tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/urban-and-rural-populations-26840/articlesurban and rural populations – The Conversation2020-04-10T12:50:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1357792020-04-10T12:50:19Z2020-04-10T12:50:19Z‘Coronavirus holidays’ stoke rural fury<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/326261/original/file-20200407-41014-3vv8a5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C42%2C4007%2C2975&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A protest sign in rural Wales.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Allan Shepherd</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Catherine Calderwood, forced to resign as Scotland’s chief medical officer, is far from the only city dweller to have caused controversy by flouting lockdown rules to visit her second home in the countryside. Resentment over <a href="https://nation.cymru/news/police-crime-commissioner-lockdowns-needed-to-avoid-coronavirus-holidays-in-wales/">“coronavirus holidays”</a> is rising.</p>
<p>The Covid-19 crisis has prompted some to seek to escape the city. Green spaces are more appealing than cramped apartments and <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b58f525c-c49c-4568-89e6-24d3ab2e6389">quick transmission rates</a>. Culturally, city dwellers have long imagined country life to be cleaner, happier and healthier than being in conurbations. Current war metaphors in politics and the media might also cause people in the UK to think of the Blitz, when <a href="https://history.blog.gov.uk/2019/08/30/child-evacuees-in-the-second-world-war-operation-pied-piper-at-80/">more than 1.5 million Britons were evacuated</a> to the countryside – with good reason. But the virus is not a bomb nor a visible enemy. Data from genetics professor Tim Spector’s <a href="https://covid.joinzoe.com">COVID-19 symptom tracker app</a> already suggests that people leaving the city have <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-fears-of-second-home-hordes-bringing-covid-19-to-holiday-havens-may-have-come-true-k868w2fzb">unwittingly packed the virus with them</a>.</p>
<p>Travel restrictions aim to avoid this spread. In Wales, after a sunny weekend saw surging rural visitor numbers, the Welsh government quickly <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-52004559">closed caravan parks and tourist hotspots</a>. These moves were also motivated by the risk of overwhelming local health services. If large urban hospitals struggle to cope with Covid-19, rural clinics and local GPs are even less well-equipped. Failing to follow her own guidance to stay home <a href="https://www.gov.scot/news/statement-from-the-chief-medical-officer/">cost Calderwood her job</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, ire has greeted French authors Leïla Slimani and Marie Darrieussecq, who both revealed that they have traded lockdown in Paris for their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/06/french-writers-corona-getaways-prompt-backlash-leila-slimani-marie-darrieussecq">rural second homes</a>. Darrieussecq admitted she’d avoided a frosty local reception by hiding her car and its Parisian licence plates. More than epidemiology lies behind the anger.</p>
<p>From my (only) home and <a href="https://rural-urban.eu/living-lab/mid-wales">research base in rural Wales</a>, I’ve watched local anger spill over into bedsheet banners and graffiti warning urban incomers to “go home!”</p>
<p>Old conflicts echo. In the 1980s and 1990s, the “Sons of Glyndŵr” committed dozens of arson attacks against English-owned holiday homes. Nationalism and provocation aside, tensions simmered over local residents being priced out of their own communities by second home buyers with city salaries. The problem hasn’t gone away. A recent <a href="https://www.ippr.org/research/publications/a-new-rural-settlement">report from the IPPR</a> argues that there is a rural “crisis of affordability ”.</p>
<p>Planners and social scientists have long looked at rural second home ownership, finding pluses and minuses. Against rural decline, weekenders keep houses in repair and spend money in local shops and on local tradespeople. They pay taxes without drawing on services. But they can also make services less viable. Second home owners don’t send their children to the village school; they’re unlikely to register with a local GP, rely on public transport or need a nearby bank branch. Without demand, rural services wither.</p>
<h2>Remote problems?</h2>
<p>In reality, the impact of second homes can’t be separated from the wider social and economic processes that continue to change the countryside. Change can be necessary and innovative. Change can also cause harm. Research by <a href="https://www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk/research/recharging-rural">the Prince’s Countryside Fund</a> found that rural residents across Britain are feeling increasingly remote. Physical distance hasn’t changed. Instead, shops and schools have closed, services centralised, and options squeezed. The same sense of getting away from it all that charms city dwellers can feel bleak to locals.</p>
