ALEKSANDRAS STULGINSKIS UNIVERSITY, LITHUANIA
Intensive internship programme
"Sustainability and Innovation in Rural Development" (SIRD)
Kaunas district municipality, 2th– 13th of May, 2016
Student and Tutor guide
1. Introduction
Welcome to the intensive internship programme on “Sustainability and Innovation in Rural
Development”, case study: business, social, cultural and education, environment, local government
institutions activities of 6 specific topics:
1) in development of rural economy (diversification inside of farming (forestry, recreation,
tourism, food processing), diversification outside of farming (new employment possibilities);
2) in improvement of environment and landscape (positive externalities (contribution of
agriculture), negative externalities (input of agriculture), physical infrastructure;
3) in development of social capital and infrastructure (education, consultation, qualification,
communication centres, knowledge, competence, integration to the labour market/network);
4) in development of local organizations capacities and institutional surrounding (rules, policy,
LAG, rural communities, local government);
5) in development of cultural heritage and territorial identity, territorial image;
6) in development of production, social and other technologies and their multifaceted impact on
rural development.
This student and tutor guide wants to give you more information on the objectives, the methodologies
and expected outcomes and to explain the expectations for students within the intensive internship
programme.
2. Objective of the internship
The main aim is to understand the role of innovations management aiming to gain sustainability in
rural development, to let students give their own opinion and to evaluate the existing rural development
institutions strategies in different regions and to create the foresights of 6 specific topics aiming to gain
sustainability in rural development.
The objectives of this internship is to teach bachelor and master students existing theories on
multifunctional agriculture and natural resources development, sustainability and innovation in rural
areas, management of local institutions; to show them what it means in practice, to enable students to
critically evaluate the existing situation and to define the role of innovations management in building
up sustainability of rural areas development.
Practice of Public administration development skills goal - to consolidate the acquired degree
mainstream of theoretical knowledge, develop practical managerial, administrative work and
capabilities qualitative and quantitative assessment of public administration, knowledge of rural
development administration and public business support organizations, and its results, resources, labor
conditions, analyzing the needs of the rural population, economic and social problems in the rural area,
giving them real solutions and drafting tools, or development of public institutions and business
support organizations to improve their operations and rural development strategy for the project.
Innovation practice goal is to consolidate the acquired technical knowledge, to improve practical
skills of managerial and administrative work as well as of research and of qualitative and quantitative
assessment of rural development (based on criteria and standards), to achieve the higher level of
perception about the object to be researched, to assess managerial, social and other innovations in the
activity of regions (system of institutions), rural institutions and organizations; to determine the
demand for innovations and to prepare the plan for innovation implementation.
This objectives will be realized by:
 to provide theoretical lectures combined with study tours – research in the field;
 to fix all the facts and reflections in every day Diary;
 to introduce instruments for analyzing and formulation sustainable local/ regional / national/EU
development strategies;
 to study good practice examples “What is the role of institutions and innovations management
aiming to gain sustainability in rural development?” in Lithuania;
 to study multidisciplinary case by small groups of students with presentation and final report.
3. General methodology
In order to reach the objectives of the internship, the students will be offered some theoretical lectures
and field visits. The information collected will be used for the analysis within the group work:
 The theoretical lectures offer the students the necessary backgrounds to understand the concept
of sustainability and innovation in rural development within the background of institutions in
different rural areas of Lithuania.
 During the field visits different rural development institutions in different regions will be
shown. Each group visits rural development institutions (business, social, cultural and
education, environment, local government) and collect information on specific topic.
 Students will write Diary every day and fix all the facts and reflections in the evenings or during
the day;
 Students will work in the groups. The groups will have possibility to see, to recognise and
compare innovation in different rural development institutions. Each group will focus on a
specific institution taken into account the information of all the areas, innovations management
aiming to gain sustainability in rural development.
 The outcome (every day and study tour’s Diary, presentation, photos, logic schemes) will be
used as the background information for transversal problem analysis and further foresights and
strategies development.
 For fixing the artefacts (buildings, social groups, infrastructure objects, technologies, documents
etc.) students should use camera and notebook.
A fundamental benefit of Diary method is that they permit the examination of reported events and
experiences in their natural, spontaneous context, providing information complementary to that
obtainable by more traditional designs.
