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THE ARKLETON TRUST
Enstone
NEWSLETTER
2000
Contents
This has been an eventful year for rural development in Europe and here in the UK,
with the implementation of rural development measures proposed in Agenda 2000 (the
new Rural Development Regulation, LEADER plus, and the reformed Structural Funds) and
a flurry of green and white papers in many member countries, including the UK and
Ireland. How much of this represents real progress in the development of an
integrated, locally based, and sustainable rural policy, and how much rhetoric,
remains to be seen. This indeed was a question raised by the Trust's Programme
Director in a series of keynote papers for conferences in Quebec, Finland and British
Colombia - Is there a new rural policy? The fact is that while the framework
does appear to be improving, the reality of implementation lies some way behind the
rhetoric. And this at a time when rural people and rural places are experiencing,
perhaps, unprecedented pressures for change and adaptation in response to external
market and policy shifts.
The Trust has played an active role in bringing academics, practitioners and policy
makers together to address problems of rural change, development, and education for
over 20 years. The means have been many and various, including international seminars
and workshops, study tours, fellowship and exchange programmes, research and general
networking. We think there is a growing, not diminishing, role for an independent
charitable trust to play in this endeavour. Our past two international seminars have
sought to involve actors from, and concerned with, the rural development issues and
programmes in the Central and Eastern European countries applying to join the EU, as
well as those from existing EU members. The Arkleton Centre for Rural Development
Research at the University of Aberdeen has built on this by organising a major
international conference this summer on European Rural Policy at the Crossroads,
which has over 100 delegates from 23 countries, including most of the CEEC's and a
number of senior officials from OECD, CEC, and national Governments.
In 2001, the Trust will bring together a group of academics and practitioners for an
international seminar to discuss the current issues of rural health, education and
community development, and to address related quality of life issues; this is partly
an effort to secure their better integration which is entirely consistent with the
Trust's objectives and approach. It is intended that the results will feed into a
further major international conference planned for June 2003.
At the annual Trustees' meeting held in June we were delighted to welcome a new
Trustee, Cindy Carlson, Senior Lecturer in Public Health at Oxford Brookes
University. Cindy has a long experience with public health programmes in SE Asia and
Sub-Saharan Africa and will strengthen the Trustees expertise in relation to third
world issues and projects. Caroline Higgs has become a Trustee again, having resigned
a few years ago to free up a vacancy: she is still the Hon. Secretary. Caroline also
represents the Trust on the International Advisory Committee of the Arkleton Centre
for Rural Development Research. Our previous Hon Secretary, Kay Killingsworth, has
now become an Assistant Director-General in FAO.
Trustees learned with regret of the death of Professor Noel Robertson CBE who was an
active and valued member of our International Advisory Committee for some 20 years.
Professor Baburao Baviskar, recently retired from the Delhi School of Economics, has
been elected President of the Indian Sociology Association. Baburao has written
widely on Indian rural co-operatives, and has been a long-standing critic of the
dairy scheme 'Operation Flood', supported by the EU and the World Bank among others.
Professor Howard Newby, who is Vice-Chancellor of Southampton University, has
recently been appointed Chairman of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals
for UK Universities. Howard also Chairs the International Advisory Committee of the
Arkleton Centre for Rural Development Research and received a Knighthood in this
year's Honours.
Susan Sechler, who moved from the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies to the Pew
Foundation is now Director of Global Programmes at the Rockefeller Foundation in New
York.
Dr Elena Saraceno, for many years director of CRES, Italy, is now a senior official
with the Cellule de Perspective - the EU President's 'think tank' in Brussels.
Peter Baumann has moved from his position of Director of the Agricultural Payments
Agency in Copenhagen to the Danish Embassy in Paris.
This annual UK award of between £600-£800 is made to a student or
students engaged in the study of rural development and social change in Europe and/or
the Third World, to enable the winner to supplement academic course work with some
research or practical field investigations. Preference is given to post-graduate
students and applications need to be supported by a course tutor. The purpose of the
award is to stimulate both discussion of the mechanism by which the developed and
developing worlds can be brought closer together and/or to investigate what can be
usefully learned from Third World experience or from new approaches in poorer rural
regions of Europe.
