LAG Living Kainuu Leader NGO

The LAG Living Kainuu Leader NGO works in eastern Kainuu along the Russian border. Most of the area is very sparsely populated wilderness with a wide range of wild animals, reindeers and beautiful scenery.

The LAG consists of 5 municipalities: Hyrynsalmi, Kuhmo, Ristijärvi, Sotkamo and Suomussalmi. The total area of the Lag is 16.685 sq-kms, and the total population (stat.info 12/2023) is 28 307 . The biggest municipality is Suomussalmi areawise, and the most populated is Sotkamo. 

LAG Living Kainuu Leader NGO (in Finnish Elävä Kainuu Leader ry) realises its CLLD (= Community Lead Local Development) /Leader-program called ”The best life in the countryside”.  
The strategy is a commonly, with local actors and inhabitants, written program of local needs and possibilities fitted into targets for financing and co-operation with all the bodies needed. 

LAG Living Kainuu Leader NGO’s local development strategy 2023 – 2027

The goal of Elävä Kainuu Leader ry’s local development strategy ”The best life in the countryside” is to find new beginnings and ideas for the region, from which future success stories can be drawn through bold experiments and purposeful development. The goal is to strengthen and renew the existing good and make the old one even better. Development is accelerated by borrowing and applying good practices and operating methods found to be working elsewhere. At the same time, we learn new things and find new partners.

The development activities aim to have a special effect:

to the increase of vitality and well-being based on local strengths,
for renewing operating methods and actively utilizing new opportunities,
to the growth of knowledge, understanding and inclusion,
to the increase of cooperation that crosses operational and geographical boundaries,
to the growth of employment and companies and to the improvement of profitability,
for finding local solutions to respond to global phenomena and to the increase of ecological, economic, social, and
cultural responsibility in local development.

The themes of strategy and priorities:

Cross-cutting teams: Competence, cooperation, responsibility, information society and new technology, young persons
Priorities: Best of the best in the local, intelligent renewal, green wisdom
Goals: Livelihoods and entrepreneurship, euros from locality, renewable and versatile livelihoods, business from green-greener business
Goals: communities and operating environments, the best of local life, renewing inclusion and sense of community, carbon smart communities

Funding

The association of LAG Living Kainuu Leader has closed a deal with the Ministry of Forestry and Agriculture of Finland about running the program and getting a yearly funding for it. The funding, totalling to 3,94 million euros, consists of eu-funding (43 %), national funding (37 %), and the rest is from our municipalities (20 %).One of the main principles in Leader-activity is the communality, the social aspect. The target is well aided this program period, as all the private funding in projects run by non-profit organisations can be fulfilled by voluntary work