Rural urban links

This seminar is the sixth in a series being initiated by the IIED /HIVOS Knowledge Programme: Small Producer Agency in Globalised Markets.

For the majority of policies, people and their activities are classed as either ‘rural’ or ‘urban’. However, the links between rural and urban locations, people and activities are key components of livelihoods and local economies; they are also engines of economic, social and cultural transformations. Rural-urban interactions can be defined as linkages across space (such as flows of people, goods, money, information and wastes) and linkages between sectors (for example, between agriculture and services and manufacturing). In broad terms, they also include 'rural' activities taking place in urban centres (such as urban agriculture) and activities often classified as 'urban' (such as manufacturing and services) taking place in rural settlements.

China';s economic progress over the past few decades has been dramatic. It's now the third largest economy in the world. Income has increased by 1,200% bringing poverty from 65% of the population in 1981 to less than 10% today.The country is on track to meet most of its Millennium Development Goals and also leads the world in several indicators of environmentally friendly market growth, including wind power capacity and biomass power. With such impressive growth it is easy to forget that major disparities and inequalities still exist; China is the largest developing country in the world, with 100 of the world’s countries ahead of it in terms of per capita income. China’s progress has also come at tremendous environmental costs, both in terms of resource depletion and pollution.

UKaid announced so far will provide help for around one and a half million people in Pakistan affected by the floods. The UK Government has earmarked up to £134 million in response to the UN Pakistan appeal. In addition, a £10 million bridge project has been brought forward. For full details of the UK Governments response, and information on how YOU can help, please visit the DFID web site.

Arif Hasan, IIED Visiting Fellow, 27 August 2010

'For a sustainable reconstruction of the physical and social infrastructure of flood ravaged Sindh, it is necessary to understand to what extent the damage caused by the flood is man-made. Some of the broad indicators are obvious'.