Since 2004, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) has been carrying out "Rural Clustered Villages Development Project(RuVDP) as the core one of Rural Area Development Schemes in Korea. Up to now, 56 projects had been complete...
Since 2004, Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MIFAFF) has been carrying out "Rural Clustered Villages Development Project(RuVDP) as the core one of Rural Area Development Schemes in Korea. Up to now, 56 projects had been completed after having with 5-year plan implementation period, on which it is possible to try post-project evaluation works. This study aims to propose a rational income-generation works model of RuVDP, based on fulfillment checking results of their statutory stepwise working procedures specified in the project guidelines and their interim/post project performance analysis results in 56 project areas above mentioned. In RuVDP, income-generation works generally have both quantitative and qualitative effects to rural communities; the former is focussed on income increasement of villagers, while the latter on community revitalization through job creation and spill-over effects of other linked community activities. So, the research works of this study focussed on these two comprehensive effects above mentioned.
This study is composed of 4 stages. In stage 1, reference points for making research hypotheses were arranged through reviewing of current project-carrying system for rural area development/positive reinterpretation of Saemaul Movement in 1970's/benchmarking of overseas advanced projects. And in stage 2, research hypotheses were set up firstly in view of stage 1 results, from which influential factors to good project performance were drawn and then, questionnaire survey works were followed in order to verify them. In stage 3, by correlation analysis between checking results of stepwise income-generation working procedures and project performance results, the efficacy of project -carrying process was verified. In addition, project performance results in reference with project implementation types were analyzed through the analysis of variance on mutual correlation between 4 classification systems of income-generation works and project results. Finally, in stage 4, considering together analysis results in the previous stages, desirable income-generation working model was proposed, and a tentative carrying system of RuVDP necessary for better application of new model was designed.
Main findings from the study were summarized as follows;
As internal factors on rearrangement of planned income-generation works, self-provision of workshop site and working members' financial contribution were main issues, while legal and statutory restrictions were the most influential as external ones. Anyway, it was certainly verified that income-generation works would contribute to the revitalization of rural communities. And its all stakeholders agreed that income -generation works should be continuously included in RuDVP in future and self-investment of working capital, like as self-provision of workshop site and working members' financial contribution, necessary for project success.
In the initial introduction step, prearranged working procedures including checking activities of community's socio-economic conditions and discussion with community's RuVDP committee were not fully obeyed by the working group, but, its members participating in the works were well organized. Some processes required in the preparation step, for example, setting-up of basic working directions including information gathering in advance and networking including experts consulting were tried properly in general, although the field-trips to the existing workshop cases were somewhat insufficient. Finally, in the planning step, rational decision-making process including participating members' self drawing-up of the initial working-plan draft and lawful measures including recruit of working members conformed to the project guideline were mostly obeyed, however, official supports and abilities for the project were not fully provided.
From the analysis results on factors affecting the performance of income-generation works, it was concluded that all the related indicators -key member's business administration capabilities, recruiting efforts for professional manager, linkage efforts with local industries and positive use of local resources- have a significant influence partially, if not fully.
Among 4-tier classification systems for influential factors on performance level of income-generation works, personal character of main member group and official interim/post-project evaluation results have a significant effect on the project performance, but the other ones, number of participant members and ownership patterns of workshops, have not. All types of main member group made better performance in the secondary sector, specially, the farmers-group type showed higher development potentialities in the secondary sector than the tertiary one. Best prized areas in post-project evaluation showed higher performance level than non-prized ones, among which third graded ones(penalty in the interim, but, best prized in the post-project evaluation) obtained the highest performance.
Finally, an alternative carrying model of income-generation works in RuDVP was proposed. However, many pre-project procedures should be prepared in this model by villagers, which may be difficult in applying in the existing project system. So, from the benchmarking points of Saemaul Movement, introduction of stepwise supporting system depending on the development level of the project area was proposed.