There is no commonly accepted view of what constitutes 'rural development', nor how it is best promoted. Different schools of thought exist. Prevailing definitions reflect not only specific national situations, but also normative views of the priorities and strategies of development. Although most planners and policy makers agree upon poverty eradication as the key objective of rural development, there are often divergent views on methods. In developing countries there is a wide variety of rural development projects supported by a diversity of local and international donors and guided by a variety of objectives and strategies.The concept of Third World rural development has a long history, over the course of which both its approach and means of application have altered often and in detail Five phases (1) can be distinguished, as outlined below.Community development Community development was the precursor of rural development and efforts date back to the 1930s when it was used in municipal planning in the United States. Following the launching of a large Americansupported community development project in India m 1952, the community development movement expanded rapidly during the 1950s with over sixty nations m Asia, Africa and Latin America implementing national or regional community development programmes. (2) Community development projects have been criticized for failing to deal with agrarian issues and for not reforming the rural power structure Today, most international organizations and national governments have written off community development as a lost cause, (3) although the concept continues to maintain a large literature base and a journal of its own.Green Revolution This approach sees the principal goal of rural development as the promotion of agricultural productivity through the delivery of modern, effective packages of inputs and services The driving force of this strategy during the 1960s was the dissemination of high-yield varieties of food grains, the combined effects of which were thought to bring about a transformation of rural areas This period also witnessed the initiation of two macro-level approaches to rural development with strong elements of participation and self-reliance The Ujaama Villages (Tanzania, 1967) and Saemaul Undong (South Korea, 1970) are worthy of mention for their attempts at mass mobilization as an integral part of the process of rural development.
The rise of rural development / 1973-80)The experience of the Green Revolution demonstrated the limitations of the 'top-down' approach to development with its focus on large farms, irrigated areas and superior cereals dependent on costly inputs This realization led to serious questioning of the modernization paradigm and resulted in the emergence of a notion of rural development which would concern itself not only with production but also with the question of distribution About this time, the international agencies expressed considerable enthusiasm for what has become known as 'alleviation of poverty and basic needs' appr...
China has suffered from over a decade of turmoil which has prevented the development of modern information ser vices. Present policy stresses the role of information storage and retrieval in national development. Apart from technical and political constraints, China faces a serious handicap with its unique written language, where the 5000 plus characters needed to express scientific and technical concepts are too large to be handled cost-effectively by present computers. This report outlines ways in which China is currently attempt ing to meet these problems and provide for modern informa tion services by the end of the decade.
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