The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a United Nation agency has called for an urgent need to develop rural communities, create strong policies and institutions to attain the targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The international agency said in its recently released 2019 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR) that the current deepening cycle of hunger and malnutrition, persistent poverty and limited economic opportunities as well as environmental degradation, rural areas have continued to be in a state of crisis in many parts of the globe.
IFPRI stated that the situation is threatening to slow the progress towards the SDGs and global climate targets as well as improving food and nutrition, it says in the report.
“Revitalizing rural areas can stimulate economic growth and begin to address the crises in developing countries, and also tackle challenges holding back achievement of the SDGs and climate goals by 2030,” said Shenggen Fan, director general, IFPRI.
“Rural revitalization is timely, achievable, and, most important, critical to ending hunger and malnutrition in just over a decade,” said Fan.
According to the report, rural areas remain underserved compared to urban areas and face a wide array of challenges across the globe, as a result rural areas struggle with acute shortage of jobs for the growing youth populations in Africa.
To overcome these challenges, the report calls for rural revitalisation, highlighting policies, institutions, and investments that can transform rural areas into vibrant and healthy places to live, work and raise families.
A majority of the world’s poor live in rural areas and accounts for 45.3 percent of the world’s total population as well as 70 percent of the world’s extremely poor, the report says.
The global poverty rate in rural areas is currently 17 percent, more than double the urban poverty rate of 7 percent.
“Rural transformation requires a holistic economic approach to connect rural and urban economies,” said Achim Steiner, administrator, United Nations Development Programme and co-author of the lead chapter in the report.
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“Strengthening these connections can spur growth and diversification in the farm and non-farm sectors, closing socio-economic and quality-of-life gaps between urban and rural areas,” said Steiner.
The report emphasises that rural areas could become premiere hubs of innovations in just under a decade.
It recommends revitalising rural areas with a focus on five building blocks which are; creating farm and non-farm rural employment opportunities, achieving gender equality, addressing environmental challenges, improving access to energy and investing in good governance.
Job creation is critical to reducing poverty in rural areas, especially in the rural areas of Sub Saharan Africa, where poverty is high and youth populations are large.
Policies that encourage investments in rural transport networks, telecommunications, and human capital in African countries can prepare rural youth for new jobs in rural and urban areas, and bridge rural-urban gap, according to the report.
“Rapid urbanization in Africa is creating new opportunities for rural transformation and revitalization, mainly due to growing demand for food in urban areas, and investments in new staple food processing technologies as seen in the case of Ghana, Mali, Tanzania and Senegal,” said Ousmane Badiane, director for Africa, IFPRI and co-author of the report chapter on Africa.
Josephine Okojie
