(06 May 2014) – On 2nd April AEIDL piloted its new one-day training course on Community-Led Local Devel¬opment (CLLD).
The day combined theory with practice, comprising an introduction to the concepts and policy development, a Local Action Group case study, a session on applying CLLD to social inclusion, an explanation of the new EU regulation, and a study visit to a local development initiative in Brussels. The guinea-pigs were 15 of AEIDL’s staff.
The session started with a brief introduction by Toby Johnson on the important opportunity that the introduction of CLLD as a methodology across the Structural Funds represents. It offers the chance to create development which is inclusive, cohesive, citizen-based and sustainable, and is led by organisations that are accountable to local people.
It works at the level at which people can engage, and can thus help to remedy the disenchantment that many Europeans feel with government from far away. It makes the most of the skills and resources within an area, and develops a balanced economy, rather than one that relies on ‘exporting’ a single product. It is an antidote to excessive globalisation.