Final Report ‘Facilitating an area-based development approach in rural regions in the Western Balkans’ 15 November 2011 Administrative Arrangement N° AGRI-2010-0186 / JRC-IPTS n° 31744-2010-05 Volume 1: MAIN REPORT 1 Table of Contents MAIN REPORT 1 Introduction..............................................................................................................................................13 2 Theoretical and practical context for the Area-Based Development approach implementation in rural cross-border areas of the Western Balkans......................................14 2.1 ABD origins and definition ................................................................................................................ 14 2.1.1. ABD, an approach well-defined by UNDP .................................................................................. 14 2.1.2. Some theoretical insights......................................................................................................... 16 2.2 ABD implementation and evaluation ................................................................................................. 22 2.2.1 Implementation of the ABD approach .......................................................................................... 22 2.2.2 Evaluation of ABD programmes................................................................................................... 28 2.3 Other approaches to local / rural development ................................................................................. 33 2.3.1 Approaches to local rural development in developing countries................................................... 33 2.3.2 The EU approach to local rural development: Leader................................................................... 36 2.4 Cross-border cooperation.................................................................................................................. 40 2.4.1 Cross-border actions in the EU-27: Interreg-A ............................................................................. 41 2.4.2 Cross-border cooperation in candidate and potential candidate countries: IPA............................ 44 2.4.3 Cross-border initiatives from the Council of Europe .................................................................... 45 2.5 Preliminary lessons drawn for the ABD approach in rural / cross border setting ............................ 47 3 Case Study: Drina Valley -Tara Mountain Area.........................................................................48 3.1 Definition and Delimitation of the ABD target area of the case study............................................... 48 3.1.1. Principles for delimiting the target area ................................................................................................ 48 3.1.2. Delimitation of the Drina Tara target area............................................................................................ 51 3.2 Implementation of participatory approach ........................................................................................54 3.2.1 Stakeholder group (SG)................................................................................................................. 56 3.2.2 Delphi group (DG)........................................................................................................................ 57 3.2.3 Questionnaire-based surveys ........................................................................................................ 57 3.3 Baseline assessment of the development situation ............................................................................. 61 3.3.1. Openness and dynamism of the society............................................................................................. 63 3.3.2. Diversity of the economy .................................................................................................................. 82 3.3.3. Local institutional and Cross Border capacities............................................................................... 102 3.3.4. General conclusion on the baseline assessment............................................................................... 105 3.3.4. Conclusions on baseline assessment................................................................................................ 105 3.4 Identifying critical needs and programme priorities ....................................................................... 106 3.4.1. Preliminary identification of critical needs...................................................................................... 106 3.4.2. ABD priorities ................................................................................................................................. 114 3.5. Action Plans..................................................................................................................................... 131 3.5.1. Action Plan on Tourism..........................................................................................................132 3.5.2. Action Plan on agriculture and rural development ................................................................. 136 3.5.3 Action Plan on SME and entrepreneurship development............................................................ 139 3.5.4 Action Plan on Environmental protection ................................................................................... 141 3.5.5. Missing themes and activities in the Action Plan: an exogenous input analysis to the bottom-up endogenous Action Plan drawn up by the stakeholders.............................................................................144 3.6. Implementation and monitoring issues: continuation of the process............................................... 149 3.6.1. The Drina Tara network ......................................................................................................... 150 3.6.2. Articulation with national authorities ..................................................................................... 151 3.6.3. SWG-RRD as an international and institutional umbrella .......................................................... 152 2 4 Adapted methodology: main lessons from the Drina Tara case study ........................ 153 4.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 153 4.2 Area selection and delineation......................................................................................................... 154 4.3 Participation (bottom-up) mechanisms and inclusiveness............................................................... 155 4.4 Top-down framework....................................................................................................................... 161 4.5 Multi-sector approach (expectations and feasibility) ...................................................................... 163 4.6 Organizational and financial perspectives ...................................................................................... 165 4.7 Final remarks................................................................................................................................... 168 5 Identification of potential rural cross-border target areas for the implementation of an area-based development approach in the Western Balkans............................................... 169 5.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 169 5.2 Research Methodology..................................................................................................................... 170 5.2.1 Data collection and identification of uniform potential rural target areas at national level......... 170 5.2.2 Cross-border analysis of proposed rural regions and delimitation .............................................. 171 The analytical exercise .............................................................................................................................. 171 5.2.3 Assessment of the identified rural cross border target area in terms of its feasibility to successfully implement an ABD program ..................................................................................................................... 172 5.3 Results: 7 identified rural cross border regions suitable for ABD approach .................................. 173 5.3.1 The DRINA SAVA Region......................................................................................................... 173 5.3.2 The PCINJA Region.................................................................................................................... 180 5.3.3 The DINARA Region................................................................................................................. 187 5.3.4 The NERETVA Region ..............................................................................................................192 5.3.5 The SAR PLANINA Region....................................................................................................... 198 5.3.6 The PRESPA LAKE Region....................................................................................................... 202 5.3.7 The SKADAR LAKE Region ..................................................................................................... 206 5.4 Concluding remarks........................................................................................................................