The National LEADER Programme enables Local Action Groups to access National Funds for Rural Development

On 23 May 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) has launched the LEADER Program, which will contribute to the efficient and long-lasting development of the Moldovan rural areas. The Programme enables Local Action Groups (LAGs) from all over the country to access up to 5% of the National Fund for the Development of Agriculture and Rural Environment. As such, the Republic of Moldova has become the first and, for the time being, the only country in the non-EU space that implements the LEADER approach as a public policy tool for rural development.

As part of the pilot edition of the Programme, MAFI launched a call for applications, encouraging LAGs to send their Local Development Strategies for financial support. The call is open until 30 June 2022. To provide more information about the benefits of the Program and address LAGs’ questions regarding the application process, the National LEADER Network in the Republic of Moldova (NLN) in partnership with MAFI are conducting a series of informative sessions during the Regional Forums that are taking place in the northern, central and southern regions of the country during the end of May – mid June 2022. During the informative sessions, MAFI representatives address questions about the application and selection process, access to subsidies, and the monitoring process of the financial support measures.
The LEADER Programme was launched following the design of the institutional framework for the implementation of the LEADER approach, supported by SFPL in Moldova and NLN within the “EU4Moldova: Local Communities Development (LEADER)” project. The strategic partners of the project are the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova, the Agency for Intervention and Payments in Agriculture and the National LEADER Network in the Republic of Moldova. The LEADER approach contributes to the sustainable improvement of the living conditions and inclusive economic growth in Moldovan rural areas. Now, there are 47 LAGs all over the country, which implement more than 850 local projects and gather 438 administrative-territorial units.

The LEADER Programme is supported within the “EU4Moldova: Local Communities” programme, financed by the European Union, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland – Polish aid; and jointly implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the Solidarity Fund PL (SFPL) in Moldova.