„EU4Business: Connecting Companies“ project: Connecting in Agritourism: Build BSO partnership and promote cooperation between Lithuania and Georgia - AGRICONT
Start of the project – 2021-07-01
End of the project – 2022-04-30
Project budget 54 469,37 Eur. Eurochambres is funding 51 745,90 Eur, this is 95% of the project funding amount.
Lead partner – Lithuanian countryside toruism association
Project partner – Georgian Farmers' Association
The objectives of the actions that will be conducted by LCTA and GFA, in the framework of this project, stem from the aspiration to improve the conditions in the industry of agritourism in Lithuania and Georgia through assembling applicable BSOs that are driven with mutual purpose. The focal objective is to increase the capacity of the Lithuanian and Georgian BSOs, offering services and guidance to the representatives of agritourism industry and also, through twinning of the involved parties, strengthen their organizational capacity and representation in the countries of their origin. When implementing the actions, designed under this project, the lead and co-applicants will bring the issues of institutional building between BSOs, best practices, benchmarking, cooperation between companies and in addition, the transfer of know-how, transfer of technology, synergies with existing networks, at the forefront of their activities. Since the magnitude of potential, in terms of the advancement of the agritourism sector in both countries is steadily increasing, it is vitally important to establish direct links between BSOs from Lithuania and Georgia, through twinning. This will present opportunities to stakeholders to share and gain industry-related knowledge, adopt best-practices whilst implementing activities, develop better business linkages which will broaden their network at an international level, rather than just local or national. The aforementioned sequence of activities will help BSOs assess their current stance, recognize the gaps and amend and adjust their strategic development goals based on the findings. Furthermore, in order for the BSOs to increase their capacity and better position themselves, it is an absolute prerequisite for them to adopt more service-focused portfolios and this project aims to tackle this matter. Through the formation of close partnerships, BSOs from EU and EaP countries will learn about the services offered by the fellow BSOs, their effectiveness and the rate of impact. It will serve as the trailblazer, as the BSOs will become aware of the experiences and impediments that the fellow BSOs encountered during the installation phase, this information on its own will make BSOs more prepared for the service development stage. With the flexibility through financial independence (additional source of income through new/improved services) the BSOs will provide more efficient and diversified support to their target group. Moreover, the peer-to-peer coaching will also lay the foundation to the formation of a new roadmap for the organizational development of BSOs that will not only be designed to suit the needs of the farmers involved in agritourism, but also, intended to increase the BSOs’ visibility, credibility and expand the scope of their influence in the policymaking process. Also, it is important to highlight the fact that the project activities will trigger the ripple effect. With the increased capacities and knowledge-sharing, the participant BSOs will have the opportunity to expand the list of services offered to their beneficiaries. The expansion of their service-portfolios will eventually require the recruitment and employment of additional staff members. Moreover, when the BSOs become more responsive to the farmer’s needs, their performance will improve, which will strengthen the BSO’s positions in Lithuania and Georgia respectively. This on its part will create the grounds for the interested parties (farmers and players in agritourism industry) to become more aware about the opportunities in this sector and the possibilities to widen the means of the financial inflow. Consequently, these actions will contribute to the poverty reduction in different regions (both rural and urban) in Lithuania and Georgia via job creation and information exchange.
Relevant links: https://connectingcompanies.eu/
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