This year's general assembly of the LDnet association took place on Tuesday 8 October 2019 in Brussels, with teleconferencing facilities allowing members and friends not present in Brussels to participate remotely. In addition to the normal business of the general assembly, there was a wide-ranging debate covering several topics led by colleagues, including: Building bridges between research, policy and practice on local development: … Continue Reading
A lively debate on ‘Capitalising on diversity in local development’ at EWRC2019
On 9 October 2019, as part of EWRC2019, LDnet, organised a workshop in partnership with ELARD on 'Capitalising on diversity in local development' under the theme 'A Europe Closer to Citizen'. The workshop aimed at demonstrating that bottom-up approaches to local development, like CLLD, have succeeded in engaging ‘Unusual Suspects’; people left out of mainstream development strategies. The workshop discussed urban and rural case studies from … Continue Reading
Events & activities
Urban Innovative Actions: 20 new projects
Following the 4th UIA Call for Proposals, 20 new projects have been selected. The selected urban authorities will have the opportunity to try out creative, innovative and durable solutions to address the challenges linked to the digital transition, sustainable use of land and nature based solutions, urban … Continue Reading
European Rural Parliament: 6-9 November 2019
The European Rural Parliament (ERP) is a long-term campaign to express the voice of rural people in Europe; and to promote self-help and action by the rural people, in partnership with civil society and governments. The campaign reaches a climax every two years with a gathering of rural people from all parts … Continue Reading
OECD Local Development Forum: 10-11 December 2019
The 2019 Local Development Forum will take place in Antwerp, Belgium, on 10-11 December 2019. The Forum will bring together local development practitioners, entrepreneurs and social innovators to share good practices about how employment and skills programmes are meeting employer demand (especially SMEs), … Continue Reading
Jelte Huizenga
When I joined Leda programme, in 1995, I met many high-level professionals, I learnt a lot from, Jelte Huizenga was one of them. The programme evolved in Leda Partenariat and Jelte was still there. Even if retired, he continued to be very active politically in his Almere (NL), and not only: he has been … Continue Reading
Strengthening the impact of research on EU local development policies: towards a community of experts
On 6 June 2019, LDnet organised a special session at the annual conference of the RSA in Santiago de Compostela on the topic of "Strengthening the impact of research on EU local development policies". The LDnet workshop presented the opportunities and challenges of involving the research community in … Continue Reading
Updated LEADER toolkit
An updated version of the LEADER toolkit, now available on the ENRD website, provides information for both local actors and Managing Authorities. The toolkit serves as a guidebook for beginners and a reference source and checklist for more advanced users in the 2014-2020 programming period, containing the … Continue Reading
Articles
LDnet: a community of experts building bridges between research and practice
Local development is multi-faceted with practitioners split between the urban and rural domains, while researchers come from different academic disciplines. A community of experts dealing with local development could help harvest lessons learnt and overcome silo mentality. LDnet and the European Commission … Continue reading
Resilient Villages: “Vibrant rural communities are not afraid to take risks”
In his current research, LDnet board member, Alistair Adam-Hernández examines why some rural communities are able to adapt to change better than others. During the European Rural Sociology Conference 2019, “Rural Futures in a Complex World” in Trondheim (NO), an international group of social scientists … Continue reading
Debating CLLD as experimental governance and task-specific space for policy action
The Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) instrument is one of the most interesting “territorial delivery mechanisms” of the current EU 2014-2020 programming period. Built on the former LEADER project, it attempts to overcome the sectorial (rural or maritime) approach of the previous instrument through a … Continue reading
Implementing cohesion policy funds through multi-Fund CLLD
Community-led Local Development (CLLD) was introduced in the 2014-20 programme period and is based on the well-established LEADER tool. While LEADER is distinctly rural, co-funded by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), CLLD allows Member States to make use of up to four different ESI … Continue reading
Urban CLLD – The case of FatorC in Cascais, Portugal
CLLD Community Led Local Development (CLLD) is a territorial bottom-up approach, through which Local Development Strategies (LDS) are implemented. Local communities are encouraged to participate in the decisions about the implementation of community funds, by identifying the needs and challenges faced with … Continue reading
PUBLICATIONS
The European Parliament’s role in cohesion policy since the Lisbon Treaty
A new study highlights the crucial role of the European Parliament in supporting a comprehensive, multi-sector and multi-fund cohesion policy “for all regions” and in defending its principles, including the integrated territorial approach. It also points out the close links that Parliament enjoys with the … Continue reading
CAP Strategic Plans: Where is LEADER?
We are moving towards the adoption of the provisions regarding LEADER in the 2021-2027 period, but it is still difficult to place LEADER in the new architecture of CAP. The proposals of the European Commission regarding Community-led Local Development (CLLD) and LEADER were published in May/June 2018. The … Continue reading
Social Innovation Community Yearbook
The Social Innovation Community (SIC) project was funded under the European Commission Horizon 2020 programme over a three year period, from 2016 to 2019. During these three years, SIC ran a series of on and offline activities - including practical place-based experimentation, learning, policy and … Continue reading
Overcoming EU Discontent in ‘Places That Don’t Matter’ through Community-Led Local Development
The past year has certainly been a particularly difficult one for the strength and cohesion of the European Union. The outcomes of local and national elections in many countries unveiled not only the emergence of new populist and nationalist movements and governments all across the Union, but also a growing … Continue reading