FAO in cooperation with the Regional Rural Development Standing Working Group (SWG) have organized a 3-day training workshop on strengthening short value chains for farmers, representatives of tourism organizations, NGOs and municipalities. The objective of the workshop was to strengthen cooperation between the participants of the training, who were coming from "Drina-Sava" and "Drina-Tara" cross-border regions as well as providing them training on the following topics:

• Development of an integrated regional tourist package/offer for “Area-based Development” regions;
• Planning of businesses development in processing and serving food value chains;
• Development of joint marketing strategy through clustering.

The workshop was held on March 23rd to 25th in Andrevlje, Serbia combined with a study tour in Croatia on 26th - 28th 2015. This workshop is organized within the European Union funded project “Preparation for Implementation of the Area Based Development (ABD) Approach in the Western Balkans – 2nd phase”, as well as FAO project on “Support to the implementation of integrated, innovative cooperation projects in the Western Balkan region – the Area Based Development Approach”.
The workshop and study tour offered an excellent opportunity for exchange of experiences between grant beneficiaries – participants in business partnerships created for the implementation of Area-based Development grant scheme funded by the European Commission.