BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY

NAME Mataire Munyaradzi

REG NUMBER B0924494

COURSE TITLE Rural Planning and Development

COURSE CODE DG 420

PROGRAMME Bachelor of Science Honours in Development Studies

LECTURER Mrs. Chinyanganya

ASSIGNMENT TITLE

Rural development hinges on effective rural planning. Discuss.

The development of rural areas requires a comprehensive and holistic approach which calls for a multi-sectoral effort and a wider pool of institutions. It incorporates socio economic, political and environmental processes which require effective rural planning. Rural planning is therefore an essential prerequisite for sustainable rural development. Rural planning is multidimensional as it includes comprehensive, spatial (physical planning), economic and financial (development planning), agricultural land use (land use planning) and natural resource management (water, environmental, national parks and forestry planning) (PlanAfric; 2000). However, effective rural planning faces a number of challenges which will be highlighted later in the text.
Rural development is defined by AgriInfo (2011) as a process that aims at improving the standards of living of the people living in the rural areas. It is an integrated process which includes social economic, political and spiritual development of the poorest sections in society. Chambers (2005) defines rural development as a strategy to enable a specific group of people, poor rural women, men and children to have access to life’s basic needs. Rural planning can be defined as a process of establishing, through study and analysis, a set of goals, objectives and strategies in a given spacial area.

Effective rural planning may be a time consuming process but it is worth it as it involves both experts and the community in coming up with the development plan. Resources are used efficiently and are accounted for, which means that they are not wasted. Planning also brings in new development ideas by consulting a large number of stakeholders. Of importance is the fact that planning allows development agencies to understand the complex nature of rural areas which are characterized by low literacy levels, cultural rigidity, wide spread ignorance, poverty and inequality.

Rural development implies both improved quality of life as well as greater social transformation (OCED, 2001). In order to develop rural areas, there is need to realize their potential. Rural areas are not to be seen as problems; they in fact present economic opportunities and potential to contribute positively to competitiveness, growth of micro business, niche markets and the increasing role of women entrepreneurs. Although, agriculture continues to play an important role in rural areas, there is need to reinforce rural economies through diversification of economic activities. Moreover, with the introduction of market based reforms, economic pressure on rural areas is expected to increase, adding a major burden on the rural community in doubling agriculture production, alleviation of poverty and realizing food security. As such, economic planning is an essential ingredient as it provides economic options for markets, economic resources like land, access to micro finance and credit as well as inputs for agriculture.

A case to note is the Growth pole policy in Zimbabwe which Wekwete (1988) argues that it was an economic plan which was targeting the rural areas earmarked or designated for economic and physical development by encouraging private and public sector investment. Successful rural development was noticed in Murehwa, Mutoko, Murambinda and other which were transformed into towns. Therefore economic planning for rural areas is an indispensible element for rural development.

Community developed and driven land use planning is an important way to reduce land use conflicts and increase the productive capacity of agro based rural communities (OCED, 2001). Common land use in rural land includes farming, communal grazing areas, burial sites and at times land is reserved for village development. Land use planning in the rural areas address the demands and capacities for cropping land, grazing land, forests for wood, charcoal, medicines; village sitting of homes and community services, ancestral and heritage land and water resources where available (Mwanza, 1998). Citing of all these uses is attached to customs and traditions indigenous to that particular area. Conflicting land uses are minimal as the villagers have moral attachments to these respective land uses. The role of spatial planning is to manage environmental, social and economic change and provide a coherent vision for improving human settlement. Healey (1997) defines planning as shaping places, thus shaping the change in rural areas means shaping them in a manner that will not only promote physical aesthetics but will integrate the social and economic aspects. Crucial to spatial planning is spatial data, which should be readily available to plan effectively.
Land-use planning is designed to achieve sustainable, suitable, acceptable, adequate and feasible land utilization arrangements in communal lands. More specifically, the activity is designed to consolidate arable and grazing land, nucleate residential land for economic service provision, establish woodlots, gardens and orchards, provide close access to clean, potable water and achieve conservation of resources (PlanAfric, 2000). All of which point to sustainable rural development.
Natural resource planning or management is another key component in rural planning that will give way to rural development. The major natural resources in rural areas are water, wildlife, forests and the environment as a whole. Rural areas like Bulilima-mangwe in Matabeleland, Mutoko and Kariba have had successful environmental plans that have given birth to the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) which has focused on the development of local institutions especially in rural areas for the management and sustainable utilization of communal wildlife resources, enabling communities and families to benefit economically from wildlife in their areas (UNCSD; 1998). Other planning measures include water planning which allows for equal opportunity to all to access water which fosters social development, achieve integration between various sectors such as agriculture, mining and industry, domestic use and environmental needs as well as to achieve sustainability such that future generations can enjoy the resource as well as to conserve water for efficient use. From the aforementioned, one can note that sustainable development in rural areas hinges on effective environmental planning.
PlanAfric (2000), reports that the purpose of the environmental planning is to promote and facilitate the integration of local strategies and measures for the protection and management of the environment into plans and programmes for social and economic development. The District Environmental Action Plans are required to identify the environmental and development issues and problems, identify opportunities, priorities and devise plans of action to manage the issues and problems of the area. In addition effective planning is based on participatory approaches which include Participatory Rural Appraisal.
Social planning is another approach that seeks to put in place safety nets, public services, community cohesion and other facets of development that are meant to benefit the individual like health and education which will foster human and social development. Social planning involves a lot of donor agencies who, especially in Zimbabwe, have played a major role in rural development. Chivaura and Mararike (1998) view social development as the first step towards human development. Inevitably, this is a nationally priority in Zimbabwe as the government has come up with a health policy and numerous educational programmes that seek the address the inequalities that exist in these sectors between the urban and the rural areas. Social planning is thus crucial as it paves the way for the development of the individual, mostly the rural people who are the most vulnerable.
Below is a flowchart that sums up the flow of processes which show the importance of effective rural planning and how it will ultimately lead to sustainable rural development.
Fig 1: Rural planning flow chart
|Land use planning | |Economic Planning | |Environmental Planning |
|Equitable land allocation | |Micro finance | |Water management |
|Resource management | |Markets | |Forest conservation |
| | |Sources of raw material | |Wild life conservation |
| | |Agricultural inputs | | |
| | |Promote rural-urban linkages | | |
| | |Encourage entrepreneurship | | |

