(30 October 2020) – Enrique Nieto and Lucia Garrido (AEIDL) attended the first working session of the SHERPA EU MAP’s Coordination Group that took place online on 8 October 2020.
The EU Multi-Actor Platform (MAP) is the SHERPA project’s rural interface established at European level to engage a mix of key actors from three target communities (science, society and policy) to exchange knowledge and to provide space for debating issues and priorities for the future development of rural areas.
The MAP is contributing to the SHERPA’s position paper on the ‘Long Term Vision for rural areas’ that will be published by the end of 2020. Enrique and Lucia attended as observers and as communication experts of the EU MAP.
To achieve a desirable future for rural areas, experts agreed that a bottom-up approach, enhanced rural-urban links, integrated tailor-made local strategies alongside investments in adequate infrastructure, and service provision are needed to overcome the feeling that rural areas are being “left behind”.
More opportunities to rural people to participate in decisions about their future, empowerment to innovative for change and mechanisms to assess the impact of legislation on rural areas prior to their adoption (Rural Proofing) is also deemed important.