<p>Coronavirus hasn’t created anger that wasn’t already simmering. Those privileged enough to slip the city for a second home haven’t created the challenges rural communities face. But they have exposed the inequalities between those who can relax in the rural idyll, and those struggling to find a house, get a job, or catch a bus. We won’t solve these differences with spray painted signs or forced resignations. But we do need to solve them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135779/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins receives funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements 726950 and 727988.</span></em></p>Perhaps this crisis will focus minds on the problems caused by neglecting rural areas.Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins, Postdoctoral Research Associate in Geography, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/699202017-01-06T13:23:30Z2017-01-06T13:23:30ZOutdated ‘urban passports’ still rule the lives of China’s rural citizens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151618/original/image-20170103-18679-1y0dg9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/edwardandcaroline/5182740701/sizes/l">Edward and Caroline/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In recent years, China has gained a global reputation for its juggernaut economy and breathtaking social change. Yet beneath this shining veneer, an outdated Maoist institution continues to define the life chances of Chinese citizens: it’s called “hukou”. </p>
<p>Hukou is a kind of passport system, which limits access to public services, based on the birthplace of the holder. It was first established in 1954 to immobilise China’s large rural population, as China’s Chairman Mao Zedong sought to contain any possible challenges to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) new autocratic regime. The result was a highly segregated society. </p>
<p>Having an urban hukou allowed citizens to enjoy privileged access to public services such as education, health, housing and pensions. Meanwhile, citizens with a rural hukou were more or less deprived of access to the country’s limited welfare system, and unable to move freely to China’s more affluent urban centres along the east coast. </p>
<h2>Rush to the city</h2>
<p>After Mao died in 1976, realities on the ground gradually began to change. Young Chinese people who had been sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution (from 1966 to 1976) were returning to the cities. Throughout <a href="http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/chinas-young-rural-urban-migrants-search-fortune-happiness-and-independence">the 1980s and early 1990s</a>, China’s economy picked up steam, drawing millions of rural migrants into urban industrial clusters to become low-wage labourers.</p>
<p>Rural dwellers were attracted by the new job opportunities, which promised an escape from abject poverty in China’s countryside. But migrating from the countryside to the city came with its own challenges. While it provided a pathway for social upward mobility, rural migrants routinely experienced discrimination at the hands of Chinese city-dwellers. Rural migrants mostly carried out dirty, dangerous and demeaning jobs, which urbanites were not willing to do. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151617/original/image-20170103-18679-173it05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151617/original/image-20170103-18679-173it05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=199&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151617/original/image-20170103-18679-173it05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=199&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151617/original/image-20170103-18679-173it05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=199&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151617/original/image-20170103-18679-173it05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151617/original/image-20170103-18679-173it05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/151617/original/image-20170103-18679-173it05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=250&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Walking away.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bginch88/2132450758/sizes/l">Renato @ Mainland China/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To make matters worse, the strict hukou system made it almost impossible for rural migrants to bring their families with them to the city. As a result, China’s countryside is now populated primarily by elderly people, women and children. In fact, it’s estimated that more than <a href="http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/opinion/1506/216-1.htm">61m children</a> have been left behind in China’s villages, to be looked after by older siblings or grandparents. Many suffer from psychological problems caused by the long-term separation from their parents.</p>
