Albanian and Serbian women from Novo Brdo join forces to promote tourism

Tourism is a crucial factor for the economic development of Novo Brdo. The inhabitants of this region have started to intensively work on promoting their tourism since 2007. Nevertheless, women still continue to be only partially included in this process. The Centre for Rural Development (CRD) decided to gather ten Albanian and ten Serbian women in order to join their forces in promoting the tourism of Novo Brdo. First, they organized three trainings for women participants in topics such as: developing of skills in leading households, procedures of registering businesses and providing quality services.
   On 4 September 2015, CRD organized a small fair in the Information Center building of Novo Brdo where they presented their products.
“The tourism in Novo Brdo needs to advance as soon as possible since our women know how to cook very delicious traditional food and how to welcome visitors. We, the two communities, work together, and the projects we have- we implement together, be that within the municipality, in the field. Therefore, we will advance tourism together as well,” said Shefkije Mehmeti, Director of CRD.
During this fair, women also used the opportunity to discuss about their future plans. Since the booth will be placed near the building of the Municipality of Novo Brdo, women will have the opportunity to place their products for sale. The Municipality will help them by covering for them all expenses for the first two months of its opening. Women participants were also interested for the application procedures as a salesperson at the booth.
    Another opportunity to place the products is making agreements with restaurants in Novo Brdo. CRD has already established one successful agreement with restaurant Gersheta in Draganc village.
The next activity of the group will be to advocate on a regional level to the Regional Agency for Economic Development and in national level to the Ministry of Trade and Industry for Novo Brdo to be included in the touristic guides of Kosovo’s attractions.
The initiative is supported by the Kosova Women’s Fund (KWF) and funded by Austrian Development Agency (ADA) with the amount of €2,740.
 
 

 

GRB Presented at Regional Workshops on Municipal Budgets

Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) is increasingly becoming a buzz word at budget and finance related meetings, presentations, and conferences. This time, at the kind invitation of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) KWN Programme Manager and Lead Researcher Nicole Farnsworth presented on GRB at three different regional workshops on municipal budgeting processes, on the behalf of Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
   On 25, 26 and 28 August, MoF organized three regional workshops with local and central authorities on the development of municipal budgets for the period 2016-2018.The main goal of the workshops was to discuss and coordinate the priority objectives on the development of municipal budgets, including the coordination of activities with line-ministries. Minister of Finance, Avduallah Hoti, in his opening remarks stated the importance of budget transparency and fiscal austerity and Petrit Popova, director of municipal budgets at MoF, moderated the discussion, listened to the many difficulties that municipal authorities were having and gave answers and solutions to those issues. “Municipalities are currently struggling with budget cuts, especially in the economic category of Wages and Salaries”, added mr. Popova.
   Nicole Farnsworth had the chance to inform participants on GRB. As GRB became a legal obligation in 2015, Ms. Farnsworth informed participants on the new Law on Gender Equality and the Budget Circular 2016/02 which obliges both municipalities and ministries to institutionalize GRB. She further gave some examples of how GRB had been integrated previously, citing the prominent example of Kamenica. KWN hopes that all municipalities will soon integrate GRB elements into their budget processes and documents. 
The three workshops were supported by OSCE, whereas KWN work on GRB is supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Zusammenarbet (GIZ) and Austrian Development Agency (ADA)

 

Dokufest and UN Women organize panel to discuss sexual violence during the war

 An important panel with the topic: “Support for survivors of sexual violence during the war” was organized in Prizren, within the scope of the documentary film festival “Dokufest”. This panel was moderated by the women’s rights activist and Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) Executive Director Igballe Rogova. Panellists included: Bakira Hasecic, executive Director of the Association of Women Victims of War, Flora Macula from UN Women, Veprore Shehu from Medica Kosova and Danish documentary filmmaker Katia Forbert Petersona where they discussed for sexual violence during the war in Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
   Peterson is the co-director of the documentary film “Mission Rape: A Tool of War” which was screened at DokuFest and in which Hasecic tells her story during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 
“I am only one of thousands of women raped during the aggression in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” said Hasecic. “At that time my daughters were 16 and 19 years old. I would never have believed that my neighbour from the other ethnicity could do such evil to fellow citizens, just because you don’t belong to his ethnic group.” 
   The discussion covered the consequences for the survivors, society and the importance of justice and reparation. 
Veprore Shehu from Medica Kosova shared their experience on how difficult it is for them to offer services for survivors, as it was considered a taboo topic right after the war. 
Women’s rights organizations were the first who raised their voices for the recognition of the status of women survivors of sexual violence during the war. In 2012, KWN organized a protest with the motto:We don’t want flowers we want justice for women raped during the war”.  And in response to concerns and issues raised by women who had suffered sexual violence The President of Republic of Kosovo Atifete Jahjaga established the National Council for Survivors of Sexual Violence during the War on Mar. 7, where KWN is a member.