Rural and Urban Development: Realities that Influence Diverse Perspectives About the Rural-Urban Divide and Continuum in Developing Countries

Abstract

In recent years of rural and urban development studies, notably by Akkoyunlu (2013, p.3) and Tacoli (2004, p.6), has shown that both rural and urban areas are interconnected economically, financially, and socially. The strong interplay between rural and urban areas through various drivers has created an interface critical in the formulation of poverty reduction strategies particularly in the context of rural-urban disparities (Akkoyunlu (2013, p.4). It ought to be emphasized that the importance of how rural and urban areas intersect is good for positive development outcomes in both rural and urban settlements. Evidence shows that rural-urban linkages offer opportunities for identifying possibilities that can be leveraged to stimulate rural local economic activities and local innovative productive systems that involve both rural and urban areas but in ways that are not harmful to each other. Overall, this analysis marks a departure from the existing situation where rural and urban spaces are viewed as distinctly different from each other (Tacoli 2004, p.6).It is a considered perspective that rural-urban development strategies should be developed explicitly in order to promote rural development and curb rural-urban drift to cities and towns (Tacoli 2004, p.10). Many writers such as Thirlwall (1994, p.88) have argued that there should be no any distinction between rural and urban areas if there was equal development in the world. This does not suggest that it is a recipe or blue-print for rural and urban development. Ideally, there has been a growing interest in the academic discourse on the linkages between rural and urban development. However, the relationship between urban and rural areas in many developing nations is still perceived from the point of economic dualism, in other words, by the coexistence of urban sector and a rural sector (Akkoyunlu 2013, p.4). Traditionally, agriculture accounts for the bulk of employment in developing nations especially in the rural areas and contributes immensely to the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), export earnings and poverty reduction in many countries. Given its dominance to the economic growth rate, it will remain a primary source of national economy and means of poverty reduction for many years to come (Tacoli 2004, p.2). It must be recognized that populations around the world are becoming increasingly urbanized. The pace of urbanization in less developed countries between 1950 and 1962 was very slow. According to the World Bank Report (2011, p.6), it is argued that especially sub Saharan Africa (SSA) the trend indicate that in 1960 only an average of 28% of the urban population lived in each country's largest city, but by 1980 this had risen to 36%. Similarly, the number of cities with a population of over half a million increased from a mere 3% in 1960, to 28% in 1980 (World Bank 2011, p.6). However, after this period the rate increased substantially. Most developing countries have noticed a transformation in their societies from rural to urban over the last three to four decades. The larger cities in developing countries have been growing very rapidly, often doubling in size every ten years (Thirlwall 1994, p.78).