Rural Territories in Motion Rural Territorial Dynamics Program – Final Report 2007-2012 Latin American Center for Rural Development Letter from the Executive Director The Rural Territorial Dynamics (RTD) Program is coming to an end. Its contributions have been many during these five years of work. The most significant of these contributions has been introducing the idea that territory matters into the Latin American development agenda, both because there are persistent territorial inequalities that remain obscured by averages, as well as the ongoing disregard to the fact that the territorial dimension generates economic inefficiencies that miss territorially based opportunities. The Program offers a more comprehensive and complex approach to rural development, and represents a contribution to rural territorial development public policies in Latin America. This contribution comes as a result of a wide group of nearly 50 organizations belonging to the Program’s partner network. Territorial Policy is a concept that emerges from research carried out within the RTD Program framework. This concept is understood as the design of interventions that focus on the territory as a social construct and in which natural-resource and productive structures, actors and institutions coexist and sustain one another. Territories have a development potential, but inequality dynamics prevent or hinder the deployment of value-added production chains because poverty and inequality traps are imposed, restricting the social distribution of opportunities. Proving the existence of these exclusionary dynamics allowed the Program, through its various components, to create agendas, strategies and recommendations on institutional policies and measures for both national and regional governments. It also allowed the generation of tools that support territorial management in specific territories. These tools are a set of practical mechanisms, based on and supported by research, to help territories reach higher economic dynamism and social inclusion. In order to increase its effect on the change process, the RTD Program created the Incidence Fund in 2010 with the idea of supporting specific territorial policy processes, with actions taken in El Salvador, Chile, Peru, Guatemala and Ecuador. Effects on policies have been reinforced by initiatives taken by other Program components that seek to complement territorial development research and action with decision making. To this end, the project “Knowledge and Change in Rural Poverty and Development,” one of the Program’s components, merges knowledge derived from research with the creation of concrete proposals, programs and policies. This project has also established Rural Dialogue Groups (RDG) in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador and Mexico that enable government authorities, researchers and public and private leaders to collaborate. 4 Quantitative and qualitative studies have been carried out in eleven countries. Territorial management and capacity building processes have also been supported. Moreover, dialogue and policy change processes have been implemented, just as networks and postgraduate programs have been created. With critical support from IDRC Canada and a significant contribution from the New Zealand Aid Programme and IFAD, the Program has estimated the role that different economic, social and institutional factors play in a territory’s productive and social outcomes, especially in those few cases in which socially-inclusive economic growth and inequality-reduction processes were observed. The summary of the territorial studies conducted mentions that “structures, regulating institutions and the agents that perpetuate them are very powerful and difficult to change” and do not tend to be inclusive. Studies not only confirmed the impact this history, structures and the past have on territorial dynamics, but they also found that history can be changed. This is the reason why we must invest our knowledge into practical policy recommendations. The Program also took on a gender-focus approach that allowed us to appreciate the way in which structures, institutions and agents are marked by concepts and norms that establish proper roles for men and women. Concepts and norms define the productive and reproductive roles associated with unequal access to assets and benefits, which in turn encourages or hinders the economic and social performance of men and women. This is also the purpose of territorially-based processes designed to remove obstructions in achieving equality dynamics. The ambitious goal of this Final Report is to present objectives, conceptual definitions, territorial management processes, effects, networks, results, work dynamics, communication and information strategies used, and a list of publications, among other things. This task requires reviewing the Report’s sections with the curiosity that comes from a diverse, creative and productive collective undertaking. The Program’s largest contribution, if it can be summarized, is the solid evidence gathered, which forces development researchers, decision makers and actors at the various levels to consider that territorial dimension has the potential to provide much-needed answers for solving the most pressing dilemma in Latin America: the inequality problem that hinders development and well-being. Claudia Serrano Executive Director - Rimisp 5 Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................ 8 Affecting Change .............................................................................................................................................. 10 I. WHY THE NEED FOR AN RTD PROGRAM? 12 The Territorial Component of Inequality in Latin America .................................................................................. 14 Program Characteristics .................................................................................................................................... 17 The Research Path Toward an Operational Theory .......................................................................................... 19 II. SUCCESSFUL TERRITORIAL DYNAMICS: HOW AND WHY DO THEY EMERGE? 20 Summary…........................................................................................................................................................ 22 Five Key Dimensions to Understanding Territorial Dynamics ............................................................................ 31 III. RESEARCH: A SPACE FOR EVIDENCE TO SPEAK FOR ITSELF 52 Maps of Territorial Heterogeneity ....................................................................................................................... 54 Polarization Studies: Taking a Closer Look at Inequalities ................................................................................ 60 2011 Latin American Report on Poverty and Inequality ..................................................................................... 63 Project on Crisis and Rural Poverty in Latin America ........................................................................................ 66 Gender Systems in Territorial Dynamics Research ........................................................................................... 68 Research Evidence Gathered in 20 Territories ................................................................................................. 74 The Knowledge Legacy: Over 100 Publications ................................................................................................ 138 IV. COMMUNICATIONS 146 Communications Strategy ................................................................................................................................ 148 Website .............................................................................................................................................................. 149 Equitierra Magazine ........................................................................................................................................... 153 Mass Distribution of Content ............................................................................................................................. 155 The Program in the Press ................................................................................................................................. 157 V. PROGRAM DIALOGUE INITIATIVES 160 “Territories in Motion” Meetings ........................................................................................................................ 162 Organization of International Conferences ........................................................................................................ 166 Active Participation in International Forums ...................................................................................................... 169 VI. WHAT CAN BE DONE? 174 Capacity Development to Improve Territorial Management ............................................................................... 176 Promoting Influential Initiatives .......................................................................................................................... 181 Strengthening Postgraduade Programs ............................................................................................................ 185 Policies and Dialogues for Overcoming Rural Poverty .....................................................................................