Rural economy in Bosnia & Herzegovina (BiH) is increasingly diversified but agriculture is still an important component of the rural livelihood portfolio. The paper aims at providing an overview of agricultural and rural development (ARD) in BiH. The work is based on an extended literature review and on primary data collected by questionnaires and semi-structured interviews carried out in summer 2010 with representatives of relevant public and civil society organisations. The paper focuses on ARD governance especially policies, strategies and plans; stakeholders; approaches and paradigms; and projects. It identifies the main State- and Entity-level institutions dealing with ARD policies in BiH (e.g. Law, Strategic Plan and Operational Programme on Agriculture, Food and Rural Development) and analyzes relationships and linkages between them. It also provides an overview of the main internationally- (e.g. European Commission, USAID, SIDA, JICA, GTZ, World Bank) and nationally-funded ARD projects. The evolution of ARD philosophy and practice in the post-war period has been analysed as well as the main constraints impeding a good coordination between actors involved in the design and implementation of ARD policies. A comparison has been made between ARD programmes in BiH with European Union’s RD policy. A SWOT analysis of the Strategic Plan for Rural Development 2009-2015 in the Republika Srpska has been performed. All in all, effective, efficient and sustainable ARD policies in BiH should be place-based, multi-sectoral, synergistic and designed and implemented through a good coordination between multilevel governance public and civil institutions (international, national, and sub-national: entities, cantons, regions, municipalities).