Impact of community-led local development on territorial prosperity

Department of Regional Development, Faculty of Economics, Trakia University, 6000 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria

^* Corresponding author: sysy100@abv.bg

Abstract

Community-led local development is an approach that is increasingly applied in traditional territorial development policy. In this method, management is left in the “hands of local people”, who receive long-term funding, which they distribute according to the needs of the region. The aim of the study is to examine the impact and participation in the development of the territory through CLLD measures. The expert assessment and recommendations of the surveyed LAG leaders and specialists regarding the contribution of the community-led local development approach have been sought. The applied research methods in the present study are theoretical and empirical, incl. analysis, synthesis, comparison, survey, statistical processing. The results of the survey show that the majority of respondents are satisfied with the implementation of CLLD and have clear and concrete proposals for improving the approach in the next programming period. In conclusion it is necessary to note that despite all difficulties, the interest in CLLD on the part of local communities is very high, because the approach provides many opportunities to solve problems related to local development. Key words: community-led local development, LEADER program, LAG, territorial prosperity.