<p>The CCP has been mindful of these challenges, and has introduced economic policies – such as <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/china-quarterly/article/div-classtitlechinaandaposs-campaign-to-build-a-new-socialist-countryside-village-modernization-peasant-councils-and-the-ganzhou-model-of-rural-developmenta-hreffns01-ref-typefnadiv/D9A5DB8DF97078B6595B2250CEABE12A">Building a New Socialist Countryside</a> – to improve infrastructure and economic development in rural China. But these investments have neither stemmed the flow of rural-urban migration, nor addressed the core issue of increasing social inequality. </p>
<h2>The road to reform</h2>
<p>In recent years, the CCP has announced piecemeal reforms to the hukou system, to try to allow some of the <a href="https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/191876/adbi-wp593.pdf">236m migrants</a> living away from home to acquire an urban hukou and gain extra entitlements. A number of municipalities have introduced an Australian-style, points-based system, which means applicants who meet certain criteria become eligible for urban hukou. </p>
<p>The government has encouraged cities to relax their criteria, but requirements for first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai remain far more onerous than those for second and third-tier cities in other parts of China. What’s more, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/2016/12/28/chinas-urbanization-plans-need-to-move-faster-in-2017/#75ae66183c3b">additional caps</a> on rural migrants means that in practice, only a fraction of those who are eligible are actually granted urban hukou. </p>
<p>Hukou reforms are also complicated by the fact that land reform has made little progress in China. Rural Chinese are wary of giving up their rural hukou, which entitles them to a small plot of land. Such land use rights provide a limited safety net for rural Chinese – particularly those who do not enjoy the benefits of an urban pension. </p>
<p>In China, the distinction between citizens with rural or urban hukou is increasingly seen as arbitrary. In 2008, some Chinese citizens called on the CCP to abolish the system in its entirety. Signatories of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11955763">Charter 08</a> – a progressive manifesto for the future of China – said that an alternative system should be established, which “gives every citizen the same constitutional rights and the same freedom to choose where to live”. </p>
<p>So far, the CCP has ignored calls to abolish the hukou system. Some authors of Charter 08 have even been imprisoned. Meaningful reform of the hukou system will require the party to be more open to bottom-up, civil society initiatives and policy advice, to level the playing field for both rural and urban Chinese citizens.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69920/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andreas Fulda does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>China’s hukou system is a relic of the Mao era – and it’s holding the nation’s rural population back.Andreas Fulda, Assistant Professor, School of Politics and International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/626642016-07-20T18:30:12Z2016-07-20T18:30:12ZWhy low-fee private schools are struggling to take root in rural Nigeria<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/130948/original/image-20160718-2122-1b1q13s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low-cost private schooling isn't accessible to children in Nigeria's rural areas.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Akintunde Akinleye/Reuters</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On a walk through the slums of Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, or its economic heartland, Lagos, you’ll learn something about the country’s education system today: low-cost private schools are everywhere. </p>
<p>They’re small and often occupy ramshackle buildings, but they cater for the <a href="http://www.esspin.org/resources/reports/lagos">vast majority</a> of children in Lagos, and appear to be doing so in Abuja’s slums too. These schools far outnumber government institutions in such settlements. A Lagos or Abuja slum will usually have just one government school compound; not enough to cater for all the children in the catchment area. </p>
<p>This development isn’t unique to Nigeria. Low-fee private schools are <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21660113-private-schools-are-booming-poor-countries-governments-should-either-help-them-or-get-out">on the rise</a> in India, Pakistan, Ghana, Kenya and Uganda. Even when a government provides free universal primary education, many parents will still choose to pay because they believe private schooling gives their children a better chance for learning – or because the government school is just too far to walk to. </p>
<p>Nigerians in cities have some choices about where to school their children. But what about their counterparts in the country’s expansive rural areas? Research I’ve conducted <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03050068.2016.1142737">finds</a> that it’s <a href="http://www.esspin.org/resources/reports/kwara">very rare</a> for children in rural areas to have any access to private schooling. Instead they are forced to rely on poor quality, poorly resourced government schools.</p>
<h2>What’s happening in Kwara State</h2>
