Programming and Implementation

• The Seminar on Successful Programming took stock of the outcomes of the ENRD seminars that were organised during 2012. The seminar focused on how the collected knowledge and experience, as well as cross-cutting priorities related to innovation, environment and climate change, can be incorporated in future RDPs. It also looked at the different steps to be undertaken to improve programme design and implementation in the next programming period.
• The Seminar on Improving the delivery of RDPs was organised based on the outcomes of the ENRD’s Thematic Working Group 4 “Delivery Mechanisms of EU Rural Development Policy” which identified what works well in terms of RDP delivery and what could be improved in the future.
• Thematic Working Group on Typologies and Targeting contributes to the accurate definition of rural areas in the EU which is crucial for EU rural development policy design and ensuring complementarity with the other EU funds aimed at developing rural areas.
• Thematic Working Group on Agriculture and the wider economy analysed links between agriculture and wider rural economy with the aim identify and describe potential synergies and/or conflicts between agriculture and the rural economy in different EU rural areas.
• The Thematic Working Group on Delivery Mechanisms reviewed the experience of Rural Development Programmes implementation in the EU with the aim to identify those aspects which are operating well, those which may require improvement and what concrete improvements might be made.
• Thematic information sheets provide a clear picture of rural development policy intervention by theme, highlighting linkages between the policy’s priorities, the implementing measures and their actual outcomes on the ground.
• RDP Information Sheets present information on the achieved overall progress by each Rural Development Programme implemented across the EU.
• RDP Monitoring Indicator Tables show the achieved progress in terms of financial and output indicators against the allocated targets for RDPs 2007-2013.
• RDP Projects Database presents examples of successful RDP project implemented across the EU.

Knowledge Transfer and Innovation

• Rural Review 16: Knowledge Transfer and Innovation in Rural Development Policy (May 2013) [PDF ] This issue of the EU Rural Review provides a snapshot of the current understanding of innovation in rural development and a glimpse into future challenges and opportunities. It aims to share insight and to help advance the integration of knowledge exchange and innovation into future rural development policy.
• The Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Gateway provides a variety of information on institutions, project examples and initiatives that promotes knowledge transfer and innovation in rural areas.
• The results of ENRD Focus Group that has explored how Knowledge Transfer and Innovation priority can be promoted under the 2014-2020 Rural Develompent Programmes are presented in the following documents:
  • Phase I Report [PDF ] and Executive summary [PDF ] illustrate the findings of the first working phase (July to December 2012). In addition, there are two separate annexes:
    • Annex 1 – Collection of examples supporting Knowledge Transfer & Innovation [PDF ];
    • Annex 2 – Background paper [PDF ].
  • Phase II Reports summarise the findings of the second working phase (February to June 2013):
    • Report on Innovation Brokerage [PDF ] and Annex 2 on Study Material and Information on Actors Supporting Innovation [PDF ]
    • Report on EIP Operational Groups [PDF ]
• Rural Review 2: Creativity and Innovation in EU Rural Development (Dec 2009) [PDF ] showcases some of the different types of innovation and creativity from EU rural areas.

Rural Entrepreneurship

• Final Report of the ENRD Rural Entrepreneurship Thematic Initiative [PDF ]
• Rural Review 10: Rural entrepreneurship [PDF ] provides a closer look at how EU agriculture and rural development policy help promote rural entrepreneurship.
• Rural Review 5: Cultivating competitiveness of the EU farm, agri-food and forest sectors [PDF ] focuses on supporting EU agriculture, forestry and agri-food industries, combining competitiveness and multi-functionality.
• Guidelines  provided as a capacity building tool for entrepreneurs in the rural areas.
• Events, Trainings and Working Groups for capacity building of rural entrepreneurs.
• Library on Rural Entrepreneurship providing general resource materials and project examples.
• Rural Review 9: Forestry and rural development [PDF ] focuses on linkages between rural development policy and rural areas, also including successful projects and practical experience from the ground.
• EAFRD project brochure on Forestry [PDF ]  presents a set of articles about how the EAFRD can be used to sustainably develop the EU’s diverse array of different woodland resources.

