The majority of households in north-west Azerbaijan live in rural and often remote mountainous areas with limited employment opportunities. The diverse population of the six north-western regions that comprise the Shaki- Zaqatala Economic Zone also includes many vulnerable families displaced by conflict.
This booklet presents a collection of success stories depicting personal narratives of people living in the remote communities of the Shaki-Zaqatala region whose life trajectories changed for the better, thanks to a new project to support the establishment of smallholder family business in north-west Azerbaijan. The project is part of the European Union’s flagship initiative –Support to Rural and Regional Development (SRRD) and has received financial support from the European Union, with co-funding from the UNDP. In the Shaki-Zaqatala region, the project is implemented in cooperation with ABAD. ABAD, which means “easy” in Azerbaijani, is the country’s prominent national network for advancing family businesses. This cooperation greatly adds to the capacity of the project and helps ensure the sustainability of the new start-ups.
To read the full story, download the brochure directly from this page.