Partnerships in local development/local economy

The structure of the job-finding is rapidly changing. More and more people get employment in the global enterprises, followed by larger daily or weekly migrations and changing the social structure of rural areas, where services are harder accessible in spite of better mobility of majority. Many local people persist the pressure of the global economy while merging traditional skills with innovations. Traditional employments in local economies have great development potential all over the European countryside. The workshop will explore, how local partnerships could contribute to vitality of the rural areas.

Leader

Goran Šoster is living and working predominantly in Slovenia, with strong engagement in European non-governmental organisations. He is executive director of Regional Development Agency Prlekija and LAG Manager. Co-founder of the Slovenian Rural Development Network (2002) and it’s President in the years 2008-2014, Coordinator of PREPARE in the years 2009-2014 and President of PREPARE in the years 2016-2018. Co-founder of the Slovenian Rural Parliament and Co-chair of the European Rural Parliament. Co-author and editor of the book Rural Parliaments – Emerging Participative Democracy. Researcher, economist, ecologist, pioneer of organic farming in Slovenia and PhD candidate in Local Economies. More than 30 years of experience in the field of regional and rural development, organic agriculture, sustainable tourism and ecology.

Speaker

Valentin Filip is working since 2012 in rural development projects in Romania.  He is currently coordinating the Rural Economic Development department at Civitas Foundation for Civil Society – Cluj-Napoca, with projects focused on short supply chains in agriculture, economic cooperation, local products marketing, training, consultancy, lobby and advocacy.  He represents Civitas Foundation in the National Rural Development Network, as coordinator of the thematic working group on Cooperatives, Agricultural Chambers and Cooperation. He has a master degree in Sustainable Regional Development, being currently a Phd candidate in economics at Babeș- Bolyai Univesity, in Cluj-Napoca.