{"id":24989,"date":"2022-08-17T10:59:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T09:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/urbanpolicyplatform.org\/?page_id=24989"},"modified":"2026-01-08T11:53:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T08:53:55","slug":"urban-rural-linkages","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/urbanpolicyplatform.org\/urban-rural-linkages\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban-Rural Linkages"},"content":{"rendered":"

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WHAT ARE<\/span><\/div>\n
URBAN RURAL LINKAGES?<\/span><\/div>\n

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Urban-Rural Linkages touch on a broad variety of thematic areas ranging from urban and territorial planning, strengthening small and intermediate towns, from enabling spatial flows of people, products, services and information to fostering food security systems as well as touching mobility and migration, reducing the environmental impact in urban-rural convergences, developing legislation and governance structures and promoting inclusive financial investments among others. Fostering Partnerships \u2013 between urban and rural actors and areas at the local level are crucial for a transformative agenda. But also global partnerships for an integrated territorial development are crucial for transforming towards sustainable and resilient societies. Through shared principles these levels of transformation can be better aligned.<\/p>\n

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WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO LINK URBAN AND RURAL AREAS?<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]While the world, and especially Africa, is rapidly urbanizing, the development gap between rural and urban areas tends to increase. Urbanization has been widely acknowledged for its transformative power, but even though urban and rural areas depend on each other, rural areas often lag behind and worldwide, 85 per cent of the poor still live in rural areas. In both the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs)1 and the New Urban Agenda (NUA)2, United Nations Member States agreed to policies that support integrated urban and territorial planning and development. They called for new, inclusive approaches and enhanced synergies between urban and rural communities and spaces \u2013 an essential component of the vision of Agenda 2030 to \u201cleave no one behind\u201d.<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row full_width=”stretch_row” content_placement=”middle” disable_custom_paddings_tablet=”true” disable_custom_paddings_mobile=”true” css=”.vc_custom_1727238985947{background-color: rgba(0,176,80,0.14) !important;*background-color: rgb(0,176,80) !important;}”][vc_column offset=”vc_hidden-sm vc_hidden-xs”]

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Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and Framework for Action<\/h4>\n

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UN-Habitat initiated and convened the process to develop \u201cUrban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and framework for Action\u201d with over 130 actors ranging from experts working in the field of urban, rural, and territorial development, representatives of national and sub-national governments, development partners, think tanks, academia, and intergovernmental organizations. The Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and framework of actions are based on the premise that urban and rural areas should not be treated as separate entities when development plans, policies and strategies are made. Rather, the aim is to harness the potential that their combined synergy generates, so that everyone benefits from the circular flow along the urban-rural continuum. The goal of these Guiding Principles is to inform pragmatic strategies and propose a Framework for Action to build an enabling environment for more inclusive and functional urban-rural linkages. The principles are flexible and can be applied by all levels of stakeholders at all scales.<\/p>\n

Access the URL-GP to Advance Integrated Territorial Development publication in English<\/a>, French<\/a>, Spanish<\/a>, Arabic<\/a>, Chinese<\/a><\/strong> and Portuguese<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0that was launched in May 2019 during the UN-Habitat Assembly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles (URL-GP)<\/h5>\n

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Translate global normative agendas in national and subnational commitments for territorial cohesion and action.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Locally Grounded Interventions<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Incorporate the urban-rural nexus in multi-sectoral, multi-level and multi-stakeholder approaches to governance integration.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Intergrated Governance
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Promote integrative, inclusive and systems-based approaches to urban and territorial policy and planning.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Functional and Spatial Systems-Based Approaches<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Secure and prioritize sustainable public and private investment to balance and strengthen urban-rural linkages.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Financial Inclusive
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Foster partnerships, alliances and networks that link urban and rural actors and different sectors.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Balanced Partnerships
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Translate global normative agendas in national and subnational commitments for territorial cohesion and action.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Human Rights-Based
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Build urban-rural linkages to recognize cultural differences, overcome conflict, and inequalities in provision of social and health services.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Do not Harm and Provide Social Protection
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Protect, sustain, and expand areas important to biodiversity and ecosystem services in transition to resilient, resource efficient societies.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Environmentally Sensitive
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Create spaces and mechanisms to ensure meaningful participation of people, local institutions and communities.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Participatory Engagement
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Establish or improve knowledge systems and fill data gaps to address urban-rural continuum and territorial cohesion using age- gender- and spatially disaggregated data.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Data Driven and Evidence Based
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e-learning course – Functional Urban-Rural Linkages for Sustainable Urbanization<\/div>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]This course provides an overall understanding of the significance of urban-rural linkages to sustainable urbanization and integrated territorial development. It also provides a detailed overview and methodologies of localizing the \u2018URL-GP\u2019 (Urban-Rural Linkages: Guiding Principles and Framework of Action)<\/strong><\/p>\n

The course conceived around the following premises:[\/vc_column_text]