Rural Futures engagement ends with call for an integrated approach to rural development

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Addis-Ababa, Ethiopia, 26/05/11. The strategic briefing meeting of the Rural Futures that has been taking place in Addis Ababa has come to an end with participants noting the need for an integrated approach to rural development—one which encompasses an inclusive multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral approach to rural development and embraces micro and macro-level policies and interventions.

“There is need for consultative processes that lead to a shared vision of rural development, broad-based consensus and a common understanding of the rural transformation agenda,” according to the statement issued after the meeting. “Africa needs to secure full participation of the urban and rural poor in articulating the vision, agreeing the results and subsequently implementing the Rural Futures imitative.”

The Rural Futures Programme reflects the commitment of African leaders to advance the rural sector as a more effective engine for development. The NEPAD Agency and its partners accredits rural transformation as the key to development and structural change in Africa, which in turn contributes to the expansion of employment and livelihood opportunities, the diversification and acceleration of economic growth, and local-to-global environmental sustainability.

This meeting attracted over 70 high-level representatives from prominent African institutions, civil society and the private sector, and selected global development organizations.

Dr Assane Mayaki, CEO of the NEPAD Agency noted that his organization is at the fore-front of pushing for the appropriate development policies and decisions that have been taken at the continental level. 

In the meeting, Dr Mayaki called upon Africans to embrace Nepad as a home grown initiative ready to solve Africa’s problems. “Through Nepad, we have our home grown frameworks, such as CAADP, which possesses practical solutions and corrective policies that can be used to address some of these challenges and bring about genuine socio-economic transformation,”.

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