Governance in rural areas

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Governance in rural areas
Paola Scarpellini 16 May 2006
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Some points

• Introduction
• Why policy network are so important today?
• Governance in rural areas
• Few final remarks

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The governance defines confrontation arenas based
on rules, assets, form of participation, where
conflict finds moments of mediation
Governance includes the state, but transcends it
by taking in the private sector and civil
society. All three are critical for sustaining
human development (UNDP, 1997)
Good governance addresses the allocation and
management of resources to respond to collective
problems it is characterized by participation,
transparency, accountability, effectiveness and
equity (Unescap.org)
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The local system as organizational model

• Local development as capability to
• Change and adapt to technological, social,
  economic, political, and institutional
• Improve and create value from local resources
• Improve social and human capital
• Have access to information flows
• Organize groups able to drive local resources
• Agriculture and local system
• Competitiveness and integration in an efficiency
  way
• Multifunctionality and new services for local
  system as well as national and international
  system
• Rural development new organizational asset in
  order to create value

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New organizational models at local level
Local governance
Source Di Iacovo, 2005
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The role of public policies

• At the local system level and also at market
  level, policies should support institutional
  transformations aiming at increasing
  excludability and allowing valorisation
• - To reinforce local networks
• - To built an area-project approach
• - To improve the capability to interact on the
  institutional chain as well as on wider nets
• At farm level, they should address economic
  incentives, make knowledge available, and
  actively provide farmers the possibility of
  strengthening the social networks through which
  they operate.

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Policies to regulate the system
A correct use of resources
Balanced evolution of productive activities
Policy interventions to assure
Economic and social welfare
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Why policy network are so important today?

• Firms
• competition, protected markets
• competition, open markets
• Searching for areas where to find better economic
  resources
• Enterprises movements to attractively of local
  areas/systems

• Public administration
• To provide services and to regulate national
  markets
• To attract flows and enterprises
• The actions
• International negotiations (WTO)
• Macro-economic instrument, environment, labor
  regulations income distribution

Source Di Iacovo, 2005
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Development as institutional change

• To be able to break local routines that have
  strong influence on local actors.
• Benchmarking with other context and change
• Policies and local capabilities in order to
  stimulate sustainable patterns for development.

Governance and institutional change

• Local political environment
• Power local structure
• elites
• pluralism
• elites-pluralism
• Political culture
• passive behaviour
• participation

Institutional chain
Public and private organisations
Local arena
Rooms of decision, negotiation
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Governance different positions

• To increase efficiency in complex systems
• A guidance concept
• A new regulatory way in a different mode of
  production
• The governance failure
• An operational idea for a different approach in
  the policy

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Strengths and weaknesses of the governance

• Recognise the idea of different approaches to
  local development and the involvement of local
  stakeholder
• Ask for participation and openness but it doesnt
  mean inclusion and equity
• There is no space for conflict in the governance
• Ask for well defined arenas and a participatory
  culture
• Its a proper model for well institutionalised
  contexts

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Local governance
Inclusion of disadvantaged subjects homogeneity
of development and quality of life in the area.
Equal opportunity for class, gender, age, race to
access services, work and education
Social cohesion and equal opportunities
Society of knowledge
Increase the role of knowledge in citizen life
Innovative development
Strength of innovation in local systems and in
enterprises
Environmental, social and economic sustainable
development
Sustainable development
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The articulation between the local system
Broader market nets
Multi-Institutional dialogue
Public administrations
Producing values
Private enterprises
market
institutional co-ordination
Distributing values
Local system
Communication Common sense
Reproducing public goods
Local society
Participation in social and political change
Source Di Iacovo, 2005
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Local actors

• The prevalence of the enterprises
• The dialogue among enterprises and public
  administration
• The dialogue among civil society and public
  administration
• A broader participation at local level

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What is going on in rural areas?

• Value and knowledge
• New opportunities implies a radical strategically
  change
• How to reproduce local values related to culture
  and knowledge?
• The relevance of local networks

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The rural actors

• Ministry for Agriculture
• Ministry for Environment, Welfare
• Regional and local public bodies

• Farmers Unions
• New farmers associations (Bio)
• Non-farmer associations

• Consumers associations
• Environmentalist (WWF)
• Local volunteers associations

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Governance and rural areas

• An experimental field for governance approaches
  in the policies
• Rural development implies many concepts of the
  governance approach like
• Institutional change
• Participatory approaches
• Need to involve people in working on local
  repertories and create new opportunities
• Who work on rural areas needs to work with many
  key concepts of the governance

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Governance and rural areas

• Is there any specificity?
• Public goods and rural development
• Social erosion and to rebuild a common vision
• The relevance for inclusive patterns in change
• To rebuild a mutual dialogue with urban areas
• New subjects and the danger for new hegemonies
  and exclusions

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Governance and local system
Farmers unions

• Associations and Consortia

• no-profit associations

Municipalities

• Issue networks

Leadership Political Technical skills networking
Local farmers
Un-local farmers
technical staff (internal) (external)
movement
institutionalization
Public-private partnerships
Aggregative formulas
Development agencies LAG- Local associations
Short period actions Of limited impact
New development model long period
Negotiation along the institutional chain
New institutional assetts
Source Di Iacovo, 2005
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Changing key factors

• Starters
• Innovative leadership
• Local public bodies
• Searching for financial sources and agency
  duration
• Projects and actions
• Associations and movements
• Local opportunities (positive and negative)
• Entrepreneurship initiatives
• Stimulating and/or inhibiting elements
• Local power structure
• Local political culture
• Human and social capital
• Different patterns for rural development
• Rural depending form urban areas
• New dialogue between rural and urban areas
• New marketable opportunities for local products

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Neo-Endogenous development
Local actors and rural development

• Key principle local resources as key to link
  with global networks
• Dynamic force - local initiative and enterprise /
  link with external flows
• Function of rural areas differentiation
• Main rural development problems
• The limited capacity of areas and social groups
  to participate in economic and development
  activity
• New conflicts and contradiction
• Focus of rural development
• Identity
• Capacity-building (skills, institutions local
  networks and infrastructure)
• Overcoming social exclusion

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Neo-endogenous development
Provide goods and services for urban class
Rural areas as resource for the whole regional
society
Rural areas are under erosive pressure
Build a community welfare
Intervention on social capital
new services and new models for rural welfare
to reinforce rural specificity and attractive
Governance
Develop new competences
Rural networks
local and inter-local
Multi- functionality
Innovation
To develop social responsibility in the farms and
to renovate rural society
Coherent with local needs and to qualify the
local offer
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4 elements to consider
New needs
City
Countryside
Multifunctionality social economy
Dialogue and exchange
Research of new ways of dialogue
Competitiveness, new markets
Fiscal crisis of states
Governance intersectoriality
Active participation
Global
Local
New sites of decisions
Source Di Iacovo, 2005
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Some final points

• A way to manage the consensus nor the conflict
• The difficulties for the governance regarding
  large options and ideas
• Social space and governance two mutual point of
  views
• Accountability and a new set of indicators for
  local policies

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Thank you