Enhancing Rural Services Through Smart Villages
The concept of Smart Villages, initiated at the EU level, focuses on developing innovative solutions in rural areas using existing strengths and digital technologies. These communities engage in sustainable development through participatory approaches, cooperation with various stakeholders, and fostering urban-rural linkages. The emphasis is on building smart strategies to address local challenges while promoting innovation and inclusivity.
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Supporting effective public service provision in rural areas through Smart Villages Edina Ocsko, Smart Village Network The importance of developing better basic services for sparsely populated areas, European Week of Regions and Cities 9 October 2019
What is the Smart Villages concept? Relatively new (policy) concept initiated at the EU level (European Parliament to European Commission) EU Action for Smart Villages launched by three Commissioners (AGRI, REGIO and MOVE) Great interest in concept both from the top (policy- makers, etc.) and from the bottom (villages, LEADER LAGs, etc.) Pilot Study on Smart Eco-social Villages (DG AGRI)
Draft EU Definition of Smart Villages Smart villages are communities in rural areas that develop smart solutions to deal with challenges in their local context. They build on existing local strengths and opportunities to engage in a process of sustainable development of their territories. They rely on a participatory approach to develop and implement their strategies in particular by promoting innovation and mobilising solutions offered by digital technologies. Smart villages benefit from cooperation and alliances with other communities and actors in rural and urban areas.
The innovative aspects of Smart Villages Existing programmes / interventions) Innovative new policies & financing Smart Solutions: Technological, digital & social innovation Smart Village Strategies LEADER / CLLD LAGS New emerging partnerships and stakeholder groups Self-starting groups (villages, group of villages, etc.) EIP-RURAL ( public-private- civic + research) EIP-AGRI ( smart farming ) Other
1. Innovative Smart Village partnerships including urban-rural linkages
At the intersection of urban and rural Communities in rural areas : one or several human settlements, without any restrictions regarding the number of habitants Even if there are no restrictions on the number of inhabitants the typology of villages / needs is important Rural towns: smart cities or smart villages ? Cooperation: small village to village cooperation; village to rural towns cooperation
2. Innovation in public service provision through Smart Villages
Service provision challenges in rural areas Municipal revenues tend to decrease as a result of declining population numbers (and budget cuts) Per capita costs for maintaining the existing infrastructure are rising Growing pressure to increase the productivity of public services Need for alternative means for providing quality services
Digital solutions present a win-win-win opportunity Needs of public service users are met in a high quality manner Costs of providing service are maintained at manageable levels for society New market opportunities open up for digitally-enabled products and services However, the success of digital public service provision depends on a number of factors, e.g.digital skills, organisational changes, making people understand the wider goals of service innovation, user-friendliness
New public service opportunities include Digital mobility complementing or replacing physical mobility: eHealth, e-Care and e-Learning services Public transport solutions: flexible, on-demand services (with variable rather than fixed costs) Platforms, where citizens are not only customers but also partners : collaborative solutions or co-delivery of public services
The Case of Eskola Village (Finland) I feel it's hard to find a common system for smart villages in Europe. The best practices don't necessarily benefit the villages in Finland. Here villages are completely on their own, trying to organise our very basic services, while the municipalities developing only the central areas. It's very much "do or die" for us, and fancy apps aren't the first thing in mind.
Eskola reviving rural services through digital innovation Depopulation & closing down of rural school ESKOLA Village Services formed by parents to re- organise school activities Eskola House: diverse and developing service facility, including restaurant, kindergarden, village library, school and info office Three-year experiment: cooperation with the municipality of Lapinj rvi (500km away) organisating schooling to small groups with the help of digital solutions
3. Innovative Smart Villages policies
The way forward Integrated bottom-up local development strategies Lessons to be learnt from past experiences such as Community-led Local Development (especially multi- funded CLLD) Smart Villages offer new opportunities however, no specific policy framework is set at the EU level in the rural development context Much depends on national/ regional level planning post-2020
Innovative ways of combining programmes & funds Basic services & village renewal; Cooperation; LEADER Infrastructural investments; CLLD; Interreg; URBACT (Digital) skills development; capacity-building; social inclusion
Exchanging experience across the EU
Smart Village Network in support of exchange Enabling exchange and making the voices of villages heard Evolving independent, bottom-up, open network Members are village representatives from across Europe Creating linkages with service providers and policy-makers is crucial Find out more through: www.smart-village-network.eu
