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Rural Income Generating Activities: Whatever Happened to the Institutional Vacuum?

Evidence from Ghana, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Vietnam

Year of publication 2007

Pages 20

Author Alberto Zezza, Gero Carletto, Benjamin Davis, Kostas Stamoulis and Paul Winters;Agriculture and Economic Development Analysis Division

Product type Document

Series title FAO Agricultural Economics Working Paper

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) This paper assesses the current rural development practice against the main trends in recent rural development thinking, based on evidence from four country case studies. While much progress has been made in understanding the need to look beyond only agriculture for the promotion of productive activities in rural areas, and the ‘institutional vacuum’ consistently identified in the rural non-farm literature is gradually being filled, much remains to be done. One aspect on which more research is p articularly needed is the development of better mechanisms to promote productive investment rather than just social investment and to assess the appropriate level – community, regional, national – at which to do this.

Language English

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