Affirmative actions’ undertaken in the field of the registration of the joint immovable property on behalf of both spouses

16.06.2016

The Agency for Gender Equality (AGE) in cooperation with Kosovo Cadastral Agency (KCA) on June 15 launched the “Administrative Instruction (GRK) No. 03/2016 on Special Measures for Registration of Joint Immovable Property on Behalf of both Spouses”, where representatives of governmental institutions of central and local level, representatives of international organizations and civil society, including Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) representatives, took part. This Administrative Instruction (AI) was approved by the Government of Republic of Kosovo in March 2016.
   Participants at this event were addressed by the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Mr. Isa Mustafa; Mr. James Hope, Mission Director at USAID/Kosovo; Ms. Edi Gusia, Acting Chief Executive of AGE; Ms. Leonora Selmani, Head of the Legislation Division at AGE; Ms. Afërdita Thaçi, Head of IT Department at KCA; Ms. Arbena Shehu, Head of Notaries Chamber; and Ms. Leonora Sylejmani from KCA.  
    “I urge all citizens of the Republic of Kosovo to benefit from this affirmative action, since its implementation means contribution to Kosovo’s economic and overall strengthening” said Prime Minister Mustafa.
      Further, Ms. Sylejmani presented to participants the “Form on procedures for registration of joint property”, and there was a screening of the video clip prepared by AGE with support by USAID, which since today will be shown on Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK), as part of many activities within the awareness raising campaign to be delivered in the coming months.|
      This AI, among others, regulates the responsibility of institutions in the procedure of joint property registration (Art. 5), as well as exempts the citizens from the registration service fee (Art. 6). 
     “Since March 2016, when this AI came into force, 144 cases have been initiated on registering the joint property,” emphasized Ms. Gusia. 
     For KWN, the launching of this IA came in a very suitable time, since KWN has already started the implementation of the project where KWN activists are going door to door in 7 municipalities to support women in registering their property, a project that is supported by the Promoting Private Sector Employment (PPSE) project of Swisscontact, financed by the Swiss Government in Kosovo, as well as the Kosovo Women’s Fund with support from European Office (EU) Office in Kosovo and Austrian Development Agency (ADA).
     Any initiative undertaken by KWN in this field is consistent with the objectives of its advocacy to ensure women’s rights to property and inheritance.
     Below you can find the names and the contact details of the 12 KWN member organizations in 7 different municipalities throughout Kosovo, which are implementing this KWN’s project:

Prishtina:

  • NGO Dera e Hapur in Prishtina; Tel.: 044 124 423, 049 120 544; E-mail:  c_opendoor@hotmail.com;
  • NGO Rikotta in Prishtina (and Prevallac); Tel.: 044 429 432; E-mail: p_hajzeri@hotmail.com;
  • NGO Dita in Prishtina; Tel.: 044 178 135; E-mail: dita.zeneli@hotmail.com;
Gjakova:
  • NGO Femrat Aktive të Gjakovës in Gjakova; Tel.: 044 188 642; E-mail: f_aktive@yahoo.com, v_rizvanolli@yahoo.com;
Peja:
Prizren:
  • NGO Dora Dorës in Prizren; Tel.: 044 216 616, 044 670 067; E-mail: info@doradores.org;
  • NGO Gora in Prevallac; Tel.: 045 260 311, 049 645 496; E-mail: sevda.gora@hotmail.com;
Mitrovica:
  • Mitrovica’s Women Association for Human Rights in Mitrovica; Tel.: 044 165 751, 049 130 365; E-mail: mitrovica.wahr@gmail.com, vetone_veliu@yahoo.com;
Lipjan
Dragash:
  • The Initiative for the Integration of Communities (IPIK) in Brezne, Dragash; Tel.: 044 351 899; E-mail: ojq.ipik@hotmail.com

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KWN members Learn about Accessing Donors and Alternative Fundraising Options