Financial Instruments

• Coordination Committee Workshop on Financial Instruments was organised to help raise awareness amongst rural development stakeholders about the opportunities and considerations involved in creating and utilising financial instruments in rural development programmes during the next programming period (2014-2020).
• Rural Review 13: Rural development financial instruments: New opportunities to tackle the economic crisis (October 2012) [PDF ] presents opportunities, experience and challenges for the implementation of EU Rural Development Policy.
• Rural Finance section provides information on the work of the Rural Finance Task Force organised under the NRN Thematic Initiative on Rural Entrepreneurship.
• Library on Rural Entrepreneurship providing materials and project examples on Local Financing Instruments

Food Chain

• Local Food and Short Supply Chain – introductory page to the theme with relevant links to EU actions on promoting farm products, study and project examples.
• Rural Review 12: Local food and short supply chains [PDF ] illustrates how RDPs are contributing to the promotion of local food production and short supply chains
• Library on Rural Entrepreneurship providing materials and project examples on Short Supply Chains
• EAFRD project brochure on Food [PDF ] illustrates examples which demonstrate the range of positive benefits in Member States from food-related rural development activity under the CAP.

Environment and Climate change

• ENRD Workshop on “Quality Design of Environmental and Climate Measures for 2014-2020 RDPs” organised by the ENRD as a part of the preparatory activities for the new programming period 2014-2020. The outcomes of the workshop inform on effective assessments of needs and definition of priorities; selection of measures, design and implementation; effective delivery of environmental services.
• Rural Review 15: Delivering Environmental Services using Rural Development Policy (April 2013) [PDF ] is exploring how Rural Development Policy is supporting provision of environmental services in EU rural areas.
• Environmental services provides link to the thematic page of Focus Group on Delivery of Environmental Services which identified aspects critical to the delivery of environmental services and offered a set of recommendations for the design and implementation of the future generation of Rural Development Programmes (2014-2020). Executive summary of the FG report  [PDF ]
• EAFRD Project brochure on Environmental Services [PDF ] focuses on the wide range of different environmental services that can be assisted through the EAFRD using financial support available to EU Member States’ Rural Development Programmes (RDP).
• Public Goods and Public Intervention section represents the results and finding of the relevant thematic working group, exploring the potential of rural development policy to contribute to the provision of public goods in rural areas through agriculture including farmland biodiversity and natural resources such as water and soils.
• Thematic Working Group 4: Collective Approaches to Agri-environment Schemes [PDF ] discussed about existing collective approaches to agri-environment contracts.
• Brochure on Public Goods and Public Intervention in Agriculture: [PDF ] is based on the work carried out by the Public Goods Thematic Working Group which discussed issues related to public goods and examined how EU rural development policy contributes to it.
• Rural Review 7: Public Goods and Rural Development (March 2011): [PDF ] is dedicated on the role of EU agriculture and rural development policies in the delivery of public goods in rural areas throughout Europe.
• EAFRD Project brochure on Green Growth: [PDF ] presents EU RDP projects case studies which illustrate and explain in practice how Europe’s rural areas can benefit from adopting environmentally-sustainable approaches to their development.
• Climate change / Climate action provides link to screening exercise undertaken by the ENRD in 2010 to identify how the issue of climate change is being tackled in the RDPs at Member State level.
• Rural Review 4: Rural Development and Climate Change (May 2010), [PDF ] explains the contribution that the rural development policy brings to the EU´s climate action agenda.

Social inclusion and economic development of rural areas

• The youth and young farmers gateway offers relevant information and resources on the support offered to young farmers and young people in rural areas in the EU. In particular the ENRD “Youth thematic initiative” has been looking at ways to improve RDP support to youth-related projects.
• The EAFRD projects brochure on Social inclusion [PDF ] highlights a range of social inclusion project examples from across rural Europe co-financed by the EAFRD.
• The EAFRD projects brochure on Young farmers and younger people in rural Europe [PDF ] provides a selection of project examples showing how the EAFRD can help to provide development opportunities for young farmers and younger people in rural Europe.
• Rural Review 6: Employment and Social Inclusion [PDF] focuses on encouraging rural employment, tackling rural poverty and improving the quality of life.
• Social Farming is a NRN Joint Thematic Initiative launched with the purpose to identify and analyses the opportunities and obstacles presented by national/regional RDPs 2007-2013 for the implementation of Social Farming/green care activities in the EU-27.
• The ENRD seminar on Semi-subsistence Farming in the EU assessed the current situation and policies directed towards semi-subsistence farms across the EU.
• Social Aspects of Rural Entrepreneurship
• Library on the Rural Entrepreneurship Gateway providing materials and project examples on Inclusion of Specific Target Groups
• Library on the Rural Entrepreneurship Gateway providing materials and project examples on Social Services and Farming
• Library on the Rural Entrepreneurship Gateway providing materials and project examples on Social Entrepreneurship
• This section provides information on ICT application in the rural areas.
• EAFRD project brochure on Information and Communication technology (ICT). [PDF ] highlights how ICT is being used as an essential tool for unlocking the potential of rural areas, making them more attractive places to live, work and visit.

