Public Policies Supporting Local Based Networks for Entrepreneurship and Innovation – Contributions to the Effectiveness and Added Value Assessment

The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the role, effectiveness and added value, of public policies supporting local based networks for entrepreneurship and innovation in rural territories. With this objective, and especially focused on LEADER Initiative - Links Between Actions of Rural Development, will be presented, in this paper, a new methodological approach that allows strengthen these types of evaluation of these policies in such areas. The LEADER Initiative was launched in 1991 by European Commission as result of growing preoccupation about the future of rural areas. This new approach of rural development problematic was considered, from the beginning, as an innovative methodology, by the way of this public policy’s instrument intervenes in the regions, notably through cooperation between network agents and territories and by the encouragement of entrepreneurship. Innovation and entrepreneurship policies should be best understood as a set of instruments. “These aim at improving access to financing in support of innovation, at creating an innovation friendly regulatory environment and demand for innovation as well as at reinforcing the activities of institutions relevant for innovation, including the links between research institutions and industry. Innovation policy typically addresses horizontal issues, consisting of various public policies, thus requiring effective governance” (Council of European Union, 2006: 8)