GOVERNANCE

1
GOVERNANCE

• 
  Karsten Lægdsmand
• 
  Leader West Zealand
• 
  Denmark

2
MY SELF

• Programme Manager, LEADER West Zealand
• Have been working with regional development and
  international cooperation
• In public administration and in private businesses

3
MY REGION

• Situated 60-80 miles northwest of Copenhagen, the
  capital of Denmark
• The region covers app. 1000 square miles and has
  app. 60.000 inhabitants
• The structural problems are of another type than
  the most common
• Marked of our close neighbourhood to Copenhagen
• Only been working with the LEADER programme

4
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT

• LEADER - a new concept for development in the
  countryside
• Tested over more than 2 decades, particularly in
  the LEADER programme
• Thanks to the politicians and the civil servants
  of EU, who launched it in the eighties
• It formed the ground for activities as LEADER and
  CARREFOUR

5
A NEW CONCEPT?

• Renewed. Yes
• But it is building on strong traditions in the
  countryside
• We have to take care of our own problems
• No one else will

6
A LABORATORY?

• For testing a new type of administration and
  management of regional development.
• The concept has been characterised by the
  following
• Mobilising of local actors in new partnerships
  taking responsibility for their region.
• Development of decentralised, integrated
  strategies based on local conditions.
• Bottom-up approach to secure participation from
  all parts of local society.
• The results can be used not only in the
  countryside. But also in other parts in the
  society.

7
HOW IS IT WITH GOVERNANCE?

• It is difficult to generalise.
• Europe is a mix. Composed of many different
  cultures.
• With differences in the national and regional
  political/adminstrative culture.
• With differences in the national and regional
  handling of the LEADER programme.
• With differences in the regional competence in
  handling the LEADER programme.
• It is obvious to assume, that the quality of
  governance has differed very much.
• How then to generalise?

8
MY OWN REGION AS A CASE

• I will use mo own region as a case.
• We were very few, who had been in contact with
  the programme.
• We had a certain knowledge to content to the
  concept of LEADER.
• We know also, that we had the possibility to be a
  LEADER region.
• But how to create competence between the partners
  in the region.
• Did we suceed?

9
HOW WAS OUR START?

• we succeded in establishing a suitable working
  group for the development plan.
• We were appointed as LEADER region.
• We lost much of our kompetence developing the
  working group to a LEADER LAG-group.
• We had to start a learning process. To develop a
  real regional partnership
• It has been like lifting ourselves in the hair.
  With our national network secretariat as a
  catalyst.

10
WHERE ARE WE NOW?

• We have a much stronger base with focus on our
  role as a regional partnership
• We have started with creating a development plan
  for the new rural development program.
• With clear strategies based on a much better
  analytic platform than before.
• We have taken initiative to secure and develop
  our kompetences in the period in-between.

11
TO SUCCEED IN A BETTER WAY

• Our experiences are not unique
• Many other regions can tell similar stories
• About the difficulties and how they succeeded to
  follow up or not
• We have a great concept for creating succesfull
  development in the countryside
• We are on our way to find our place as a new
  development structure vis a vis the already
  existing regional structures.

12
LEGITIMACY OF THE PARTNERSHIPS

• Why not try to secure the legitimacy of the
  partnerships by defining - in rough - the content
  and structure of partnerships in the future
• A start could be done by defining certain types
  of accepted partnerships.
• A more strategic approach could be done by
  establishing a pilot study of the partnerships.
• To secure knowledge about succes parameters and
  the development of more precise definitions of
  the partnerships

13
PROFESSIONALISM OF THE PARTNERSHIPS

• Why not try to equip the partnerships in a better
  way by giving the partnerships a more
  professional approach.
• I can be done by defiining, that members of
  partnerships has to follow an educational
  programme.
• I can be done through the national network
  secretariats and the European observatory.

14
LEADER IN THE FUTURE

• It will maintain and raise the level of
  competences between members of the partnerships
  and the programme in general.
• It will create a common understanding and
  strengthen the selfesteem between members of the
  partnerships and the programme in general.
• It will secure the LEADER concept a central place
  in the development of the countryside in Europe
  in the future.

15
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION