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1. Supporting effective public
service provision in rural areas
through Smart Villages
Edina Ocsko, Smart Village Network
The importance of developing better basic services for sparsely populated
areas, European Week of Regions and Cities
9 October 2019

2. What is the Smart Villages
concept?
Relatively new (policy) concept initiated at the EU
level (European Parliament to European
Commission)
EU Action for Smart Villages launched by three
Commissioners (AGRI, REGIO and MOVE)
Great interest in concept both from the ‘top’ (policy-
makers, etc.) and from the ‘bottom’ (villages,
LEADER LAGs, etc.)
Pilot Study on Smart Eco-social Villages (DG AGRI)

3. Draft EU Definition of
Smart Villages
 Smart villages are communities in rural areas that develop
smart solutions to deal with challenges in their local context.
They build on existing local strengths and opportunities to
engage in a process of sustainable development of their
territories.
 They rely on a participatory approach to develop and
implement their strategies
 …in particular by promoting innovation and mobilising
solutions offered by digital technologies.
 Smart villages benefit from cooperation and alliances with
other communities and actors in rural and urban areas.

4. The innovative aspects of Smart
Villages
Existing
programmes /
interventions)
Innovative new policies & financing
LEADER /
CLLD LAGS
Smart
Village
Strategies
Smart Solutions:
Technological, digital &
social innovation
New emerging partnerships and stakeholder groups
EIP-AGRI
(‘smart
farming’)
Self-starting
groups
(villages, group
of villages, etc.)
“EIP-RURAL”
(‘public-private-
civic + research) Other…

5. 1. Innovative Smart Village
partnerships…
… including urban-rural linkages

6. At the intersection of urban and
rural
 “Communities in rural areas”: one or several human
settlements, without any restrictions regarding the
number of habitants
Even if there are no restrictions on the number of
inhabitants … the typology of villages / needs is
important
Rural towns: ‘smart cities’ or ‘smart villages’?
Cooperation: small village to village
cooperation; village to rural towns cooperation

7. 2. Innovation in public service
provision through Smart Villages

8. Service provision challenges in
rural areas
Municipal revenues tend to decrease as a result
of declining population numbers (and budget
cuts)
Per capita costs for maintaining the existing
infrastructure are rising
Growing pressure to increase the productivity of
public services
Need for alternative means for providing quality
services

9. Digital solutions present a ‘win-
win-win’ opportunity
 Needs of public service users are met in a high
quality manner
 Costs of providing service are maintained at
manageable levels for society
 New market opportunities open up for digitally-
enabled products and services
… However, the success of digital public service
provision depends on a number of factors, e.g. digital
skills, organisational changes, making people understand
the wider goals of service innovation, user-friendliness

10. New public service
opportunities include…
“Digital mobility” complementing or replacing
physical mobility: eHealth, e-Care and e-
Learning services
Public transport solutions: flexible, on-demand
services (with variable rather than fixed costs)
Platforms, where citizens are not only
‘customers’ but also ‘partners’: collaborative
solutions or co-delivery of public services

11. The Case of Eskola Village
(Finland)
“I feel it's hard to find a common system for smart
villages in Europe. The best practices don't
necessarily benefit the villages in Finland.
Here villages are completely on their own, trying
to organise our very basic services, while
the municipalities developing only the central
areas.
It's very much "do or die" for us, and fancy apps
aren't the first thing in mind.”

12. Eskola – reviving rural services
through digital innovation
Depopulation & closing down of rural school
ESKOLA Village Services formed by parents to
re-organise school activities
Eskola House: diverse and developing service
facility, including restaurant, kindergarden,
village library, school and info office
Three-year experiment: cooperation with the
municipality of Lapinjärvi (500km away)
organisating schooling to small groups with the
help of digital solutions

13. 3. Innovative Smart Villages policies

14. The way forward…
Integrated bottom-up local development
strategies
Lessons to be learnt from past experiences
such as Community-led Local Development
(especially multi-funded CLLD)
Smart Villages offer new opportunities …
however, no specific policy framework is set
at the EU level in the rural development context
Much depends on national/ regional level
planning post-2020

15. Innovative ways of combining
programmes & funds…
Basic services &
village renewal;
Cooperation;
LEADER …
Infrastructural
investments; CLLD;
Interreg;
URBACT…
(Digital) skills
development; capacity-
building; social
inclusion…

16. Exchanging experience across the
EU

17. Smart Village Network in
support of exchange
Enabling exchange and making the voices of
villages heard
Evolving independent, bottom-up, open network
Members are village representatives from across
Europe …
… Creating linkages with service providers and
policy-makers is crucial
Find out more through:
www.smart-village-network.eu