<p>Nigeria’s population was estimated at more than 182 million in 2015. Its rural population accounts for <a href="http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL">just over half</a>.</p>
<p>I conducted a study for the UK Department for International Development’s Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria while living in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State. Kwara is one of Nigeria’s poorest and least-known states. It doesn’t enjoy the same prosperity as the south-west yet neither does it struggle with intractable problems such as those of the north-east or the Niger Delta. </p>
<p>With a team of fieldworkers I set out to find out how many private schools had popped up in Ilorin, the state’s largest urban centre, focusing on and reaching every part of Ilorin West Local Government Area. We wanted to contrast this with what we would find in Kwara’s remote rural areas, choosing Baruten in the state’s north-west and Ifelodun in the south-east. To do so, we walked through town to reach the most hidden corners, and drove long distances in the country, exploring all the villages we could find. </p>
<p>The condition of Kwara’s government education system was abysmal at the start of our work in the state. An <a href="http://www.esspin.org/resources/reports/kwara">assessment</a> conducted in 2008, three years before our fieldwork, found that fewer than half of one percentage point of the state’s teachers could pass a test of primary grade 4 level material.</p>
<p>Some parents have been increasingly responding to this low quality by pulling their children out of government education in favour of relatively low-fee private schools. This was especially true in urban Ilorin. But there were barely any low-fee private schools in the rural areas we studied. </p>
<h2>Hardly any market</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/131052/original/image-20160719-13868-yx3p9h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There are far more low-fee private schools in Kwara State’s urban centres than in its rural areas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We found 294 low-fee private schools in urban Ilorin. Only a third of these were known to the government’s Ministry of Education.</p>
<p>The situation was very different in the rural areas. We drove for endless kilometres on unbelievably rough roads with no form of public transportation, from remote village to remote village. In Baruten and Ifelodun combined we found about a third of the number we’d located in just one large part of Ilorin.</p>
<p>In most villages people didn’t even know what a private school was. They usually simply directed us to the only village school: that provided by the government.</p>
<p>In the same year, Nigeria carried out a nationally representative household survey with the support of USAID. It <a href="https://www.eddataglobal.org/household/index.cfm?fuseaction=showDatasetDir&A2=NG">found</a> that just 9.3% of all rural children were attending private schools in Kwara State. The figure was 58% for urban children. Starker still: 1.5% of those children who fall in the poorest 40% of Kwara’s population were attending private school. The figure was 80% among the richest 20% of children. </p>
<p>Neither my study’s findings nor those of the representative household survey are surprising. There is simply virtually no market for private schooling in remote rural areas of this Nigerian state.</p>
<p>Why is this the case?</p>
<h2>Geography and poverty</h2>
<p>Part of the reason is geographical. Kwara is sparsely populated. At the time of our study there were just 80 people per square kilometre. Contrast that with another area that <a href="http://www.create-rpc.org/pdf_documents/PTA23.pdf">I’ve studied</a>, rural western Uttar Pradesh in India. This had 820 people per square kilometre at about the same time and many private schools alongside those run by the government.</p>
<p>Low-fee private schools are essentially businesses. They need to cover their costs: teachers’ salaries, basic materials and infrastructure, and a salary for the head of the school who is usually also the proprietor. So if there are relatively few children in a village and some are going to government school – which are relatively plentiful in these rural areas – then in most places there are simply too few children to support a private school’s existence. There are often too few children to support the existence of more than one of any type of school.</p>
<p>The second and biggest reason for the lack of growth in Kwara’s private schooling landscape is poverty.</p>
<p>A poor child in Kwara is lucky to go to school at all. The household survey showed that two-thirds of ten- to 16-year-olds in the poorest 40% had never been enrolled in any school. The indications are that fee-paying options are no solution for the very poor. And there is therefore no market logic for private operators.</p>
<h2>Where to improve the system</h2>
<p>So how can the absence of access to quality education for rural Nigerians be addressed?</p>
<p>The most equitable action would involve fixing government schools – while at the same time leaving existing private schools to just get on with what they are doing. The government needs to concentrate its resources on reaching the poor and remote. Quality simply must be improved to make accessing government schools appear worthwhile.</p>
