Borghi National Plan: From the Pivotal Role of Stakeholders to Social Reporting

The paper investigates how Sicilian municipalities and their partners plan to engage and communicate with their stakeholders in the projects funded by the Borghi National Plan, representing a key part of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) under Mission 1. The study uses the lens of the Local Territorial System (LTS) model and the concept of Territorial Social Responsibility (TSR) to assess such engagement and communication strategies. Furthermore, it explores the potential for integrating social reporting tools into these projects to enhance stakeholder accountability. The research contributes to the broader understanding of effective stakeholder engagement and communication in community-led projects and the role of transparency in fostering sustainable local development. The research is based on survey data from 31 entities, including 9 Sicilian municipalities and 22 project partners, collected in 2022. The survey consists of ten questions to evaluate the communication tools employed for stakeholder engagement and communication. Due to the different categories of respondents (i.e., municipalities, associations, and other types of organisations), the answers are shown by considering this distinction to depict if each category shows preferences towards specific communication tools in the various key survey questions. This approach allows for a deeper understanding of how different types of entities may prioritise communication strategies in the context of community-led projects. The study offers new insights into applying TSR through the Borghi National Plan through the LTS model. Communication strategies for stakeholder engagement, combined with the integration of social reporting tools, further enhance the ongoing discourse on transparency and accountability in community-led projects within the framework of local development initiatives and sustainability. The research underscores that municipalities should improve their social reporting tools and adopt multi-channel communication strategies to manage their territorial responsibilities effectively. The findings drawn by the research can help enhance stakeholder engagement, accountability, and transparency by the municipalities and their project partners in supporting more sustainable territorial development.