GOVQoL project was present at the Slovenian Countryside Parliament which took place on June 11th and 12th in Ilirska Bistrica. The countryside parliament was organised for the 6th time this year, and an elaborate process led to its programme and conclusions. Naja Marot and Pina Klara Petrović Jesenovec both took part in this process by collaborating and moderating the thematic forum on services of general interest, a topic very relevant to the theme of quality of life. The purpose of the thematic forum was to identify the challenges of provision of services of general interest in the countryside and look for the solutions. GOVQoL could contribute in an important manner to this, by sharing the knowledge gained in the interviews and pilot municipalities, and pitching in with the good practices gathered within WP2.
The thematic forum resulted in a content that was integrated into the message for the public, including the following guidelines that should be taken on board by the policy-makers:
- Preparation of national standards for the minimum equipment of settlements with services of general interest according to their function;
- Systematization and provision of State funds for the transfer of good practices and alternative models of service provision to the regional or local level and their initial implementation;
- Organisational and financial support for the provision of mobile basic services such as healthcare, grocery stores, post office and bank;
- Provision of funds for the co-financing of on-call transport options, including the purchase of vehicles and the transfer of transport supply models;
- Improve the representation and coverage of service supply in planning and development documents, such as regional development programmes and regional spatial plans;
- Preparation of an analysis of the accessibility of basic services in rural areas throughout Slovenia (validation of the findings of regional parliaments), also taking into account the needs of individual population groups, such as children, young people, immigrants and the elderly;
- Strengthening the skills of the regional and local level to apply for project money and obtain already existing funding to support the delivery of services;
- Strengthening cross-sectoral and cross-border cooperation in the planning and delivery of services of general interest in rural areas;
- Systematically integrating the needs of vulnerable groups into the planning and delivery of services of general interest.
These guidelines are relevant as well for the GOVQoL pilot sites which suffer depletion of services provision due to multiple factors such as depopulation, closure of public transport lines and others.
Photos credits: Pina Klara Petrović Jesenovec, Naja Marot, Dominik Bertram