Interregional workshop in Estonia under the Coop4RURALGov project
In the period of 28-29 May 2025, an Interregional workshop on the topic “How to implement databased/knowledge-based rural proofing” within the frame of the Coop4RURALGov project “Rural Proofing. Cooperation for better sparsely populated rural, coastal and mountain focused governance” took place in Tallinn, Estonia. The event was built upon findings from the “Finland’s experience of the rural policy ecosystem and the importance of spatial data, rural research and participation in rural proofing of policies”.
On the first working day, the event started with a welcoming speech by representatives from the Estonian partners. During the meeting, the following topics were presented:
- “Finland’s experience of the rural policy ecosystem and the importance of spatial data, rural research and participation in rural proofing of policies” by the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry;
- “The future of spatial and temporal accessibility of local public services” by the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture and the Foresight Centre (An independent think tank at the Parliament of Estonia);
- “Data-driven regulatory policy oversight to enable rural proofing” by the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture.
The workshop participants were asked to analyze and discuss priority areas and target groups. Based on these discussions, participants were divided into country-based tables to start working with their country-based models. National teams examined their current rural proofing models (“as-is”) and envisioned future developments by 2027 (“to-be”). The discussion helped clarify where countries stand in embedding rural impact assessment across governance levels and where further institutional capacity-building is required.
On the second working day, participants continued working on their country-based models and finalized the results with their main conclusions. Then the consortium discussed how to move forward in the next workshop.
The event concluded with a Steering Committee meeting of project partners. The progress of activities was discussed, and the upcoming tasks and events were planned.
