ABSTRACT
According to international development policy standards, the reduction of rural poverty through sustainable agricultural and rural development can be achieved only within the framework of global action programmes, which will have to be implemented at district and local level. The global action programmes emerging from international commitments between UNCED ’92 and the UN Millennium Summit of 2000/2001, such as Agenda 21, the plan of action to implement the Desertification Convention, the World Food Summit Plan of Action and the implementation of the poverty reduction strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, all cover the whole range of national development policies; they are complex in nature and, if they are to be successfully implemented, they will usually require comprehensive sectoral or macropolitical reforms. This will not be achieved with the conventional approaches of project-based or subsectoral development. The concept of setting development policy priorities and establishing programmes accordingly, on the other hand, will be more helpful, especially where the aim is to pool resources and use them more effectively.
