Even though evidence suggests that empowering women is smart economic policy, women are frequently at a disadvantage when pursuing economic opportunities, such as employment, training, education, access to finance and property ownership.   
      In Kosovo, statistics show that the rate of unemployment among women is 40%; women make up only 0.3% of top managers in private companies; women own only 11% of small businesses; and just 8% of land owners are women. Constraints to women’s active participation in the economy include insufficient enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and policies, as well as socially entrenched gender stereotypes.

     “Efforts to empower women economically are attempts to show not only the level of democratization of society but, above all, to steer the country towards a fairer and more rapid economic growth. Economic empowerment of women is the empowerment of society as a whole, is an investment in the future and guarantor of prosperity,” said President Jahjaga. “I am deeply convinced that economic empowerment of women will bring us their empowerment in politics and decision making, where decisions about the fate of our children, the future of the country and beyond, are made every day.”