Overview
Alpine communities’ quality of life is currently facing several challenges such as the depopulation of remote areas, reduced provision of services of general interest, the impacts of climate change, and mistrust of governance. These issues are not only reshaping the Alpine territories but also impacting the daily lives of its inhabitants. Despite the urgent need for responsive and inclusive governance, there is currently a significant gap in understanding and addressing quality of life at the local level which our project aims to address.
Focusing on the local governance, GOVQoL offers a transformative approach by empowering Alpine communities with the necessary tools, knowledge, and skills to integrate quality of life into their policy-making processes. The project recognizes that local governance plays a crucial role in improving the daily lives of residents and ensuring that quality of life is embedded in long-term strategies. Through GOVQoL, we aim to build the capacity of local administrations, engage diverse stakeholders, and create place-based solutions that are not only responsive to local needs but also aligned with broader Alpine policies.
By increasing local governments’ and stakeholders’ knowledge with exchanges of best practices, and by supporting them in developing local roadmaps for action, GOVQoL aims to contribute to a more inclusive, sustainable, and resilient Alpine region. With its focus on local governance and community-led participation, this project will empower policy-making in the Alpine communities and make it more place-based and considerate of quality of life.
Factsheet
- 2021 – 2027
- Cooperatively managed and developed Alpine region
- SO 4.1 - Enhancing institutional capacity of public authorities and stakeholders to implement macro-regional strategies and sea-basin strategies, as well as other territorial strategies
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- AG2 Economic development
- AG3 Labour market, education and training
- 01/2025
- 12/2026
- 442.500 EUR
- 331.875 EUR
Description
Objectives:
- Analyse the current state of the local governance concerning quality of life
- Improve the skills of the local administration
- Empower the governance capacity of Alpine communities by embedding quality of life in long-term policy-making
- Increase stakeholders’ knowledge and awareness to be more sensitive and proactive in considering quality of life as a relevant policy issue
Key activities:
- On-site workshops with local communities to evaluate the current state of quality of life governance in selected Alpine communities, identify gaps, and build tailored solutions;
- Awareness raising seminars to increase understanding of quality of life governance and highlight the impact for Alpine communities;
- Place-based roadmaps for the development of actionable local strategies to integrate quality of life in policy-making processes on a long-term basis;
- Alpine umbrella roadmap gathering best practices and governance instruments in a handbook, available in all Alpine languages.
Project partners:
Lead partner: University of Ljubljana – Slovenia
www.uni-lj.si/
Naja Marot, naja.marot@bf.uni-lj.si
Community Network Alliance in the Alps – Germany
alpenallianz.org
Katharina Gasteiger, info@alpenallianz.org
Politecnico di Torino – Italy
www.polito.it/
Erblin Berisha, erblin.berisha@polito.it
French committee of the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps – France
www.cipra.org/fr/cipra/france
Julika Jarosch, julika.jarosch@cipra.org
Partners
Outcomes
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Identification of governance gaps and local needs for preparation of place-based policies concerning QoL within the Alpine area
Multiple organisations co-operate to identify governance gaps and the needs of Alpine communities in regard to QoL and societal well-being. The co-operation first materialises within 5 Alpine countries (AT, DE, FR, IT, SI) due to language limitations. Afterwards, the outcomes of WP1 are jointly evaluated and summarised in an on-site workshop to elaborate on Alpine specifics of QoL governance and its gaps. PPs, Alpine convention(observer) and some of the local communities participate in this. -
Roadmaps to strengthen and improve local governance in regard to QoL
Each of 10 local communities use collaborative approaches to prepare 2 roadmaps: 1st aims at strengthening local governance: integration of QoL into existing policies and policymaking processes on various gov. levels. Second one aids local civil society to monitor how local adm. is performing in regard to their societal well-being. -
The Alpine roadmap on better local governance for the quality of life
Finally, the Alpine roadmap is prepared jointly by PPs to guide Alpine organisations, active in governance, pursuing QoL as policy topic on supranational level. Alpine roadmap represents a synthesis of the work done on the local level and includes guidelines on how Alpine communities can intensify sensitivity to QoL in the governance, and which instruments/tools appeal to the Alpine context most and could be transferred. -
Roadmap development process as pilot action in the local communities
Pilot action consists of the roadmap development process in 10 local communities. PA entails inclusion of the representatives of the communities into knowledge capacity building seminars to teach them about available governance tools, engagements of various local stakeholders in the workshops and other activities, all with the purpose to prepare two roadmaps for each of the communities. Pilot action results in a technical report on the process of co-development and validation of roadmaps.
