Program for local self-government and economic development in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EU-ProLocal)

About the project

Country:  Bosnia and Herzegovinia

Period: September – December 2018

Project partner: EU ProLocal/Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Objective: The project aimed to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agribusiness sector of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) by increasing local capacities and facilitating networking. Namely, GLOBALG.A.P. and GIZ  sought to make the Integrated Farm Assurance (IFA) standard more accessible and easier to work with for producers in BiH. By increasing local capacities, technical experts were enabled to provide GLOBALG.A.P. services locally in order to reduce overall certification costs.

Approach: The project raised awareness on food safety and linked stakeholders to create local networks and facilitate coordinated action. The TOUR stop in Doboj on 10 October 2018 attracted a diverse number of stakeholders confirmed growing interest in establishing responsible farming practices in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The event allowed for extensive networking among local actors, and GLOBALG.A.P. marketing and technical experts presented the benefits of implementing GLOBALG.A.P. certification. Brigitte Heuel-Rolf, Director of GIZ for BiH and Montenegro said that responsible farming practices “open the doors to international markets and help find strategic partners, which leads to an increase in the volume of production and thus the creation of new jobs."

To further facilitate the implementation of the GLOBALG.A.P. standard, the project partners developed a BiH version of the standard documents. These were already used in the subsequent capacity building and Registered Trainer workshop on fruit and vegetables that has contributed to building capacities among local experts and graduate students, enabling them to provide GLOBALG.A.P.-related services locally. The subsequent workshop conveyed the technical requirements of the IFA standard and how to achieve compliance.

Trainees stated, “it is very useful for everybody who has any experience in agricultural production, and it is very important to learn and know how we could predict critical points on the farms and contribute to better and safer production.”

SDGs addressed: #3 Good health and well-being and #17 partnerships for the goals

Outcome: Counting participants from different sectors, including students from universities, the workshop contributed to creating the basis for future generations of service providers to assist small and medium-sized enterprises in exploring new market opportunities with a competitive edge – the GLOBALG.A.P. certificate.