Acronym: LSG Development

Contract Number: ESTLATRUS/3.1./ELRII-269/2012/36

Beneficiary: Association “Council of municipalities of the Leningrad Region”

Beneficiary Address: Association “Council of municipalities of the Leningrad Region”

Country: Russia

Region: Leningrad Region

Project Location: Riga City

Start Date: 01.05.2013

Project Duration: 12 months

Grant Amount: 184.104,00 €

Percentage Of Total Eligible Action Costs: 89,98%

Summary: The project is aimed at developing local self-governance system in remore rural areas that will lead to improvement of life quality of local communities. At present rural population face the problem of exclusion from decision-making and there is lack of effective communication with government bodies both on municipal and regional level. The situation is actual both for Leningrad region and Latvian municipality with certain defferences. This problem significantly affects lives of poeple living in remote settlments as lots of vital needs remain unsatisfied (and even unknown) by authorities. Additional support is needed for protection in emergency situation (safety), but also daily life could be changed by improvement of quality and increasing the number of social and housing and uttility services. This requires the capacity building for a system of representatives of LSG on municipal and regional level (remote settlements elders in Russia). Focus in Russia: Elder institute for rural areas - it exists with informal status, but in order to make it operational institutional conditions should be created and elders should be trained to fulfill the representation function. Focus in Latvia: to improve the municipal policy and LSG practice in rural areas. The project activities will be undertaken in pilot areas (Shugozero municipality in the Leningrad region and Gulbene municipality in Latvia) in order to be more focused at rural area. Capacity building is another crucial element of LSG development. Within the project relevant studies will be carried out to provide the actual evidence base for development of the recommendations for regional and municipal levels on the issues of LSG in rural areas. Important characteristic of life quality is safety, that is the weak point of some rural areas. Additional support is needed for protection in emergency situation (safety). The important mechanism to reach the project objectives is to enhance partnership between the partners as the Associations of LSG, that could be an umbrella for further cooperation of concrete municipalities. Part of the project activities will be aimed to enhance the productive exchange of Russian and Latvian experience and approbation of best practices, enhancing the joint efforts on fundraising for further common project on municipal level, establishing the sustainable P2P contacts and professional networks among Partners and pilot regions (Cooperation agreement, Twinnings, etc.).

Project homepage: lps.lv/projekti/lsg_development/

Measure name: Development of local initiative, increasing administrative capacities of local and regional authorities

Measure: 3.1

Involved partners:

1. Association “Council of municipalities of the Leningrad Region”, 32, Lenin Ave., Tosno town, Leningrad region, Russia
2. Latvian Association of Local and Regional Governments, 1 Maza Pils street, Riga, LV 1050, Latvia

Additional information:

1. Portfolio_269.pdf (pdf) 398.14 KB
2. Portfolio_269_RUS.pdf (pdf) 403.96 KB
3. press release LSG development.pdf (pdf) 613.32 KB
4. Презентация на конференции Леонтьева.ppt (ppt) 34.04 MB
5. RESULTS_269_final.pdf (pdf) 1.25 MB