<p>There are aspects of private school management, staffing and teaching methods that currently failing government systems could usefully adopt. </p>
<p>These include, wherever possible, hiring local people who are part of the community. They’ll have a greater understanding of their neighbours, and be more accountable. They’ll also be used to living in tough rural conditions and won’t miss classes because they’re relying on public transport from elsewhere.</p>
<p>If they are not so knowledgeable, and maybe not qualified teachers (just like existing government teachers), these people can be supported with extensive materials to boost their teaching. The Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria has already drawn on this approach in its work with government school teachers by developing set lesson plans for all teachers to use. On-paper qualifications should not be everything: many of Kwara’s failing teachers tested in 2008 were formally qualified.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/62664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanna Härmä received funding from the UK Department for International Development to conduct this research.</span></em></p>It’s unusual for children in Nigeria’s rural areas to have any access to private schooling, even if it’s of the low-cost variety. They must rely instead on poorly resourced government schools.Joanna Härmä, Visiting Research Fellow in Education, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/604232016-06-09T01:52:32Z2016-06-09T01:52:32ZTechnology is improving – why is rural broadband access still a problem?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125166/original/image-20160603-11593-1123elo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting internet access to rural areas can be difficult.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-210931219/stock-photo-a-tractor-with-trailers-is-laying-fiber-optic-cables-glass-fibers-are-employed-as-fiber-optic.html">Tractor laying cables via shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There is a well-documented “digital divide” between rural and urban areas when it comes to broadband access. As of 2015, 74 percent of households in urban areas of the U.S. had residential broadband connections, compared with only 64 percent of rural households. This gap has persisted over time.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125047/original/image-20160602-23293-t67ir4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The urban-rural broadband adoption ‘digital divide.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2016/digital-nation-data-explorer">U.S. Census Bureau data, via NTIA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My own research reveals that broadband adoption can help improve the economy in these rural areas (including <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2014.05.005">increasing income, lowering unemployment rates</a> and <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00168-014-0637-x">creating jobs</a>). In addition, we know that roughly 40 percent of the rural-urban adoption gap is because rural areas <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2015.03.002">don’t have the same level of broadband access</a>. </p>
<p>Technology continues to improve, enabling <a href="http://www.jaxenergy.com/broadband/faq/downloads/FTTHQ&A.pdf">existing wiring to carry more and more data</a>. The federal government has historically tried to <a href="https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30719.pdf">provide infrastructure in rural areas</a>. Its latest effort, known as the “<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf">Connect America Fund</a>” (CAF), initially <a href="http://www.connectednation.org/category/blog-tags/connect-america-fund">offered US$10 billion in subsidies</a> to the largest telecom companies to begin offering service in unserved areas.</p>
<p>In some states, those large providers rejected that offer – so that territory is <a href="http://www.telecompetitor.com/upcoming-caf-reverse-auctions-puts-markets-in-20-states-up-for-grabs-for-broadband-funding/">now available to smaller providers</a>. Clearly, it is still significantly more difficult to deploy broadband in rural areas. In fact, <a href="http://www.broadbandmap.gov/download/Broadband%20Availability%20in%20Rural%20vs%20Urban%20Areas.pdf">the latest data show</a> that only 55 percent of people living in rural areas have access to the speeds that currently qualify as broadband, while 94 percent of the urban population does. Why is this, exactly?</p>
<h2>What’s ‘broadband,’ anyway?</h2>
<p>Legally speaking, “broadband” is whatever the Federal Communications Commission says it is. In the early 2000s, the FCC defined “broadband” connections as those that could transfer data at a speed of 200 kilobytes per second (kbps) in at least one direction – either “downstream,” downloading from the internet to a user, or “upstream,” uploading data from the user back to the internet. That was roughly four times faster than historical dial-up modems (56 kbps). </p>
