About LEADER

Rural development policy is an increasingly important component of the common agricultural policy. It promotes sustainable development in Europe’s rural areas addressing economic, social and environmental concerns.

Over half of the EU’s population live in rural areas, which cover 90% of the EU’s territory. LEADER is an innovative approach within EU rural development policy.

Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l'Économie Rurale

LEADER stands for links between actions of rural development. As its name suggests, it is a method of mobilising and delivering rural development in local rural communities, rather than a fixed set of measures to be implemented.

Experience has shown that LEADER can make a real difference to the daily lives of people in rural areas. It can play an important role in encouraging innovative responses to old and new rural problems, and becomes a sort of ‘laboratory’ for building local capabilities and for testing out new ways of meeting the needs of rural communities. It has generated valuable results in many rural areas in the EU-15 Member States, and could play a significant role in assisting rural areas in new and future EU Member States to adapt to today’s changing realities.

The seven key features of the LEADER approach. Each feature complements and interacts positively with the others throughout the whole implementation process, with lasting effects on the dynamics of rural areas and their capacity to solve their own problems.

For the 2007–13 programming period, LEADER will no longer be a separate programme but will be integrated (‘mainstreamed’) in all national/regional rural development programmes. This opens up new possibilities for the LEADER approach to be applied on a far wider scale and across a much broader range of rural development activities than hitherto.

LEADER encourages rural territories to explore new ways to become or to remain competitive, to make the most of their assets and to overcome the challenges they may face, such as an ageing population, poor levels of service provision, or a lack of employment opportunities. In this way, LEADER contributes towards improving the quality of life in rural areas both for farm families and the wider rural population. It uses a holistic approach to address rural problems. It recognises, for example, that being competitive in the production of food, having an attractive environment and creating job opportunities for the local population are mutually supportive aspects of rural life, requiring specific skills, appropriate technologies and services that need to be tackled as a coherent package and with tailored policy measures.

LEADER Approach Fact Sheet (PDF - 700KB)

To view this document you may need to download a free copy of Adobe Reader.

Since it was launched in 1991, the LEADER initiative has been working to provide rural communities in the EU with a method for involving local partners in steering the future development of their area.

The LEADER approach has attracted a high level of interest within the EU and far beyond. It has been emulated beyond its own circle of benefi ciaries.

The interest LEADER has aroused has sometimes influenced national, regional and local administrations and policies with its capacity to tackle development problems through new forms of partnerships and linking activities. LEADER complements other European and national programmes. For example, LEADER actions can activate and mobilise local resources, by supporting pre-development projects (such as diagnostic studies and feasibility studies or local capacity building) which will improve these areas’ ability to access and use not only LEADER funds but also other sources for financing their development (for example, wider EU and national rural and regional development programmes).

LEADER also assists sectors and categories of beneficiary which often receive no support, or only limited support, under other programmes operating in rural areas, such as cultural activities, enhancement of the natural environment, rehabilitation of architecture and heritage buildings, rural tourism, improving the links between producers and consumers, etc. LEADER encourages socioeconomic players to work together, to produce goods and services that generate maximum added value in their local area.

For the Northumberland Uplands area, the Lead Partner is Northumberland National Park Authority.

ONE NorthEast was responsible for managing the selection process for all the North East's regional LEADER Local Development Strategies, as part of the wider Rural Development Programme for England (2007-2013). The Accountable Body is the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, and in Northumberland, this is facilitated by Northumberland Strategic Partnership.

Other neighbouring LEADER areas, in the North West, and across the border in Scotland, were selected by their regional organisations, and are faciltated by different partnerships.