María Coto Sauras works for the Red2Red consultancy, Spain. Red2Red work on public policy, sustainability and rural affairs. Maria is an agricultural engineer (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), with a background in rural development and sociology. Maria has been involved in programming, monitoring and evaluation of numerous Rural Development Programmes financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). At the local level, she has taken part in various evaluations associated with LEADER and has supported the drawing up of local development strategies by Local Action Groups. She collaborates on a range of analyses and tasks and has integrated, as a national expert, the team of the European Commission's European Evaluation Helpdesk for Rural Development. Currently, she directs the department of rural development at Red2red, where she coordinates, technical assistance to the Spanish National Rural Network, technical assistance to the Rural Development Programme of the Region of Murcia and the evaluation of the Rural Development Programme of Castile and León.
Many rural areas suffer depopulation, while there is a need for newcomers to a country to be accommodated and given purposeful activities. Some lessons from a thoughtful approach to better rural integration of immigrants in rural Spain, with lessons for rural development more generally. […]
Agricultural and Rural Convention