LAGs bring tangible results
Seventy-eight small local projects will be carried out this year in ATU Gagauzia, Taraclia and in neighbouring communities within the framework of the SARD LEADER/CLLD initiative. A regional festival of local carpets, an enterprise for producing condiments and medical plants, cultivation of strawberries in greenhouses, construction of a rural market, equipping of some playgrounds and the establishment of a touristic boarding house with national peculiarities – these are just some of the projects which the eight SARD LAGs have decided to implement.
These 78 local projects promote social-economic and environmental development and were selected under a locally announced grants competition. To implement them, every LAG benefits from EU assistance through SARD in the amount of about EUR 25,000. Each LAG contributes an additional 20 per cent to this budget, in cash or in kind. This is a relatively small grant to realize the selected small projects of the LAGs and, through this, to implement a “learning by doing” process. This learning by doing process is crucial from the future perspective as the majority of LAG members are not experienced in planning and implementing projects.
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Handbook on implementation of LEADER/CLLD – community-driven rural development initiatives, in the Republic of Moldova.
The European LEADER approach is based on seven specific principles, which must all be present simultaneously in order to apply the method correctly. It is these seven characteristics that define LEADER as a methodology and distinguish it from other funding programmes
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Everyone can do something to change his or her own life and this process will be more efficient and sustainable if potential change-makers in any given community are strengthened and empowered to be able to identify with the ‘culture of co’ – cooperation, co-creation, community leadership, caring for the commons and business collaboration. This approach is called community coaching. Through the SARD LEADER/CLLD community, coaching interventions have been employed to ignite the spirit of change in the targeted local communities and encourage them to be active in the implementation of current and future development programmes.
In November 2017, members of eight Local Action Groups (LAGs), created by local stakeholders with the assistance of SARD, signed the formal Partnership Agreements, which are the basis of their common work.
The SARD LEADER initiative supports the creation, functioning and management of the local stakeholder-created LAGs in the targeted regions and neighbouring districts. The programme helps with all necessary human resource development, technical assistance, legal aspects, co-financing and governance.
The SARD Programme aims to boost the collaboration between central and local authorities, as well as among the regional organizations from ATU Gagauzia and Taraclia district, so as to foster the social-economic development of the region and of the Republic of Moldova as a whole. The Programme will contribute to development of the agro-food sector, promotion of local entrepreneurship, creation of jobs, and increasing the incomes of the population living in ATU Gagauzia and Taraclia district.
This website was developed with the financial support of the European Union within the “Support for agriculture and rural development in ATU Gagauzia and Taraclia” (SARD) Programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by the UNDP. The content of this website does not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Union or of the United Nations Development Programme.
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