Rural proofing: lessons from OECD countries and potential application to health.

Context: Promoting rural development can pose numerous policy and governance challenges. However, rural proofing offers a vital solution. It helps policymakers create strategies that cater to rural needs, which is particularly relevant to health care. It involves making policy decisions based on evidence on rural dynamics available in a timely fashion to enable changes and adjustments.

Issues: Governments should consider rural proofing health sector policies and strategies because making health policies rural-friendly encourages innovation and ensures access to services in rural and remote communities.

Lessons learned: Effective rural proofing mechanisms give policymakers the necessary information and data to assess how policies affect rural areas, allowing for timely adjustments early in the policy design phase. The key to this process is timing, evidence and flexibility - one size does not fit all. The rural proofing requires experimentation to find the best solutions and modalities that fit a country's context.