Latin American Center for Rural Development -Some interesting facts-
The Center is a broad and diverse network of partners and allies, which since 1986 has focused on understanding rural transformations and formulating better strategies to achieve equitable territorial development in Latin America.
Its members aspire to a Latin America where, regardless of their place of origin, all people have the same opportunities to participate in fair, sustainable and inclusive development.
Among its principles are the following:
- Commitment to human rights and justice.
- Development and democracy.
- Respect for biocultural heritage and the environment.
- Transparency and honesty.
- Respect for the dignity, well-being and privacy of the people who participate in their research.
Thematic Areas
- Agri-food systems and climate change.
- Inclusive territories.
- Socio-territorial conflicts (CST).
Institutional development and governance.
Summary of selected articles (to view the article in its original site, click on the title).
Analysis of interviews with young coca and poppy growers in Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru.
With the aim of characterizing young coca and poppy growers, as well as understanding the incentives and contexts that encourage them to remain in this activity or make a change in the future, 38 semi-structured interviews were conducted in four countries in the region: Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru. The interviews explore the perspectives of the participants in three thematic areas: personal experience, productive activity and expectations for the future. This document presents the main results and findings of the interviews, and also identifies similarities and differences in the conditions of young people between the participating countries.
Territorial dynamics and processes of dialog in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, Mexico.
The document presents a comprehensive description of the Sierra Norte de Puebla in the state of Puebla, Mexico. To this end, it analyzes its territorial dynamics, together with the territorial perception of well-being and quality of life, accompanied by the coalition's dialogue process. This was supported within the framework of the Territories in Dialogue: Inclusion and Rural Wellbeing program. The territorial dynamics exposed show a territory that is torn between traditional ways of life and the arrival of extractive megaprojects, which seeks to position life projects as an active defense against death projects, such as mining exploitation. It seems consistent that the configuration of well-being has a family and community anchor, with the local social fabric enabling the development and fulfillment of individuals. And that work and food production are interrelated.
The document takes a look at the work carried out during the year. It is divided into the following sections: projects, activities, publications, press and digital media management, donors and Rimisp's network of partners.
Agroecology is an ambitious approach that promotes fairer, more resilient, sustainable and healthy food systems. This approach promotes long-term social, institutional and productive transformations that seek to reconfigure food production and consumption systems, safeguard agroecosystems, and promote inclusive and fair governance of food systems. National public policies play a key role in facilitating agroecological transitions. However, the success of these policies depends to a large extent on their capacity to integrate with local processes and collaborate with actors who operate in the territories they seek to impact.
Latin American Report 2021 on poverty and inequality.
The sixth edition of the Latin American Report on Poverty and Inequality 2021 - The Food System in the Territory - comes at a critical moment in which, following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the outlook is even more challenging for the territories of the region. On this occasion, in addition to presenting the progress made towards meeting the goals established in the 2030 Agenda and their differentiated expression in the territories, the report focuses on the analysis of a dimension that became more relevant during the health crisis given its high vulnerability: food systems. // In order to understand how the pandemic has impacted territorial inequality, the report compares, among other things, a set of indicators for a period before and after the outbreak of the pandemic. Thus, the publication provides information on poverty, health, education, economic dynamism and employment, income, citizen security and gender equality in the region, and exposes several current challenges in the face of the magnitude of territorial gaps within countries.
Growth and social inclusion in urban-rural areas of Mexico.
Based on a classification of geographical areas into functional territories, which takes into account the importance of urban areas, economic activity and their relationship with the environment, this study makes progress in identifying the factors associated with growth and inclusion. The descriptive part shows that almost 15% of the Mexican population lives in isolated rural areas, most of them with limited access to quality services, and that only 26% of this population lives less than 90 minutes from towns with 100,000 inhabitants or more. The analysis for the year 2010 quantified the gradient by which the best relative levels of human capital and access to goods and services increase as the population size of the capitals of the functional territories increases. An analysis of the period 2000-2010 found that a productive structure less intensive in agricultural and agro-industrial activities, a greater availability of public goods and services, as well as higher indicators of agglomeration, are related to territorial dynamics of non-inclusive economic growth (with an increase in inequality or poverty levels). On the contrary, a greater inclination towards agricultural and agro-industrial activities, and better institutions and government were found to be associated with inclusive growth dynamics. These two results were obtained in both linear regression and probit models.
Fifteen years of rural territorial development in Latin America: what does the experience show us?
The publication, edited by Julio Berdegué, PhD in Social Sciences; Constanza Christian, social anthropologist; and Arilson Favareto, PhD in Environmental Sciences; includes the contribution of the Rural Territorial Development (RTD) approach - proposed by Berdegué and Alexander Schejtman, which contemplates dynamics of productive transformation and institutional development - in the applied research and advocacy agenda of the last fifteen years in Latin America.
Prospects for rural development in Latin America.
This book brings together ten papers presented at the seminar “Perspectives for Latin American Rural Development”, with which RIMISP - Latin American Center for Rural Development - wanted to pay a heartfelt tribute to Alexander Schejtman, its first emeritus researcher. The papers, by Latin American academics, reviewed Alexander's career in key rural development issues such as the peasant economy, food security and territorial development.
The Progresa-Oportuniddes-Prospera program, 20 years after its creation.
In Mexico, one of the most emblematic programs aimed at reducing poverty in recent years is Progresa-Oportunidades-Prospera (POP). The creation of the POP program responded to the need for social support targeted at families in extreme poverty in the face of the difficult situation of public finances resulting from the oil crisis in the 1980s, coupled with the economic crisis of 1994-1995. In the face of the expectation of structural changes that would generate economic growth and greater employment, the program was proposed as an instrument to strengthen the capacities of the poorest individuals so that, in turn, they could access the benefits of the expected growth. in turn, they could access the benefits of the expected growth. CONEVAL considers the analysis of the trajectory of the OPP to be of great relevance for four main reasons: 1) over the last 20 years, positive results of the OPP in education, health and food have been documented, especially in rural areas; 2) analyses and evaluations have also identified challenges and areas of opportunity for the program in these twenty years; 3) two decades have recently passed since the beginning of the POP and, 4) in 2018, there was a political transition that has given way to various transformations, not only political, but also programmatic, which have led to the culmination of the POP.
Food security and nutrition survey - Mexico 2020.
The Food Security and Nutrition Survey (ESAA), part of the Sowing Development. Small-scale Agriculture and Food Resilient to Covid-19, which is supported by Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and aims to systematically compile, in accordance with a scientific methodology, useful or necessary background information and knowledge to influence different spheres of public action, enabling the promotion of development processes in Latin American countries. Specifically, the project seeks to promote institutional and policy changes to strengthen the participation of family farming in agrifood systems and advance their sustainability, inclusiveness and resilience, as well as mitigate the negative effects on food security, based on the generation of empirical evidence and the establishment of spaces for policy dialogue and technical assistance tools for governments. In particular: 1) Generate evidence on the impacts of Covid-19 on agri-food systems and small and medium-scale agriculture in 10 Latin American urban-rural territories; 2) Support, through technical assistance, the implementation of protection measures that mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the food security of the most vulnerable groups, both urban and rural; 3) Promote institutional and/or public policy changes through evidence-based dialogue to strengthen the participation of small and medium-scale family farming in the agrifood system in an inclusive, sustainable and gender-sensitive manner. (2023-05-31)