STAGE A. THE SITUATION ANALYSIS AND VISION according the question “What is the
role of institutions and innovations management aiming to gain sustainability in rural
development?”
Task 1. Rapid Rural Appraisal
Objectives:
- Identifying what elements compose of innovations and sustainability in rural areas development;
- Identifying main actors and how they are connected with the rural development institution in specific
topic;
- Looking for the main sources of innovations and sustainability in rural development.
The aim of ‘Rapid Rural Appraisal’ is to map innovations and sustainability in rural areas development
that are “visible at first sight”. Such an assessment does not mean a detailed analysis of rural area, but
in this stage, observation of institutions activities and asking questions is very important. Participants
take notes, photos, or video camera recording. And based on these data, they will give a picture of
institutions activities innovations and sustainability in rural development.
Support activities are not directly concerned with the creation of a product or service or its’
delivery to the market and sale for consumers, however are very important in securing the execution of
primary activities.
1. Development of technologies, the security of product quality during production and processing,
creation of new products.
2. Interactional connections of agricultural product producers, processors and traders or cooperation
and coordination of the activity, infrastructure functions.
3. Joint management, planning, financing, accounting, quality management, the use of consolations by
farmers and other enterprises.
4. The selection of workers, courses, skill development and motivation of employees.
As the analysis of institutions activities will be the input of the innovations and sustainability in rural
development in stage B, the information related to the sustainability and innovations in rural
development has to cover social, technological and other kind of innovations.
Task 2: Vision development
Objective: To create the common vision about the specific topic, based on personal imaginations of
participants related to the topic of the group
Expected outcome: the situation and vision of institutions in the context of rural development
sustainability and innovations. The results should be processed in the form of an interesting and
transparent Power Point presentation.
STAGE B. TRANSVERSAL PROBLEM ANALYSIS according the question “What is the role of
institutions and innovations management aiming to gain sustainability in rural development?”
In stage B, the results of the situation analysis will be used to work on the transversal problem analysis.
Within this stage, we go into dept and elaborate the role of innovations and sustainability in rural
development in 6 specific topics:
1) in development of rural economy (diversification inside of farming (forestry, recreation,
tourism, food processing), diversification outside of farming (new employment possibilities);
2) in improvement of environment and landscape (positive externalities (contribution of
3)
4)
5)
6)
agriculture), negative externalities (input of agriculture), physical infrastructure;
in development of social capital and infrastructure (education, consultation, qualification,
communication centres, knowledge, competence, integration to the labour market/network);
in development of local organizations capacities and institutional surrounding (rules, policy,
LAG, rural communities, local government);
in development of cultural heritage and territorial identity, territorial image;
in development of production, social and other technologies and their multifaceted impact on
rural development.
The specific topics will be discussed during tutor meeting on Monday 9th of May after lunch and
chosen subjects will be divided into groups.
Task 3: SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a powerful technique for understanding Strengths and Weaknesses, and for looking
at the Opportunities and Threats.
Objective: To set up the simple SWOT analysis relating to the given group topic based on the presented
and visited case study topic.
Strengths:
 What advantages does the institutions, actors have?
 What do institutions actors do better than anyone else?
 What unique or lowest-cost resources does the institutions have access to?
 What do people from other institutions can see as institutions strengths?
 What are innovative aspects of the institutions?
Weaknesses:
 What could institutions improve?
 Own known vulnerabilities?
 What should institutions actors avoid?
 What do people from other institutions see as institutions weaknesses?
Opportunities:
 Where are the good opportunities facing institutions development?
 What are the interesting trends for improving competitiveness of institutions?
Useful opportunities can come from such things as:
 Changes in technology and markets on both a broad and narrow scale;
 Changes in government policy related to improving competitiveness of institution;
 Changes in social patterns, population profiles, life style changes, etc.
 Local/national/world Events
A useful approach to looking at opportunities is to look at area strengths and ask whether these open up
any opportunities.
Alternatively, look at area weaknesses and ask whether local actors could open up opportunities by
eliminating them.
Threats:
 What obstacles does the institutions face?
 What is the institutions competitors doing?
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Are the required specifications for products or services changing?
Is changing technology threatening institutions position?
Does institutions have bad debt or cash-flow problems?
Could any of institutions weaknesses seriously threaten area development?