03.06.2016

Funding for women’s organizations, especially those working at a local level, has become increasingly difficult to be obtained in Kosovo. Therefore, today, on 3 June, the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) organized a workshop on fundraising and identifying other manners for fundraising, besides the traditional international donors.
  Igballe Rogova, Executive Director of KWN, spoke about the manner of communication with donors, the cooperation with them, the best practices during project implementation, based on continuous experience and solidarity among women’s organizations. She talked about the current situation of donors comparing it to the one before the time when KWN began to operate as a self-funded network. In order to be considered as more serious by donors, the organizations must pay attention to accountability, accurate and timely reporting, and publication of financial reports, so that the transparency is made available to the community. On top of that, in order to create opportunities for other projects in the future, the organizations must accurately carry out the planned activities as presented in the draft-proposal.
    To identify other manners for fund-raising, Nicole Farnsworth, Program Manager and Research Head in KWN talked more specifically about the donors who currently provide donations and the concrete alternative manners. To make it easier for members to access the donors, they were given the following list:
 
  • Global Fund for Women
  • Urgent Action Fund
  • Association for Women in Development
  • Mammacash
  • Kosovo Women’s Fund
  • FIQ
  • ATRC
  • KCSF
  • USAID Empower
  • Embassies
They discussed broadly together about current donors, how they operate, and what they may offer based on the demands of each organization. In addition to the list of donors, she shared with the members the Alternative Manners for Fundraising, such as organizing gala dinner events, selling hand-made products, organizing fairs or auctions, among other numerous alternatives.
     Furthermore, with support from KWN, the present member organizations created a plan for fundraising within their organizations. The KWN tried to provide suggestions about the donors who would be interested in supporting concrete activities.
In the last part of the workshop, Marta Drury from Heart and Hand Foundation, came to meet the representatives of women’s organizations and share with them her experience as donor.
      “I decided to support the issues related to women’s rights in order to make a social change so that we have a better world for ourselves”.
Based on her experience, compared to other donors, she showed finds herself in various situations, as she is also the person who raises funds, but also the person who donates such funds to others who need them. When she raises funds, she tries to report to donors, sending them a summary and photo of cases and stories where she has helped with such funds. Meanwhile, when she donates funds, she requests only a simple report from the recipient of funds, because she considers that the funds she donated do not belong to her anymore but to those who received them, and they know very well how to spend them – it is sufficient to work and achieve social change.
      All those present shared their experiences with donors in Kosovo and received concrete advice on how to act in cases when they want to obtain funds. Additionally, it was discussed about the fact that in the United States of America, good-willed persons and businesses that donate money, benefit from tax exemption by the state, which does not happen in Kosovo. Therefore, considering this as part of the KWN strategy, it was decided to advocate in the near future at both central and local level for exemption from taxes in Kosovo as well.
This workshop was supported by European Union Office in Kosovo.

 

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KWN Launches Research Report on the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

02.06.2016

 Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and Gender Analysis are two new legal obligations for Public Institutions in the Republic of Kosovo. Since 2014, KWN has been supporting budget organizations at the local and central level in institutionalizing GRB and conducting gender analyses. Since 2015, KWN has supporting the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology in this process. On June 6, this report was launched at a public event. 
This report had two main aims:

  1. To conduct the first in-depth gender analysis of almost all MEST departments, divisions, institutes and universities
  2. To support MEST in implementing their new legal obligations transferred to them through the new law on Gender Equality, namely, gender analysis and gender responsive budgeting.
In her opening remarks, Igballe Rogova, KWN Executive Director, thanked both MEST and Austrian Development Agency (ADA) for their support throughout this processes. Anila Statovci-Demaj, MEST Deputy Minister, thanked KWN for providing this support, adding that their Ministry has a particular importance for future generations.
Christian Geosits, ADA, Christian Geosits, Head of Office of the Austrian Development Agency (ADAstated that ADA is thrilled seeing two of their main partners KWN and MEST cooperating on such an important issue. “This report has a very specific importance, given the novelty of GRB as a concept not only in Kosovo, but also in Austria and the EU”, Mr. Geosits added.
Afterwards, Donjeta Morina, one of the two authors of the report proceeded to give some of the main findings of the report, continuously highlighting the importance that MEST implement the recommendations.  Some of the main findings and recommendations include:
  • Even though statistics suggest that there is a rather equal share of boys and girls with special needs. Data shows that more boys attend special education. The Division for the education of children with special needs, GEOs, and school officials at the municipal level can proactively meet with organizations working with persons with disabilities to encourage parents to enrol children with special needs in schools, focusing particularly on outreach to parents with daughters who have special needs. This activity will have no extra cost and require only minimal time by officials.
  • Due to gender norms, comparatively lower pay, and low university enrolment in education programs, few men teach pre-school. This gender imbalance means that men do not benefit equally from budget allocations to teachers at this level. Further, the lack of male role models likely impacts the quality of teaching for children. Cultural stereotypes of typically male and female jobs are reinforced; young children believe that care professions are inappropriate for men, passing on social norms and stereotypes from generation to generation. Affirmative actions could contribute to addressing this issue. MEST could collaborate with universities to install incentives for young men entering a career in early education.  This could involve earmarking existing scholarships (subsidies) or providing discounts in tuition for young men studying education as an affirmative action towards increasing the percentage of young men enrolled.
  • Kosovo has an insufficient number of affordable pre-schools and day-cares to meet the level of demand and the European Union’s (EU) Barcelona Objectives. It also was noted in the EU 2015 Progress Report. This is a major factor negatively impacting women’s participation in the labour market. Further, it contributes to non-implementation of the Law on Pre-school Education because the tariff is not always adjusted to parents’ salaries as it should be according to the Law. Investing in early education could enhance children’s educational performance, create jobs, and enable more women to work, thereby decreasing unemployment. Transferring students to other classes and reallocating resources (e.g., teachers and under-used classrooms) could make more efficient use of existing resources towards addressing these needs.
 KWN remains hopeful that MEST will take these recommendations seriously and include them in their 2017 Draft Budget.
For more information, please read the report by clicking here.  
The Analysis and the Report itself were supported by Austrian Development Agency (ADA) 

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Sisterhood beyond borders: Feminist Role Models

01.06.2016

 

On May 26, the documentary film “Qiriazi Sisters” was shown as part of the FemArt Festival, the region’s biggest feminist festival.
The documentary film showed the work of “Qiriazi Sisters” founded by Igballe Rogova and Safete Rogova and the activities led by Igballe Rogova in the refugee camps during the war. Afterwards, a panel discussion “Feminist Role Models” was held with Lepa MlaÄ‘enović from Serbia and Igballe Rogova from Kosovo. Ariana Qosaj-Mustafa, the moderator noted that “we all have been part of this history, women and men but unfortunately today the history that dominates is the one of men only”. Before starting the discussion, Qosaj-Mustafa explained that MlaÄ‘enović and Rogova weren’t there to speak on behalf of women and girls because women and girls speak themselves, but they were there to create that space so women and girl can speak in the first place.                                                                          
   In regard to the documentary, Rogova described how singing and dancing was used as a form of therapy in the refugee camp but they also took self-defence courses, special meetings with children and other very important activities at the time. Rogova went on about how the Sisters Qiriazi was founded and their activities in eradicating illiteracy in Kosovo in the 90s, especially in the region of Has. Next, she remembered how she travelled to Belgrade to meet with the Women in Black and with Mladenovic and learned about their activism by seeing it first-hand. Rogova was struck by Women in Black’s protests and the way they used their body, silently, as a form of protest. On the other hand MlaÄ‘enović was called “academy of sisterhood for all women to graduate” from the panellists. MlaÄ‘enović described coming to Prishtina in 90s to attend “women’s parties” organized in restaurants owned by Rogova’s acquaintances. She describes the parties as opportunities to truly know “the other” and how their friendship evolved during those difficult times. The discussion closed affirming how both MlaÄ‘enović and Rogova remain an inspiration for many feminist activists today.                                                                                                                                        
  “FemArt” – Women Artists Festival for Human rights took place during 25-30 May in Prishtina. The festival showcased artistic creations by diverse women from Kosovo, the region and Europe. The activities included theatre performances, documentary films and shorts, master classes, workshops, exhibitions, performances, book promotion, slam poetry, concerts and panel discussions with over 100 artists/performers and activists. The festival ended on Monday with a ceremony where Nexhmije Pagarusha was presented with the FemArt Award.

