Enhancing CLLD delivery: messages from the Czech national Conference
Strong political will and enhanced civil servants’ understanding of local needs and opportunities are essential to facilitate the delivery of Community-led Local Development (CLLD) and ensure long-term stability of Local Action Groups (LAGs). This was among the headline messages emerging from the recent CLLD Conference (31 March-2 April 2025, Prague, Czechia).
Image by the Czech National Network of Local Action Groups
Challenges for CLLD and potential solutions
The event highlighted the potential of CLLD to address the complex challenges facing rural areas and to offer innovative solutions. Nevertheless, the CLLD approach faces its own challenges, such as low awareness of its wider potential, beyond agriculture, and the difficulty of capturing its added value to make it more understandable.
Reinforcing the links between the Rural Pact and CLLD could help address these. The Pact has the potential to raise the visibility and profile of rural issues and local actors, enhancing recognition of LAG initiatives and mobilising support around shared values. Giving more weight to CLLD in EU and national policy agendas, the Pact is well placed to bring new energy to both LAGs and the rural communities they support.
Achieving multi-funded CLLD is another challenge stemming from the difficulty of harmonising rules between different funds, fear of controls and audits, and lack of capacity. In this area, Czechia, with its strong multi-funded LAGs, could serve as a lab for the EU to test locally based solutions in rural areas.
Use of European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) in Czech multi-funded CLLD
In the 2021-2027 period, the Czech Ministry for Labour and Social Affairs introduced innovative methods of simplifying CLLD delivery to reduce bureaucracy. As many as 155 Czech LAGs use ESF+ in their local strategies, with 5% of the total ESF+ budget in Czechia allocated to CLLD.
This funding enables LAGs to play a key role in addressing demographic challenges, improving quality of rural life, helping marginalised groups, organising community planning of social services, supporting prevention and palliative care. They are also piloting new tools and approaches, as well as helping to close the gap between the old and the young generations.
Many Czech LAGs played a key role in addressing recent crises, such as the influx of Ukrainian refugees after February 2022 and the severe floods of September 2024.
More on the CLLD Conference
The Conference brought together key CLLD stakeholders in Czechia, including relevant Ministries and LAGs. It was organised by the Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, in collaboration with the Ministries of Agriculture and Regional Development, the National Rural Network and the National Local Action Groups Network.
Explore the Conference presentations and video recordings. Browse through the latest Rural Pact resources on LEADER/CLLD.