Territory, Partnership, Strategy

1
Territory, Partnership, Strategy

• Seminar  Getting started with Axis 4 of the
  EFF 
• Sofia, Bulgaria, 1 October 2009
• Jean-Pierre Vercruysse, European Commission

2
Territory Area-Based Approach

• Areas with sufficient coherence and critical mass
  to support a viable development strategy
• Human, financial and economic resources
• Common history and tradition
• Common feeling of identity
• Development strategy based on
• current situation
• strengths and weaknesses
• particular to an area

3
Bottom-Up Approach

• Involvement of local players
• population at large, economic and social interest
  groups, representative public and private
  institutions
• Capacity-building, strategic component of the
  bottom-up approach
• encourage participatory decision-making at the
  local level for all those concerned with
  development policies

4
Local Partnership FLAG

• Combination of public and private partners
• devise a common strategy and innovative actions
• for the development of a fisheries-dependent area
• Balanced and representative selection of partners
• different socio-economic sectors in the area
• economic and social partners
• The majority of the actions shall be led by the
  private sector

5
Integrated Development Strategies

• Addressing identified local needs
• Seek to consolidate and complement the existing
  activity
• Put forward new means of achieving sustainable
  development
• Goes beyond previous practice
• Complement mainstream programmes in the area

6
Components of the Strategy

• Elements of Analysis
• Partnership - Area - Socio-economic factors
• Environmental factors - Community Engagement
• Identification of Strategy
• Global Objective - Rationale - Distribution of
  Resources
• The Programme Measures
• Specific Objectives - Specific Rationale - Scope
  - Targeting

7
The strategy Be clear about the aims

• A shared understanding of problems and needs
• Taking stock together of the causes
• Joint awareness of threats and opportunities
• Shared vision and strategy
• Key tool for building the partnership parallel
  process
• Not
• An academic study
• A wish list
• A central plan
• Just a funding application

8
The strategy Who is involved?

• Preliminary steering group
• Starts narrow evolves into the partnership
• Team of 1-2 experts (from university,
  consultancy, )
• Around 6 months (minimum)
• Research, project management and animation skills
• All local stakeholders
• grouped by themes
• Sectors
• target groups
• organised, unorganised
• weak and strong

9
The diagnosis secondary sources

• Start to provide hypothesis and evidence for the
  stakeholder SWOT
• Do not reinvent the wheel
• Take into account existing plans
• Use existing information scan, select,
  synthesise
• Logical sections
• territory and environment
• transport and infrastructures
• population and society
• the economy and labour market
• governance and administration
• The role of the fishing sector in all this but
  not just a study of the sector

10
Stakeholder involvement

• First public information meeting
• Working groups thematic, sectoral or
  territorial. 2-3 meetings
• Stakeholder analysis
• Problems, needs and drivers
• SWOT
• Objectives
• Alternative strategies/priorities
• Types of action and budgets
• Joint meetings win/win solutions, flagship
  projects
• Business plan
• Final public meetings good communication
  throughout

11
What to avoid?

• A mechanical SWOT analyses
• No clear definition of the problem
• Formal consultation exercises
• An absence of any vision or unifying idea of
  where to go
• Vague and overambitious objectives
• Repeat the words in the regulation and do not
  relate to the needs
• Lists of worthy but unrelated actions.
• No relation between needs, objectives, priorities
  and actions
• Duplication of strategies, programmes and
  partnerships
• Community burnout
• Short term project mentality. Filling funding
  gaps. Division of resources. No long term
  commitment

12
How to build the local partnership

• A good local partnership can survive with a
  mediocre strategy - but a bad partnership can
  ruin the best made plans

13
Stages and functions of partnerships

• Animation
• Throughout but especially in the early stages
• Identifying and mobilising local actors
• Structuring
• Early and middle stages
• Creating the material and immaterial conditions
  for development
• Consolidating
• Promoting the economic, social and environmental
  sustainability
• Clusters, territorial marketing, value added
  chains, quality..

14
What to look for in the partners

• LEVERAGE for fishing communities
• Size of decision making board representative
  but not too big
• Leadership legitimacy to whom?
• The problem of many hats
• Rights and responsibilities. Payment. Avoiding
  community burn-out
• Communication outwards bringing in groups that
  other programmes dont reach
• Communication inwards mobilising the gold in
  peoples minds
• The three ts time, training and trust
• Tap existing manuals, procedures and training
  material

15
What to look for in the permanent team

• From 2 to 20
• Depending on local situation must cover a series
  of functions
• Strategic planning external LAG manager and
  president
• Leadership, brokerage, mediation
• Financial management and administration in
  house
• Information, animation, project management in
  house
• Business advice some general skills in house
• Training and facilitation outsource some
• Specialist skills out source
• Look for proven skills, experience and motivation
  more than qualifications