<p>In 2010, the FCC changed what it called “broadband” to require speeds at least five times faster still. The minimum downstream speed increased to <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/sixth-broadband-progress-report">4 megabits per second (mbps)</a>, with at least 1 mbps upstream. </p>
<p>Companies currently receiving Connect America Funds are required to provide at least <a href="https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2014/db1211/DOC-330989A1.pdf">10 mbps down</a> and 1 up. However, in 2015, the FCC again upgraded the minimum broadband service to <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/29/7932653/fcc-changed-definition-broadband-25mbps">25 mbps down</a> and 3 mbps up. The fact that the CAF program will fund projects that do not meet the current official definition of broadband has been a <a href="https://potsandpansbyccg.com/2015/08/26/the-connect-america-fund-dilemma/">point of criticism</a>. </p>
<p>These thresholds will continue to get higher. As that happens, rural areas will require the most work to become – and stay – compliant, because their existing bandwidth is generally slower than their urban counterparts. Only 75 percent of rural Americans have access to fixed (not mobile) <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/reports-research/reports/broadband-progress-reports/2016-broadband-progress-report">connections of at least 10 mbps</a> download speeds, compared to 98 percent of urban residents. And only 61 percent of rural residents meet the current 25 mbps threshold for any type of technology, compared to 94 percent of their urban counterparts.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125168/original/image-20160603-8272-1t0djw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cables have to cover whatever distance there is.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-333328724/stock-photo-new-cables.html">Cables in the ground via shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Distance matters</h2>
<p>It is still more efficient for telecommunications companies to install new communications lines in areas with high population density. This is basic economics related to how many customers there are to share fixed installation costs. There are typically around 2,000 people per square mile in urban areas <a href="https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/broadband_availability_rural_urban_june_2011_final.pdf">versus 10 in some rural areas</a>.</p>
<p>When companies switched data traffic from <a href="http://www.cablexpress.com/blog/5-reasons-why-it-professionals-choose-fiber-optic-cables-instead-of-copper/">copper lines to more efficient and reliable fiber-optic ones</a>, they did so first in the more profitable urban areas. Despite the many improvements in technology over the years, laying new line for wired internet connections still requires a significant amount of manual labor. Companies must weigh the cost of every mile laid against the expected profits from those lines. This works against rural areas, with fewer potential customers per mile. </p>
<p>For areas still served by copper wire, sending data at high speeds has <a href="https://blog.directcom.com/2012/04/23/are-there-any-limitations-to-dsl-service/">distance limitations</a>: The signals typically degrade after three miles. To get data traveling longer distances to and through rural areas, companies must install signal-amplifying equipment called “access multipliers.” That adds to the cost of serving rural customers.</p>
<p>Along these same lines, there is more competition among broadband providers in urban areas. Over <a href="http://www.broadbandmap.gov/download/Broadband%20Availability%20in%20Rural%20vs%20Urban%20Areas.pdf">60 percent of the urban population</a> has access to at least three wireline providers – a diversity of choice available to just 19 percent of rural residents. This competition can lead to <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1684236">lower prices and improved services</a> for consumers – which, when they happen, ultimately raise adoption rates.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125169/original/image-20160603-11585-y05zrd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This isn’t the answer – yet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jesse/25894625123/">jesse/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Going wireless</h2>
<p>Mobile wireless is not the same as wired (yet). Wireline broadband technology is still dependent on the expensive act of physically laying wires. It might seem that wireless coverage – which covers broad areas from antennas across the territory rather than needing to connect wires to every home – could be the answer for rural communities. It is true that mobile wireless coverage has seen dramatic improvements over the years. </p>