CLLD, LEADER and TNC

• The third LEADER Event 2013: Building Bridges for the Future was organised with the aim to support the process of successful programming of CLLD (known as LEADER within EAFRD) at a national and local level.
• Information on Community-Led Local Development workshops organised by DG AGRI and ENRD CP in the context of the 10th European Week of Regions and Cities - OPEN DAYS. The aim was to generate discussions on the preparation, design, implementation and management of Local Development Strategies (LDS), to create an understanding of how networking can be used as a tool to mobilise actors, and to publicise widely the added value of transnational cooperation between local territories.
• Workshop on Community-led Local Development was organised by the ENRD with the objectives to exchange information and ideas for the future programming period and to identify the needs of stakeholders in this context and the possible role of networks in the preparatory phase.
• As a part of the objective to examine the LEADER implementation throughout the EU and to identify good practice that could be developed into recommendations to improve the implementation of LEADER, Focus Group 4: Better Local Development Strategies aims to analyse the two key aspects of local development strategies - creation and implementation.
• As a part of the LEADER Tool-kit, the Local Action Group (LAG) section provides practical and useful information on different aspects related to the establishment of a LAG.
• The Strategy Design and Implementationsection provides guidance on issues related to the design and implementation of Local Development Strategies.
• Rural Review 11: LEADER and cooperation (April 2012) [PDF ] is focused on the inter-relationship between two key elements of the LEADER approach - Local Development Strategies and cooperation.
• EAFRD Project brochure on LEADER [PDF ] illustrates and underscores the added-value of LEADER.
• EAFRD Project brochure on Other EU Funds [PDF ] illustrates how the EAFRD can work alongside other EU funding sources in rural areas.
• TNC Specific Glossary of Terms
• Member States TNC rules & procedures provides information, addressed to LAGs and other LAG-type actors interested in participating in TNC.
• TNC Implementation section informs on common aspects of TNC projects management.
• Informative sections on the roles of monitoring and evaluation as a part of the follow-up activities necessary to improve TNC projects implementation.
• TNC Guide Toolkit

Rural Development Networking

Networking in practice: experiences and lessons learned

• Coordination Committee Workshop on the Future of Rural Networking, Brussels 17 September 2012 and outcomes of the workshop [PDF ] informs on the future of European networking for rural development.
• Rural Review 14: Networks and Networking in Rural Development Policy (December 2012), [PDF ] shows that networks are an effective means of informing, inspiring and empowering local people in rural communities.
• Networks as a rural development policy tool for stimulating and sharing new ideas which contributes to the implementation of the rural development policy.
• Lessons learned from the ENRD shows some of the milestones and achievements of the ENRD during the period 2008-2012.
• Lessons from the NRNs presents important and useful lessons to be learnt from the experience of the NRNs during the 2007-2013 period that can be built upon for the forthcoming 2014-2020 programming period.
• National Rural Networks – the diversity of approaches delivers practical experiences and learning opportunities created by the NRNs’ vast variety of approaches related to rural networking.
• As a part of the lessons learnt from the NRNs, Building common understanding of common policies provides examples of the range of methods and techniques used by NRNs to bringing groups, organisations and individuals together to develop a shared understanding of policy, both vertically and horizontally across stakeholder groups.
• Building on lessons learnt provides links to the experience and lessons learnt during the 2007-2013 programming period of the ENRD, NRNs and other networks that can be built upon for the forthcoming 2014-2020 programming period
• Effective involvement of stakeholders provides examples of range of methods and techniques used by NRNs to involve existing and potential stakeholder groups in aspects of the RDP which are most relevant to them.
• Facilitating exchange of practice and experience is a collection of applied in practice useful learning tools for other stakeholders, presented in an appropriate fashion and making them available to a wide audience.
• Support for cooperation and joint actions provides success stories that illustrate how the NRNs have supported people, groups and organisations to identify potential partners, develop ideas together and work collectively to deliver joint projects.
• Capacity Building for Rural Networks is a seminar organised by the ENRD with the aim to contribute to the capacity building of national and regional networks and to present a valuable opportunity for those involved in the early stages of establishing an NRN to meet with other rural development actors across the EU.

