Vital Rural Area: Best practices and tools in

sustainable rural development

Napoli, 11 July 2013Summer School Sustainable Tourism ManagementWietse W. Hermanns, project manager

Project characteristics

Project organisation

13 partner regions from 6 North Sea countries (N, NL, B, DK, D, UK) Lead partner: Northeast Fryslan (NL)

Scientific team and scientific groupUniversity of South Denmark (DK) Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL) University of East Anglia, Norwich (UK)

Project management: Wietse Hermanns / Peter Laan

Key element :The co-operative agreement

approach

“As a common standard for public private partnership, Vital Rural

Area develops, implements and tests the co-operative agreement approach CAA (involving all stakeholders, cross-sectoral, top-down and bottom-up)

In this approach the stakeholders (e.g. municipalities,

knowledge institutes and private companies) draw up agreements with targets/conditions how to work together to reach the joint formulated goals within an agreed-upon period of time, using the knowledge, experience and expertise of the inhabitants”

What functions may a CAA fulfill?

a) To reach sustainable implementation. By involving all stakeholders and by a bottom-up way of developing and implementing project results, sustainability can be assured.

b) Opening chances for new rural alliances.

When cross-sectoral working is properly organized chances are created for an integrative approach and building new alliances

To find strategies to fortify rural areas by:

1) Enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs

2) Improving the overall perception of the region

3) Delivering more and better services

Scope of the project and content basis

Made operational by the execution of pilot projects in one out of three Work Packages:

1) Empowerment of small and medium-sized enterprises towards new economical prospects and innovations

2) Branding of the region, towards a professional exposure of regions

3) Optimizing services, towards more and better accessible services and amenities

Scope of the project and content basis

Outcome of the project

The interactive Rural Power Pack

- a general working method/standard for developing projects on sustainable regional development

- based on “best practices” pilots/project results and scientific knowledge

- tested transnationally on its transferability to other regions

- offering tools to be used in other regions

Rationale of a Rural Power Pack

Case studies executed in one of the VRA regions (partners) + literature review of best practices (Scientific Team)

A methodology for tackling rural problems based on one of three workpackage themes (Empowerment of

SME’s, Branding or Services)

Applying the methodology in other regions throughout Europe

Experiences lead to an approved methodology to be used in different situations throughout the EU 27

RPP: Linking pilot projects to scientific modelling via key questions

Projectcases

Key questions: Applicability,transferability, integration /synthesis

Scientific modelling (3 corner approach -> tools derived) Literature review (best practices added)

Policy frameworks General perspectives

Basis format

Basis model Rural Power Pack

From abstract modelling to practical elaboration: questions

1) How to integrate project/pilot results from 3 different work packages ?

2) How to ensure the maximum outcome of project results for the region as a whole?

3) How to test the applicability of project results elsewhere?

4) How to reach a general method or standard to be used in other regions?

43 Project cases

Themes

1) Innovative approaches to education2) Broadband and digital services3) SME empowerment and

entrepreneurship4) Good governance 5) Community building6) Welfare and lifestyle7) Profiling and branding

3 Work Packages

How to reach a general method or standard to be used in other

regions?

1. By comparing and abstracting the project results, we found lots of common grounds

2. Work packages could be transformed into themes that may apply more specifically to problems

3. and offer more integral solutions for several problems encountered

How to reach a general method or standard to be used in other regions?

4 By deriving and describing tools from project results (“lessons learnt”, specific tools on the local level that are highly context-bound)

5 Combined with scientific input more general tools were developed on the theme-level

How to reach a general method or standard to be used in other

regions?

6 By comparing project results with related projects from elsewhere and with scientific knowledge from literature

7 By adding key words to the projects, VRA-projects can be connected to other databases and networks

The Rural Power Pack: an integral approach to solve rural problems

Problems and challenges

Tools

Proven solutions

Barriers

Lack of ambition Lack of power

Innovative approaches to education

Broadband and digital services

SME empowerment and enterpreneurship

Good governance Community building

Welfare and lifestyle

Profiling and branding

Lack of young talent Lack of infrastructure

Lack of education

Lack of servicesLack of jobs

Demography

Politics

Regulations

History, culture and habits

Time and timing

Ownership Money

Landscape

Related Networks

Rural Power Pack overview

Rural problems or challenges

Local/regional approach

Problem analysis

Proposed solutions

Execution of project

Experiences / results

Lessons learnt / experiences

Applicability check (testing in other Vital areas)

Sustainability check (Triple-P check)

Extension of knowledge by exchange (key words, related projects)

Methodology

- Problem definition (7 lacks of ..)

- Solution (7 themes)

- Barriers (8 main fields described)

- TOOLS (derived from

projects or general)

An integral and interactive set of best practice project cases, containing experiences and tools, to be applied for problems commonly encountered in contemporary rural areas

Themes and contents

Work packages1 Empowerment of SMEs towards

new economical prospects and innovations

2 Branding of the region, towards a professional exposure of regions

3 Optimizing services, towards more and better accessible services and amenities

Themes 1 Innovative approaches to education2 Broadband and digital services3 SME empowerment 4 Good governance 5 Community building6 Welfare and lifestyle7 Profiling and branding

Best practice cases

4-layer approach 43 Project formats

Presentation: webbased with uniform project

formats and “story-telling” key projects

15 Key project formats

Cooperative Agreement Approach

Translation of best practices to the RPP structure of Vital Rural

Area

Bundling power, resources and investments on the regional level

Embedding working structure in a regional setting, i.e. connection to a regional knowledge institute plus to other, already existing structures (like LEADER) and new ones

Spreading successes within the region and extending (new) local stakeholders and partnerships

Building networks within and outside the country to enable best practices transfer on main topics

Next steps Vital Rural Area

Finalising and testing Rural Power Pack (toolbox) among partners

Cooperation with other projects (clusters NSR, Rural Alliances NWE, similar projects IVB, IVC elsewhere)

Dissemination Rural Power Pack to other regions in NSR and EU27

Sustaining project results in observatories, EU and national policy documents, and follow-up projects (INTERREG, LEADER, other)

Further information www.vitalruralarea.eu

Project management :

Wietse Hermanns, project manager – hermanns@vitalruralarea.eu

Peter Laan, coordinator Rural Power Pack – laan@vitalruralarea.eu