Interinstitutional Coordination for Constructing Social Capital that Will Benefit the Processes of Rural Development

Abstract

This paper summarizes research to substantiate the lack of coordination between institutions and organizations linked to rural development in the country, and learn the causes of it, to try to help overcome them in order to provide greater efficiency to the processes of Rural Development. The investigation was based on the analysis of the performance of coordinating bodies of Uruguay Rural Development Project, plus the views of the chairmen of the Departmental Agricultural Councils established by the Ministry of Agriculture. In Uruguay, it has historically been difficult to get the various organizations and institutions related to agriculture coordinate their actions, what we consider an essential aspect especially for those organizations which promote rural development. This lack of coordination constitutes an obstacle to building the social capital which would give greater impetus to development processes. The coordination of actions between the organizations linked to rural development would build social capital, and would reduce what the New Institutional Economics call «transaction costs.» Thus, it could make more efficient use of resources generally scarce and generate real rural development processes. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen inter-institutional coordination to achieve synergies that promote actions Territorial Rural Development.