Strengths and weaknesses are internal to the institution. Opportunities and threats relate to external
factors.
SWOT Analysis Template
Situation being analysed:
_________________________________________________________________
This SWOT example is for a new business opportunity. Many criteria can apply to more than one
quadrant. Identify criteria appropriate to your own SWOT situation.
criteria examples
strengths weaknesses criteria examples
Advantages of proposition?
Capabilities?
Competitive advantages?
USP's (unique selling points)?
Resources, Assets, People?
Experience, knowledge, data?
Financial reserves, likely returns?
Marketing - reach, distribution,
awareness?
Innovative aspects?
Location and geographical?
Price, value, quality?
Accreditations, qualifications,
certifications?
Processes, systems, IT,
communications?
Cultural, attitudinal, behavioural?
Management cover, succession?
Philosophy and values?
criteria examples
Market developments?
Competitors' vulnerabilities?
Industry or lifestyle trends?
Technology development and
innovation?
Global influences?
New markets, vertical,
horizontal?
Niche target markets?
Geographical, export, import?
New USP's?
Tactics: eg, surprise, major
contracts?
Business and product
Disadvantages of proposition?
Gaps in capabilities?
Lack of competitive strength?
Reputation, presence and reach?
Financials?
Own known vulnerabilities?
Timescales, deadlines and pressures?
Cashflow, start-up cash-drain?
Continuity, supply chain robustness?
Effects on core activities, distraction?
Reliability of data, plan predictability?
Morale, commitment, leadership?
Accreditations, etc?
Processes and systems, etc?
Management cover, succession?
opportun threats
ities
criteria examples
Political effects?
Legislative effects?
Environmental effects?
IT developments?
Competitor intentions - various?
Market demand?
New technologies, services, ideas?
Vital contracts and partners?
Sustaining internal capabilities?
Obstacles faced?
Insurmountable weaknesses?
Loss of key staff?
Sustainable financial backing?
Economy - home, abroad?
development?
Information and research?
Partnerships, agencies,
distribution?
Volumes, production, economies?
Seasonal, weather, fashion
influences?
Seasonality, weather effects?
© Alan Chapman 2005-09. Free PDF version of this tool and information about SWOT analysis methods are available at
www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm. This is a free resource from www.businessballs.com, which
contains lots more useful tools, diagrams and materials. Not to be sold or published.
Expected outcome: Finalised of 6 specific topics institutions SWOT chart. The finalised SWOT should
be limited to the 5 most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Task 4: Problem analysis
Objective: To establish the cause-and-effect linkages
i. To analyse an existing problem situation
ii. To identify the problems and put them into order
iii. To highlight the cause-and-effect relationship in a problem tree
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Real, important and priority bottle-necks
The importance of a problem does not depend on its position in the hierarchy
Problem = negative state actually in evidence
Steps to build a problem tree:
 Brainstorming techniques can be used to identify the main problems
 After all of the problems are displayed they should then be clustered into groups of similar
issues
 The problem tree is developed by
1. Moving problems from the clusters of problems
2. Adding new problems that emerge
3. Problems can be moved up or down the tree as required
Expected outcome: problem tree of specific topic in the context of rural development innovations and
sustainability.
Example:
Task 5: Stakeholder analysis
Objective:
• To better address distributional and social impacts of farmers’ and rural entrepreneurs’
knowledge, motivations and values;
• To better address distributional and social impacts of projects, programs and policies
• To identify existing or potential conflicts
Main steps in stakeholder analysis:
• Identifying the principal stakeholders
• Investigating their roles, interests, relative power and capacity to participate in specific topic
• Identifying the extent of cooperation or conflict in the relationship between stakeholders
• Interpreting the finding of the analysis and defining how this should be incorporated into
project design
Stakeholder
5 a. Stakeholder analysis matrix – How affected by the problem(s)
How affected by the
Capacity/motivation to
Relationship with other
problem(s)?
participate in addressing stakeholders (eg
the problem(s)
partnership or conflict)
1.
2.
3.
5 b. Stakeholders analysis matrix – Expected impacts of proposed intervention/solution
Stakeholder
Stakeholder’s
Positive
Negative
Net impact
main objectives
impacts/benefits
impacts/costs
1.
2.
3.
