Accent will be given to the development of the capacities of individual people, organizations and businesses as well as cooperation systems, whereas the development of capacities for setting up structures and processes to acquire EU IPARD II funding, and the capacities of local actors and project promoters to get access to public and private co-financing in general. Cooperation and access to finance will be dominant capacity development themes.

A capacity building strategy and measures to strengthen the competences of local and sub-regional actors to promote and support rural development and economic diversification in rural areas, as well as the capacities of actors and networks (Local Action Groups (LAGs), rural development networks and institutions/administrations) in charge for I part of the realization of IPARD, involving the selected cross-border areas for value chain development will be developed:

• Enable stakeholders in ABO Stakeholder Groups (SHGs), value chains and LAGs to harness project funding opportunities by appropriate targeted capacity development measures;
• Strengthen the capacities of stakeholders and actors in administrations, LAGs and rural development networks to shape and implement the LEADER approach in the framework of EU IPARD;
• Take into account the particular needs of rural women and young people by appropriate capacity development measures in view of their full and equal participation in all decision­ making structures and levels

To contribute to this overall objective, the project is supposed to achieve the following outputs:

A. Capacities of stakeholders and actors to shape and implement the LEADER and value chain approach have been strengthened
B. Relevant stakeholders have been enabled to harness project funding opportunities by appropriate capacity development measures.

This project is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), to be jointly implemented by GIZ and the SWG.

Expected project duration: December 2018 – June 2021.