindahl index
The r/ship b/n agricultural diversification &
agricultural transformation can be seen at 3
levels: farm, agricultural sector and the entire
economy
In early stage of transformation:
 significant diversity at farm level;
 most farmers produce largely for subsistence,
 Three Different & Closely Related Processes

In later stage, farmers tend to specialize in

one or few products.
With income rise beyond subsistence level,
input and output market development, and
financial sector extending risk
management tools to farm households.
The development of efficient markets,
including for labour allow farmers to
separate production decisions from
consumption decisions.
 Three Different & Closely Related Processes

Asian Experience on consumption diversification:

When very poor their populations relied heavily on ‘inferior’
low cost diets such as cassava, maize or sorghum
With the Green Revolution the productivity of rice increased
& its real price decreased, leading to the increased
concentration of rice in diets
When becoming rich enough, fruits, vegetables, fish, and
livestock products substituted for starchy staples
However, the path of diversity in food consumption and
the paths for production can be significantly different.
Compared to individual farms, the agri. sector remains
more diversified over the course of agricultural
transformation because farmers specialize in d/ft products
due to agronomic and climate factors.
Food consumption pattern is much more diversified
than production due to commercialization &
international trade.
Commercialization of Agricultural Systems
Agricultural commercialization means more
than the marketing of agricultural output.
 It means that product choice and input use
decisions are based on the decision of profit
maximization
Commercial orientation of agricultural production
occurs for both food staples and cash crops.
Commercialization of agricultural systems leads
to:
 Greater market-orientation of farm production
both food and cash
Choice of power source: Human &Animal versus
Mechanical
 As wage rates rise, animal-powered technologies
will increasingly give way to motor-powered
technologies
 Commercialization of Agricultural Systems
Chemical Fertilizers versus Farmyard Manure
 Output growth in intensive, commercially
oriented food production systems is not possible
in the absence of chemical fertilizer use
 the physical quantities of farmyard manure
required for sustaining soil fertility would make it
uneconomical relative to chemical fertilizers
(labor, feed & transport requirement)
Family labour as a source of knowledge rather
than energy
 As the opportunity cost of family labour rises, it
will be used more as a source of knowledge
(technical expertise), mgm’t, and supervision
The return to knowledge-based inputs increase
 Commercialization of Agricultural
Systems
The gradual decline of integrated farming
systems and their replacement by specialized
enterprises for crop, livestock, poultry, and
aquaculture products
 Integrated systems generally become infeasible
at a commercial scale b/se of product specific
requirements in technical and management
skills, and infrastructural investment
 Also due to increased substitution of non-traded
for traded inputs- power, soil fertility
maintenance, fodder, and household nutrition
Farm level determinants of increasing
commercialization are:
 the rising opportunity cost of family labour and,
increased demand for food and other agricultural
 Specialization and Economies of Scale in Marketing

Regional Specialization is crucial for two

reasons:
Agronomic and Climatic Factors
In relatively large & diverse countries like Ethiopia
soil types, temperature, and rainfall can vary
radically
These factors favor some crops or livestock
enterprises over others
Development of efficient entire commodity
systems requires economies of scale:
 Efficient dvp’t of input production and marketing
through to downstream processing and consumption
of the final products, requires the formation of
excessive backward and forward linkages from the
producer level
The linkages can include technological and/or
financial
 Diversification

A more diversified and flexible agriculture

will have smaller adjustment costs

Regional specialization in a range of

agricultural products permits the cost
economies of scale to be captured,

While still diversifying the countries

agricultural outputs
 Importance of Risks
Commercialization & International Trade have
increased roles in connecting:
 diversity of production at farm level
with diversity of consumption at the household
level
However, there are problems associated with
these:
 Increased commercialization entails the risk of
fluctuating prices
Specialization in crop enterprises increases
yield fluctuation risks
Increasing reliance on international trade
posses its own risk
Mechanism for coping with risks is crucial in
understanding commercialization
 Agricultural Diversification & Structural
Transformation
With agricultural development in the context of
structural transformation
the relative importance of agriculture declines
rural incomes will be depressed in relation to
urban incomes unless labour leaves agriculture
It is painful for rural households to look for jobs in
the city, particularly when members lack the
required skills
Urban industry and service sectors may not
create jobs at a pace that matches the rate of
new entrants to urban labour market.
Policy options and choices
 Policy support for agricultural diversification to
hold labour in agriculture and thus slow rural
 Agricultural Diversification and
Structural Transformation
More positive adjustment policies attempt to:
 make the agricultural systems more flexible
train agricultural workers for of-farm jobs and
cushion the transition to an industrial and
service-based economy.
The latter policies include:
 diversification programs at the level of
research
investment in infrastructure
improvement in marketing, communication
and information and,
pricing interventions that provide incentives
and lessen the risk of adopting new
technologies and products.
 Chapter Eight
History and Trend of Rural
Development in Ethiopia
Rural Development in Imperial Government
Rural Development in Derg Government
Rural Development in EPRDF Government
Rural Development Experiences in Ethiopia
Evolving themes in Rural Development