The goal of the Rural Competitiveness Development Programme is to contribute to sustainable rural poverty reduction in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The programme’s objective is to contribute to sustainable poverty reduction by enabling smallholder producers to engage and profitably in the fruits, vegetable, non-timber forest and other potential subsectors and so durably improve their social and economic conditions.

As a variation from conventional approaches based on area development, the strategic vision of RCDP is to use a subsector development and programmatic approach to support structural improvements in areas that are essential for sustainable socio-economic development.

It will directly reach 16,000 poor smallholder farmers, women and young people. It is further envisaged that 3,150 jobs will be created, mainly at the post-harvest level. This programme will be implemented at the national level through value chain clusters, particular emphasis will be placed on the inclusion of poor farmers, women and youth:

Through the programme, the beneficiaries will:

• have access to integrated forms of production and marketing to become more competitive and reach viable commercial scale;
• participate in decision-making processes, enabling them to become more active stakeholders in the subsector development
• have access to strengthened local institutions and organizations, contributing to more sustainable opportunities for economic development.