Most development theory and practice is implicitly based on the dichotomy between 'rural' and 'urban' areas, populations and activities. This is reflected in the division of policies along spatial and sectoral lines, with urban planners usually concentrating on urban nodes and giving scant attention to agricultural or rural-led development, while rural development planners tend to ignore urban centres and define rural areas as consisting only of villages and their agricultural land.
This, however, does not reflect the reality of households' livelihoods, which often include both rural and urban elements. For example, many urban enterprises rely on demand from rural consumers, and access to urban markets and services is crucial for most agricultural producers. In both rural and urban areas, a significant proportion of households relies on income diversification and on the combination of agricultural and non-agricultural income sources.
Even when spatial development policies have attempted to integrate rural and urban dimensions, they have often failed because they were based on inaccurate generalisations about the relationship between the two.
This paper reviews the ways in which urban and rural livelihoods are intertwined, drawing on many examples from around the world. It highlights how positive rural-urban interactions and equitable development can be fostered by backward and forward linkages between agricultural production and industry and services.
For these backward and forward linkages to be made and to work requires some major shifts in the way planners and policy makers think. Policies encouraging these mutually reinforcing linkages need to overcome the traditional separation between rural and urban planners. They also need to avoid generalisations and be grounded in the specifics of the regional context. One of the most important points to bear in mind is that the potential for rural-urban linkages to contribute to poverty reduction will only be realised if measures are taken to address wider social inequalities, such as access to resources and information. This therefore has numerous implications for activities such as local government, and rural extension services, as well as calling for the need to address such issues at national and international levels.
