Public participation in rural areas supported by regional governments in the context of sustainable rural development: The case of Poland

The processes involved in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) localization, sustainable rural development (SRD), and the use of public participation to support the achievement of the SDGs have gained importance in recent years. The aim of this article is to analyze the solution created by regional governments in Poland to combine these issues. This paper utilizes a qualitative case study-based approach. Firstly, the analysis of the development strategies of 11 Polish regions was carried out. Further, the analyses of the grant process allowed one to determine the SDG targets, which are associated with individual thematic areas of financing and with specific tasks proposed for implementation by the residents. It may be concluded that the analyzed program targets largely corresponded to the selected SDG targets. Such programs may be used as a tool for supporting the bottom-up diagnosis procedure, in the scope of desired activities supporting the achievement of the SDGs.