Publications

LDnet research initiative: CLLD and the circular economy – contributions to working paper

In its efforts to build close links with research in aspects of local development LDnet has entered an Erasmus+ agreement with HAWK Göttingen University and one of its post-graduate students, Yasin Akkoub, has been working as a placement with LDnet, hosted by the FARNET. The main focus of Yasin's research in on "CLLD and circular/sharing economy". Already a working paper on … [Read more...]

CLLD: Challenges and opportunties in 2014-2020 and beyond

The EU introduced ‘community-led local development’ (CLLD) in the 2014-2020 programming period, broadening significantly the scope of what was known as the ‘LEADER approach’. Three years into this period significant challenges still face the practitioners and offer opportunities for better interaction and cooperation with the research community. Click on the link below to … [Read more...]

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...]

Forging a Good Local Society

A new report Forging a Good Local Society: Tackling Poverty through a Local Economic Reset, makes the case for tackling poverty locally. Written by Neil McInroy and published by the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), the report notes that local identities and innovation are increasingly viewed as an antidote to remote and detached national policies. It stresses that … [Read more...]

Food sovereignty and urban-rural integration

LDnet is pleased to present this paper by Robert Lukesch on the theme of food sovereignty and urban rural linkages. Robert suggested this theme and developed the content for the LDnet Open Days (OD) 2015 workshop hosted by DG Regio and the Committee of the Region. As in other years, the LDnet workshop included input from academic researchers and experts engaged with EU networks … [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...]