Ó An Roinn Forbartha Tuaithe agus Pobail
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Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys, has today (28 September) welcomed delegates to the 13th OECD Rural Development Conference.
It is the first time that the Conference has been held in this country, and provides a unique opportunity to discuss the challenges and opportunities in rural areas with representatives of the 38 OECD member states.
Ireland will share its experience of rural development, particularly in relation to the national policy ‘Our Rural Future’ – 2021-2025.
The Conference sees approx. 400 delegates from across the OECD countries, including government ministers, senior policy makers, academics and a range of key stakeholders in the rural sector.
It will provide a platform for more than 80 Irish and international speakers to highlight the current status and progress of rural development across the globe.
Opening the conference, Minister Humphreys said:
“I am absolutely delighted to welcome such a significant number of international representatives, working in rural development, to this wonderful rural setting in Co Cavan. The opportunity to host this important Conference reflects the ambitious nature of rural development in this country, with Ireland, and the Our Rural Future policy in particular, seen as a fine example of rural policy-making in action. I am very excited about Irish rural stakeholders having a role in shaping international rural development policy priorities. Nonetheless, we still have much to learn from our OECD colleagues, and I look forward to meeting our friends from all over the world, to exchange our views and ideas on the shared challenges and opportunities facing rural areas.”
OECD Deputy Secretary-General Yoshiki Takeuchi added:
“I hope policy makers grab the opportunities brought by long-term transformations and short-term shocks to work together across policy areas and levels of government to take action for thriving rural places."
The Conference will take place over three days, and includes an address by Taoiseach Micheál Martin on Thursday, with a final day cultural tour for delegates, to highlight local rural programmes and tourist attractions.
Our Rural Future 2021-2025, is the most ambitious rural development policy for Ireland in decades, and contains more than 150 measures across the whole of government, for both short-term recovery and longer-term development.
It contains measures for delivery across 22 departments and State agencies and provides a blueprint for rural development investments and supports over the period to 2025.
Updates on policy implementation are provided by a series of Progress Reports and Annual Work Programmes; with the latter allows for revised priorities in light of emerging opportunities and challenges.
The First and Second Progress Reports both published this year, provided updates on the actions contained in the 2021 Work Programme, and those in this year’s Programme for completion in the first half of 2022.
Both reports reflected a high level of progress to date under the policy, with completion rates of 80% and 72% respectively, demonstrating the government’s continued commitment to realising the ambitions of Our Rural Future.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organisation that works to build better policies for better lives. Their goal is to shape policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all, drawing on 60 years of experience and insights to better prepare the world of tomorrow.
Together with governments, policy makers and citizens, they work on establishing evidence-based international standards and finding solutions to a range of social, economic and environmental challenges. From improving economic performance and creating jobs to fostering strong education and fighting international tax evasion, they provide a unique forum and knowledge hub for data and analysis, exchange of experiences, best-practice sharing, and advice on public policies and international standard-setting.