This paper has been elaborated in the framework of the Project “PROZVET - Promoting Sustainable Development in Zabaikal and Karelia, through CSOs and Women’s involvement in Territorial Alliances”. Co-financed by the European Commission, the Project seeks to reinforce the competitiveness, the sustainability, and the inclusiveness of the tourism value chain in five selected districts of the Republic of Karelia, and in two selected districts of the Zabaikal kray.
The PROZVET project is run through a partnership between the Karealian NGOs Resource Center, the Zabaikal Union of Women, the NGO Zvezda Nadezhdy, the Italian associations FELCOS-Umbria (Project leader), ILS LEDA, and LEF-Italia.
The paper aims to gather together and recommend a number of strategic guidelines and a plan of action obtained through applying ILS LEDA’s participatory methodology called RESCO (REsources for Sustainable COmpetitiveness).
The methodology foresaw the involvement of 42 local actors from public and private sector in the five districts of Karelia, namely: Medvezhegorsk, Suojarvi, Sortavala, Pitkyaranta and Pryazha.
The strategic guidelines include the following components:
- Valorising competitive assets
- Supporting job opportunities
- Enhancing collective management of the value chain
- Enhancing territorial marketing
- Reducing the gender equality gap
- Improving services
- Building capacities
- Enhancing sustainability
