Dear Moderator,

Just an initial reaction to the outline --- It is not the case as stated that “knowledge of the exact relationship between agricultural and rural development and migration is limited due to relative scarcity both of statistical data and empirical analysis.”

Demographers --- including those working in the UN Population Division and New York (which has a Population and Development section) have been looking at and collecting data on this for the last several decades --- this encompasses several expert group meetings over the last decades. This topic has been a key area of research including work I believe previously done under the auspices of FAO (see Richard Bilsborrow’s body of work) as well as my own.

I strongly suggest you consult the UN Population Division resources and personnel in drafting this outline, I believe they will prove a valuable resource to this end.

I will review the outline as well to provide more specific comments as well.

Yours,

Catherine M. Marquette