Application forms are available from the Trust Office each autumn, or from
our website, and the closing date is the 31st January.
During the year we have received reports back from two of our 1999 winners.
Benjamin Powis returned from Kerala, South India where he examined whether
decentralisation strategies could be a means to enhance people's participation in
development. Corinna Csaky returned from Ecuador where she carried out an examination
of street child alienation and resistance. Corinna sent us a copy of her
dissertation which was submitted as part of the requirements for her MA in Social
Anthropology and which she is hoping to publish.
The 2000 award was made to Alexander Smith who is studying for his MSc in Social
Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. He is examining how the relationship
between civil society and the institutions of an emergent Scottish 'state' is
changing and analysing the processes by which this changing relationship is
influencing forestry policy at the UK, Scottish and area levels, as well as at
European levels.
The aim of this annual international award is to encourage the dissemination of
information or ideas related to rural development - this fund cannot be used to
support research or educational studies. Priority is given to material relating to
the Third World, the links between Europe and the Third World or the lessons that
Europe can learn from Third World experience, and to applications from NGOs. We are
especially interested in helping to distribute material that might otherwise remain
unpublished or unavailable to those working at field level and who would not normally
have access to conventional means of communicating their ideas or to hearing about
our work. £6000-£8000 is usually available for up to two or three
awards.
The closing date is the 15th May and Notes for Applicants are available
from the Trust Office or from our website.
1999 Awards: In September 1999, Oyundari Galsandorj published her Mongolian
translation of R Emil Newman's book called The Complete Handbook on 'Health and Tips'
and Badrul Alam, Bangladesh is hoping that his book entitled 'Medicinal Plants for
Livestock and Poultry in Disaster Prone Areas' will be published later this year.
Kimanzi Muthengi, Kenya, whose project was to produce a video entitled 'Lessons and
challenges of the PRA (Participatory Rural Appraisal) methodology in the Third World:
The Kenyan Experience' is aiming to send it out later this year.
2000 Awards: Three awards were made: Ken Kalonde, Malawi - to publish and
promote a booklet on herbal medicines and treatments; C Paul Alaga Rasan, Tamul Nadu
- to produce/distribute a video entitled Innovative Backyard Mini Fish Farming and
Mokbul Morshed Ahmad, Bangladesh - to publish a book on the NGOs in Bangladesh.
This fund is now fully allocated and we have just received a copy of the final
winner's report - Charles Howie's dissertation for his MSc in Sustainable
Agricultural Systems. Charles's chosen subject was Agriculture and food security in
the rice-producing countries of Asia: Is agriculture in the coastal area of the
Mekong Delta Sustainable?
1999 Awards:
- Oxfordshire Rural Education Initiative - to help to bridge the gap between
the vast amount of information on agriculture which is available for educational
purposes but which has failed to ensure that farming features within the curriculum
for many school children.
- The American Agricultural Economics Association Foundation - towards setting
up a fund in the name of Philip M Raup.
2000 Awards:
- The Rural History Centre at The University of Reading, (originally The
Museum of English Rural Life founded by John Higgs) - towards the costs of
re-location.
- The Archbishops' Rural Commission on Rural Areas - contribution towards the
funding of a Conference following the 10th anniversary of the publication of 'Faith
in the Countryside'.
The Centre continues to build on its success and now has seven core research fellows,
eight contract researchers, and five support staff. So far it has raised over
£3m for rural research, much of this from EU sources. Details are now
disseminated through bi-annual newsletters, and on the Centre's own website which has
links to all of its staff and research projects, as well as to other rural sites. The
Trust is supporting the appointment of a part-time Information Officer at the Centre
with the aim of developing various forms of dissemination, including a new Journal.
To obtain the Newsletter contact: the Centre's website at:
www.abdn.ac.uk/arkleton
The Arkleton Trust
Enstone, Chipping Norton, Oxon OX7 4HH
Telephone: +44 (0) 1608 677255
Fax: +44 (0) 1608 677276
e-mail: arkleton@enstoneuk.demon.co.uk
website: www.enstoneuk.demon.co.uk/arkleton/
The Arkleton Trust, Registered Charity Number: 275153
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3 August 2000