Launching today, the Michael Dower Award for Rural Resilience will showcase the efforts of local communities and individuals who are taking action to make rural Europe a better place to live.
Michael Dower (1937-2022) has inspired rural Europe for decades. Co-founder of the European AgriCultural Convention (EAC), which later became ARC2020, he was a phenomenal agent of change.
Values and vision
Throughout his rich career, as a public servant managing the Peak District National Park and the Countryside Commission for England, an academic at the University of Gloucestershire and a champion of pan-European rural development, Michael carried the values of democracy, cohesion, solidarity and peace.
The Michael Dower Award for Rural Resilience will honour and support communities and people who share these values, in their efforts to adapt in the face of economic, environmental, and social crises, and work together in pursuit of a more sustainable future.
Built upon the generous support of Michael’s family and friends and his University, the award will carry Michael’s vision of a better future for Europe’s rural people and places further afield – and try to rebuild some of the bridges that have been broken.
Who is the award for?
The Michael Dower Award honours both community groups and individuals who have made an outstanding contribution towards building the resilience of rural communities and rural areas in Europe. The award has two categories:
- The Community Award aims to recognise and promote ongoing community efforts and initiatives that have been building resilience in rural areas over a substantial period of time.
- The Individual Award is for an outstanding individual effort in promoting rural resilience.
Rural resilience is built by people who care about what’s happening to rural areas and communities and take action to respond to the challenges they face.
Rural community resilience describes people’s ability to exercise their democratic and collective will at the local level to influence or shape processes of change affecting rural Europe, so as to achieve more sustainable and liveable futures.
The objectives of the award are to:
- Recognise and increase the visibility of outstanding examples of sound practice by local communities and individuals in the pursuit and delivery of rural resilience in the face of economic, environmental and social challenges.
- Strengthen and deepen the momentum of local empowerment across Europe by supporting applicants in sharing their experience, practices and knowledge with others.
The award ceremony will take place at the next European Rural Parliament 2025 (exact date and location to be announced).
Communities and individuals are invited to apply for the award by 28 February 2025. For full details of the application process, eligibility requirements and prizes, visit the Michael Dower Award website.
Michael’s legacy
Michael Dower was a passionate advocate for rural communities and a sustainable way of living, an inspiring teacher and a man of action.
As a rural activist in the wider Europe, Michael was a provocative and at once convening animator. A founding member of ARC, the Agricultural and Rural Convention, he also co-founded and guided the European Council for the Village and Small Town (ECOVAST), Euracademy for Rural Development, and the Pre- Accession Partnerships for Rural Europe (PREPARE).
He played a key role in founding and supporting National Rural Parliaments, especially in Eastern and Central Europe and the West Balkan countries. A co-founder and co-coordinator of the European Rural Parliament, Michael was a close partner of the European Rural Communities Association (ERCA); Forum Synergies; the Association for Innovation in Local Development (AEIDL); the Standing Working Group (SWG) for Rural and Regional Development in South East Europe; the Swedish rural movement “All Sweden shall live”; and the European LEADER association for Rural Development (ELARD).
ARC2020 president Hannes Lorenzen describes Michael as an unusual challenge for politicians: “In 1999 we organised together a rural travelling workshop through Estonia and Sweden. He still at the University and advising governments, me inside the European Parliament – had pushed the European Parliament and the European Commission to co-organise and finance this unusual excursion with locals, regional officials, national ministers and EU civil servants. They all saw what was needed, what was possible, and what they were supposed to do. The EU Parliament published our recommendations and the European Commission referred to it as ‘a creative approach to EU enlargement’. Michael called this approach ‘punching above our weight’.”
“Michael was always curious to learn and to broaden his understanding of people and nature,” remembers Hannes. “His life was in a permanent flow of creation, creativity, engagements, and action. Michael’s artistic talents were borderless– he painted flowers and landscapes with deep concentration and great passion; he followed the lines of sea washed wood to create living creatures. And he had the gift to turn complicated political debates into enchanting limericks and poems. The Michael Dower award wishes to value these extraordinary talents by encouraging rural people to take their destiny into their hands.”
In his eighties, Michael focussed his attention on his village in Dorset, England, working in his parish and rural schools. As an enthusiastic climate activist he was planting trees with children, caring for school forests and animating various other rural initiatives in his neighbourhood, urging people to take climate disaster seriously. He founded the Dorset climate action network in his village and planted trees until the very end of his life. He still stayed in close contact with the European networks and associations he had co-created and shaped, with a spirit of keeping his own country and its rural movements in Europe after Brexit.
Well known to generations of rural activists, academics and political decision-makers, Michael has left to us an outstanding legacy. The Michael Dower Award honours and builds upon this legacy, so as to inspire rural communities and rural champions to engage for a lively and sustainable rural Europe.
To learn more about the Michael Dower Award for Rural Resilience, visit the dedicated website.
View the press release here.
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