AEIDL is the European Association for Innovation in Local Development (''Association Européenne pour l'Innovation dans le Développement Local''). It adopted this new name in June 2022, prior to which it was called the European Association for Information on Local Development/Association Européenne pour l'Information sur le Développement Local.

History and objectives

It was founded in 1988 and is based in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. its members are 31 individuals from 12

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

countries who are involved in and expert on

local development Local development is a relatively young theory in social sciences based on the identification and use of the resources and endogenous potentialities of a community, neighbourhood, city, municipality or equivalent. The local development approach co ...

. Its activities include carrying out projects to promote local development, and implementing contracts for public authorities, especially at EU level. It employs approximately 20 staff. It is a

non-profit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

operating as a

social enterprise A social enterprise is an organization that applies commercial strategies to maximize improvements in financial, social and environmental well-being. This may include maximizing social impact alongside profits for co-owners. Social enterprises ca ...

and devotes its trading surpluses to the furtherance of its objectives, which are: * the promotion of social Europe in a spirit of integration; * the facilitation of transnational co-operation by means of exchanges, contacts and partnerships among persons and organisations; * the creation, management and broadening of transnational networks of physical and legal persons, especially those having the object of economic, social and cultural development; * activities of information, study and research,

technical assistance Development aid is a type of foreign/international/overseas aid given by governments and other agencies to support the economic, environmental, social, and political development of developing countries. Closely-related concepts include: developm ...

, publishing and communication ancillary to the objects mentioned above.

Activities

Its initial activity was to co-ordinate the European Network of Local Employment Initiatives (ELISE). For nearly 10 years (1992–2001) AEIDL animated the EU's main rural development programme,

LEADER Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...

. Its workload includes: * communication for the

LIFE programme The LIFE programme (French: L’Instrument Financier pour l’Environnement) is the European Union's funding instrument for the environment and climate action. The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation, updating and d ...

* helpdesk of the European Evaluation Network for Rural Development, as part of the RurEval consortium * supporting the European Fisheries and Aquaculture Monitoring, Evaluation and Local Support Network (ex-FARNET, as part of the Devnet consortium * leading the European Migrant Entrepreneurship Network (EMEN) project, which operated three

communities of practice A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educati ...

in this field * co-ordinating the Buying for Social Impact (BSI) project, which held a series of 15 conferences on socially responsible

public procurement Government procurement or public procurement is the procurement of goods, services and works on behalf of a public authority, such as a government agency. Amounting to 12 percent of global GDP in 2018, government procurement accounts for a subst ...

for public authories and social enterprises, a handbook on which was later published. From 2002 until July 2019 it provided technical assistance for

transnationality Transnationality is the principle of acting at a Geography, geographical scale larger than that of states, so as to take into account the interests of a Supranational union, supranational entity. Transnational policies or programmes are not simply ...

in the

European Social Fund The European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs), which are dedicated to improving social cohesion and economic well-being across the regions of the Union. The funds are redistributive financ ...

, during and after the

EQUAL Community Initiative EQUAL was a Community Initiative within the European Social Fund of the European Union. It concerned “transnational co-operation to promote new means of combating all forms of discrimination and inequalities in connection with the labour market� ...

. It was a founder member o
ECOLISE
the European Network for Community-led Initiatives on Climate Change and Sustainability. It is also active in

social innovation Social innovations are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions,Howaldt, J./ Schwarz, M"Social Innovation: Concepts, research fields and international trends" IMO international monitoring, 2010 ...

and until November 2018 coordinated the Social Innovation Community
SIC
project. In 2016 it launched an initiative to promote citizen-led initiatives in favour of refugees. On 19–20 February 2014 it celebrated its 25th anniversary by organising the ''Reinventing Europe through Local Initiative'' event, which included a conference at the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

and a publication summarising 25 promising local initiatives.https://www.aeidl.eu/news/news/reinventing-europe-through-local-initiative-conference-conclusions-published/

References

{{reflist Organisations based in Brussels International organisations based in Belgium

History and objectives

Activities

Further reading

References