Leader Preparation Technical Assistance Project (under the SIDEM Facility)

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The objective of the Leader Preparation Technical Assistance (TA) Project is to assist the Ministry of Agriculture of the Slovak Republic, and its subordinate organizations, as well as local governments, communities and civil society organizations, in developing their capacity to prepare for, and implement the European Union (EU) Leader axis for the period 2007-2013. The project will finance primarily technical assistance and training, including stakeholder workshops, consultations, etc., a limited number of small goods, and operating costs. The project components are: 1) creation of policy and administrative framework, to create the framework for policy-making processes, and administrative decision-making within the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), and between the MOA and its associated national, and local level institutions, municipalities (and other local governmental structures), and communities, through the provision of technical assistance; 2) mapping component, whose main goal is to create a specialized map of the rural areas in the Slovak Republic, with specific delineation of possible micro-regions which could be eligible for inclusion in the Leader Axis, according to the EU relevant criteria. The mapping will also help municipalities in defining the opportunities for cooperation among themselves; 3) formation and training of local action groups, and implementation of pilot projects, entails the formation of a "Local Action Group" (LAG) as the administrative unit, responsible for implementing Leader projects. According to EU regulations, a LAG should represent no more than 100,000 and not less than 10,000 persons. The LAG's responsibilities include project screening and approval, monitoring (both physical and impact), payments, etc. This component will finance TA to be provided to selected groups, in order to become fully functioning LAGs; and, 4) creation of national rural network, to serve as the Leader Contact Point, and rural information and data collection center for the country, tasked with supporting a broad range of rural development activities throughout the country. Technical assistance will be provided to MOA to undertake a broader assessment of all rural actors, necessary to make the Network functional, and able to manage its operations.