3rd World Rural Forum Congress. Towards development in solidarity: challenge and commintment

The 3rd International Congress of the World Rural Forum (WRF) was held from 19th to 21st October, bringing together some 250 representatives from 32 countries.

All of these representatives travelled to Donostia-San Sebastián to discuss the current economic, social and cultural situation of the various regions of the world, and, more particularly, the singular nature of the rural areas. The event was attended by representatives of multilateral agencies such as the FAO, UN, FIDA or the IMF, who informed about the proposals carried out internationally in the struggle against the sub-development problems suffered by many regions of the world. One of the achievements of this encounter was the fact that different bodies were brought together in the same space and time frame, including rural development organisations, groups of agriculturists, the cooperative world, civil society organisations, the business world, governments, which enabled us to discover regional perspectives from Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe.

We can also highlight that, through the debates which arose, the Congress went beyond a simple diagnosis of the situation and focussed on the search for proposals and real opportunities for all-round development.