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RURAL DEVELOPMENT RECONSIDERED: A PERSPECTIVE FROM THE SOUTH 



II. STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PROGRAM PRACTICES 



There is an urgent need for a National Rural Policy Agenda to rebuild and revitalize the 

 rural South and other parts of the nation. Such a strategy must recognize the devastation 

 of rural communities in the 1980s, begin with the realities of rural communities in the 

 1990s and prepare these communities for renewal, revival and renaissance in the 21 st 

 Century. 



A National Rural Policy Agenda should recognize the following principles: 



o Rural America, especially the rural South, involves more than agricultural America. 

 While farming is critical to rural life, agriculture directly provides less than 20% of 

 all rural jobs. Programs and policies to rebuild rural America must address the 

 range of needs which cut across environment, jobs, health, transportation, 

 education, labor, commerce and other sectors. 



o A National Rural Policy Agenda must be long-term and include plans for the next 

 generation of rural Americans. America's urban problems have rural roots and 

 cannot be solved without simultaneously addressing rural problems. It is often the 

 rural poor and dislocated who migrate to become the unprepared, unemployed and 

 homeless in the cities. 



o A National Rural Policy Agenda must be conceptualized, planned, directed, 

 implemented, coordinated, and evaluated across the many departments of the 

 federal government. Disparate and disjointed public policies will not be effective 

 in remedying the deep-seated problems of rural poverty. Coordination of this 

 agenda must be provided at the White House level through a Special Office of the 

 Domestic Policy Team. 



o While a comprehensive National Rural Policy Agenda is needed, specific agencies 

 and programs that already exist must strengthen and redirect their efforts on behalf 

 of rural distressed communities. These include agencies such as the Departments 

 of Agriculture, Education, Commerce, Interior, HUD, HHS, Labor, Transportation, 

 SBA and Environmental Protection, as well as more specific programs of the 

 Appalachian Regional Commission, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Farmers 

 Home Administration, Rural Electrification Administration, the Agricultural Extension 

 Service, and the Rural Rehabilitation Trust Fund. 



o An integrated approach to rural America must entail investment not only in the 

 infrastructure for economic development but also in its people. In distressed rural 

 communities this will require major public investment and support to organize and 

 develop the capacity and skills of grassroots people and community-based 

 organizations. 



