The 4th World Forum will be held in Praia, Cape Verde, gathering national, regional, local government officials, practitioners and other stakeholders from all over the world. The World Forum of local Economic Development is an open working process that promotes open dialogue on Local Economic Development (LED), continues strengthening a global alliance among engaged … [Read more...]
Programmes
The Tartu Declaration: Renewing LEADER/CLLD for 2020+
The European LEADER association ELARD has drawn up a declaration on LEADER/CLLD for the 2021-2027 programming period. The declaration takes into focus the LEADER approach that should again turn its face toward its main purpose – the empowerment of local communities. The key principles of the LEADER method have to be re-asserted and treated with full respect when designing … [Read more...]
Resilience and its Core Principles – The key to Sustainable Rural Development?
Learning to Shape Change actively in European Rural Areas Since the late 1990s the use of the term resilience has experienced a bonanza (Bürkner, 2010; Vogt, 2015). It is now ubiquitous in European cohesion and regional policy and is often used in a transdisciplinary manner (Lukesch, 2015). In the meantime it has risen to become a key element of scientific and popular … [Read more...]
Challenges facing the implementation of CLLD and the multi-fund approach
‘Community-led local development’ (CLLD), previously known as ‘the LEADER method’, is for many still a quite new way to work with local development. In the current programming period 2014-2020 there are even more possibilities available for funding. Four different EU funds can be used for CLLD and a successful recent European seminar, held on 7-8 December 2016 in Båstad, … [Read more...]
Strenghtening communities and regions in Mali
During the last years Mali has been facing serious challenge to political stability due to the pressure by jihadist groups. However, there are many good reasons to believe in the recovery potential and long-term resilience of Mali due to the strengthening of the institutional capacities at local and regional level. One of the main drivers of this evolution is a … [Read more...]
Climate change and urban development at the edge of the Sahara desert
Imagine a town of a million or so inhabitants at the edge of the Sahara desert. It lies directly on the Atlantic coast, but wait, its fringes are some 200m away from the dunes stretching along. These dunes are around 20m high and 30m wide. Behind the dunes lies a depression, a lagoon dried up long time ago. It stretches inward for a mile or so until the endless suite of dunes … [Read more...]
Urban Innovative Actions
Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) is an Initiative of the European Commission that provides urban areas throughout Europe with resources to test new and unproven solutions to address urban challenges. Based on Article 8 of ERDF, the Initiative has a total ERDF budget of EUR 372 million for 2014-2020. The UIA supports local authority led projects which involve all key stakeholders … [Read more...]
LDnet at EWRC 2016
LDnet's workshop in this year's European Week of Regions and Cities on 'Achieving social inclusion in CLLD in the context of the results-orientation of the ESI Funds' took place on Wednesday 12 October from 9:00 to 10:45 at the Committee of the Regions (Workshop Ref 12B76 ). It was very well attended and focused on the double challenge that a results-oriented approach presents … [Read more...]
How are the EU Member States using CLLD
Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) can be applied in four European Structural and Investment Funds: the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). However, only in the EAFRD the use of CLLD – under the LEADER measure – is … [Read more...]
Migrant and refugee integration in rural Europe
This new ENRD Projects Brochure - ‘Migrant and Refugee Integration’ - explores how people in rural areas have used EAFRD support to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by the recent influx of migrants and refugees into the European Union. A number of projects from different countries are presented under the themes of ‘Changing the narrative’, ‘Skills and the … [Read more...]
New CLLD publications by FARNET
Two new FARNET publications are of general interest to CLLD. ‘Starting CLLD implementation in practice’ presents examples of applying CLLD under the different ESI Funds and shows different methods of integrating the EU Funds at the local level. ‘Results-oriented CLLD in fisheries areas’ offers six factsheets, including real-life examples, designed to help FLAGs ensure better … [Read more...]
Obama Administration Launches Strong Cities, Strong Communities to Support Local Development
In July 2011, the Obama Administration launched Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2), a new and customized pilot initiative to strengthen local capacity and spark economic growth in local communities while ensuring taxpayer dollars are used wisely and efficiently. To accomplish this, federal agencies will provide experienced staff to work directly with six cities: Chester, … [Read more...]