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The issues

Rural regions in OECD countries are important economically and demographically. They account for about 75% of the land and almost a quarter of the population in OECD countries. Gains in agricultural productivity have led to a dramatic reduction in farm employment, rural regions across the OECD now depend on a wide range of economic activities for growth.

Increasing globalisation, improved communications and reduced transportation costs are also drivers of economic change in rural areas. However, traditional policies to subsidise farming have not been able to harness the potential of these economic engines.

Promoting rural development poses numerous policy and governance challenges because it requires co-ordination across sectors, across levels of government, and between public and private actors. Several countries are therefore shifting their approaches to a focus on places rather than sectors and an emphasis on investments rather than subsidies.

	Reinventing Rural Policy	Summary

The OECD’s Working Party on Territorial Policy in Rural Areas discusses ways to develop a modern, rural development policy to account for these important economic changes and a new strategy for governance that these policy approaches require. OECD work on rural development has lead to a number of thematic publications, case studies and, from 2006, a series of national rural policy reviews to deepen international knowledge in this field. It has also lead to a yearly series of OECD Rural Development conferences and workshops where policy makers from around the world gather to discuss rural policy.

Ongoing projects

Rurban (Rural-Urban) Partnerships

The OECD, in collaboration with the European Commission, is using a new analytical framework to assess urban-rural linkages and to help identify the governance forms that will enhance urban-rural interactions.  The Rurban project aims to identify and assess formal and informal urban-rural partnerships and assess the role these partnerships can and should play in regional development and in bridging co-ordination gaps in policies for urban and rural dwellers.

Rural events

The complete list of past conferences on rural development can be found on our conferences on regional development web page.

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	Understanding Growth in Different Types of Regions		Linking Renewable Energy to Rural Development		Innovation and modernising the rural economy
Recent Rural Policy Reviews

 Rural publications

Forthcoming publications

• Rural-Urban Partnerships: An integrated approach to economic development (2013)
  For more information please contact: betty-ann.bryce@oecd.org or paolo.veneri@oecd.org
• Innovation and modernising rural economies: key messages from Krasnoyarsk (2013)
  For more information please contact: betty-ann.bryce@oecd.org or lucero.perez@oecd.org                  

 Recent publications

• The Production of Renewable Energy as a Regional Development Policy for Rural Areas (2012)
  For more information please contact betty-ann.bryce@oecd.org or raffaele.trapasso@oecd.org
• Promoting Growth in All Regions (2012)
  For more information please contact joseenrique.garcilazo@oecd.org
  
• Follow up to the OECD Rural Policy Review of Italy: The functioning of rural policy at the local level in Italy (2012-13)
  For more information please contact betty-ann.bryce@oecd.org

The full list of publications on rural development including forthcoming publications can be found on the regional development publications webpage.

Contact us

For information and queries about OECD work on Rural Development Policy please contact Betty-Ann Bryce at OECD.RuralDevelopmentProgramme@oecd.org. Follow us on :

Related Documents

Agricultural Policies and Rural Development

Regional Development

Publications on Rural Development