Rural-Urban Linkages for Growth, Employment and Poverty Reduction
Joachim Von Braun (2007)
How can rural-urban linkages be improved to accelerate inclusive growth, expand employment, and serve the poor? What kinds of geographical/ spatial issues need more attention?
This paper argues that the lack of economically optimal rural-urban linkages is bad for economy-wide growth because it divides societies, leads to inefficiencies, and is a root cause of inequality. Conversely, strong linkages enhance growth because they facilitate the flow of resources to where they have the largest net economic and social benefits.
The paper highlights the need for new attention to the spatial dimensions of development and to rural-urban linkages for growth that includes rural areas and the poor. The paper first reviews how economic growth has played out spatially in recent years.
The paper emphasises that:
Major inequalities persist between the rural and urban areas in terms of income, asset endowment and human development, and this divide appears to be widening in some parts.
Very rural farming areas and very urban megacities coexist along a continuum with multiple types of flows and interactions happening between them. The efficiency and effectiveness of infrastructure and market and nonmarket institutions are important in facilitating interlinkages.
Small and medium-sized market towns and cities are extremely important to the economic activities of rural households, including for purchasing inputs and household items, and for selling products.
Linkages can be improved by:
Identifying the flows operating between rural and urban spaces in specific contexts;
Seeking ways of reducing transaction costs of economic activities between the two spaces;
Scaling up innovation in agriculture, and transport and communication infrastructure;
Reducing policy barriers to productive rural-urban linkages and services in decentralized political systems.
|
|
|
