PUBLICATIONS > Rural Development
Rural Development Manual
- Project: Support to the Diversification of the Rural Economy, Latvia
- Printed: 1999
Though rural development as a term is easy to understand, it is rather difficult to get an insight in qualitative and quantitative instruments available and used to identify rural areas and to assess rural development. Rural development touches all aspects of human economic, social and cultural activities. Different ministries, institutions and associations are involved in the policy building and implementation on national, regional and local level.
The Phare project “Support for diversification of rural economy-SDRE was set up to assist the Latvian Ministry of Agriculture in the formulation and implication of a agricultural development strategy. The SDRE project proposed and tested methods for the development and implementation of rural development plans. An important accent was laid on the implementation of these plans on the lowest administrative level, the pagast level, with participation of the self-governments, local interest groups and the local private entrepreneurs. This Rural Development Manual summarises the rural development strategies elaborated by the project and all the experience related to various aspects of it.
Chapter one tries to highlight the most important issues and objectives of rural development in general as well as on the EU and Latvian level. Chapter two, dealing with this subject is concluded with the role of European institutions on this matter. . Chapter three deals with the various structural funds and other resources available for the implementation of rural development plans in Latvia. The fourth chapter gives a description of the methodology on national, regional and local level and explains how to involve the local communities in the preparation and implementation of action plans.