Rural people around the world continue to struggle with food insecurity, persistent poverty and inequality, and environmental degradation. The 2019 Global Food Policy Report that will be launched during the conference on "Inclusive transformation of rural Ethiopia: Patterns and options" on May 2, 2019 in Addis Ababa, highlights the urgency of rural revitalization to address the crisis in rural areas. Policies, institutions, and investments that take advantage of new opportunities and technologies, increase access to basic services, create more and better rural jobs, foster gender equality, promote good governance, and restore the environment can make rural areas vibrant and healthy places to live and work.
In Ethiopia in particular, recent analysis - based on the national household consumption expenditure surveys of 2011 and 2016 - shows that monetary living standards of rural households remain low and that consumption growth in rural areas has been significantly below urban ones. Moreover, real consumption of the bottom quintile did not change and the poorest were therefore excluded from the ongoing transformation process in Ethiopia, leading to increased inequality in the country.
The conference aims to bring stakeholders together to present an overview of key issues in rural areas and discuss the lessons learnt from experiences with rural revitalization in a large number of countries. It will then focus on Ethiopia in particular and provide evidence on ongoing changes so as to further inform the discussion on rural transformation and on ways to make it more inclusive. You can find the draft conference programme here.
