A large part of rural South Africa (SA) consists of former homeland areas where a large proportion of the African population were dumped during the apartheid era. These areas currently suffer from the dual challenge of overcoming the ravages of underdevelopment as a result of apartheid policies as well as rising above the setbacks associated with the very character of the countryside. Much of rural SA is still characterised by people eking out an existence through subsistence agriculture and barely surviving on trickle down remittances from urban family associations. Reversing current trends towards greater marginalisation and impoverishment requires radical interventions such as the Border Rural Committee’s Rights Based Approach to Rural Development, to find out more about this new approach, click here.