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This
paper aims to extract the lessons of experience from the
Integrated Rural Development Programme that have a direct
bearing on the current policy initiative to reformulate
macroeconomic and sectoral policies to include a pro-poor
bias. Thus, the present paper analyses the IRDP process
in terms of increasing productivity, incomes and employment
among the poor, improving access to social welfare services,
and programme implementation and management at district-level.
The study finds that although programme
interventions certainly made life a little more bearable
for the poor, the gains were short-lived. This was because
of project specific of constraints, and logistical problems,
problems endemic to this type of approach, the lack of maintenance
of infrastructure assents, the absence of economic dynamism
in the rural hinterland, and continued segmentation of markets.
Outcomes fell short of expectations also because of inherent
structural and other weaknesses in the public institutional
apparatus that made co-ordination, planning, programming
and implementation difficult.
Policy directions that emerge from the
study are as follows. First, a strong investment push is
needed to link the rural economy with the expanding urban
economy and so generate a growth dynamic in rural areas.
Secondly, raising incomes and employment among the poor
requires a differentiated strategy. The first-prong should
include micro-level interventions focused on households
that help reduce the vulnerability of poor people. The second
prong should concentrate on building up a qualitatively
dynamic entrepreneurial class among those poor who already
have the necessary skills. Thirdly, more attention needs
to be given to maintaining infrastructure. Finally, the
capacity of the public service to manage and implement such
programmes should be enhanced through institutional reform.
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Increasing the Productivity of Land, Labour and Capital
in Rural Areas
- IRDP Interventions in Social Welfare Infrastructure
- Programme Management and Implementation
- Conclusions and Policy Implications
- References
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