First Book Fair on Sustainable Rural Development

Knowledge sharing event was held on May 28 - 29 in San Jose, in collaboration with Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED) of Costa Rica

RUTA, in collaboration with Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED), held the First Book Fair on Sustainable Rural Development with the main goal of disseminating knowledge and experience on rural development and poverty alleviation issues.

The Fair, designed and coordinated by Patrizia Cocca, RUTA’s Knowledge Management and Communication specialist, sought to promote and facilitate the exchange of experience and knowledge among participants from the public and private sectors, civil society, academia, research centers, media and the public. The event included a series of presentations on key topics, the dissemination of publications, and several moderated sessions on specific themes, which were held by authors of key publications and reports.

Organization of the Fair

The Fair has three different knowledge sharing and interaction spaces:

The Fair had a total of 21 participating organizations, 18 authors mostly international specialists who presented and discussed different aspects of rural development issues (Rural Poverty, Rural Financing, Trade Liberalization and DR-CAFTA, Rural Organizations, and Vulnerable Groups), and approximately 200 participants, mostly from academia (researchers, professors and students).

The presentations were attended on average by 25 participants, and 60 participants from 5 countries took part on the videoconference.

Given the enormous potential of this initiative and its high academic value, RUTA is planning to organize a similar event in other countries in the region.

All the materials, including full text publications and videos of authors’ presentations are available at www.ruta.org/feria/.