About the leader method
If you are considering applying for project support from Leader Gute, you must be able to show that your project follows the Leader method. It is based on local support and collaboration that benefits many people in the region.
Develop and run projects according to the leader method
In order to apply for project support, the project must follow the Leader method. This means the following:
1. Locally anchored needs formulation
Start by capturing and formulating a need that many in the community experience and why it would be important to fulfill. The need formulation can be anchored, for example, through a simple survey or local brainstorming sessions that are open to all those who live and work in the community.
2. Goal setting
The next step is to set clear goals in broad local collaboration. What do we need to achieve to meet the need?
3. Activity plan and budget
Then, in continued broad local collaboration, it is important to create a concrete activity plan with an associated budget. What are we actually going to do to achieve the goals and meet the need? And what will it cost?
4.Sustainability, equality and inclusion
These three principles are central to the Leader method. It is therefore important to agree on and formulate how economic, social and ecological sustainability can best be taken into account throughout the project. And how the implementation and the benefits the project brings can be characterized by equality and inclusion.
5.Operation and management
Finally, it is important to have a plan for how what has been created will be run and managed in the future. What is required to maintain the broad local benefit that the project aims to achieve? What work and costs are associated with this? Is there a realism in the fact that the project's benefit will continue after it has been implemented?
Documentation
It is important that you document all these steps – for example, through meetings with participant lists and decision minutes or survey responses. This is to show that the project has the broad local support that the Leader method is based on. This documentation is important when you then write the application.
Background facts about the leader method
- The Leader method is a well-established method for local development. It was introduced by the EU in 1991 and is now used throughout the Union.
- The method is based on the idea that local development is most effectively and sustainably implemented by those who live and work in the area. It is you, your association, local businesses and other organizations who know best which needs and challenges are most important to address.
- The method is based on a bottom-up perspective, local support and collaboration that benefits many in the region. Sustainability, gender equality and inclusion are also central points in the Leader method.
- To ensure a local focus, the Leader method is operated in geographically defined areas, so-called Leader areas.
- To form a leader area, local actors from the non-profit, private and public sectors must come together and work out a development strategy. This must be based on the needs and conditions of the specific area.
The strategy describes, for example, what needs to be done to increase employment, attract more new companies and make the area attractive and competitive. - The local development strategy forms the basis for the Leader area's budget, a budget decided by the Swedish Board of Agriculture. The money comes from the EU, the state and other public actors (in Leaderaer Gute's case, Region Gotland).
- From the Leader area, residents and businesses in the area can apply for money to run projects. Projects that are granted support are run according to the Leader method and contribute to achieving the goals in the development strategy. Each Leader project can thus be seen as a piece of the puzzle that, together with all other projects, contributes to fulfilling the area's goals and vision.
- In Sweden there are currently 40 leader areas, each with its own leader association. Across the EU, the figure is over 3,500.
- Leader is an abbreviation of the French phrase Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale. It means Coordinated Activities for Rural Economic Development.