Abstract:
The following paper advocates an active rural employment policy in order to reduce
rural poverty in the development countries and initiate a sustainable development
process. The permanent large increases in the population call for a significant number
of employment and income opportunities. As the agricultural sector's capacity to
provide employment is limited, the only alternative is the rural non-farm sector with
its agri-business sector and its substantial capacity to offer employment. In order to
achieve that goal, however, it will be necessary to establish a large number of very
small, small and middle-sized enterprises. Highly motivated, innovative entrepreneurs
are a prerequisite in addition to an adequate societal frame and supporting
institutions.
Innovative entrepreneurs invest their knowledge and capital and, hence, create active
innovations with increased productivity in the rural sectors and generate employment
and income opportunities.
Machine summary:
"The groups of these generally very poor people in the rural regions need, in other words, productive employment opportunities to earn an income which demand only very limited formal educational qualifica tions.
These sectors are, as a rule, labour intensively and capital exten sively organized and, thus, are particularly suited for creating additional employment in face of the specific conditions, an poor infrastructure, a low educational level and a lack of capital in the rural regions.
The employment of knowledge and, hence, inven tions is the step that leads to real innovations and the stimulation of economic growth and development and precisely this fundamental notion in connection with the actors (entrepreneurs) is simultaneously the approach leading to the creation of job opportunities in already existing or new enterprises.
5. Supporting Organizations The establishment and improvement of employment promoting struc tures for very small, small and middlesized enterprises in the rural regions of the development countries does not only demand favourable political and economic policy frame conditions but also the provision of the necessary services to support the entrepreneurs and enterprises.
Therefore it is necessary to link an active jobcreating policy to an effective general improvement of the economic and sociopolitical frame conditions, and that can only be achieved on the basis of strategic support of small enterprises in the rural regions of the developing countries.
At this point, I would like to advocate the active promo tion of the establishment of new enterprises in the agribusiness sector and the direct creation of job opportunities as part of the economic development policy."