Task 6: The strategy development
Objective: To create the institutions in specific topic development (in the context of rural development
innovations and sustainability) strategy based on the selected information, SWOT analysis results and
problem analysis result.
Steps:
 internship participants work in groups.
Each group decides on development priorities based on identified key problems.
The group formulates specific objectives, related to solutions. These objectives are “mirrors”
to identified problems.
The group based on identified specific objectives formulates the general strategy and strategic
goal.
The group checks all strategic and specific formulations against SWOT analysis and
information from the case study.
Expected outcome: Formulated strategy: goal, priorities and objectives of institutions in specific topic
in the context of rural development innovations and sustainability.
Task 7: Logical framework analysis
The Logical Framework Analysis is a technique to identify and analyze a given situation and to define
objectives and activities which should be undertaken to improve the situation.
The results of the strategy development are transformed into the LFA matrix
Project
Description
1. Development
Objective
Objectively Verifiable
Indicators (OVI)
9. Indicators
Means of
Verification (MOV)
10. Evidence
Assumptions / Risks
How to measure the
achievement of the
Development
Objective?
11. Indicators
How to measure the
achievement of the
Development
Objective?
12. Evidence
Which conditions out of the
control of the management
are crucial for the
sustainability of its effects?
7. External Factors
What?
How to measure the
achievement of the
Immediate Objective?
How to measure the
achievement of the
Immediate Objective?
3. Outputs
13. Indicators
14. Evidence
Which conditions out of the
control of the management
are crucial to contribute for
the achievement of the
development objective?
6. External Factors
How?
How to measure the
achievement of the
Outputs?
How to measure the
achievement of the
Outputs?
Goal?
Why the project?
2. Immediate
Objective
8. External Factors
Which conditions out of the
control of the management
are crucial for the
achievement of the immediate
4. Activities
Inputs
Budget
How?
Which resources are
required?
How much resources
cost?
objective?
5. External Factors
Which conditions out of the
control of the management
are crucial for the
achievement of the outputs?
Pre-conditions?
Expected outcome: Logical framework related to the role of institutions within a specific topic.
Output expected
The different outputs of the INTERNSHIP consists of:
 the institutions in specific topic presentations “What is the role of innovations management
aiming to gain sustainability in rural development?” by the group of students belonging to one
specific topic;
 the intermediate presentation to show the situation of institutions of specific topic in different
regions visits;
 a final presentation to show the results of the group work - strategy of institution specific topic
in the context of rural development innovations and sustainability.

Students’ works for submitting include:
1. Students every day Diary and summarizing Diary of the day (intermediate assessment after
the first week), and Diary of the of internship (report of individual Diary for two weeks);
2. A paper of the group work: each of the 6 groups makes after the internship a report of 10 - 15
pages about the findings and interpretation of the final discussion with respect to the
problems studied by the group (this mean that reports are prepared by groups formulated in
stage A and B).

Report (group work) structure:
1. Title page;
2. Content
3. Introduction (1-2 p.)
4. Situation analysis in the field of topics (3-4 p.)
5. Problems analysis (2-3 p.)
6. Stakeholder’s analysis (1-2 p.)
7. Objectives and strategy tree (3-4 p.)
8. Conclusions and proposals
9. References

DEADLINES for submitting reports:
1. Diary report deadline is 13th of May (bring it in printed version with cover page);
2. Oral presentation of group work for the tutors is on the 13th of May; The final group work
reports should be submitted 1 month after finishing internship – by the 12th of June, 2016
to Renata Luke, el. mail: [email protected]

Guidelines for the intermediate work presentation on the group topic and study tours:
 Title slide (your topic, list of students in the group; division of roles/responsibilities);
 Main definitions (explanations, key words, elements etc.) of your topic;
 SWOT analysis (it can be detailed in several slides; show 3-5 priorities);
 Vision
 Main identified problem (or problems)
 Conclusions

Guidelines for the final presentation on the group topic and study tours:
 Title slide (your topic, list of students in the group; division of roles/responsibilities);
 Main definitions (explanations, key words, elements etc.) of your topic;
 Implementation and presentation of different used methods (Problem tree, stakeholder
analysis, logical framework analysis);
 Vision and strategy tree
 Conclusions
Please use Ms PowerPoint and pictures from the study tours.