Today, 13 September, the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) officially announced grant awards for 23 beneficiary organizations in Kosovo, provided through the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF), amounting €109,312€ in total. The European Union Office in Kosovo supported these grants via KWN’s initiative “Strengthening Women’s Participation in Politics” in the amount of €90,733; and the United Nations Population Fund in Kosovo (UNFPA) provided funding via KWN’s initiative “Expanding Choices: Gender-Responsive Family Policies for the Private Sector in the Western Balkans and Moldova”, financed by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the operational unit of Austrian Development Cooperation in the amount of €18,579.

These initiatives will directly contribute to the implementation of the current KWN Strategy for 2019-2022, which was drafted together with KWN members.

KWF grant beneficiaries supported by the European Union Office in Kosovo include:

• Partners Kosova with the initiative: “Women make the change” (€5,000)
• Down Syndrome Kosova with the initiative: “Involving persons with disabilities in decision-making” (€5,000)
• Women’s Association “Me Dorë në Zemër” with the initiative: “Empowering the role of women in public processes, as a guarantee for good governance” (€4,967)
• Nas Dom with the initiative: “Feminism for beginners” (€4,998)
• Women’s Association Aureola with the initiative: “Increasing women’s participation in decision-making” (€4,999)
• Art Without Limits with the initiative: “Empowering persons with disabilities through art” (€4,984)
• Youth Association for Human Rights with the initiative: “Achieving gender equality in decision-making” (€4,923)
• In Time with the initiative: “Improving women’s participation in politics and decision-making processes towards women’s economic empowerment” (€4,866)
• Minority Community Center with the initiative: “I have the right to be informed!” (€5,000)
• Moravski Biser with the initiative: “Involvement of women from rural areas in public and political life” (€4,767)
• Glas Zena Partes with the initiative: “Involvement of women in decision-making processes at local level in the municipality of Partes” (€3,640)
• The Kosovo Midwifery Association with the initiative: “Improving reproductive healthcare of women and girls” (€4,987)
• Shqiponjat e Dardanës with the initiative: “Supporting women candidates for municipal assembly and raising awareness of rural women and girls about the role of their vote” (€4,895)
• Vizionida with the initiative: “Promotion of women in politics and decision making in the Municipality of Shtime” (€3,795)
• Jeto Vepro dhe Krijo with the initiative: “Promoting and supporting women and girls to participate in decision-making” (€4,993)
• Independent Initiative for Blind Peoplewith the initiative: “Access of people with disabilities to public services” (€4,992)
• Okarina e Runikut with the initiative: “Women’s Empowerment in Politics and Decision Making” (€4,951)
• Era Fruit with the initiative: “Empowerment through higher representation of women in local politics” (€4,997)
• Svet Andjela with the initiative: “Increasing women’s participation in the electoral process” (€3,975)

Beneficiaries supported by UNFPA include:

• Business Women Mitrovica with the initiative: “Promoting employment through family-friendly workplace” (€4,537)
• Women’s Association Drugëza with the initiative: “Empowering women in business, a good practice of promoting gender equality” (€4,530)
• Organization for Local Reforms – EULOC with the initiative: “Promoting family friendly policies and workplaces in municipality of Vitia” (€4,512)
• Lipjan Youth Centre with the initiative: “Promoting family friendly policies at the local level” (€4,999).

Through this round, the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) will also provide support via KWN’s “Further Advancing Women’s Rights in Kosovo II” co-funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), in the amount of around € 50,000. We will announce beneficiaries of these grants in the coming days.

KWN’s KWF provides small grants to women’s organizations that do not have access to other sources of funding and who seek to work for women’s rights and gender equality, prioritising funding for groups working in rural areas and/or marginalized persons. Since 2012, KWF has allocated 216 grants, supporting 111 organizations, with a total amount of € 1,120,779€. In 2021, KWF receives support from the European Union, ADA, Sida, UNFPA, Sigrid Rausing Trust and the Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation.