Seminar paper from the year 2018 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, , language: English, abstract: This essay discusses rural development policy making tools/instruments and frameworks. It starts by addressing conceptual issues related to policy, policy making process, policy cycle, and rural development. It also presents rural development approaches, evolution of rural development policies, rural development policy instruments and frameworks, and their application in Ethiopian context. The main purpose of this essay is to examine the major rural development policy making tools and frameworks in the context of Ethiopia. Key objectives of the paper include the following to: review conceptual issues related to rural policy making and development; evaluate evolution of rural development ideas, practices, and policies; discern rural development policy making tools and frameworks; and review the application of these tools and frameworks in Ethiopian context. The paper will serve as a material that could provide a precise information that would help readers to have good understanding about conceptual issues related to policy, policy making, rural development, policy making approaches, and policy making tools and frameworks in the area of rural development. It will help to clear the perplexity of equating agricultural development with rural development. Particularly, via this material the following outcomes will be achieve: improved knowledge and understanding of rural development issues; enhanced understanding of rural development approaches; better knowledge about rural development policy making tools and frameworks in the context of developing countries; and improved capacity of using various rural development policy alternatives.