Integrated rural development improves prosperity in rural communities

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is hosting the third regional workshop of an informal technical network on community development for Europe and Central Asia. Members will discuss ways to promote the principles of the territorial approaches to rural development in the region. The event is a forum to exchange knowledge, strengthen partnerships, and share lessons learned from regional and country-level experiences.

FAO supports integrated approaches for rural development, including a territorial approach. These combine rural development policy with other related areas, such as agriculture, social protection, economic inclusion, and climate adaptation, with the goal of improving family farms’ profitability and livelihoods in rural areas.

“For over a decade, FAO has been actively promoting rural development and integrated community development in more than ten countries in Europe and Central Asia. This is a window of opportunity to share the expertise of FAO and other partners and help further advance these principles for the benefit of rural people,” says Morten Hartvigsen, FAO Land Tenure Officer.

Based on the experiences at national and regional level, FAO has conducted a study and produced a collection of good practices on integrated community development and in Europe and Central Asia. The main findings and recommendations of the study will be presented to the workshop participants for discussion and validation.

The needs and challenges faced by rural youth and the potential to expand the economic opportunities open to them will also be on the agenda. Discussions will focus on policy options to support the development of rural communities and improve resilience of family farms to economic, climate and other shocks.

Under its Regional Initiative on empowering smallholders, family farms and youth through inclusive rural transformation, digitalization and innovation, FAO has implemented  projects in Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, North Macedonia, Republic of Moldova and Serbia. The findings of the project were presented in the Empowering smallholders and family farming series, which recognizes the need for an integrated and multidisciplinary approach for rural areas.

“Rural development is cross-sectoral. To ensure the maximum impact for smallholders and family farms and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we must work in a comprehensive manner,” says Hartvigsen.

Workshop participants will see and experience rural development firsthand by visiting several sites near Budapest that combine rural and tourism development through local food systems, supported through the LEADER approach of the European Union. They will also visit the small village of Kóspallag in the company of its young mayor, who runs an organic farm, which operates as a social enterprise based on the terms of Community Supported Agriculture and take a stroll through the recently opened farmers’ market.

6 June 2023, Budapest, Hungary