Month: April 2022

The Government of Ireland is proud to host the 13th OECD Rural Development Conference 2022 on the theme of Building Sustainable, Resilient and Thriving Rural Places. As OECD Member States contend with multiple policy challenges, including emerging from COVID-19, Ireland welcomes the in-person participation of Ministers, senior policy makers and civil society for a wide ranging discussion on the future of rural places in September 2022.

IAMO FORUM 2022

Enhancing resilience in a post-pandemic era: challenges and opportunities for rural development

IAMO Forum 2022 | 22 – 24 June 2022 | Halle (Saale)

The Corona pandemic has affected rural areas in various ways all over the world. Its impacts stretched to agricultural trade, international mobility, livelihoods in rural areas and many other development aspects. Although agricultural production and food consumption remained on a rather stable path from a macroeconomic point of view, many effects at the level of rural households are still unknown and especially poorer countries may be faced with setbacks in their (rural) development efforts. How, for instance, will the drop in aggregate remittance flows spark off as a driver of poverty at the individual and community level? Are there long-lasting effects of personal illness on agricultural production or government’s containment measures at food supply chains to be expected? Which farms and rural areas are more resilient than others? Recent conceptualisations of resilience stress the adaptability of farms and households which will determine their resistance to future shocks. Often attention from policy and research dissipates quickly after acute events passed. However, when looking at the effects of this pandemic we should consider what are the long-term lessons from earlier crises such as the 2008 financial crisis, e.g., for remittance dependent households? Did at least some of them adapt and developed new livelihood strategies? How did agricultural trade flows adjust to shocks and do food import dependent countries with a more diversified trade structure enjoy a better food and nutrition security?

The IAMO Forum 2022 invites contributions shedding light on these or related questions which will help extending our knowledge of the complex nexus between crises, resilience and agricultural and rural development. Perspectives from different social sciences, including agricultural and development economics, political sciences, sociology, anthropology and history, are welcome. In particular, we encourage submissions of papers and proposals for organized sessions addressing the following issues with a regional focus on Europe, Central Asia and China:

• Effects of the pandemic and earlier crises on agricultural and rural development as well as food and nutrition security
• Evaluation of public containment and stimulating policies from an agricultural and rural development perspective
• Crises and institutional change
• Risk mitigation strategies of rural households
• Gender-differentiated effects of crises
• Crisis perceptions and responses from a behavioural economics point of view
• Resilient livelihood strategies: the role of remittances, non-farm diversification and new forms of cooperation
• Evaluation methods to assess the effects of the pandemic across different rural development indicators

IAMO Forum 2022 will take place in Halle (Saale). The hygiene concept will be in line with official requirements which implies that access might be restricted to vaccinated or recovered participants. Additionally, negative tests might be required. A final confirmation of the format and possible access requirements will be communicated together with the notification of acceptance. In case of travel restrictions to Germany, virtual presentation will be possible. The conference language will be English.

The conference will be organised by the Department Agricultural Policy on behalf of IAMO and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), USA.

Registration will open soon!

The Rural Pact conference will bring together EU, national, and regional politicians along with local authorities, social and economic stakeholders in a participatory event that reflects the rural vision’s ambition and bottom-up character.

It will engage participants in designing the governance of the Rural Pact and gather commitments for the achievement of the long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas. To do so, the conference will:

1. Engage all levels of governance and rural stakeholders in endorsing the goals of the vision and debating on how to reach them. It will put the spotlight on the key role rural areas can play in Europe’s future. The presence of high-level political and grassroots representatives will commit all levels of governance to taking the interests of rural areas into account. Frontrunners will present inspirational examples showing how they are already working towards the vision goals.
2. Involve participants in implementing the vision through breakout sessions where participants will indicate how they can contribute to achieving the goals of the vision. These sessions will identify common interests and areas on which the local, regional and national level could act individually and in cooperation with others. Since the European Commission has already presented and committed itself to an Action Plan, the actions participants propose will be collected and presented during the conference’s closing session and will be the basis for the Rural Pact’s work programme.
3. Increase the visibility of rural areas by involving high-level political guests from the European institutions and Member States in implementing the first comprehensive EU-wide rural strategy. This will be key to strengthen the positive potential of rural areas and strategic role for the future of Europe, and to generate buy-in from all levels of governance, to increase the impact of policy in rural areas.

Plenary and breakout sessions will alternate to ensure maximum interaction at this event.

EU Green Week is an annual opportunity to debate European environmental policy with policymakers, leading environmentalists and stakeholders from Europe and beyond. This year’s edition focuses on the European Green Deal – the EU’s sustainable and transformative growth strategy for a resource-efficient and climate-neutral Europe by 2050.

EU Green Week 2022 will take place from 30 May to 5 June 2022.  The main hybrid event on 31 May puts three important aspects of the transformation in the spotlight – circular economy, zero pollution, and biodiversity. Throughout the week, partner events will be taking place across Europe and beyond.

The registration is now open. If you wish to attend the EU Green Week 2022 conference, please complete the registration form available here