🌍 Insights from the Rural Parliament – proximity, understanding, and the opportunities of the future
✨After three days at the Rural Parliament in Skellefteå consisting of a mix of inspirational trips, lectures, and dialogues – both structured and spontaneous, there are a few things that have stuck with me.
📊One such thing is when Emelie Värja from SKR showed the different conditions between Sundbyberg and Arjeplog. If the population density in all of Sweden had looked like in Sundbyberg, the population in Sweden would have been 2.6 billion people. If it had instead looked like in Arjeplog, Sweden would only have had 84,000 inhabitants. This means different conditions and it is important to have an understanding of the different conditions in the work and in decision-making.
📍Another such thing is that decisions are best made close to the people they affect. Conditions that should be equal for everyone are often not in everyday life – ”One size does not fit all.” This suggests that decisions should be made as close to those affected as possible, which is one of the fundamental principles of the leader method.
🎤The party political debate in which some of the party leaders participated was summarized afterwards with the notion that the future and future issues, but also that the young people who will carry the future were completely absent.
🌍What I take with me from here and which gives a nice feeling – contrary to what most of us believe, the transition to fossil-free has come much further than we think. Svante Axelsson from Fossil-free Sweden presented in a very interesting and pedagogical way how the development towards fossil-free is progressing. I also take with me good examples of how other municipalities are working with ”cow on the root” and how they procure food for the municipal meal operations directly from food producers in the local area. During the days here, I have made contact with some who can help us municipalities– perhaps via a leader project to move forward on the issue.
Katarina Borgstrand, chair of Leader Skåne Mitt Nordväst and Head of Administration Eslöv Municipality