There are more than 800 million poor people in the world who go hungry and subsist on less than one U.S. dollar a day, and most of them live in rural regions in developing and transition countries. Rural development strategies are essential to overcome this unacceptable situation, along with pro-poor policies that are coordinated at international, regional and national level.

Kick-starting investment in rural regions
The development work undertaken in recent decades has not yielded the expected breakthrough everywhere. The agricultural sector has been unable to make its anticipated contribution to macroeconomic development. In many developing countries, any improvement in living standards has tended to be short-lived or limited to specific regions, and has not always been sustainable. That is why an enabling political framework must be established. It is important to encourage international donors and national governments to make greater contributions to investment in rural regions.

Transition countries face major obstacles
The transition countries in south-eastern Europe also face major challenges. As part of the European Union's pre-accession process, not only are they having to cope with structural reforms, they also have to fulfil the criteria established by the EU.

Value added: Improving opportunities for rural regions through coordinated agricultural policies
GTZ supports rural development policy at three levels:

International:

• advising the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and ministries in our partner countries on the formulation and implementation of coherent rural development policies
• promoting an exchange of experience on harmonisation and adaptation processes.

National:

• advising on the formulation of rural development policies at national level, and devising funding instruments in compliance with EU criteria
• promoting cross-border cooperation in crisis regions, which also contributes to peacebuilding.

Regional and local: 

• preparing funding strategies and implementing them in selected structurally weak rural regions.

In addition to the support described above, training is provided for national, regional and local actors with the aim of safeguarding the effective planning and implementation of rural development strategies.

International consultation and coordination
In many countries, GTZ has supported the formulation of coherent rural development policies as part of joint poverty reduction strategies (PRS). On behalf of BMZ, GTZ also promotes policy coherence at international level through the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development (GDPRD).