Course: Rural Development

Course overview:

This course introduces students to the theories, principles, and practices of rural development as a particular and distinctive branch of development.

This course will include discussions on what rural development is, what it has in common with other branches of development, as well as how and why rural development became a focus of development policy. It will also examine participation as a rural development issue, looking at its origins and its roles in, and contributions to, rural development thinking and practice. Additionally, this course considers the origins of sustainable development in rural development thinking and different dimensions of sustainability, and it introduces the sustainable livelihoods approach, an important influence on rural development thinking.

The course will provide you with the necessary theoretical and practical background, knowledge and communication and hand on work skills for future career in this important subject area, as a researcher, agronomist, adviser, policymaker

Objectives of the Programme Module is:

1. Introducing students to key theories and debates in rural development.

2. Outlining the main opportunities for the development of rural economies and the rural poverty reduction.

3. Exploring how the different policies, sectors, services and actors; contribute to the rural development process.

4. Examining the effects of the natural resources management on rural development outcomes.

Student's obligation

Students are expected to attend all lectures during the semester. They will be assumed to be aware of all information and notices presented in the lectures, and complete all assessments including (Exams, practical works, assignments, reports, essays, seminar and presentation).

These activities or exercises serve to reinforce student comprehension of the subject matter or skill through active participation (Group projects, Seminar discussion and Presentation) and practice immediately following a technique-based demonstration.

Student learning outcome:

After completing this course student should be able to:

1. Critically, explain current debates in rural development concerning rural livelihoods and the roles of markets, institutions, property rights, agriculture and the rural non-farm economy.

2. Evaluate the past and current existing attempts to supply rural services, such as infrastructure, finance, research and extension, health and education.

3. Outline and evaluate different approaches to the land and water resources management and their potential impact on rural development goals.

4. Critically, analyse alternative rural development policies in terms of their potential impact on rural poverty, equity and economic growth, taking account of different regional and geographical circumstances.

The Course Contents:

1st week:

Ø Introduction to course content and expectations

ü Concept of Rural livelihood, Development and growth in general,

Ø Distinction between growth and Development,

2nd week:

Ø Trends in development thinking

ü Universal history

ü Economic growth

ü Modernization

ü World structural change

ü Economic growth & free market

Ø What is rural development?

Ø Scope of Rural Development,

3rd week:

Ø Causes of Rural Backwardness

ü Rural poverty

ü Gender issues

Ø Need for Rural Development

Ø Measures of Level of Rural Development

ü Measures of Income Distribution

ü Measures of Development Simplified

ü Concepts and Measures of Rural Poverty

4th week:

Ø Rural Development Policies:

Ø National policies and programs for rural developments

Ø Rural development as policy and as process

Ø The 1970s – a decade of intervention

ü The green revolution

ü Integrated Rural Development (IRD)

ü Basic needs

Ø Implications for the 21st century

ü MDGs and post-2015 goals

ü Co-ordination

ü A new green revolution

5th week:

Ø Paradigms of Rural Development

ü The Modernization Theory

ü Robert Chambers, Bottom-up development

ü Lewis Model of Economic Development

ü ‘Big Push’ theory of Development

ü Myrdal’s thesis of ‘Spread and Backwash Effects’

ü Gandhian Model of Rural Development,

6th week:

Ø Determinants of Rural Development:

Ø Poverty and Unemployment Rural Development

Ø Human Resource and natural resources Development in Rural Development

ü Education in Rural areas,

ü Development of Rural Women and Children- Status

Ø Health Status in Rural areas:

ü Infant, Child and Maternal Mortality,

ü Health Services in Rural Areas:

ü Housing in Rural Areas:

ü Problems of Drinking water and Sanitation in Rural areas,

7th week:

Ø Sustainable Rural Development

Ø The Concepts of Sustainability and Sustainable Development

ü Linking environment and development

ü Linking equity and sustainability

ü The sustainable livelihoods approach

Ø Some Elements of a New Strategy for Sustainable Development

8th week:

Ø Economic and social theories of Rural Development,

ü Size and Structure of the Rural Economy

ü The Characteristics of the Rural Sector

ü The Role of the Agricultural Subsector

ü The Role of the Non-agricultural Subsector

Ø Challenges and Opportunities

Ø Theories of socioeconomic changes, cultural variables and agricultural growth

9th week:

Ø Planning for Rural Development:

ü Levels and Functions of Planning

ü Decentralisation of Planning

ü Methodology of Micro-level Planning

ü Methodology for Block- and District-level Planning

10th week:

Ø Organising for Rural Development:

Ø A Detour to Organisational Models

Ø Government Organisations

Ø Cooperatives

Ø NGOs

Ø Corporations and Rural Development

11th week:

Ø Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation:

ü Project Implementation

ü Project Control

ü Integration and Coordination

ü People’s Participation in Implementation

ü Project Monitoring

ü Project Evaluation

12th week:

Ø Rural development Experiences in Asian countries

ü Rural Development in China

ü Success of Grameen Model of Micro Finance in Bangladesh

Course Reading List and References:

1. Katar Singh. Rural Development: Principles, Policies and Management. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2009

2. Robert D. Stevens and Cathy L. Jabara. Agricultural Development Principles: Economic theory and Empirical Evidence. John Hopkin University Press Ltd., London, 1988.

3. IFAD. Rural Poverty Report 2011. International Fund for Agricultural Development. Rome, Italy, November 2010

4. Malcolm J. Moseley. Rural Development: principles and Practice. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2003.

5. Andrew Shepherd. Sustainable Rural Development. PALGRAVE, 1998.

6. OECD. A New Rural Development Paradigm for the 21st Century: A Toolkit for Developing Countries, Development Centre Studies. OECD Publishing, Paris, 2016.

7. Gary Paul Green. Handbook of Rural Development. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2013.

8. Ellis, F. & Biggs, S. Evolving themes in rural development 1950s–2000s. Development Policy Review, 19 (4), 437–448, 2001.

9. GOLDIN I. and ALAN WINTERS L.. The economics of sustainable development. ISBN 0 521 46555 9. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS.1995

10. Jennifer A. Elliott,. An Introduction to Sustainable Development. 4th ed., Routledge. New York, USA, 2013. Chapter 1

11. Karen L. Higgins. Economic Growth and Sustainability Systems Thinking for a Complex World. Elsevier Inc., 2015 Chapter 6

12. Per Becker, Sustainability Science: Managing Risk and Resilience for Sustainable Development [1 ed.], ISBN 044462709X, 9780444627094, Elsevier, 2014

13. Steven C. Hackett, Environmental and natural resources economics : theory, policy, and the sustainable society—3rd ed, ISBN 0-7656-1472-3, M.E. Sharpe, Inc..2006