<p>As cellular networks have been upgraded over time (think 3G, 4G and 4G LTE), mobile upload and download speeds have also increased – and have made smartphone use much more commonplace. In fact, rural residents are among several groups who have started <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/12/21/home-broadband-2015/">shifting their internet connections</a> away from a landline residential connection and towards a smartphone.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.broadbandmap.gov/download/Broadband%20Availability%20in%20Rural%20vs%20Urban%20Areas.pdf">latest data from the National Broadband Map</a> show that 98 percent of rural areas have access to some type of mobile wireless internet connection. However, those connections aren’t necessarily fast enough to meet the formal FCC definition of “broadband.” </p>
<p>Specifically, 85 percent of U.S. wireline connections meet the current 25 mbps download threshold, while only <a href="http://www.broadbandmap.gov/summarize/nationwide">14 percent of wireless connections</a> do so. Satellite connections typically <a href="http://www.bandwidthplace.com/who-has-the-fastest-satellite-internet-article/">max out at about 15 mbps</a>. In addition, wireless coverage is sometimes spotty and can <a href="http://www.cellularmaps.com/4g_compare.shtml">vary by provider and geography</a>.</p>
<h2>A path forward?</h2>
<p>Rural broadband advocates have had some good news over the past couple of years with the continuing development of the <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/connect-america-fund-caf">Connect America Fund</a>. To help improve the program, the FCC set up several “<a href="https://www.fcc.gov/general/rural-broadband-experiments">Rural Broadband Experiments</a>” in 2015, with 14 projects ongoing (10 fiber and four wireless). These should provide some insight into the technological, administrative and logistical issues associated with funding rural broadband.</p>
<p>It is still worth noting, however, that even if rural broadband infrastructure were exactly the same as in urban areas, there would still be a “digital divide” in adoption rates, because rural populations are older, less educated and have lower income. Other programs, such as the recent <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-modernizes-lifeline-program-digital-age">Lifeline modernization</a> (which will provide a monthly $9.25 subsidy for low-income consumers to buy telecommunications services – including broadband) will seek to address this more demand-oriented aspect.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Whitacre has received funding from USDA Rural Utilities Service, USDA Economic Research Service, Department of Health and Human Services, Regional Rural Development Centers, the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences, Health Research Services Administration, and the Economic Development Administration. </span></em></p>Only 55 percent of people living in rural areas have access to the speeds that currently qualify as broadband, while 94 percent of the urban population does.Brian Whitacre, Associate Professor and Extension Economist, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/577882016-04-20T15:26:19Z2016-04-20T15:26:19ZHow stigma can stymie Nigeria’s efforts to extend HIV treatment<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/119457/original/image-20160420-25634-1k28wks.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Campaigns like the Lagos AIDS Walk have created awareness of HIV in Nigeria's capital, but they are lacking in rural areas, where stigmatisation is rife.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>More HIV-positive Nigerians could take up antiretroviral treatment if services were provided at government-owned primary health-care centres in the country’s rural areas rather than in urban hospitals. </p>
<p>But for a shift to localised programmes to work, the government will need to destigmatise HIV in rural areas. If this doesn’t happen, patients will stay away because they fear that their HIV status will be disclosed and they’ll be ostracised in their communities.</p>
<p>This is the finding of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hex.12403/epdf">our study</a>, which tried to understand how patients perceived the treatment they received at primary health-care facilities that are close to where they live and work.</p>
<p>With more than 3 million people living with HIV, Nigeria has the <a href="https://naca.gov.ng/article/hiv-epidemic-nigeria">third-highest burden</a> in the world.</p>
<p>In the country antiretroviral treatment services are administered at <a href="http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/country/documents/NGA_narrative_report_2014.pdf">treatment centres</a> in secondary and tertiary hospitals. These are mostly located in urban settings as part of the country’s national HIV control programme.</p>
<p>But this strategy has not reduced the rate of new infections among children and young adults. In <a href="http://photos.state.gov/libraries/nigeria/487468/publications/SeptemberHIVFactSheet.pdf">2010</a>, Nigeria had a national HIV prevalence of 4.1%. This only marginally decreased to 3.6% in <a href="http://photos.state.gov/libraries/nigeria/487468/publications/SeptemberHIVFactSheet.pdf">2013</a>. There is also a slightly higher HIV prevalence in rural areas than in <a href="https://naca.gov.ng/article/hiv-epidemic-nigeria">urban areas</a>. </p>
