logo tobb logo tobbetu

TEPAV Director Sak: “Turkey Has Neglected Rural Development” The 7th Regional Development and Governance Symposium began with around 200 specialists and otherwise concerned attendees
Haber resmi
13/12/2012 - Viewed 2040 times

ANKARA – The 7th Regional Development and Governance Symposium TEPAV organized in cooperation with the Ankara University Center for Development Studies Research and Application (AKÇAM) on the Rural Development started on Thursday, 12 December 2012 with around 200 attendees. Delivering an opening address, TEPAV Director Güven Sak said, “Turkey has neglected the rural areas during the economic development process.”

Referring to poverty indicators which reveal that Turkey has been more successful at ameliorating urban than rural poverty, he said:

“World Development Indicators suggest that the urban poverty rate decreased from 21.9 percent in 2002 to 8.9 percent in 2009. Over the same period, rural poverty increased from 34.5 to 38.7 percent. 845,000 people living in rural areas fell below the poverty line during this period when the average economic growth rate was 5.4 percent, meaning that Turkey has neglected the rural areas during the economic development process.”

Accentuating the need for developing rural development policies, he said that local problems were underrated and the dialogue between the center and the local was absent. He said that for this reason it was important to discuss rural development policies together with all stakeholders.

Rural development is not about the economy alone …

Ankara University rector Erkan İbiş stated that the entire society had to have a say in and benefit from development policies. He said that universities should have a key role in development policy design and that the identification of development areas, design of relevant development policies, organizing scientific events, and training policy development experts were some of the key responsibilities of universities. Citing “sustainability and education” as the key elements of rural development, he said that the issue had social and cultural, as well as economic dimensions.

The significance of governance

AKÇAM Director Bülent Gülçubuk said that the state was the key actor for ensuring rural welfare, overcoming inequalities and vulnerabilities, and maintaining bottom-up development. Stressing that rural development policies can succeed only with good governance, he added, “the public sector, local people, local government and NGOs must be active actors of good governance. Governance is an indispensible prerequisite in rural development philosophy.”

Following the opening session of the two-day symposium, sessions on the conceptual framework of rural development, public policy and governance, international experiences, central-local relations, the position of women in the rural, and rural organizations and finance were carried out with representatives from the academia, public sector, private sector and civil society.

Yazdır

« All News