Reasons for hope: instructive experience in rural development

Views on the future for the Third World are divided. One scenario emphasizes the potential
of urbanization and industrial growth, presuming that liberalization and export orientation
will produce a take-off into a technology-driven, trade-dependent economic growth. The
other more despairing view foresees many, if not all, Third World countries collapsing due
to growing populations, environmental degradation and civil disorder. The contributors to
this volume are not ready to accept either view. With their rich and instructive experiences
in rural development, they contend that rural and, ultimately, national collapse is not
preordained while maintaining that all expectations need not be pinned on the urban sector.
This unique collection brings together eighteen of the world's most exemplary rural
development success stories. Significantly there are more case studies from Asia seven
are from South Asia and three from Southeast Asia, with four each from Africa and Latin
America-reflecting the larger numbers of people living in Asia and the stronger traditions
there of large-scale collective self-help. Presented in the words of their originators and
managers, each of the cases illustrate how the lives of millions of poor and marginal
households have been uplifted through their own efforts, assisted by the well-conceived
and persistent efforts of inspired individuals, government agencies, universities, NGOs, or
donors.
Given the immensity and the urgency of the needs of the world's poor, both rural and
urban, it is important to expand successful programmes of the type documented in this
book. This expansion must occur at a pace and in ways that are consistent with organizational
capabilities while retaining the confidence and creativity of all involved.
Taken as a whole, this book provides concrete evidence that there are reasons for hope for
the future of the Third World—which mainly depends on finding ways to make rural life
more productive so that urban societies and economies are surrounded and supported by
vigorous, progressive rural communities. Presenting as it does a remarkable set of rural
development success stories across various sectors in fifteen countries, this book will be
essential reading for economists, policy planners, political scientists, rural sociologists and,
above all, those involved with development issues.