Local Development Network
LDnet is organising a special session at this year's annual conference of the RSA in Santiago de Compostela on the topic of "Strengthening the impact of research on EU local development policies". One of the objectives of the next period’s EU funding is contributing to a Europe closer to citizens by fostering the sustainable and integrated local development and local initiatives. Policy tools available to meet this objective include … Continue Reading
We are very saddened at the news of the death of Fernando Barreiro, a long-standing friend and colleague in the field of local development, one of the founders of LDnet and member of its board. Fernando was born in Uruguay, moved to Spain in the 1970s as a refugee during the time of the Uruguayan Dictatorship and lived in Barcelona. His professional work from the 1980s onwards covered several fields of local development, mainly in technical … Continue Reading
There are opportunities for internships with LDnet for people with studies or interests related to local development. We have offered such internships, jointly with other Brussels-based organisations, in the last two years with students from French and German universities. We expect to be able to offer one or … Continue Reading
Decentralisation has been a main trend in good governance for many decades, spreading also to the developing and transition countries worldwide. Many territorial reforms have been implemented under the umbrella of principle of subsidiarity and decentralisation, but recently centralisation attempts have … Continue Reading
On 22 November 2018, the AGRI Committee, together with the CONT (Budgetary Control) Committee of the European Parliament held a Public Hearing on LEADER experiences - lessons learned and effectiveness of EU funds for rural development. The aim was to evaluate how the LEADER programme had worked over the … Continue Reading
The workshop on "Local development strategies: retaining and attracting talents in the regions" took place on Thursday 11 October 2018 in the framework of the European Week of Regions and Cities. Organised by LDnet as lead-partner, in cooperation with ELARD, CIM Alto Minho and AEIDL, it offered a forum for … Continue Reading
In this declaration the Social Innovation Community calls on the EU to build on the world-leading practices established over the last decade and make social innovation a core part of its strategy to achieve a “social triple A” for Europe. The Social Innovation Community has identified key priorities that … Continue Reading
The proposals of the European Commission regarding Community-led Local Development (CLLD) and Leader were published before the Summer. In the following note Urszula Budzich-Tabor distils the main proposals and offers a comparison with the 2014-2020 period. However, not everything is 100% settled and, as … Continue reading
In May 2018, the European Commission published its proposals for CLLD/LEADER in the post-2020 period. The overall impression is that these proposals, broadly speaking, amount to a continuation of the approach and rules applying to CLLD/LEADER in the current, 2014-2020 period. But as already noted by Robert … Continue reading
Already many interesting ideas and proposals are coming out on the future of local development as seen and supported by EU policies and funds. They offer reflections on both the long experience of LEADER (from the days of the ‘community initiatives’ to the mainstreaming of LEADER) and the lessons from the … Continue reading
In this paper Professor Ilona Pálné Kovács outlines the theoretical frameworks of knowledge-based governance and development, examines the role of local governments as important actors in local development, and examines the scope for place-based development in a centralised governance context. To … Continue reading
In this wide-ranging paper Robert Lukesch goes back to the precursors of Leader and looks at each stage of its evolution, highlighting the complex principles behind this approach (“more than the seven features and usual clichés”) and discussing success factors. He takes us to the current CLLD/Leader period … Continue reading
The interaction between research, policy and practice in local development is of major interest and LDnet organised a special session on this theme at the annual conference of the RSA in June 2018 in Lugano. One of the panellists in this debate Dr Nicola Francesco Dotti is the editor of a new book making a … Continue reading
“The role of leadership in place-based development and building institutional arrangements” is a paper by L. G. Horlings, D. Roep and W. Wellbrock published in Local Economy, the journal of the Local Economic Policy Unit. In various case studies across Europe the vital role of rural place leadership in … Continue reading