What makes LEADER more than just a funding programme? A new scientific study from Estonia proposes an answer: its ability to create social value through trust, cooperation, and community-led governance.
Published in European Urban and Regional Studies, the open-access article “Smart and social? Assessing social value in the EU LEADER programme in rural Estonia” explores how LEADER works in practice when local actors are truly in the driving seat.
LEADER as a driver of smart rural development
The study challenges the idea that “smart” rural development is mainly about digital tools. Instead, it shows that smart rurality also depends on people, partnerships, and place-based decision-making.
Through interviews with all Estonian LAGs, and local authorities and entrepreneurs, the researchers confirmed that LEADER creates value well beyond economic indicators: by strengthening local ownership, trust, and long-term cooperation.
What does LEADER deliver on the ground?
According to the study, Estonian LAGs play a crucial role in:
- empowering communities to define their own priorities,
- connecting public, private, and civil society actors,
- supporting small projects through close, personalised guidance, and
- making rural areas more attractive places to live and work.
These processes build strong local networks and social capital, which are key ingredients for resilience, especially in rural areas facing demographic and economic pressures.
Not everything is automatic
The research also highlights challenges that will sound familiar to many LAG managers:
- participation often benefits the most active or experienced actors,
- administrative burden can limit access for smaller organisations, and
- social impacts such as trust or cohesion are rarely recognised in formal evaluations.
In other words, bottom-up approaches do not guarantee inclusivity by default. They require conscious efforts to reach less visible groups and transparent governance structures.
Why this matters for LAGs and LAG networks
This study provides timely and robust evidence of what many practitioners have long been experiencing: the added value of LEADER lies not only in funded projects, but in the social processes it enables. In a context where rural policies are increasingly assessed through measurable outputs and cost-efficiency, the findings help articulate why community-led local development cannot be reduced to financial indicators alone.
The article provides LAGs with a credible, research-based reference to argue for targeted capacity-building, inclusive outreach, and governance arrangements, and will help networks in building their narrative for advocacy and policy dialogue.
Reference to the article:
Asso, L., & Kangro, K. (2025). Smart and social? Assessing social value in the EU LEADER programme in rural Estonia. European Urban and Regional Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09697764251379240