Analysis of the perspective of integrating the national rural development policy into communal development plans in Chile

Abstract

This work explores the perspective of integrating the goals that the recent enactment of Chile's National Policy for Rural Development (PNDR in Spanish) seeks at a local level in planning instruments for rural communities in Chile. For this purpose, it reviews, classifies, and above all analyzes the contents of each Communal Development Plan (PLADECO in Spanish) of a total of 30 rural communes in the country. From north to south, the PLADECOs of these rural communes are evaluated based on their content, considering their empirical grounds, goals, concepts and governance, as well as their prevailing rural development areas and their interaction with the regulatory-institutional framework at a regional and sectoral level. The results provide important evidence on the limited proximity current PLADECOs have with the contents of the PNDR (a policy that integrates elements of the new rurality and/or rural territorial development), especially from the point of view of their ties with other normative and indicative planning instruments, sectoral policies and their interaction with institutional actors.