Title page
Contents
Acknowledgements 4
Acronyms and abbreviations 7
Introduction 8
1. Rural proofing in context 10
2. Factors that could increase the effectiveness of rural proofing 25
3. Rural proofing: Focus on health 39
Conclusion 50
References 52
Table 1. Policy complementarities for different types of rural regions 17
Table 2. Governance structure in a few OECD countries 19
Table 3. Rural proofing strengths and weaknesses 20
Table 4. Rural proofing elements 21
Figure 1. Why rural proof? 12
Figure 2. Rural proofing stages: Examples from England and Finland 19
Figure 3. Rural proofing and the policymaking cycle 23
Figure 4. Rural proofing: Top-down versus bottom-up governance structure 24
Figure 5. Sustaining rural proofing beyond government cycles 29
Figure 6. Rural areas sources of opportunities 31
Figure 7. United States different federal departments with assistance for rural communities 32
Figure 8. Improving rural health systems requires the government to take an integrated approach 33
Figure 9. Strengthen the evidence: expand the data used to support rural proofing 35
Figure 10. European Commission rural proofing model 36
Figure 11. Rural proofing measuring success 37
Figure 12. The European Commission Rural Proofing model 40
Figure 13. Social determinants of health 42
Figure 14. Recovery and resilience programmes: access to health care in underserved areas 43
Figure 15. Effect in terms of access when you close down rural health care facilities (Ireland) 46
Figure 16. Community first responders - Northern Ireland 47
Boxes
Box 1. Mainstreaming rural policy and rural proofing 15
Box 2. Global megatrends and rural areas 16
Box 3. Commission for Rural Communities example of an expert body tasked with rural proofing 22
Box 4. Applying a regional, rural and remote rural lens to policy actions in Australia 25
Box 5. Rural lens: Environment scan and impact assessment 27
Box 6. Modernising the approach to rural development to better adapt to today's realities 30
Box 7. Attracting health professionals to rural and sparsely-populated regions 40
Box 8. Five pillars of the social determinants of health 42