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Objective 1
amplify the voice of rural areas to bring them higher on the political agenda -
Objective 2
structure and enable collaboration and mutual learning between Pact members -
Objective 3
encourage and monitor voluntary commitment for action by Rural Pact community members
Description
“Bringing the Rural Pact closer to citizens” is one of the priorities for 2024/2025. The network of ‘rural movements’ that is brought together through ERCA is a critical link to the local level and reaches deep into the rural communities, often in areas which have no LAG or Smart Village. This is where people live their daily lives and take initiatives to maintain or improve the quality of life.
Many of these local initiatives are the members of the national and regional rural movements which are the members of ERCA. These have a long tradition, some going back over 50 years.
ERCA members are constantly developing structures and tools to support local initiatives, including village surveys, appraisals, mapping and planning tools, implemented by a wide range of local groups, including village and regional associations, development trusts, social enterprises, community councils, local partnerships, and more.
With these instruments and learning programs they form a strong infrastructure for capacity building at local level. This is an important condition to enable villagers to determine their own future. In June 2024, ERCA published a Compass for local empowerment in rural areas with many concrete examples.
All ERCA members are engaged in building strong, resilient, prosperous and connected communities in the rural areas. ERCA has established a program to exchange knowledge about all kinds of local empowerment, by organizing monthly ERCA-Cafes in which ERCA members present their organizations, methods and instruments.
Best Practices will be published on the ERCA website. In cooperation with the Dutch Village Movement and the European Partnership for Citizen Empowerment (EPCE) a special report on the methodology of the Village Pact will be prepared.
ERCA is a supporting organization of the Michael Dower Award for Rural Resilience (MDA website) in celebration of the renowned expert on European rural development. Vanessa Halhead is a founding member of the Steering Committee.
The awards will be made to an outstanding community initiative in rural resilience and to an outstanding individual effort in promoting rural resilience. The first awards will be given at the 2025 ERP.
Commitment's information
Themes
Stakeholder beneficiary(ies)
- Academic/research institution
- Citizen
- International organisation
- Local Action Group
- National Rural Network
- Non-governmental / civil society organisation
- Private Business
- Public authority
Activities
- Communication and/or Advocacy
- Knowledge sharing
- Rural development strategy
- Networking activities
- Events
- Research or/& evaluation
- Capacity Building
Expected Outcomes
- 8 ERCA-Cafes on methods, tools, capacity building etc. at the local level
- Publish best practices on the ERCA-website
- Develop the method of Village Pacts
- Support to the Michael Dower Award
Main results
Number of people
30
Number of projects
16
Organisation/Company information
European Rural Community Alliance (ERCA)
Non-governmental / civil society organisationStatus
Funding
- Commitment's fund
- EU funds, National funding, Regional funding, Local funding
- EU Fund
- Interreg, Horizon programme, ERASMUS
Budget
- Planned additional investment
- Human resources of the ERCA team and all the ERCA-members Technical resources to organize web-events
Further details
- Scope of action
- European
- Beneficiary country
- Sweden
- Type of territories
- Rural area, Remote rural area, Mountainous area