Planning rural areas in an urbanized world: Critical issue for Colombia
Margarita Varon, Angela Penagos, Javier Caropresse, Andres Mejia, Carlos Rojas, Lilia Alejandra Sanchez
Municipality planning in Colombia has largely focused its efforts in studying urban demand for goods and services, especially in space demand for city growth. Colombian legislation has been strong in incorporating land for urban use and weak in establishing measures to protect land for rural use and development2. On the other hand, provision of goods and public services in rural areas has not been sufficiently addressed. There is no clarity upon how much rural area has to be protected to ensure food production and provision, to provide public services such as aqueduct and sewage systems or how to appropriately design and provide logistics and distribution services for producers in rural areas. This paper studies the extent to which local governments engage with rural areas and their inhabitants in planning exercises through a case study and some of the barriers they could face with regards to land administration. Given the actual demographics -average age of 40 in rural areas - this paper argues that adequate planning for rural areas and provision of goods and services is a crucial task for reducing rural – urban gaps and for people seeking opportunities and growth. This paper also argues that land tenure approach and parcel scaled analysis in municipality planning provides relevant information for a feasible municipality plan in rural areas. Finally it argues that adequate planning requires a human right and citizen’s approach where rural inhabitants have access to basic rights and are treated in equal conditions just as urban inhabitants. This approach is critical to reducing gaps between urban and rural areas and for the areas affected by armed conflict.
Event: Land Governance in an Interconnected World_Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty_2018
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