The below facts and figures can be of use for reporting on issues on the challenges and opportunities of rural revitalization. The 2019 Global Food Policy Report 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.
Food Policy in 2018-2019: Growing Urgency to Address the SDGs
- In 2017, 821 million people faced chronic food deprivation, as compared with 804 million in 2016 and 784 million in 2015
- Globally, 80 percent of the extreme poor (living on less than $1.90 per day) and 75 percent of the moderately poor (living on $1.90 to $3.20 per day) live in rural areas
- The prevalence of rural stunting is 26.8 percent, as compared with 19.2 percent in urban areas.
- The proportion of households living on less than $1.90 per person per day declined from 26.9 percent to 9.2 percent between 2000 and 2017. Over the same period, mortality of children under age five was slashed by almost 50 percent and the number of people in poor countries with access to electricity more than doubled
- In South Asia, positive consumer and investor outlooks boosted growth from 6.6 percent in 2017 to 6.9 percent in 2018; Africa south of the Sahara saw 3.1 percent growth in 2018, up from 2.6 percent in 2017, reflecting a rise in oil and metals production, higher commodity prices, improving agricultural conditions, and booming domestic demand
Rural Revitalization: Tapping into New Opportunities
- If rural revitalization is to take root, rural livelihoods, which account for 38 percent of employment in low- and middle-income countries, must diversify
- Rural populations account for 45.3 percent of the world’s total population and at least 70 percent of the world’s extremely poor
- Urbanization is proceeding rapidly—over half the world’s population already lives in cities, and by 2050 two-thirds are expected to be urban residents—changing the outlook for rural development
Poverty, Hunger, and Malnutrition: Challenges and Breakthroughs for Rural Revitalization
- The global rural poverty rate is currently 17 percent, in contrast to an urban poverty rate of 7 percent.
- The prevalence of hunger is highest in Africa south of the Sahara (22.3 percent) and South Asia (15.1 percent)
- Global progress in reducing child stunting (low height-for-age) has been substantial, with reductions in prevalence from 39 percent in 1990 to 22 percent in 2017.6 But 151 million children under the age of five are classified as stunted (indicative of inadequate nutrition and poor health). Rural areas lag behind urban areas in reducing stunting rates
- In the case of child overweight, current trends are moving in the wrong direction—overweight and obesity are increasing and expected to become more prevalent through 2030
- Global warming could add 100 million more extremely poor people by 2030 and negatively impact food production and health
Employment and Livelihoods: Connecting Africa’s Rural and Urban areas for Rural Revitalization
- As of 2000, about 69.0 percent of the population of Africa south of the Sahara was rural, and 66.0 percent was employed in agriculture; by 2018, those percentages had shrunk to 60.5 and 57.0, respectively
- Creating more and better jobs is especially important given Africa’s large youth population, estimated to make up 35 percent of the labor force in 2010, who will need to find remunerative employment.
- Africa’s share of total world rural poverty is also expected to rise from 39.6 percent in 2015 to 58.1 percent in 2050
- Rural access to electricity in Africa south of the Sahara continues to increase, with the share of the rural population with access more than doubling from 11.1 percent in 2000 to 24.8 percent in 2016
Gender Equality: Women’s Empowerment for Rural Revitalization
- Growth of nonagricultural jobs in many regions has led to the “feminization” of agriculture, with women taking on more farm-related responsibilities, often without greater resources
- Women and girls face a burden of time-consuming responsibilities, while controlling fewer resources and having less access to schooling, nonfarm jobs, and group membership, and less voice in governance and decision-making than men
Environment: Revitalizing, Restoring, and Improving Rural Areas
- One-third of the world’s lands are considered moderately to highly degraded due to the erosion, compaction, waterlogging, salinization, acidification, and chemical pollution of soils, with erosion being the key challenge
- Daily per capita generation of solid waste ranges from 0.1 to 4.5 kilograms globally, and while levels are highest in high-income countries, the rest of the world is catching up fast
Renewable Energy: Bringing Electricity to Revitalize Africa’s Rural Areas
- Nearly nine out of ten lacking access to electricity resided in rural areas, primarily in Africa and South Asia. Africa south of the Sahara, where populations are both widely dispersed and particularly poor, accounted for about 60 percent of those lacking access to electricity.
- The net number of people gaining access to electricity on a global basis has been about 120 million people per year, with solar power systems playing a substantial role
Governance: Making Institutions Work for Rural Revitalization
- Global mobile phone subscriptions exceeded one per person for the first time in 2016, reflecting a rapid climb over the last 20 years
- The rate at which high-income countries are adding new internet users began to slow in the last five years, but the rate in low-income countries accelerated—offering a valuable opportunity for poor countries to catch up
Europe’s Experience: Investing in Rural Revitalization
- Rural development is a European Union priority, designated as one of two pillars under the Common Agricultural Policy and supported by almost €100 billion in funding for 2014–2020
- Spending on rural and farm diversification is expected to create almost 74,000 rural jobs; support for value added and rural services and infrastructure will also improve rural livelihoods
- Per capita income is lower in Europe's rural areas than in other areas—in 2014, it stood at 72 percent of the overall EU average, compared with 121 percent in urban areas
- To increase connectivity in rural areas, the EU trebled the funding available under the RDPs for rural broadband to €0.9 billion over the 2014–2020 period
- For the 2014–2020 period, member states must allocate at least 30 percent of their rural development budgets to environmental and climate action, including both agri-environment-climate measures (called AECMs) and payments to farmers in disadvantaged farming areas (mountainous areas and high-latitude areas)