problems. A major line of work is the Foundation's support for
innovative social forestry programs that enlist rural communities
and forestry agencies in joint projects to improve management of
forest lands while creating economic opportunities for poor rural
households.
Rural
Community Development
The 1980s
brought hard times to most rural communities around the world,
including those in the United States. In many countries, the double
blow of global competition and regressive national policies
resulted in large increases in rates of rural poverty and
unemployment, and in the percentage of workers who earn low
wages.
In the United
States, rural communities were hit particularly hard by decreases
in transportation services that followed deregulation, by
diminishing tax revenues for education, by rising costs of health
care, and by the federal and state fiscal crises that curtailed
welfare and income supports and limited public investment in
long-term development.
In response
to these mounting problems in rural America, and especially to the
continuing decline of chronically poor rural communities, the
Foundation increased support for such key institutions serving
rural communities as the Foundation for the Mid-South and First
Nations Development Institute. These groups help expand economic
opportunities for disadvantaged rural people and strengthen rural
communities' ability to meet the needs of working families. The
Foundation is considering collaboration with statewide and regional
community foundations, state associations of community development
corporations, and consortia of rural community colleges serving
high-poverty areas. Foundation staff also are seeking to identify
national or regional intermediary organizations that can help
community institutions develop the technical and organizational
capacity to serve as catalysts for local initiatives and as
advocates for policies to improve the lives of the rural poor.
The
Foundation is supporting rural community activities in developing
countries around the world. In West Africa, for example, the many
village development associations in Senegal and neighboring
countries are being assisted through a grant to Development
Innovations and Networks, which is helping to set up a new entity
called the Program of Research and Support for Peasant
Associations. This new group is slated to become a rural community
foundation—the first of its kind in the region.