6. Latvian Rural Communities Parliament

The Latvian Rural Communities Parliament (LRCP) takes place every two years and its goal is to jointly find successful solutions, as well as new opportunities for rural development, promoting cooperation between different stakeholders, identification of challenges and priorities at local, regional, national and European level. The principle of the Community Parliament is based on an equal dialogue, bringing together around 300 representatives of local and regional authorities, business, policy makers, academics, rural development professionals and enthusiasts to foster systematic changes by gathering practices and views. Several hundred interested people who have one goal: to find solutions for the sustainability of Latvia’s countryside and to promote the well-being of the rural population. The LRCP will take place for the 6th time this summer, not only in search of answers, but also in connecting community leaders and good practices, so that their positive impact becomes even stronger and resonates more widely. All views will be summarized in a Resolution, which will serve as a roadmap for decisions on rural areas for the next two years.

This year, the main theme of the event will be smart rural shrinking as a strategic approach to rural development; different actions, tools and approaches in the local level ensuring smart development in the local level as well as multilevel and intersectoral governance of rural agenda. In the working groups there will be different themes covered based on the most actual themes in rural development of Latvia at the moment, e.g. smart development strategies in regional and local level, holistic rural approach, short food chains, smart villages and startup villages, citizen engagement in the municipalities, citizen councils, CLLD/LEADER, agroecology, innovations in entrepreneurship, service provision and social innovations and other.

The mission of LRF is to promote balanced development of Latvian rural territories in order to create it as a place where contented people live, able to meet their economical and social needs in the place of their residence. 

In 2021 LRF unites 84 organizations – 36 members and 48 associated members. 

The main LRF activities are:

• to promote sustainable development of Latvian rural territories;

• to support professional implementation and monitoring of the LEADER program;

• to strengthen civil society in rural territories, promoting local initiatives and cooperation.

LRF is the work of the team of Latvian rural development experts and enthusiasts to reach common goals regarding Latvian rural development. The association collaborates with local, national authorities, and non-governmental organizations and is a member of several European and Latvian NGO networks.