where mral populations live close to urban territories and hence services and have lower levels of social and economic marginalisation broader mral policies may be more appropriate however these are complemented with broader policies such as the national and regional development strategies and in operational programmes such as the programme targeting poland s eastern regions which have lower economic growth dispersed settlement patters and higher rates of poverty it is important to recognise that there are also a host of policies that are often sectoral in nature that impact rural areas and that are not targeted to place but that can have territorial consequences nonetheless