Rural Development: Challenges for Managers and Policy Makers

This Special Issue is particularly focused on the following issues:
1) What are the main objectives and functions of rural development policies within the broader range of policies addressing rural areas, and what relations have been established between them over time (complementarities, synergies, conflicts, etc.)?
2) What is the effectiveness of rural development policy instruments in pursuing objectives of social inclusion, environmental sustainability (including the provision of specific environmental public goods such as biodiversity, landscape conservation, etc.), agricultural competitiveness, and diversification of rural economies through multi-functional agricultural systems?
3) What is the contribution of rural development policies to reducing territorial disparities in terms of income and unemployment and access to social services and infrastructure, in combination with other territorial policies?
4) Rural development policies often are implemented via multi-level governance, involving different government tiers (national, regional, and local). Which innovative institutional solutions can be highlighted in different socio-economic settings with the aim of improving policy effectiveness and efficiency? How can policy efficiency be measured at different scales? How can policy makers deal with trade-offs between policy efficiency and effectiveness?
5) In many countries rural development policies show better outcomes if implemented by community-led local initiatives than via top-down approaches: what kind of institutional challenges are faced by local communities, and what evidence can be produced in this field?