Self-assessment tools for National Rural Networks

• Existing Tools Used by NRNs for Self-Assessment includes a set of practical self-assessment tools that are already being used by the NRNs
• Guidance on Design of Surveys, Questionnaires and Feedback Forms makes available some general guidance documents for NRNs on preparing surveys for collecting and assessing the views and opinions of stakeholders and participants in various networking activities.
• Looking Beyond NRN Self-Assessment is a section with links and publications that provide some useful sources of inspiration, methodology and lessons for NRNs which are interested to look beyond the standard self-evaluation process of NRNs’ activities.
• NRN Self-Assessment Profiles informs about the general approach that selected NRNs have taken to self-assessment.
• Potential Tools for Supporting NRN Self-Assessment is a collection of guidance documents provided for self-assessment of activities in NGO and socials change networks which contain practical examples and advice that could be also relevant to NRN self-assessment.
• Practical Tools for NRN Self-Assessmentprovides links to a collection of practical tools that are either being used or have the potential to be used, by NRNs for monitoring the progress and assessing the performance of their networking activities.

Monitoring & Evaluation

• Good Practice Workshop on the ex ante evaluation of SWOT analysis and needs assessment was organized by the European Evaluation Network in cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture in Czech Republic to discusses specific issues related to the ex-ante evaluation of SWOT analysis and needs assessment.
• Good Practice Workshop on drafting terms of reference for ex ante evaluations was organised by the Evaluation Helpdesk to share experience about the new requirements (according to the new EC proposals for CAP 2013) of the ex-ante evaluation and to discuss good practice in drafting terms of reference for the upcoming tendering process in the Member States.
• “From Ongoing Evaluation towards the Evaluation Plan” is a Good Practice Workshop organised by the Evaluation Helpdesk in cooperation with Austrian Ministry of Agriculture to provide a platform for discussion and exchange of experience about on-going evaluation in the current programming period and draw key lessons for the preparation of the evaluation plan, an integral part of the Rural Development Programmes for 2014-2020.
•  “Choosing and using context indicators for Rural Development 2014-2020” is a good practice workshop, organised as a contribution to defining the list of common context indicators for inclusion in the implementing rules.
• Evaluation of RDP 2007-2013is an overview of the overall evaluation process (legislation, stages, actors involved) envisaged for Rural Development Programmes 2007-2013
• Evaluation Guidelines provides links to guidance and methodological documents that are available to assist Member States in dealing with evaluation requirements for their Rural Development Programmes 2007-2013.
• Frequently Asked Questions provides additional source of information and clarification on the indicators used for evaluation of RDPs 2007-2013.
• Good practice workshop on Evaluation of National Rural Network Programmes was organised by the Evaluation Helpdesk to reflect on specific issues related to the evaluation of the full NRN programmes in four MS (Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal)
• Information on the working paper Assessing the socio-economic and environmental impact of the RDPs which provides general support for the assessment of RDPs impacts as well as specific support for measuring and interpreting the seven common socio-economic and environmental impact indicators of the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (CMEF)
• Good Practice Workshop on “Specific challenges in using common rural development indicators at regional level” was organised to discuss specific challenges in identifying appropriate values for the common indicators at regional level.
• Good Practice Workshop on “Targeted data management for evidence-based evaluation in Rural Development” was organised to address the issues on data availability and quality for evaluation of RDPs 2007-2013.
• Evaluation Helpdesk Publications is a library with all the publications produced by the Evaluation Helpdesk, divided by categories.