this broader wellbeing agenda does not abandon the objective to improve rural competitiveness rather it recognises that competitiveness is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for wellbeing a pooling of resources and capabilities across entities creates the ability to collectively accomplish what no individual actor can achieve independently this demands the collaboration and engagement of government at multiple levels and involvement of the private sector and third sector long term capacity building makes rural communities more engaged in processes of development and more resilient to shocks