Rural development policies

National and local governments as well as development organisations are looking for policies that are likely to result in the desired development outcomes such as rural pro-poor growth, sustainable use of natural resources, better livelihoods for the poor or more equitable access to resources. However, there is a broad range of often contradicting views on what are the right policies. Evidence-based policy (EBP) as opposed to opinion-based policy, is an approach that "helps people make well informed decisions about policies, programmes and projects by putting the best available evidence from research at the heart of policy development and implementation.”