EUROPEAN CONFERENCE

" COMBATING SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN RURAL AREAS "

Precarity in rural areas:
exchange of practices and knowledge

This conference is part of the official program of events that will take place during the French presidency of the European Union that is to begin in July 2000.

The whole project is in keeping with the preparatory work for measures and programs, aimed at encouraging co-operation between the State Members of the European Union in order to combat social exclusion, which will be developed following the provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty.

In Europe, for several years now, precarity, poverty and social exclusion have been a major concern to governments, public authorities and social partners, but the discussions, surveys and projects have focussed more on urban areas than on rural areas. As a result, a lack of knowledge can be noticed on this subject. The European conference on social exclusion in rural areas is aimed at filling this gap by implementing a three-sided approach on the processes, the impact of measures concerning benefits and social help, and on the comparison of actions and experiences in rural areas.

The two main objectives are:

• on the one hand, the organisation of a conference in order to:

- present the measures to combat poverty and social exclusion in the 15 member countries of the European Union, the effects and impacts of these measures on rural areas,
- apprehend and understand, in concrete terms, social exclusion in rural areas (causes and consequences on fragile populations and on the concerned areas),
- exchange of know-how, experiments and good practices

•   on the other hand, the edition and distribution of a guideline of good practices for which it is necessary:

- to gather, analyse and select the most relevant actions to combat and prevent exclusion observed throughout the network of the participating organisations and associations
- to create a network of exchanges of experiences carried out in rural areas.

 The subject will be tackled under several angles whose principal ones are: prevention, detection of social exclusion and fight against exclusion in rural areas.

2. Main partners

The Caisse Centrale de Mutualité Sociale Agricole (CCMSA) is the main applicant along with 4 regional MSA funds (Ille-et-Vilaine, Doubs, Charente-Maritime and Puy-de-Dôme)

The co-applicants are:

• the comissariado Regional do Sul de Luta Contra a pobreza (CRSLCP - Portugal),
• the Socialversicherungsanstalt der Bauern (SVB - Austria),
• the Combat Poverty Agency (CPA - Ireland),
• the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health (STAKES Finland),
• the Institut de l'Humanitaire (IDH - France).

This project is supported by the European Commission, the French Ministries of Agriculture, of Employment and Solidarity.

3. Description

3.1. Audience

The public of this conference will be composed of representatives of institutions, heads of public or partly-state owned institutions, persons in charge and volunteers of associations and non-governmental organisations as well as social partners who are in charge of defining or carrying out measures and/or experiences to combat social exclusion in rural areas. Four hundred people, of which key personalities from the 15 Member States of the European Union, are expected.

The contributors to the guidelines of good practices will include the organisations attending the conference, their own national network, and all those who will have contributed to the exchanges of experiences.

3.2 General organisation

The CCMSA is in charge of the whole project, and is supported by four MSA departmental funds (cf. 2) experienced in combating social exclusion in rural areas.

Each MSA fund is twinned with a European co-applicant and, with the latter, is responsible for the project in a specific European geographic area:

- the MSA fund of Charente-Maritime is twinned with the CRSCLP. They are responsible for Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal,

- the MSA fund of Doubs is twinned with the SVB. They are responsible for Germany, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg,

- the MSA fund of Ille-et-Vilaine is twinned with the CPA. They are responsible for Ireland, the Netherlands and the United-Kingdom,

- the MSA fund of Puy-de-Dôme is twinned with the STAKES. They are responsible for Denmark, Finland and Sweden.

The tandems are notably in charge of finding partnership among each State member.

The IDH gives its contributions thanks to its experience in studies on precarity and social exclusion, and is associated to the project as an expert on the one hand and will bring testimonies from members of its network, on the other hand.

3.3 Conference organisation

The CCMSA is in charge of the invitations and subscriptions. The material organisation (transport, accommodation) is entrusted to a local specialised agency.

The project leaders are in charge of the conference programme definition and the selection of speakers.

The conference will be held on the 19-20 October 2000 at the Polydôme in Clermont-Ferrand (France).

The speeches and debates of the conference will be published.

3.4 Web Site

A Web site is set up in order to constitute an exchange network of knowledge, actions and practices, and to ease the collecting of experiences.

It will be maintained after the conference in order to favour the informal exchange of information at European level and help the research on exclusion in rural areas.

The site should be ready in May.

3.5 Collection of experiences

The experiences presented by each country will be communicated by public, social institutions, non-governmental organisations or associations putting into practice national, regional or local measures to prevent or combat exclusion in rural areas or actions associated with or completing these measures.

Prior to the conference, the collected experiences will be analysed by the project managers. In a meeting held in April, they will define the criteria for the selection of actions and experiences. This meeting is aimed at consolidating the conference objectives and elaborating coherent presentations for the conference. The stress will be put on the way the measures are conceived and implemented in each country.

3.6 Communication and promotion through the media

The CCMSA, the co-applicants and partners are in charge of the promotion of the conference. They will make one press release announcing the conference and another one summarising the conference to the national press as well as to the press specialising in social matters in each country.

All the press releases in different languages could be available on the Internet site dedicated to the project or on the co-applicant and partner sites.

In France, the CCMSA will be in charge of public relations with the French, Regional and European press before, during and after the conference. A press conference will be held during the conference.

4. Assesment

Following the conference, an assessment of the project will be done according to quantitative and qualitative criteria. On specific matters, the independent experts from the Scientific committee of the National Observatory of precarity (for agriculture) could be consulted.