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Artpolis organizes 4th annual FemART

01.06.2016

 Centre for Promotion and Community Artpolis organized the biggest Regional Women’s Artists Festival (FemART) for the fourth time in Prishtina. FemART started on 25 until 30 May. 
  The program of the Festival has contained different themes such as: human rights, LGBT, reproductive health, women’s economic empowerment, violence against women etc.
   Similar to previous years, this edition also brought artistic creations, including theatre plays, movies, concerts, book promotions, fashion, installations, street art, poetry, workshops, and other forms of art creations from feminist women and men artists from Kosovo region and Europe.
   During FemART were organized 30 activities with more than 100 artists, activists in eight different locations in Prishtina starting every day for six days from 10:00 am until 12:00, at midnight. Hundreds citizens attended inspiring programs of FemART for free. 

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OPDMK Organizes a Meeting to Discuss Muscular Dystrophy

01.06.2016

 On May 23, the Organization of Persons with Muscular Dystrophy of Kosovo (OPMDK), organized a meeting with persons with muscular dystrophy and their families. The meeting was attended by women, men, girls and boys with muscular dystrophy, their families and representative of the Kosova Women’s Network (KWN). The main discussion in this meeting was the role of caregiver in the care of people with muscular dystrophy and the difficulties faced by those in care of such persons. 
     OPMDK has conducted field research for a period of three months where they managed to identify many families, members of which have dystrophy. The findings of this research are summarized in a booklet, which is expected to be published soon. This manual will also contain advices for people with muscular dystrophy how to help them face their problems easier. During their work in filed they also managed to identify families that have three people sick with dystrophy, while there was a family with five people with dystrophy and their economic situation was miserable. Representatives of the organization since have seen the situation in which these families are they are also seeking assistance from other organizations and individuals in a way that from these families to remove a little bit of the monthly expenses. 
     Families and individuals with dystrophy showed the problems and difficulties they face. The main challenge faced by these families is the difficult economic and social conditions. Lack of transportation for most of these people living in villages is why most of the time they stay locked inside. Many of the sick people do not have wheelchairs and a few that have, they are damaged and very difficult for moving.  Another great problem is the issue of employment, and costly therapy that often is unaffordable for them. One of the participants pointed out that there are two girls that are affected by this disease and because of the difficult situation they are they stopped going to school since all the time someone should stay with them. 
     The organization has planned to hold a training together with officials so they can share concerns, needs and problems of families of people with muscular dystrophy in order to provide the necessary assistance to them. Also, at the beginning of June, the week of people with muscular dystrophy will be held, where during all that week there will be various activities organized to inform the general public about the situation and challenges of people with muscular dystrophy.

