The continual development of communication technology and more particularly the spread of internet services into what were once considered inaccessible regions of many developing countries is breathing new life into rural and other remote areas and refashioning perspectives for global development, a new report issued by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) and titled ‘Reconsidering Rural Development’ says.
The report, released earlier this month, places a decidedly more upbeat perspective on the likely pace of progress for the roughly 3.4 billion people living in rural and other remote areas, according to the latest World Social Report made public on Thursday May 20.
While the Report concedes that the pace of progress in interweaving technology access into the wider development of communities that had previously been without access could be slowed down by the advent of the coronavirus pandemic, it says, nonetheless, that new technologies can play a wider overarching role in helping to end the global urban-rural divide.
Last week, in an upbeat comment coming on the heels of the report’s release, UN Secretary-General António Gutteres asserted that the breakthrough in technology buildout had opened up fresh opportunities for rural development and a greener, more resilient future.
In citing an example of the positive role which communication technology continues to play in the global response to the coronavirus, Gutteres noted that the experience of the pandemic had shown that “where high-quality Internet connectivity is coupled with flexible working arrangements, many jobs that were traditionally considered to be urban can be performed in rural areas too.” The report also alludes to examples in which the spread of communication technologies now offers rural populations the opportunity to access digital finance, precision tools for better crop yielding in the agricultural sector and remote jobs, all of which can help bridge the gap between coastal centres and rural and other remote areas.
And with the overall number of people living in rural and other remote communities estimated at 3.4 billion, roughly half the global population, globally, the UN sees the penetration of communication technology into those communities as nothing short of a potential profound game-changer for the development of the human community. The likely implications of the communication technology breakthrough become even more profound when account is taken of the prevailing lack of access in the disadvantaged regions to key developmental tools including access to essential services, such as education and health and the challenges that continue to confront rural women, older persons, and indigenous people in matters relating to land rights and employment, among others.
The new UN Report notes that rural and other remote areas are also home to most of the planet’s “natural capital” which continues to be depleted and degraded. Practices such as deforestation have made a considerable contribution to climate change and the spread of zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19, the UN report says.
Contextually, the UN is promoting a new approach to global development termed “in situ urbanization” which advocates taking development wherever settlements are, whether in coastal or remote communities, in order to allow them to benefit from the same living standards as city dwellers without incurring the negative impacts of unsustainable urbanization. This, it says, is in order to ensure that rural people are not left behind as the world scales up action to boost the global economy, reduce inequalities and combat climate change.
These initiatives, the Report contends, should be attended by others designed to reduce poverty levels, including refashioned land reform policies, expanded social protection and abolition of laws that discriminate against rural (and hinterland) women, Indigenous people and other vulnerable populations.
