LDnet

Local Development Network

Archives for 2023

LDnet Mission Statement

Last year, with CLLD/LEADER entering the new 2021-2027 period, we debated how, after 10 years of operation, LDnet can best contribute in the evolving story of local development.  The General Assembly on 2 February 2022 adopted the following ‘mission statement’ which has guided our activities in 2022. The next General Assembly on 14 February 2023 […]

Support for CLLD in urban areas

LDnet is actively working on proposals for concrete support for CLLD in urban areas. CLLD was introduced into the regulations for ESF and ERDF in the 2014 – 2020 programming period.  Since then 220 Local Action Groups have formed in seven Member States.  Other programmes in rural and coastal/fisheries areas have had dedicated support to […]

Maria Nowak (1935 – 2022)

Maria Nowak who has died on 22nd December 2022 at the age of 87 single handedly changed the path of micro credit in Europe.  Born in Lviv (then in Poland) in 1935 Maria survived the war and the destruction of her family home and went to live in France as hostilities ceased at the age […]

Fostering rural resilience: first results and newsletter of the REBOUND project

Grasping rural community resilience and well-being After kicking off in February 2022 the REBOUND partnership, including LDnet/AEIDL, focused during the past year on compiling state-of-the-art knowledge in the field of rural community resilience and well-being. The main instrument to achieve this was a questionnaire distributed to a broad range of stakeholders to gain community, practitioner, […]

The added-value of CLLD in Interreg

This study has been carried out by Jean-Pierre Vercruysse for Directorate D, DG REGIO of the European Commission with the purpose of better understanding the added-value of cross-border CLLD in the framework of Interreg. We publish below the Executive Summary of the study. The full report is available HERE. Community-Led Local Development The added-value of […]

RSA Annual Conference 2023: Policies and Planning for People and Places

The 2023 RSA Annual Conference will take place in Ljubljana, Slovenia between 14–17 June 2023 and is entitled “Transforming Regions: Policies and Planning for People and Places”. Planning is well underway. Registration is due to open in January 2023, and proposals for special sessions or abstracts can be submitted now. More information HERE.

Michael Dower (1933 – 2022)

We are very saddened at the news of the death of Michael Dower, a great champion of rural communities, leading light in rural development, long-standing friend and member of LDnet. Michael passed away on 7 November 2022. He had a long and fruitful life. He trained as a chartered surveyor and town planner followed by […]

A review of the ECA report on LEADER and CLLD

The European Court of Auditors has recently published a special report on LEADER and CLLD and we have presented it HERE. The overall message from the ECA is that “LEADER and community-led local development facilitates local engagement but additional benefits still not sufficiently demonstrated”. The analysis and conclusions of the report merit a thorough examination […]

Resilient coastal communities: a guide for FLAGs

“Resilient rural communities” is a topic we have addressed on several occasions, including research publications on rural proofing, articles on the core principles of resilience and resilient villages and LDnet’s participation in the Erasmus+ project REBOUND. We are now highlighting a practical guide on “resilient coastal communities” which was published at the final stage of […]