As per the ToRs of the IFAD NEN staff learning retreat held in the Italian region of Tuscany on November 03-05, 2010, I opted for the operational theme of Territorial Development (TD), reports Abdelkarim Sma. I gained exposure to 3 projects under the EU LEADER approach sponsored by the LAGs of FAR Maremma in Grosseto and the GAL Siena (Fruit and Vegetable cooperative in Grosseto, the recovery of a Mining park in the Commune of Gavoranno, and valorisation of the olive oil in the Comune of Montana Amiata).

Learning about TD under  the LEADER+ approach - The LEADER approach, aimed at allowing rural communities to take the initiative and shape their own future, and is an integral part of the EU rural development policy. The latter is one of the pillars of the EU Common Agriculture Policy-CAP. The CAP is currently shifting financial support out of direct payment and into more WTO-compliant de-coupled payments and rural development support activities. The LEADER approach has evolved over time. The projects visited during the retreat were conceived under the third generation  LEADER + (2000-2006), which covered a total EU area of nearly €1.6 million km2 with an overall cost of  €2.1 billion. From 2007 onwards, the LEADER approach is being mainstreamed in all EU rural interventions.

The LEADER approach is a holistic approach to sustainable development in the EU rural areas. It has four dimensions (economic, environmental, social and participatory).  It takes into account the intertwined aspects of rural development and as such has the potential of assisting rural areas in countries aspiring to join the EU (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Moldova among the CEN sub-region) .

The LEADER approach  has seven inter-related and mutually supportive key features:               

• Area-based: It allows tailored actions to suit local context, including prevailing competitive advantages. The area's assets (people, activities, landscapes, heritage, Know-how etc.) are determined using a Territory analysis;                   
• Bottom-up:  Local actors participate in the decision-making. Bottom-up approach does not  exclude a dose of top-down approach from national/regional authorities but rather complements it;                              
• Public-private partnership/ Local action groups (LAGs): The LAG is a local partnership whereby private sector and associations must make up at least 50 percent of the membership. LAGs work collaboratively with payments authorities dealing with public funding;                                    
• Facilitating innovation: The LEADER approach is an innovative policy-making mechanism in its own right which creates a fertile ground for the emergence of innovative project ideas;        
• Integrated and multi-sectorial: While rural development interventions before the advent of the LEADER approach were  typically sectorial, i.e. focussing primarily on farmers and aiming to encourage structural changes within agriculture, non-agriculture rural economy (tourism, social services)  is predominant in the LEADER projects in the EU;  
• Networking : Exchanges of lessons and experiences between LAGs, and;  
• Cooperation: Joint project supported by two LAGs or more.

Issues  

The area-based approach is faced by the difficulties to delimit rural areas in the EU context. When the LEADER+ was activated there was no strict definition of rural areas. This loophole allowed some European region to direct resources to non-priority areas.   In Tuscany, for instance, the rural territory is considered to cover the whole regional territory. The area chosen, while it does not have to correspond to pre-defined administrative boundaries, has to be predominantly rural (according to the definition of the OECD which segments EU rural areas into predominantly rural, significantly rural, and predominantly urban based on the population density threshold of 150 inhabitants per square kilometre).

• Elite capture: Some of the visited projects are arguably benefiting well-off people. This calls into question the effectiveness of the targeting mechanism, if any, used to allocate EU resources
  
• M&E has not been sufficiently highlighted: Scant information has been provided during the retreat to showcase how monitoring is conducted and how  impact is measured
  
• Digressive and lacking focus: Presentations tended to be  lacking focus. The theme of Territorial development is multi-dimensional and relatively elaborate and therefore presentations sometimes tended to lose the thread and got ensnared in superfluous details.
  

Opportunities

Trans-national cooperation: cooperation between EU-based LAGs and IFAD projects using LEADER-style participatory mechanisms ( the so-called community driven development) in  countries aspiring to join the EU (request from LAG Far Maremma to liaise with Moldovan NGOs to carry out a craftsmanship enhancing project within the ENPI) is definitely an opportunity. Acceding countries are still characterized by the pre-dominance of agricultural activities. However, non-agriculture rural activities such are those supported within the LEADER approach are poised to increasingly come to the fore during the unfolding transition from agrarian economies to diversified ones.