Posted 5 July 2022
Rural in Cross-Cutting Executive Strategies
Health, education, transport, childcare, housing, employment, climate action… rural communities feel the impact of all of these at once. Yet, siloed government structures and committee processes mean their voices can get lost.
At Rural Community Network (RCN), we’ve been examining how the Assembly and Executive scrutinise cross-cutting strategies and what we found is clear: some strategies work, some don’t, and from a rural perspective the difference often comes down to whether rural voices are properly included.
Success stories:
- TRPSI helped rural households access transport, digital services, and childcare.
- Project Stratum brought full-fibre broadband to tens of thousands of rural premises.
- The Rural Needs Act (2016) gives committees a statutory tool to hold departments accountable and gives communities a tool to hold government to account
Where it falls short:
- High-level strategies like the Programme for Government or recent anti-poverty frameworks often rely on siloed delivery and aggregated data that mask rural inequalities.
- Climate and health reforms sometimes fail to integrate rural needs early thus limiting impact.
Our key recommendations:
- Embed rural-proofed indicators in all strategies
- Pilot joint committee scrutiny across departments
- Pilot rural representatives on interdepartmental committees
- Hold hybrid and rural-based consultations
- Strengthen post-legislative accountability
Rural exclusion isn’t accidental, it’s systemic. But with better scrutiny, accessible engagement, and real accountability, policy can work for all communities.
Rural voices matter and it’s time they shape the policies that affect them.
