Enabling rural development

Spatia Centre for Regional Research, Avaintaito Osuuskunta Suomi, Ruralia Institute at the University of Helsinki (local level research), and MDI analysed the Rural Development Pro-gramme for Mainland Finland and the regional and local plans as an entity.

According to the evaluation the Rural Development Programme for Mainland Finland 2007–2013 was a broad and enabling entity. It gave space for regional and local emphases. The downside is that the programme and the regional plans that complete and focus the programme do not communicate clearly the overall view of the Finnish rural development main themes.

The lack of monitoring data complicates the evaluation of the success of the development actions, but the rural developers are mainly pleased for the implementation of the programme. This indicates that the programme has succeeded. Enhancing the cooperation both between the regions and regional levels is also considered as a merit for the programme period 2007–2013.

Evaluation report as a pdf-document (in Finnish with an English abstract).
Down-to-earth version as a pdf-document (in Finnish).

A sustainable green transition is achieved by investing in the diversity of RDI activities – the AGDA project continues to work on this theme

AGDA is a Nordic development project funded by the Nordic Gender Equality Fund (NIKK). The project focuses on the opportunities that a greater focus on diversity and inclusion could create in the RDI-field, particularly in respect of green transition.

Read more A sustainable green transition is achieved by investing in the diversity of RDI activities – the AGDA project continues to work on this theme

MDI leads the co-creative process of developing, piloting and sharing practices for wellbeing in Sustainable Cities

The challenge bundle work is the cross-cutting co-development of the “Sustainable City” programme, co-ordinated by the Ministry of the Environment, with the aim of producing and sharing information, knowledge and solutions to the challenges linking cities’ management and practice in the area of leading work towards sustainability. The work produces concrete development measures, new ways of doing things and peer learning.

Read more MDI leads the co-creative process of developing, piloting and sharing practices for wellbeing in Sustainable Cities