Event report: Transnational CLLD Seminar

Sarah Hyslop, LEADER Manager for Ayrshire Local Action Group attended a European Network for Rural Development (ENRD) transnational Community-Led Local Development (CLLD) Seminar – Achieving results the CLLD way: Putting the method to work - in early December.

Participants included people from Managing Authorities, Local Action Groups (LAGs)/Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs), Networks, European Commission and regional/national organisations from many member states including Sweden, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia, Cyprus, Italy and Hungary.

The two-day event held in the beautiful rural town of Båstad north of Malmo in Sweden got underway with a fascinating plenary session. The delegates listened to welcome and introductions from Niclasthe director for Rural Development at the Swedish Board of Agriculture, Matthias Langemeyer who currently heads the ENRD unit in the Directorate General for Agriculture & Rural Development of the European Commission and Paul Soto and John Grieve from the ENRD contact point. 

Following introductions the audience received a CLLD progress update across the four funds (DG AGRI, DG MARI, DG EMPL and DG REGIO). In addition, there was a session on addressing new challenges and empowering LAGs for today from three different peoples' perspectives.

Following the plenary sessions a range of' Working with CLLD/LEADER method' workshops were held with three themes:

• Working with local assets
• Finance/delivering & reporting
• Local partnerships & Governance

Short informal presentations were given followed by a common set of questions designed to identify the key points where the CLLD/LEADER method can be strengthened. These workshops were so valuable, giving a chance to discuss the various themes with a broad range of CLLD stakeholders and creating proposals for implementation during 2017.

Following intensive participation in the workshops, the final plenary session concluded discussions on what key actors will take away from the event and next steps.

Sarah would like to thank the ENRD for arranging such an informative and participatory seminar – it’s been a timely event as the Ayrshire Local Action Group are scheduled to review the CLLD Strategy and Business Plan in January 2017.

Visit the ENRD website for presentations and information from the event.

You can also search #useCLLD on Twitter for tweets from the seminar.