Building stronger, more connected Flemish rural areas
The Flemish Rural Pact 2040 aims to enable a transformative effort to make Flemish rural areas more resilient, sustainable and connected – also through LEADER.
On 27 March 2025, Flemish Minister for Interior Affairs, Urban and Rural Policy Hilde Crevits officially launched the pathway to a Flemish Rural Pact 2040, marking the start of a transformative effort to make Flemish rural areas more resilient, sustainable and connected.
The motivation for this initiative is twofold. First, the Rural Report (2024) by the Flemish land agency (VLM) clearly and convincingly outlined the challenges facing rural Flanders, creating a strong sense of urgency to address these issues in an integrated way. Second, the Flemish government welcomes the European Rural Pact as a driver for developing a regional rural development strategy. The policy briefing by the Rural Pact Support Office (2023) ‘Making the Rural Pact Happen in Member States’ provided a clear framework for doing so.
Coordinated by the Flemish Land Agency (VLM) and the Agency for Interior Affairs (ABB), this initiative brings together a wide variety of public and private stakeholders to collaboratively shape the future of rural areas in Flanders. LEADER’s important role is clearly acknowledged in this process.
Why a Flemish Rural Pact?
Flanders has a population of 6.7 million, and roughly one-third of them live in rural areas. Unlike many other European regions, the rural population in Flanders is growing slightly. Rural communities offer many opportunities, yet they also face distinct challenges like the disappearance of local services, limited healthcare access, mobility issues, pressure on natural areas and social isolation. On the other hand, rural Flanders is vibrant, both economically and socially. The Rural Report (2024) by the Flemish Land Agency shows that on average rural municipalities receive ten times less funding than cities, while they face equally or even greater challenges in terms of infrastructure, welfare and the economy.
In this context, the Flemish Rural Pact was launched as a long-term commitment to strengthen rural Flanders by 2040.
Objectives of the Pact
At its core, the Pact seeks to build on the inherent strengths of Flemish rural areas: their wide-open spaces, vibrant local enterprises, and closely knit communities. These qualities form the foundation for resilient, sustainable and connected rural regions.
At the same time, the pact addresses urgent challenges that threaten the vitality of rural life and aims to do so through coordinated action. Strengthening local governance and improving the management of natural land, fostering climate resilience, improving access to housing and energy are key priorities to ensure that rural areas remain attractive and vital.
Territorial cohesion is another cornerstone of the Pact. Agricultural, ecological and social needs must be aligned so that progress in one area does not come at the expense of another. To support this, the Pact introduces a rural-proofing tool, designed to embed a rural perspective into all policy decisions without creating unnecessary bureaucracy. This ensures that every new initiative in all policy fields considers its impact on rural communities.
The role of LEADER: driving innovation and quick wins
Within the Flemish Rural Pact, LEADER and Local Action Groups play a crucial role as a regional development hub for rural innovation, experimentation and connection. Through its bottom-up approach and strong local partnerships, LEADER fosters creative solutions to rural challenges and accelerates the realisation of quick wins that make a tangible difference for communities. By supporting pilot projects, encouraging collaboration between actors and testing new ideas, LEADER ensures that the Pact is not only visionary but also brings immediate benefits while paving the way for long-term transformation.
Ongoing LEADER projects from the 2023-2027 CAP period, for example, those building on local or regional food strategies or Smart Village approaches, are already contributing to the priorities of the Rural Pact, even though the current Local Development Strategies were developed before the Pact itself.
The Rural Pact will allow us to define the role of LEADER as an instrument for rural innovation, experiment, and connection within a broader toolbox for rural development and offers a framework for the development of future Local Development Strategies.
Five Key Themes
Overall, the Flemish Rural Pact is built around five interconnected themes that reflect the complexity and diversity of rural life:
- Resilient and multifunctional natural areas: preserving and enhancing green and natural areas, ensuring they serve multifunctional purposes.
- A vibrant, attractive and healthy living environment: creating high-quality living conditions, including affordable housing adapted to demographic trends, so rural areas remain appealing for all generations.
- A warm community: strengthening social cohesion and combating loneliness by fostering vibrant, inclusive communities where people feel connected and supported.
- Economic activity and innovation: encouraging sustainable local entrepreneurship, including farm-to-fork initiatives, that boost rural economies while respecting environmental limits.
- Strong intergovernmental cooperation and civic engagement: ensuring effective decision making and service delivery through capacity building and collaboration among all layers of authority, with stakeholder and civic participation as a cornerstone.
Roadmap to 2026 and beyond
The Pact sets out a clear roadmap to guide its implementation:
- Vision 2040: a shared long-term vision for how the Flemish countryside should look and thrive by 2040, developed through broad stakeholder engagement.
- Strategic framework: an integrated strategy of initiatives, instruments and collaborations that translates the vision into strategic and concrete actions with clear targets and brings together social, economic and environmental ambitions, ensuring coherence across all policy areas.
- Declaration of commitment: commitment by the various policy levels and rural actors to supporting the realisation of the rural vision and to specify the division of tasks and the actions for which each actor is responsible.
This process will involve agencies from all relevant policy areas and a wide range of stakeholders, reflecting the cross-sectoral collaboration needed to make the Pact a success.
At the moment of writing, the vision for the Flemish Rural Pact has been developed and concrete actions are being co-designed with relevant stakeholders. The aim is to launch the Flemish Rural Pact one year after the pathway launches.
Follow the Flemish Rural Pact via the official website.
