The 2004 publication of Rural Territorial Development, by Alexander Schejtman and Julio Berdegué provided an analytical framework to think about rural development and thus contribute to a vast agenda of research and impact throughout Latin America. In their proposal they emphasize two factors to achieve rural development processes: productive transformation dynamics and institutional development.

Fifteen years after this publication, the Rural Territorial Development (RTD) approach has made a very prominent contribution to the democratization of public management in rural areas, as it created new spaces for traditionally marginalized actors. For this reason, this book reviews RTD-based public policies and programmes to explore its ability to generate institutional transformations that enable better living conditions and greater development opportunities for people in rural territories in the region.