• Rural Digital Europe

Abstract The characteristic of the concept “rural areas” is widely different, varying from country to country. Similarly, Uzbek rural areas quite differ from Slovak ones. However, in both countries there is not applied a concrete national typology for the classification of rural areas. Therefore, the main aim of the paper is to identify the differences between the rural areas in Uzbekistan and Slovakia and to classify them using the rural - urban typology based on OECD methodology. In the selected countries the rural areas are mainly identified by the number of population living in the rural local units. According to the results of the classification by using the OECD methodology, in Uzbekistan the significantly rural areas prevail whereas in Slovakia, the intermediate ones dominate. However, there is not a big difference in the share of rural population between predominantly rural areas and intermediate ones in the Slovak Republic. In contrast to Slovakia, the number of rural residents in the intermediate rural areas in Uzbekistan is about three times lower than rural population in predominantly rural areas. There is not a predominantly urban area according to this methodology in Uzbekistan, however in Slovakia, Bratislava is the only region considered as predominantly urban area where only 2.2% of rural population from the total population reside.

Barriers to entry of housing affordability are not only existed in urban but also in rural areas. This condition makes rural households difficult to obtain their own house. However, it is still common for them to ask help from parents, in term of financial support or buy the house for them. The purpose of this paper aimed at understanding the phenomenon of society in the rural area to meet their need for house ownership. This research used the descriptive method, employed 15 participants in the Village of Olak-Alen, District of Selorejo, Regency of Blitar, Indonesia. The results of this research showed that newly formed households find their most significant obstacle to own house is inadequate income. Their low income is majorly caused by lack of financial literacy and insufficient work experience.

In 2020, the SHERPA project contributed to the debate on the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas by presenting the key issues identified by the 20 regional and national SHERPA Multi-Actor Platforms (MAPs), and by the EU-level MAP. The MAPs identified their desired visions for 2040, the enabling factors to achieve those visions, the challenges to overcome and the opportunities to be seized. MAPs implemented a Delphi method, which was comprised of desk research and the use of quantitative data (e.g., development indicators, demography etc.), interviews with key informants, and the design, implementation and analysis of online surveys. The outputs of MAP cycle 1 are MAP Position Papers and one SHERPA Position Paper. This Discussion Paper provides a methodological guidance for the second MAP cycle on how to implement a foresight exercise, which is the second stage of the work on the vision. The objective of the foresight exercise is threefold: (i) testing a methodology for prompting more ambitious reflections on the future of their rural area/community and guiding strategic thinking among stakeholders involved, (ii) developing pathways of change which provide inspiration and a basis for decision-making and (iii) producing a MAP Position Paper that enables further analysis and aggregated policy recommendations by the SHERPA consortium. Results will inform SHERPA’s contribution to the EU LTVRA initiative and will be documented into MAP Position Papers as well as analysed in one single document, the SHERPA Position Paper. It will also continue feeding the debate on the long-term vision for rural areas initiated in September 2019, which will result in a Communication of the European Commission aimed to be published in summer 2021. The document presents the SHERPA approach, and logic of, the foresight exercise. The majority of the document provides the main information needed to prepare for and virtually run the workshops, broken down into five main steps.

This study examined, Psychosocial Factors that Contribute to Underachievement among Primary School Pupils in the Rural Areas of Fako Division in the South West Region, Republic of Cameroon. The survey research design was used. The sample consisted of 150 pupils, 28 teachers and 50 parents. The table of random numbers was used to select pupils, the purposive sampling technique was used to select parents and all the teachers of the sampled schools were used for this study. Instruments for data collection were two sets of questionnaires, one for teachers and another for pupils interview guide for pupils. One was formulated to guide the study. The finding showed that there is a high relationship between pupils' self perception and their underachievement in rural areas and at the end, recommendations were made. Zora Ikala Ekonde "Psychosocial Factors that Contribute to Underachievement among Pupils in Rural Areas of Fako Division" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-2 , February 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd21469.pdf

The basic characteristic of Slovene agriculture is the fact that for a longtime it has been developing in a totally different direction from the EU agriculture.This is especially true in the case of agrarian structure and itsdevelopment. While in the countries with developed agriculture, togetherwith the improvement of agricultural technology the process of enlargement of farms and concentration and specialisation of production weregoing on relatively fast, the private sector of Slovene agriculture until the1990s was characterised by permanent decrease and fragmentation of theland property, by low working intensity of production and, in some areas,by gradual abandoning of production. It can be maintained that in Sloveneagriculture the discrepancy between social-economic structure of ruralpopulation and agrarian structure has become deeper. Evident processesresulted in a fact that Slovenia has a demographic structure of developedsociety (from the viewpoint of share of rural population), but, with regardto agrarian structure, it has the characteristics of a classical agrarian society.