A brief history of Leader
Leader was launched in 1991 with the aim of improving the development potential of rural areas by drawing on local initiative and skills, promoting the acquisition of know-how on local integrated development, and disseminating this know-how to other rural areas
Leader’s aims are in line with those of the EU’s overall rural development policy. The evolving CAP takes into account the diversity of rural areas and landscapes, rich local identities and the increasing value society puts on a high-quality natural environment. These are acknowledged to be the major assets of the EU’s rural areas:
Different rural development approaches tried out prior to the early 1990s were typically sectorial, focusing primarily on farmers and aiming to encourage structural change within agriculture. They used ‘top down’ approaches, with support schemes decided at national or regional level. Local stakeholders were not always encouraged to acquire the skills to become the architects of the future of their own areas
An area-based and bottom-up approach, involving local communities and adding value to local resources, gradually came to be seen as a new way of creating jobs and businesses in rural areas. Leader began in an experimental way bringing together, at local level, various projects and ideas, stakeholders and resources. It proved to be an ideal instrument for testing how to expand opportunities for rural areas.
Leader is a part of wider EU rural development policy and comprises three generations:
Leader I (1991 – 1993)
Leader II (1994 – 1999)
Leader+ (2000 – 2006)
LEADER I (1991 – 1993)
Leader I was focusing on mobilisation and animation, establishing of partnerships and learning how to create local development strategies. Innovative procedures were defined relatively simply as activities that hadn’t been previously realised in the concerned territory or they had been funded from other programs. The true radical innovation introduced by Leader were the local action groups that received generous funding and were given essentially free hand for decision-making on the content of their business plan. Leader I emphasises establishing of networks of skills rather than regional territorial tool. The network of Leader I was regarded as a valuable source of information for local action groups and helped a number of rural areas to escape from isolation. This was the first significant experiment of the EU in the area of endogenous rural development based on bottom-up principle that was oriented on territories rather than sectors and actively engaged local communities into decision-making about its development; 217 local action groups participated within the EU 15.
Most projects supported in this period of time were linked to rural tourism, agricultural production/farming and introducing the production to the market, small and medium-sized businesses and local service providers.
LEADER II (1994 – 1999)
During Leader II, stakeholders of rural development as well as the institutions at various levels better understood the characteristics of the whole process. Emphasis was shifted also on other elements, particularly on truly innovative events and activities, cooperation leading to networking of local action groups, assessment, including self-assessment of activities carried out by local action. The Leader II initiative facilitated mainly innovative processes implementing new approaches to rural development, exchange of experience and know-how as well as project of international cooperation. In this period, the characteristic elements of leader approach were defined with core support provided to innovation, cooperation and networking among LAGs.
In total, 906 LAGs were supported as well as 92 other collective bodies in the whole EU15.
This stage was assessed as very successful mainly in terms of jobs creation in rural areas and creation of new products and services.
LEADER+ (2000 – 2006)
The advent of Leader+ was demonstrated in a shift towards specifically focused topics (changes in technology, usage of natural and cultural resources, quality of life in rural areas, and added value to the local products) that can be seen in the Regulation no. 1689/2005 on Rural Development. Leader+ was not only a sequel to Leader II, but it went much further in its objectives, particularly by supporting creation of quality and demanding integrated strategies for development of rural areas. It also placed strong emphasis on cooperation and networking among rural areas. The LEADER+ initiative was implemented by 893 LAGs in EU15, joined by other 281 LAGs from new member states between 2004 and 2006. Although the latter could not fully join the initiative in the period, they could implement similar measures within their respective operational programs. 6 new member states took advantage of this opportunity: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
Also thanks to the achieved results, the Leader approach was included into EU’s rural development policies after 2007, not as an independent program but this time as a part of national rural development programs.