Prishtina, Kosovo, 23 Sep. 2026 – Today, the Women’s Economic Forum (WEF), in cooperation with the Swiss Caritas EREA project  hosted a discussion about policy options for strengthening women’s engagement in agriculture, together with officials from ministries of Industry, Entrepreneurship, Trade and Innovation; the Ministry of Justice and the Assembly of Kosovo; the Labour Inspectorate; the Tax Administration of Kosovo; and civil society experts. 

“I hope today’s discussion does not only identify barriers but helps us identify concrete, feasible and measurable solutions” said Saxhide Mustafa from the Riinvest Institute and WEF’s coordinator. She noted that WEF plans to present the recommendations to the respective institutions so that they can be adopted as priorities in the upcoming government program. 

Meanwhile, Ms. Astrid Wein, Director of Swiss Caritas in Kosovo, emphasized: “Women are already making a significant contribution to Kosovo’s economy. However, this contribution needs to be made visible and recognized, and women need to be supported through affirmative measures by national and local institutions, so that they can have access to finance, resources, and technology and fully realize their valuable potential. As Swiss Caritas, we remain committed to supporting the economic empowerment of women in Kosovo.” 

Minister of Trade Mimoza Kusari-Lila said: “Over the past years, we have continued to see significant stagnation in the economic participation of women and girls. Around 65% of women remain inactive in the labour market, representing a significant untapped potential. Therefore, we have designed dedicated schemes for women-owned businesses, which are currently undergoing the final evaluation process. We are working to simplify procedures and provide clearer guidance, so that women can have easier access to economic opportunities and institutional support.” 

Agricultural can contribute to rural empowerment economic growth and improved food production. Evidence shows that greater participation of women in the workforce can contribute to equality, competitiveness and economic development.  

Meanwhile, inequalities among women and men can undermine rural development and negatively impact families’ lives. The Kosovo Gender Profile for Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods, published in 2024 by the Food and Agriculture Organization, illustrated that unequal access to property, land, assets, finance, transportation, business networks/associations, training opportunities and markets particularly affect women. Unequal, unpaid care responsibilities within the home and informal work as unregistered family workers also affect women more than men. Women whose employment is unregistered do not contribute to pension schemes, increasing their risk of poverty later in life. 

Participants discussed these challenges and policy options to address them, outlined in a Policy Brief prepared by the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) for WEF. 

Key recommendations included:  

• Ministry of Labour, Family and War Values: Simplify procedures and minimize the time required for entering and exiting social assistance programmes.  

• Ministry of Finance: Introduce financial incentives, including temporary tax relief and pension subsidies, to encourage small enterprises to register workers; and to enforce gender-responsive budgeting, required by the Law on Gender Equality and budget circulars. 

• Ministry of Justice and Assembly of Kosovo: Amend and supplement Law No. 08/L-125 on Public Property to introduce affirmative measures for women entrepreneurs in the administration and use of public property. This amendment aims to advance the principle of equality and improve women’s access to public property, given that property remains one of the main barriers to the sustainable development and growth of women’s entrepreneurship. 

• Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development and municipalities: Review the criteria for agricultural grants and subsidies by removing requirements that may restrict women’s access, including property ownership, co-financing, and education requirements; and implement affirmative measures to increase women’s access to agricultural grants and subsidies. 

• Ministry of Industry, Entrepreneurship, Trade and Innovation: Offer incentives to transform unpaid, informal work in small enterprises into formal, registered work via subvention requirements.  

• Labour Inspectorate: Strengthen inspection capacity, train inspectors on gender equality and women’s labour rights and use inspections to improve knowledge, employee registration and labour conditions, particularly among small enterprises.  

• Municipalities and municipal directorates of agriculture: Expand affordable and accessible care services; improve outreach to rural women on grants, subsidies, training and other opportunities in cooperation with women’s civil society organisations; and improve reliable and affordable transport between villages, municipal centres and markets. 

WEF is a coalition of civil society organisations including the Riinvest Institute, KWN, Democracy for Development, Kosovo Center for Gender Studies, Network of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Women’s Organisations of Kosovo, Kosovo Women for Women, Kosovar Stability Initiative, GAP Institute and QIKA.  

The event was supported by Empowering Rural Economies in Agriculture (EREA), implemented by Caritas Switzerland with support from the Austrian Development Agency.