expertise
Rural Development
Rural Development
The ultimate goal of rural development is to improve the standard of living of the rural population which includes:
- creation of employment opportunities and increase of household income;
- improvement of infrastructure, i.e. housing and housing opportunities, traffic and transport facilities, public transportation, shopping facilities, water supply and energy supply, medical care, educational system and training programmes, social & cultural events;
- sound socio-cultural and environmental conditions;
- strengthening of identification of local people with their village and region.
Rural development is only successful if elaboration of the regional concepts and their implementation is based on the responsible participation of the targeted rural community, and can only function within the complex context of nation-wide, regional and community development. Based on many years of experience, ABG applies broad-based approaches to ensure sustainable implementation of the rural development strategies.
The key qualifications of ABG in the sector are:
- Policy advice to administrations on national, regional and local level in elaboration and implementation of Regional Development strategies. Extensive experience of collaboration with governments and local administrations;
- Integration of rural development strategies in the broader development agenda on national and regional level (specialised credit lines, national rural development plans etc.);
- Rural advisory services, including elaboration of strategies, policy advice, support to nation-wide associations, SMEDA networks etc.;
- Capacity building in local consulting services, including service package development, specific training, branches network development, dissemination strategies etc.;
- Development of specialised services and farmers self-help groups, including business planning units, veterinary services, machinery rings;
- Rural tourism.
Our Key Projects in Rural Development:
Country – Latvia
Donor – EU Phare
Duration – 24 months
Status – completed
Country – Germany
Donor – BIL
Duration – 70 months
Status – completed
Publications related to rural development
Highlights from Our Publications:
Rural Development Manual
The Phare project “Support for diversification of rural economy“ (SDRE) was set up to assist Latvian Ministry of Agriculture in formulation and implementation of an agricultural development strategy. The SDRE project proposed and tested methods for elaboration and implementation of rural development plans. An important accent was laid on implementation of these plans on the lowest administrative level (pagast) with active participation of self-governments, local interest groups and private entrepreneurs.
This Rural Development Manual summarises the strategies elaborated by the project and all the experience related to their various aspects. Chapter one highlights the most important issues and objectives of rural development in general as well as on the EU and national level. Chapter two deals with the roles of relevant European institutions. Chapter three provides infromation on various structural funds and other resources available for implementation of rural development plans in Latvia. The fourth chapter gives a description of the methodology on national, regional and local level and explains how to involve local communities in preparation and implementation of action plans.