A LEADER Dissemination Guide Book based on programme experience in Finland, Ireland and the Czech Republic
Tekijät: Philip Wade ja Petri Rinne
122 pages, September 2008
ISSN 1238-6464, ISBN 978-952-227-072-6 (nid.), ISBN 978-952-227-073-3 (pdf).
Price 13,50 e + sales tax 8% + p&p
Rural areas are at a cross-roads: the requirements for increased crop production, to satisfy the needs of an ever growing population, represent a tremendous challenge and yet the large scale industrialised agricultural model has failed to ensure balanced rural development, not only in Europe
but in other parts of the world. Small farmers are often at difficulty in maintaining or developing their activity. Mechanised agriculture and the quest for productivity have considerably diminished the number of jobs in the primary sector in North America and Europe, without new activities
such as tourism yet compensating these losses. In other continents, even if agriculture remains the main activity, it does not suffice to sustain the rural economy. In most countries the result is rural out-migration, diminishing the human resources required for sustainable development.
The picture today is contrasted: in Europe many rural areas have begun to rebound but others are still lagging. Those adjacent to urban areas benefit from market proximity while offering their natural amenities. Peripheral rural areas suffer because of distance to global markets and low population
densities rendering access to public services more difficult. In between, the majority of rural areas struggle, more or less successfully, to satisfy inhabitant’s needs in economic and social terms. Where there is success, best practices and new optimism, innovative governance trends fostering
decentralisation, local initiative and empowerment influence the shape of the future. Efficient governance is today open to public private partnerships based on networking. The rural areas having turned the tide around are precisely those where bottom-up rather than top-down processes are
applied. Responsibility in implementing but also in defining policies, measures and projects is the favoured approach of these policies generically qualified by OECD as “place-based”.
In Europe a programme containing such ingredients now has nearly 20 years experience and achievements to its credit: LEADER. The acronym comes from the French “Liaisons entre Acteurs du Développement Economique Rural” (Liaison among Actors in Rural Economic development). The bottom-up development methodology enlists the energy and resources of all who can contribute to the rural development process, by elaborating a local area strategy and bringing together the public, private and civil sectors within a Local Action Group (LAG). This report, based on
LEADER experience in Finland, Ireland and the Czech Republic pursues two goals:
• Comparing LEADER implementation in the three case countries so as to better identify not only the success factors but also the obstacles to balanced rural development and thus gather elements applicable in one or more of the three Nations, on the basis of the other’s experience.
• Identifying the points in common and the differences between rural areas in Europe and in the developing world in view of transferring LEADER methodology, experience and know-how.
The idea of such a transfer stems from a few simple considerations:
• LEADER, compared to many programmes remains quite inexpensive.
• It applies to small areas where progress can be easily witnessed and measured.
• Its principles are close to those of micro-credit first successfully applied in developing Nations.
• LEADER converges with new governance trends based on decentralisation and local initiative.
A LEADER inspired pilot project will be implemented in Mozambique in the second half of 2008 and 2009, hopefully encouraging similar approaches in other Nations.