THE POWER OF PEOPLE, PLACES & FIRMS
Reading Time: 11 minutesImagine a world where rural and tropical regions aren’t struggling backwaters, but breeding ground for fresh ideas, new jobs and sustainable growth.
In this episode of our #FromtheGroundUp series, Betty-Ann Bryce (OECD) sits down with Ingo Plöger (CEAL), for a conversation to explore how tropical regions, with abundant natural resources, rich biodiversity and favourable climate, can become engines of sustainable growth, innovation and resilient rural development.
Reading Time: 12 minutesIndia’s rural areas are developing at an extraordinary rate, posing both challenges and opportunities to rethink development at a large scale. Recorded live from the OECD Rural Development Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Shayne MacLachlan speaks with Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Secretary to the Government in the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, about how India’s fascinating track-record of rural transformation can offer practical lessons to policymakers everywhere.
Reading Time: 9 minutesIn Greece, nearly a third of the population lives in rural areas, well above the OECD average, yet rural and urban communities remain deeply interconnected. From local partnerships to place-based investment, new approaches are reshaping how these spaces work together. What Greece teach us about building stronger rural-urban connections through integrated policy?
Reading Time: 10 minutesThe 2025 OECD Report Reinforcing Rural Resilience reveals that OECD regions have seen a significant loss of forests, with approximately 10% of their forest cover disappearing between 2000 and 2020. To discuss solution-based approaches to this issue, we do not need to necessarily turn to new innovations or technologies, but rather we can look to past wisdom of indigenous knowledge in how to care for nature in a long-sustaining manner.
Reading Time: 10 minutesIn 11 of the 29 OECD countries included in the OECD Reinforcing Rural Resilience report, rural populations are declining. Discussing all things decentralisation, digitalisation and democracy in Kazakhstan, Shayne MacLachlan from the OECD has a conversation with Zhanerke Kochiigit. This conversation took place at the 2025 OECD Latin American Rural Development Conference, Rural-Urban Connections: Pathways to Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Have a listen.