Technological Change And Rural Development In Poor Countries

Rural development is a subject that appears to be plagued by a central paradox: development is necessary to alleviate rural poverty, but while new technology has raised agricultural output, it has also increased the suffering of millions of poor landless families in many Third World countries. The rural poor, especially women, have been marginalized; urban migrants have become desperate unemployed squatters, not well-paid industrial workers; and environmental degradation has proved severe. The authors argue that many development programmes go awry because the authorities neglect essential development issues. Development must be defined in terms of the provision of basic human needs which include life expectancy, infant mortality, and literacy indicators which reflect the quality of life of the bulk of the population, not just a narrow elite. What they suggest is that the issues neglected by the conventional approach must be addressed if true development is to occur.

Three billion people live in rural areas in developing countries. Conditions for them are worse than for their urban counterparts when measured by almost any development indicator, from extreme poverty, to child mortality and access to electricity and sanitation.

A comparative study of the impact of increased modernization in the rural sector on seven important developing countries. This book should be of interest to students and lecturers in development studies.

The world's demand for food is expected to double within the next 50 years, while the natural resources that sustain agriculture will become increasingly scarce, degraded, and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In many poor countries, agriculture accounts for at least 40 percent of GDP and 80 percent of employment. At the same time, about 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. 'World Development Report 2008' seeks to assess where, when, and how agriculture can be an effective instrument for economic development, especially development that favors the poor. It examines several broad questions: How has agriculture changed in developing countries in the past 20 years? What are the important new challenges and opportunities for agriculture? Which new sources of agricultural growth can be captured cost effectively in particular in poor countries with large agricultural sectors as in Africa? How can agricultural growth be made more effective for poverty reduction? How can governments facilitate the transition of large populations out of agriculture, without simply transferring the burden of rural poverty to urban areas? How can the natural resource endowment for agriculture be protected? How can agriculture's negative environmental effects be contained? This year's report marks the 30th year the World Bank has been publishing the 'World Development Report'.

Technology, generally considered a positive force that enhances both social and economic development, only benefits a whole population when it permits the productive use of all human resources, female as well as male. Nevertheless, women continue to be a neglected component in planning for technological development. This book considers developmental target areas -- health, food, housing and fertility -- that concern women as family members and as heads of households and assesses the specific needs of women both in adapting to technological change and as agents of that change.

Poverty reduction remains a major development challenge in much of Asia and the Pacific. Historically, technology has played a central role in raising living standards across the region, including those of the poor. The Green Revolution and various ...

This book is the outcome of a Development Studies Association Workshop on Technology that we convened in Queen Elizabeth House in March 1980. In the 1960s and 1970s most research on technology in poor countries was directed at the question of the labour or capital intensity of production technique (sometimes described as the 'neo-classical' question). But recently, largely as a result of the findings of such research, the focus has changed quite radically. The collection of essays raises questions as much as it provides answers: but in so doing it provides a comprehensive introduction to the major new topics which are of substantial concern to those working on issues of technology and development.

An examination of the theoretical and empirical interactions between globalization, technology and poverty. Jeffrey James studies the effect of information technology on patterns of globalization and explores how such patterns can be altered to reduce the growing global divide between rich and poor nations.