Rural poverty

[9][10] The first target of the Millennium Development Goals was to decrease the extent of extreme poverty by one-half by the year 2015, which was achieved globally before its deadline in 2010.

Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions facing the highest rates of extreme and moderate poverty in both urban and rural areas.

Such isolation hinders integration with urban society and established markets, which could result in greater development and economic security.

They agree that infrastructure programmes can potentially play three roles in a fragile context: as an engine of economic recovery and improved service provision, as part of a process of strengthening institutions, and in stabilisation and peace-building.

They claim the state of evidence regarding these causal links is weak but some aspects of infrastructure development, including but not exclusive to road construction, has been shown to be effective in fragile country contexts.

Quick Impact has not yet proven to be effective in enhancing peace building and security in Fragile and Conflict Affected States.

There was also some evidence that rural road construction reduced isolation for minority groups and provided more opportunities for inclusion in wider economic activity.

Mostly qualitative evidence found suggests that rural road construction or maintenance has a positive impact on public service delivery.

This occurs due to a reduction in commuting time, as well transport costs but these benefits tend to accrue disproportionately to the influential and well-educated.

Rural communities tend to ascribe great importance to road development and perceive it to improve access to markets, health and education facilities.

Prominent geographic impediments—such as remote or diminutive islands, expansive archipelagoes, sparsely populated regions, and rugged terrains like the mountainous landscapes of the Himalayas and Andes—serve as formidable obstacles to development.

In many rural societies, there are few job opportunities outside of agriculture, often resulting in food and income insecurity due to the precarious nature of farming.

Without access to other labor markets, rural workers continue to work for extremely low wages in agricultural jobs that tend to have seasonal fluctuations and thus little income security.

Yet there is very little evidence of anyone attempting to actually address and alleviate the problem by introducing handcarts and wheelbarrows into remote and rural areas where they would be most beneficial.

[24][25] In many rural societies, a lack of access to education and limited opportunities to increase and improve one's skillset inhibit social mobility.

There have been noted disparities in both Asia and Africa between rural and urban areas in terms of the allocation of public education and health services.

[28] Women in both rural and urban areas face a higher risk of poverty and more limited economic opportunities than their male counterparts.

[28] Women in rural poverty live under the same harsh conditions as their male counterparts, but experience additional cultural and policy biases which undervalue their work in both the informal, and if accessible, formal labor markets.

"[30] Access to land can alleviate rural poverty by providing households a productive and relatively reliable way to make an income.

Achieving legislative reform and implementing redistributive policies, however, is a difficult task in many countries because land ownership is a sensitive cultural and political issue.

Yet in China, for example, land redistribution policies have found some success and are associated with a reduction in rural poverty and increased agricultural growth.

[41][42][43] Experiments done in Africa (Uganda and Tanzania) and Sri Lanka on hundreds of households have shown that a bicycle can increase the income of a poor family by as much as 35%.

The most effective innovations are based on the active participation of small farmers, who are involved in both defining the problems and implementing and evaluating solutions.

Rural communities are suffering from colossal market failures as the national grids fall short of their demand for electricity.

[46] Electrification typically begins in cities and towns and gradually extends to rural areas, however, this process often runs into obstacles in developing nations.

If countries are able to overcome these obstacles and reach nationwide electrification, rural communities will be able to reap considerable amounts of economic and social development.

[48] Some studies have supported Unconditional Cash Transfers, or UCT, a type of UBI, as a way to alleviate the negative externalities associated with poverty such as food insecurity.

Strong links between rural areas and neighboring small cities and towns can amplify economic growth opportunities.

Gustave Courbet depicted nineteenth century rural poverty in this painting.
Many parts of rural Africa, such as this community in Mozambique, experience rural poverty. This woman was given access to a bicycle through a rural development program through a Bicycle poverty reduction program. Access to affordable transportation has been a key part of gaining access to greater economic mobility in many parts of the world. For example, distributing bicycles was one of the key strategies used by China to reduce rural poverty in the 20th century. [ 4 ]
A graphic from Our World in Data representing national evaluations of rural povery.
Changes in the proportions of rural and urban poor and non-poor
Access to health and water infrastructure is crucial for rural communities to overcome challenges like poverty. However, the uneven economic production of rural communities, mean that they may be less likely to get infrastructure investment such as sanitation infrastructure.
A rural school in Colonia Department , Uruguay. Uruguay invested in rural school infrastructure in the mid-20th century, by commissioning buildings from builders in rural communities, and ensuring that the schools had well trained teachers. This has created long-term changes to rural communities, allowing students greater access to social mobility.
A graphic depicting the uneven participation of rural children in Education in Ghana. The combination of further distances, pressure to help families in their rural livelihoods, and less value for the results of education, lead to less participation in schools even where there are legal requirements.
Quantified hidden costs of agrifood systems by cost category (left) and subcategory (right), 2020
Share of quantified hidden costs of agrifood systems to gdp by income group (hidden costs per capita on the right-hand side)
Woman taking water from a well
Tanzanian boy transporting fodder on his bicycle to feed his family cattle
This graph shows the world rural electrification rate along with the electrification growth rate 1990–2016 and synthesizes data from the World Bank. [ 47 ]