A Failed Project is Not Necessarily a Non-executed Project. LEADER Projects in Rural Development and Depopulation in Andalusia

Recent analysis of failed projects under the LEADER approach has opened up a very interesting line of research on the practice of rural development, in that it covers not only the positive aspects of LEADER, the projects that it finances, but also the failed projects, i.e. those which for whatever reason failed in their application for LEADER funding. However, the fact that certain kinds of projects do not receive support from LEADER, and are rejected or withdrawn after beginning the grant application process, does not mean that they are not carried out. In fact, the opposite is often true. In this chapter, we will be looking at the failed projects that are eventually carried out with other sources of finance, be they public or private. It is impossible to quantify the number of projects in this situation solely by consulting official statistics. It is also difficult to know whether it applies equally to all kinds of projects (creation, improvement, expansion), all kinds of promoters (limited company or PLC, cooperative, self-employed, etc.) or all kinds of rural areas (deep rural, intermediate rural and periurban). This type of information can only be gauged from personalized interviews, where we can discover the real reasons for rejection by the LEADER initiative, the type of finance used, the real role played by LEADER in rural development through the creation of businesses and a final, very important aspect, namely the opinion of the LEADER approach of those who did not benefit from it.