Rural development program and its impact on rural development : (on the example of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship)

The aim of the article is to analyze and assess the diversity of the volume of funds used under the Rural Development Program (RDP) divided into two periods, 2007–2013 and 2014–2020 in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship. A research question was posed as to how these measures influenced rural development and the activation of rural residents. The research was carried out on the basis of statistical data analysis methods as well as comparative analyzes. The data from the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office, the voivodeship labour office, the West Pomeranian Voivodeship and the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture were used for the research. On the basis of the analysis of the use of EU funds under the RDP, it can be pointed out that they were transferred to the objectives serving rural development and certainly contributed to the development of the Polish countryside, reducing its level of backwardness, poverty and unemployment rate.