Rural Development Policy

The general purpose of this project was to promote an effective implementation of the EU financial assistance for rural development under the Rural Development Sector Programme and prepared the Turkish Cypriot community for the future implementation of the acquis communautaire. This purpose includes the following components;

• To strengthen the capacity of the Turkish Cypriot community in rural development planning
• To help on preparing a Rural Development Plan for the Turkish Cypriot Community
• To improve local planning for the development of local facilities and inform on which investments will be supported through the RDSp
• To assist the full range of beneficiaries with preparation of project proposals for rural development and community development Grant schemes
• To enhance the capacity and effectiveness of extension services and extend their CfPs from a purely technical agricultural role
• In order to achieve the objectives of the project, Agrin  contributed to the following project activities by providing 2 key experts (rural development and community development), as well as short term experts on relevant subjects.

A- Drafting of the Rural Development Plan
This component was dedicated to support the elaboration of a RDP through a broad consultation process organized with the key TCc stakeholders. The overall objective of the RDP mentioned above is split into four main sub objectives linked with the EU RD policy:

• Axis 1-Improving the Agri-market efficiency by targeting EU standards
• Axis 2- Conservation and enhancing the natural heritage
• Axis 3- Improving the living conditions in rural areas
• Axis 4- Improving the local governance

B- Launching the grant schemes
This component aims at launching two categories of grant schemes.

• The so called “RD grant schemes” gathering all the proposed grants to be distributed under measures proposed through the axis 1, 2 and 3 of the RDP.
• The so called “CD grant schemes” gathering all the proposed grants to be distributed for the benefit of the TCc Communities. We proposed to allocate these funds in the framework of the strategy proposed under axis 4 of the RDP aiming at implementing the LEADER approach in the TCc.

C- Designing Local development Strategies
This component aims at supporting the TCc territories selected in preparing the designing of Local development Strategies. This component implemented through training and seminars and on-the job-training sessions has two main sub-objectives:

• To sustain directly the drafting process of the LDS;
• To support the key stakeholders of the selected territories in preparing projects having broad impact on the selected territories, aiming at accompanying the LDSs drafting process.