Stronger connections between urban and rural areas facilitate better access to jobs, amenities and services. The OECD looks at how governance can evolve to help manage this integration and influence the prosperity of places and people. For further information see http://www.oecd.org/gov/rural-urban-linkages.htm

1. Rural-Urban Partnerships:
An Integrated Approach to Economic
Development
Paolo Veneri
Regional Development Policy Division
GOV OECD
Brussels, 28 January 2014

2. Outline
• Why rural-urban partnerships are important
Urban-rural interactions and their implications
The benefits of rural-urban co-operation
• How to build effective rural-urban partnerships
Tackling the appropriate scale
Involving the relevant stakeholders
Learning to be more effective

3. Urban and rural areas are increasingly integrated
(1/3)
In OECD countries, on average, almost 80% of rural population
live close to an urban area (2012)

4. Urban and rural areas are increasingly
integrated (2/3)
• Urban and rural areas have both growth potential and often
complementary assets
• Urban and rural areas are increasingly integrated in self-organising
spaces (functional regions)
• Integration between urban and rural areas is important for socio-
economic performance
Large metro regions support
GDP growth in surrounding
rural areas

5. Urban and rural areas are increasingly
integrated (3/3)
Distance matters between ‘urban’ and ‘rural’
An analysis on OECD small rural regions show
that:
- positive growth spillovers emerge from
urban to rural regions
- rural regions grow more the smaller the
distance to the closest urban place
- proximity matters also for rural-rural
relationships
• Urban and rural areas have both growth potential and often
complementary assets
• Urban and rural areas are increasingly integrated in self-organising
spaces (functional regions)
• Integration between urban and rural areas is important for socio-
economic performance

6. Rural-urban areas are interconnected through
different functions

7. R-U partnership can help reach development
objectives
Common purposes of R-U partnerships
Category Focus of co-operation
Economic development Territorial promotion
Supply chain
Urban agriculture
Natural assets
management
Management of water sources
Biodiversity
Land-use management
Landscape and environmental preservation
Service provision Transport
Healthcare, social care, education
Waste disposal
Political relevance/
access to funds
Political relevance/visibility
Advocacy for funding

8. Rural-urban partnerships are driven by functional
linkages
• Labour market flows are key, but there are also other crucial R-U
interactions
• The spatial scale to consider depends on the purpose of partnership
• The spatial scale of co-operation should be flexible
• Physical distance is important
Example: Nuremberg Metropolitan Region
•Polycentric region (network of cities)
•The partnership covers a geography that extends
well beyond labour markets.
•Land-based economic complementarities,
innovation, public transport network and common
territorial identity are functional linkages
underlying the partnership boundaries.

9. R-U partnership can help reach development
objectives
Benefits of Rural-Urban partnerships
• Production of public goods
• Achieve higher economies of scale (e.g. in service provision)
• Capacity building
• Account for negative externalities
• Overcoming coordination failures
Potential risks and bad outcomes
• Transaction costs / additional burden
• Risks of unbalanced distribution of benefits
among partners
• Risks of focusing on output rather than of
outcome and actual needs of territories

10. Building effective and sustainable rural-
urban partnerships: a strategy
Matching
..the appropriate scale
Including
..the relevant stakeholder
Learning
..to be more effective
1. Better understanding of R-U
conditions and interactions
2. Addressing territorial challenges
through a functional approach
3. Working towards a common agenda
for urban and rural policy
4. Building a enabling environment for
R-U partnership
5. Clarifying the partnership objectives
and related measures

11. Thank you!