I said at the start of the conference on the Future of Rural Policy, held in Siena in July 2002, that I expected it to be interesting and stimulating. I was not disappointed. Over the two days we were fortunate to hear from speakers from around the world – Europe, Japan, Mexico, and the United States – and to have an international audience which took part in the debate about the issues and the solutions....

By loosening national ties and enforcing international competition, globalisation confronts regions with previously unknown development opportunities and threats. On balance, it is expected to bring gains to economies on the whole, but will nonetheless pose severe adjustment problems to a number of regions. Moreover, international economic integration is increasing the interdependence of nations, thereby modifying the traditional policy instruments through which governments influence the process of economic and social change. Given their limited efficacy, these instruments need to be upgraded and in many cases substituted with more appropriate ones....

This session aimed at comparing different institutional approaches to rural development and at linking them to the new rural challenges. In the last decade the rural question has been increasingly shaped by some major policy concerns and notably: 1) the growing consumer concerns for safe, healthy and high quality foods, environment and cultural heritage and landscape; and 2) the increasing recognition of the necessity of a shift towards more sustainable production and living patterns in both urban and rural areas. The emergence of these new demands has resulted in the design and application of new policy approaches that now need to be assessed...

The need for territorial policies emerged from the recognition that rural development is not a sectoral issue but a territorial one. Given the varied nature and the multiplicity of problems that rural areas are facing, they cannot be addressed solely by agricultural policies. A multisectoral approach is thus crucial to respond to rural demands. To increase efficiency it is also important to focus on functional regions (i.e. territories where people both live and work) and to involve local actors within the decision-making process. Both the LEADER and Contigo programmes in Europe and Mexico respectively are examples of multisectoral approaches that can be carried out in terms of functional regions...

The shift in the dominant concepts of rural development favouring sustainability and endogenous approaches is notably linked to the diversification from primary sectors towards industry and services that is taking place in a majority of rural areas. Given the volatility of branch plant investment and the vulnerability of small firms in the rural context, sustainability of communities is increasingly a concern. Not only is the focus on local development related to the need to embed investment in the territory, it is also pertinent to the necessity to better tap rural resources, notably territorial capital and amenities. Thus far, this focus has been weak and rural policies have remained ancillary to agricultural policy; however, this is changing...

Local approaches to rural development are shaped by the type of partnership put in place in the local context (who carries out the project), the strategy followed (what are the objectives and methods of achieving them), and the definition of the appropriate or pertinent scale (where is the local territorial project carried out). Bearing that framework in mind, it is not surprising that the following presentations describe different situations, given the different contexts and backgrounds of experts participating to the roundtable. Nevertheless, these presentations underline some common problems, at least in lagging rural regions...

This international conference on the future of rural policy, organised by the OECD and the Province of Siena, confirmed the important role that agriculture plays in many rural regions despite the fact that it is not clear whether current agricultural policy has effectively promoted rural growth and development. Developing the differentiation and increasing the quality of agricultural products may increase the contribution of agriculture to rural development. Proposals from the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy released by the European Commission on 10 July were regarded as consistent with this objective but provoked debate as to whether the reforms went far enough...