‘Logics of Rural Transformation’ workshop explores sustainable rural development

More than two dozen academics and development practitioners gathered at Makerere University in Uganda to discuss rural revitalization and community-driven development during “The Logics of Rural Transformation” workshop.

Participants explored the underlying logics animating different approaches to rural development and considered how different approaches to rural development enhance or undermine the capability to stay in rural places.

They also explored the Parish Development Model (PDM) as an exercise in rural governance, led by Vesall Nourani, director of the Development Innovations Lab at the University of Chicago. Adopted by the Government of Uganda, the PDM is a development approach that positions the Parish Development Committee (PDC) at the center of planning, implementation and monitoring development initiatives. PDCs are empowered to utilize local knowledge and other resources to address their parish specific socio-economic problems.

“A recurrent theme in our discussions was the importance of integrating local and indigenous knowledge into strategies for community-driven development," said Kerilyn Schewel, who co-facilitated the workshop. "We discussed the opportunities and obstacles to achieving this within Uganda’s Parish Development Model.”

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The workshop was co-hosted by the Duke Center for International Development, the Development Innovations Lab at the University of Chicago and Makerere University, and part of the two-year Rural Development and the Capability to Stay project, funded by the Social Science Research Council.

The Rural Development and the Capability to Stay project began in 2022 to generate interdisciplinary and global insights for sustainable rural development that can enhance the capability to stay and flourish in rural places.

Schewel, who is part of the Rural Development and the Capability to Stay research team, is a lecturing fellow at the Duke Center for International Development and Sanford School of Public Policy and co-director of the Duke Program on Climate-Related Migration. Her research examines the root causes of human migration and immobility, with an emphasis on the themes of gender, youth, rural development and climate change.