Marked by a deepening cycle of hunger and malnutrition, persistent poverty, limited economic opportunities, and environmental degradation, rural areas continue to be in a state of crisis in many parts of the world.
According to International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) 2019 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR), which was launched on Thursday at the Hotel InterContinental in Dhaka, this rural crisis threatens to slow progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, global climate targets, and improved food and nutrition security.
The report highlights Bangladesh as one of the South Asia's leaders in improving rural development indicators and food and nutrition security.
At the same time, it also points to the need to close persistent rural-urban development gaps by continuing to design and implement innovative development programs that address rural needs.
The event featured distinguished speakers from the government, policy think tanks, and academia who discussed Bangladesh's track record of success and ways to carry it forward.
"Bangladesh's sustained focus on rural development over several decades and across many different governments has made the country a global model for how to transform the lives of millions of poor rural men and women," said Akhter Ahmed, Country Representative for IFPRI in Bangladesh.
"The government has made important commitments to continue these improvements by investing in roads, healthcare, nutrition, and gender equality in rural areas." he added.
In Bangladesh, as in many developing countries, rural areas remain underserved and face a wide array of challenges, including severe environmental degradation, agrarian crises, and an acute shortage of jobs for a growing youth population. To overcome these challenges, the report calls for rural revitalization, highlighting policies, institutions, and investments that can transform rural areas into vibrant and healthy places to live, work, and raise families.
"Revitalizing rural areas can stimulate economic growth and begin to address the crises in developing countries and also tackle challenges holding back achievement of the SDGs and climate goals by 2030,"said Shenggen Fan, Director General, IFPRI.
"Rural revitalization is timely, achievable, and, most important, critical to ending hunger and malnutrition in just over a decade," said Fan.
Most of the world's poor live in rural areas, rural populations account for 45.3 per cent of the world's total population, but 70 per cent of the world's extreme poor.
The global poverty rate in rural areas is currently 17 per cent, more than double the urban poverty rate of 7 per cent. The report emphasizes that revitalization could make rural areas premiere hubs of innovations in just under a decade. It recommends revitalization through a focus on five building blocks: (1) creating farm and non-farm rural employment opportunities; (2) achieving gender equality; (3) addressing environmental challenges; (4) improving access to energy; and (5) investing in good governance.
The Minister of Agriculture Muhammad Abdur Razzaque laid out the national commitment to revitalizing rural areas during the event.
"The Government of Bangladesh is working diligently to promote rural regions as viable habitats and economic areas where livelihoods are secured, economic growth is enhanced, and natural resources are used efficiently and sustainably," he said.
The report notes the great strides Bangladesh has made towards such a holistic revitalization of its rural areas, specifically highlighting the success of the country's investments in rural infrastructure, social protection programs, and gender equality.
The report cites evidence that improving rural roads helped Bangladesh reduce extreme poverty by 3 to 6 per cent and boost secondary school enrollment among both boys and girls.
Programmes that increased the availability of health workers and supported women's political, social, and economic empowerment were also highlighted as key to the country's success. High-level decision makers in Dhaka emphasized the importance of women's empowerment on the rural revitalization agenda.
"The Ministry of Agriculture is committed to implementing rigorous evaluations and updating our policies to integrate evidence-based research that may increase women's decision-making power, well-being, and access and rights to resources as a way to strengthen the linkages between agriculture and nutrition," said Minister of Agriculture Razzaque.
This article was originally published in The Observer.