Promoting partnership by the Leader method

The Leader principle is a good method in particular for countryside development because it leads to positive effects resulting from connection of various entities working in the countryside area. Local action groups using the Leader principles are not the opposite of the local authority, but they appropriately complement each other in the effort of revitalization and development of local authorities.

The Czech Republic has its special characteristics given by the historical development, structure of seats, population and communication density and by the character of local economy. A significant special characteristics is also the social-economic structure of population in the country, which has been affected by the after-war social-political changes and inhabitants´ migration, countryside inhabitants´ ageing, by decline of agricultural mass production, by changes to the suburban country etc. Of a great significance is also many years´ experience of local authorities, unions of local authorities and local action groups with development planning and with preparation and implementation of projects (POV, SAPARD, LEADER ČR, SROP, OP Countryside Development and Multifunctional Agriculture). Mutual support by means of mutual awareness, both passive one (internet – LAG portal creation) and active one (seminars, working negotiations, common social events), is necessary for an active development of local action groups. It is necessary to teach LAG to focus on other possible resources too; e.g. private resources from the LAG area, regional grant programmes etc. It is necessary to create a system of constant education of LAG members in the sphere of management and administration, selection of projects, work with public, monitoring of projects etc.

A positive knowledge from programmes, that have used Leader method until the present, is the fact that the local action groups are fully aware of the necessity to create a store of high-quality projects for the purpose of use, and appropriate evaluation of local specific characteristics as a preparation for the new EU scheduling period 2007 – 2013 and practicable use of the European Agriculture Fund for the countryside development as an instrument of the common EU agriculture politics. It is necessary to state as negativity that in some cases, the primary interest of local action groups is not the creation of working partnerships, but gaining the funds; and LAGs are set up intentionally. The remaining insufficient communication among entities in the country and distrust in new things and approaches sometimes appears as a burden from the past.
Source: National Strategic Plan of Countryside Development in the CR for the period 2007 – 2013

Leader is determined for financing projects of local initiatives of non-governmental and commercial entities; it
is appropriate for the area from 10 thousand to 100 thousand of inhabitants having its thematically oriented development strategy. The individual projects approved within the strategy are managed, financed and administrated by the local action group and not by a state agency etc. The participation of public administration representatives in LAG is maximally 50 per cent, i.e. including the mayors, the half of the managing group at the most.

The main characteristics:
a) local partnership and a group formed from it for local events, possibly managing committee;
b) development strategy (territorially integrated, thematically united and inter-sector);
c) decentralized financing and management;
d) access “from the bottom upwardly” – integration of partners and public;
e) strategy progressiveness (or at least newness of projects in the given area, not activities repeated from the past).

The priority topics of the Leader programme have been set by the European Commission for the period 2000 – 2006 as follows:
a) The best use of nature and culture resources, including value increase of the localities.
b) Life quality increase in the country.
c) Value increase of local products, especially by facilitation of small producers´ access to the market by means of team activities.
d) Application of know-how and new technologies for competitiveness increase of products and services in the countryside regions.

The financial help of the Leader+ programme is granted by partnership to local action groups, which comprise of representatives from public, private and non-governmental sector, and they perform the local development programmes in their areas. Leader+ has been designed so as to help to participants from rural regions to consider the long-term potentiality of their region. It encourages the performance of integrated, high-quality and original strategies for a sustainable development and also for co-operation at the domestic and supranational level. The finances are granted on basis of a selective access only to a limited number of country regions, so that the Community resources could be aimed at the most promising local strategies and could provide the highest effect to them. The selective procedure is open and strict. It is possible to finance individual projects, which correspond with the local strategy, within every local development programme. Economic and social partners and societies must form at least 50 per cent of local partners at the decision-making level of LAG.