The MENDINET Association for Progress in Rural Development forms a Local Action Group with the goal of managing the Community Initiative LEADER+ from 2000-2006 and has been selected to manage the LEADER approach from 2007-2013.

MENDINET is comprised of Associations of Rural Development of the Basque Country and ITSASMENDIKOI, LTD.

OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGY

The general goal of the Local Action Group MENDINET'S LEADER Programme is to encourage socioeconomic development in LEADER regions of the Basque Country in order to maintain rural populations by widening the population and territory base through increasing employment opportunities and providing equipment and services to improve the quality of life of these communities. This process is to be carried out under an innovative strategy, marked by its quality and commitment to integrated, sustainable development.

The current Programme foresees the attainment of the objectives defined above through the development of Central Points I and III of the Basque Country's Rural Development Programme; these points are to be carried out with the LEADER approach. The strategy of the Group is the development of rural areas through the implementation of innovative activities selected from Regional Rural Development Programmes, through careful, bottom-up network collaboration among all entities that form part of MENDINET.

Regional Rural Development Programmes are the base of MENDINET's strategy as laid out by the Basque Country's Rural Development Law, passed by the Parliament in 1998. This Law, in addition to setting forth general and regional objectives, territorializes rural development strategies and divides them among the 18 Regions classified as rural areas. In each region, a Rural Development Programme is developed; the Rural Development Associations set strategies and carry out proposed actions. These associations have a similar focus to that of the LEADER Initiative, as in practice each Rural Development Association is a mini Local Action Group.