Stadt-Land-Beziehungen: Eine Herausforderung für die Entwicklungszusammenarbeit. Eine Fallstudie aufgrund schweizerischer Entwicklungszusammenarbeit in Nepal

Abstract

The study of rural-urban interlinkages in the development process attempts to examine three decades of intervention in rural development against the background of a rapidly progressing urbanisation in developing countries. While having some positive effect, rural development efforts are not considered to have fulfilled the expectations held at the start. Rural impoverishment has not been banished and rural-to-urban migration continues unabated. This study is an attempt to gather some new insights into the diversity and complexity of rural-urban interlinkages in South Asia. Implications for development cooperation are examined. According to the analytical framework developed in this study, six key aspects characterise the dynamics of rural-urban interlinkages:

- Exchange of goods (role of markets)
- Technology diffusion
- Resource mobilisation and exploitation
- Migration and employment
- Information exchange
- External effects.

The analyses conducted in case-study areas in Nepal reveal that the investment-oriented approach of development-cooperation succeeded only haphazardly in inducing economic growth. Economic growth did in some cases improve the living conditions of the target population, in some it did not.