Seminar on rural poverty

A successful seminar was organised in Budapest on rural poverty co-organized by the Regoverning Markets Project. There were 4 presentations. Three of them covered the status and determinants of rural poverty with specific emphasis on child poverty and regional differences. There were about 45 participants representing a wide rage of stakeholders including politicians and even the Chatolic Church. The President (Speaker) of the Hungarian Parliament also attended and participated in the discussion. The discussion was lively, 8 persons made comments or raised questions. The importance of human factors, especially rural education was emphasized by several participants of the debate. The major conclusion of the seminar was that the human factor is a major determinant of poverty levels in the success or failure of small farmers on the restructured markets .The need of public support to lagging areas and small farmers were also pointed out with a number of specific proposals. The Seminar has got significant media coverage as well.