Fedja Begovic
Tourism Product Development Team Leader, USAID Developing Sustainable Tourism in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Expert in Development with a Focus on Agriculture, Food, and Tourism
Fedja Begovic is a development expert from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) with over 20 years of experience, mostly in the agriculture, food processing, and tourism sectors. He worked for USAID, the Government of Sweden, the EU, GIZ, and IFAD, as well as in the private sector for Procter and Gamble.
Currently, he is leading the component for developing tourism products and experiences on a $20 million project funded by USAID in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which includes a strong focus on integrating farmers and food producers into the tourism value chain and includes a range of activities related to workforce development. One of the most notable initiatives in his portfolio is the development and international promotion of the Herzegovina Wine Route (HWR), which was recently recognized as an Iter Vitis cultural route of the Council of Europe. Stretching over six towns in Herzegovina, from Mostar, home of the UNESCO World Heritage recognized Old Bridge, to Trebinje, 2021 Winner of the Green Destinations Award, Herzegovina Wine Route connects the two millenniums of winemaking history with the exceptional natural landscape, extraordinary cultural heritage and rich gastronomic offer from local farmers, restaurants, and hotels. Other initiatives led by Mr. Begovic include introducing the Most Beautiful Villages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, supporting the universities to obtain the UNWTO TedQual certificate, and supporting businesses to introduce the Geographic Indication marks or certificates for halal or organic production.
His previous engagements involve being a Deputy Chief of Party on an $18 million FARMA II project in BiH, which worked on quality standardization, value-adding, and marketing improvements across the fruit and vegetable, dairy, poultry, medicinal herbs, and honey sectors. In addition to providing over $6 million in grants to almost 200 organizations, the project enabled the export of poultry meat and eggs to the European Union market, created over 1,000 new jobs, and supported the certification of over 600 businesses, while increasing the cumulative sales and exports of assisted companies by over 60%. Under the Rural Livelihoods Development Project funded by IFAD, Fedja designed the pilot scheme for value chain development targeted at poverty alleviation, leading to over $2 million investment and employment of over 1,100 farmers in 11 municipalities across Bosnia and Herzegovina. This pilot was subsequently presented in international conferences in Serbia, Palestine and Tajikistan, as an example of best practice.
Mr. Begovic holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Economics from Sarajevo University. He was awarded a US government scholarship to spend a year at Rutgers University, a Cochran Fellowship for a Food Executive Program at Cornell University, and most recently he completed a MiniMasters program in Leadership and Management from Arizona State University.
