Reinforcing rural resilience – new OECD publication calls for place-based, people-centred rural policies
- Rural Pact
- Rural Revitalisation Platform
- Stronger Rural Areas
- Resilient rural areas
- Prosperous rural areas
- Connected rural areas
The publication sets out a roadmap for strengthening rural resilience by promoting people-centred policies that respond to the diverse challenges and opportunities faced by different types of rural regions. It calls for differentiated policy actions to enhance competitiveness, service delivery, and environmental sustainability across rural types.
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Developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the publication applies a spatial lens to resilience to offer governments practical guidance for navigating long-term transitions, while addressing immediate vulnerabilities.
It puts forward 16 policy recommendations, accompanied by specific actions, to enable competitiveness, mobilise rural assets, improve rural services, leverage the green transition, and ensure effective policy implementation.
The publication identifies four drivers of rural growth (STAR), where policy action should be focused, including rural assets, specialisation, market access, and natural resources. It further highlights the importance of fostering skills, enhancing innovation and entrepreneurship, and improving digital connectivity to enable competitiveness.
In a context of growing distrust in governments, the report calls for greater focus on ensuring successful policy implementation by:
- Strengthening policy coherence and integrated cross-government action;
- Working at functional scale and encouraging collaboration;
- Improving the collection and use of rural evidence to inform policy decisions;
- Taking action to galvanise the rural voice;
- Creating more effective rural communication channels.