<p>Decentralising antiretroviral treatment services is one of the most effective ways to solve this. It would result in: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>antiretroviral services being <a href="http://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1472-6963-10-131">better matched</a> with local preferences; </p></li>
<li><p>better access in hard-to-reach rural areas and for vulnerable groups; and</p></li>
<li><p>the use of cost-effective approaches.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>What the patients think</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4737733/">Studies</a> have shown that poor rural people have higher and more exorbitant health costs when they try to access antiretroviral treatment – and, as a result, they are unable to maintain treatment. Food and transport costs, as well as the costs of other illnesses linked to HIV, hinder them from accessing treatment services.</p>
<p>To understand why centralised service centres were ineffective, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hex.12403/epdf">our study</a> looked at patients’ perceptions and attitudes towards decentralising antiretroviral treatment services from central hospitals to primary health-care centres.</p>
<p>Primary health-care centres are localised clinics in Nigeria. </p>
<p>We did a cross-sectional survey in health facilities in three Nigerian states: Abia, Adamawa and Cross River states. At the time of the study, decentralisation was to start in Abia state, had not yet started in Adamawa state and was under way in Cross River state.</p>
<p>The vast majority of those surveyed were happy that they were on treatment. Their health had improved and they were happy to continue treatment. </p>
<p>They felt decentralising antiretroviral treatment services would help control HIV and AIDS in the country. But they were not comfortable with receiving antiretroviral treatment services in a primary health-care facility close to where they live. More than 80% of the respondents feared that their status would be disclosed and more than 70% feared that they would be discriminated against. </p>
<p>Most were satisfied with the service delivery mechanism that they were currently receiving, and were willing to continue in this way. Of those who were not satisfied, long waiting times appeared to be the most common reason for dissatisfaction.</p>
<h2>Decentralisation has worked before</h2>
<p>There are clear benefits to decentralising treatment. </p>
<p>Before the study, a pilot was launched in two Nigerian states to understand the effects of decentralisation. The pilot effectively moved HIV testing and counselling, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission services from centrally located specialist hospitals to peripheral health centres. </p>
<p>At those centres the community as a whole and people individually were more <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168851008002285">accepting of the services</a>. Being closer to the treatment centres meant patients were enrolled faster and stuck to their treatment regimes better. </p>
<p>The nurses and counsellors had a reduced workload, which led to improved patient care. And both the waiting time and the financial costs were reduced. This increased access to care for the most affected and those in hard-to-reach areas and improved community participation and ownership. </p>
<h2>Stigma is the final step</h2>
<p>But to achieve universal access to antiretroviral services, more work needs to be done to address stigma. </p>
<p>Efforts at reducing stigma and discrimination around HIV and AIDS have been successful even in Nigeria, which has a culturally driven society. Some of these interventions have taken the form of campaign days, <a href="http://lagosaidswalk.com/">marches or concerts</a> to <a href="http://saharareporters.com/2013/01/24/young-hiv-positive-nigerians-seek-education-rights-jennifer-ehidiamen">create awareness</a> around HIV, and have included international nongovernmental organisations. </p>
<p>But these HIV demystifying interventions have concentrated on urban areas, leaving out the rural majority. This could explain why people residing in rural areas prefer to receive care far from home.</p>
<p>This is particularly important as antiretoviral treatment services may be a challenge in developing countries like Nigeria, which are resource poor. In these countries there is often a struggle to determine how limited resources should be used to provide high quality patient care services in a sustainable way. </p>
<p>The answer lies in considering both the effectiveness of doing things differently as well as the social impediments that stand in the way.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Obinna Onwujekwe receives funding from Health Services Development Foundation, WHO/TDR, FHI360 </span></em></p>Creating HIV services at primary health-care centres in Nigeria may improve the uptake of antiretrovirals, but it won’t tackle the issue of stigma.Obinna Onwujekwe, Professor of Health Economics and Policy and Pharmaco-economics/pharmaco-epidemiology in the Departments of Health Administration & Management and Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine, University of NigeriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.