Tackling rural poverty in developing countries

Book excerpt: Some 2.7 billion people live in poverty on less than two dollars a day, whilst 1.1 billion live in extreme poverty on less than one dollar a day. The United Nation's Millennium Development Goals aim is to halve this number by 2015 and the Department for International Development has set Public Service Agreement Targets to contribute to this reduction. As some 75 per cent of the world's poor live in rural areas, these targets cannot be reached without the reduction of rural policy. This report looks at rural poverty and the way the DFID tackles the issue, especially in the short and medium term. It is organised into four main sections: the challenge of tackling rural poverty; DIFD's country programme assistance to the rural poor; reaching the rural poor through other funding schemes; and management of the aid budget.