|Social planning |
|Community health |
|Education |
|Decent housing |

|Improved livelihoods |
|Food security |
|Income generation |
|Employment creation |
|Infrastructure development |
|Environmental protection |
|Social welfare |

|Sustainable rural development |

Adapted from Mulenda (2006)

Rural planning has been presented as the panacea to ending rural poverty. However, there are many problem associated with rural planning that need special attention. For instance, there is no overall national rural development policy in Zimbabwe at present. Consequently, each sectoral agency involved in rural development adopts its own policy (PlanAfric, 2000). This result in conflicts between agencies and in the end they fail to meet their goals or abandon their initiatives all together. There also lack coordination between development agencies due to this policy vacuum. In 2008 the government of Zimbabwe cancelled the operating licenses of many NGOs because they were infringing into the interests of the government. Had there been a rural development policy NGOs would have known how to plan their development initiatives. Therefore the lack of a comprehensive rural development policy is a major threat to the success of rural planning as an ingredient for rural development.
Lack of capital is a defining characteristic for all developing countries, as such; the lack of financial resources is a major problem to rural planning as a process towards rural development. Most plan remain blueprint and they are never implemented the few that are implemented are at time not finished.
It is obvious from the description of rural planning activities that there has been a great deal of planning activity in Zimbabwe and many other developing countries. The various agencies involved in these activities embarked upon them with energy and enthusiasm. However, more often than not, the impact in terms of sustainable rural development has been disappointing, the reasons for this has been the lack of a coherent approach to rural planning; the gap between planning and implementation; the lack of effective community participation in planning; and a bias towards blueprint rather than process planning (PlanAfric, 2000).
There are also other factors that come into play and derail magnificent plans for rural development. These are highlighted in the sustainable livelihoods framework as the vulnerability context. They are forces beyond the control of the planners as well as the rural communities affected. They include the vagaries of climate, political change, population dynamics, epidemics, wars, economic failures and natural disasters among many others.
In conclusion, effective rural planning is the key to rural development as it paves the development path of any rural community by putting in place strategies and that will be followed to achieve optimum human welfare. Planning processes include socio-economic planning, land use planning as well as environmental planning all of which are intertwined to guarantee sustainable rural development. However, rural planning faces a number of challenges which include lack of resources, institutional failure amongst others.

REFERENCES
Chambers R, (2005), Participatory Rural Appraisal, (PRA): Analysis of Experience, World Development, Mulenda M, (2006), An integrated approach to rural planning and development in Zambia, XXIII FIG Congress Munich,
UNCSD, (2006), United Nations Council for Sustainable Development: Indicators for Development, Cape Town
Healey P, (1997), Collaborative Planning: Shaping places in fragmented societies, Macmillan, London
Mwanza M, (1998), Famine and Survival Strategies-A case Study from Northeast Ethiopia, Uppsala, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies
PlanAfric, (2000), Local Strategic Planning and Sustainable Rural Livelihoods Rural District Planning in Zimbabwe, IIED, London
OCED (2000), Rural development sector policy paper, Washington DC http://www.AgriInfo.com/myagricultureinformationbank/ what is rural development. Retrieved on 15/03/13.