Formez and local development: an integrated approach. Presentation of three successful Italian programs

Abstract

Mr. Borghi will present the activities of Formez with a special focus on three wide Italian Programmes which were aimed to support and improve the Italian territorial development: PASS Programme (Public Administration for Southern Italy Development) RAP Programme (Network for Professional Assistance) SPRINT Programme (Support to Integrated Programming). These programs were born from an innovative approach to planning policy, based on the principles of social dialogue and subsidiarity. The integrated approach represents the widely innovative element of the three programs, which were developed through the involvement of the local actors as active subjects in the territorial development process. All the above mentioned programs financed actions of training and technical assistance in support to Public administrations at central, regional and local level. Pass Program was the first one, and for this reason it was the most "basic" of the three: within this programme the actions that have been financed consisted mainly in training activities, often carried out at distance.

RAP Program continued and improved the results achieved within the previous Program, by promoting the creation of regional networks - called "regional task forces" - among the different operators of territorial development involved in the Programme.

SPRINT Program, the last one, was aimed to support integrated project interventions, it is to say those interventions formulated and implemented by networks of territorial development operators, in order to foster a shared, and for this reason more effective, path towards the local development