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The Long and Winding Road to GRB Institutionalization

01.06.2016

 Austria is a global model for the successful institutionalization of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB). First and foremost, GRB is ingrained in the Austrian Constitution itself, but perhaps even more important is the fact that Austria has concrete mechanisms at both local and federal levels that ensure the sustainable institutionalization of GRB. In May 2016 a Kosovo delegation visited Vienna for a study visit on GRB. Among others, the delegation was comprised of the Acting Head of the Agency for Gender Equality (AGE), Municipal Budget Directors, municipal Chief Finance Officers, Ministry of Finance (MoF) budget analysts, representative of the Ministry of Local Governance, and one KWN representative.  The Delegation met with various Viennese as well as Federal Austrian institutions, to gain insight from their experience with this successful institutionalization. 
    Two particularly captivating meetings for the participants included meeting the Ministry of Finance, and the Budget Fraction of the Austrian Parliament. Representatives of the institutions heavily emphasized that it is very difficult, if not impossible to institutionalize GRB all by itself. It needs to be part of a general public finance reform. They further added that in Austria this reform took over 15 years, but GRB was a vital part of the reform, and that Austria could have never institutionalized GRB has it not been part of the reform from scratch one. This is a lesson persons working on GRB in Kosovo should bear in mind.  Kosovo has indeed made many GRB-related successes in the past couple of years, but the successes have not yet occurred within a larger public finance reform picture. 
    The Municipal Directorate of the City of Vienna has a specific sector that works solely on GRB. This sector is made of experts on gender issues, gender sensitive planning, gender disaggregated statistics, and gender responsive budgeting.  Advocating for GRB sectors in all budget directorates in Kosovo might be too overly ambitious at this point in time. However, what could be done in Kosovo that could be similar to the Viennese experience, is for the MoF to hire one GRB expert amongst its Budget Analysts.  
     Returning to the Federal Level, Gender Objectives, Activities, and Indicators are part of the Austrian mid-term planning documents, as well as annual budget laws. Furthermore, all Ministries at the Federal Level, are required to set 5 mid-term objectives, at least one of which needs to be directly related to gender issues. This is very valuable information that could also be implemented in Kosovo without too much effort. A simple re-organizing of the annual budget law could lead to this important result. 
    The fact that Austria has an inter-ministerial working group on GRB was also very interesting to hear. A similar group for Kosovo could be able to achieve important successes, including influencing the Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Medium Term Budget Framework, and Budget Circulars. 
  All in all, the Study Visit gave some important insights on mechanisms that help institutionalize and sustain GRB. The information gathered showed participants that while Kosovo has been making initial steps in this regard, a long and winding road is still ahead of us. 
The study visit was organized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation Europe (OSCE) Mission in Kosovo. 

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Workshop session on Women’s Rights on Immovable Property Rights and Inheritance

24.05.2016

 In line with KWN advocacy objectives to ensure women’s rights on property and inheritance, the two days workshop session took place in Prizren as a part of the efforts to build the capacities of KWN activists on the legal framework and social aspects of property and inheritance rights and gender equality as well as institutional mechanisms involved on gender issues. 
    During the first day of the workshop participants had the chance to understand in depth the international conventions on gender equality and property aspects as well as the Kosovar legal framework. 
   On the second day participants has been briefed on the institutional mechanisms in place that supports gender equality in general and property rights aspects in particular. 
     The workshop has been organized within the KWN project on “Gender Equality on Immovable Property Rights” as a kick off activity which will support activists from five(5) municipalities in assisting women to register their property. 
The project is supported by PPSE Swiss contact.

 

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Mentoring and Data Collection within the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning

11.05.2016

 The month of April kicked off the mentoring sessions and data collection meetings with officials from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) and the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP) that Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) organizes with the aim of increasing understanding of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) basic concepts and implementation among these two ministries.

    Most of the representatives that KWN mentored this week, where not present at the workshop on GRB that was held in March. These sessions therefore were very fruitful for they resulted into a greater number of officials within the MTI and MESP being informed on the basic concepts of GRB. Besides this, the representatives, same as during the previous meetings, presented KWN the main activities of their departments and also specific expenditures, investments and programs were discussed aiming to integrate GRB in those documents. Agreements were made to send follow-up questions in order to get data which will contribute to the analysis that the grantee will conduct on the budget and policy documents of the ministry.
     KWN made some interesting findings during these meetings in relation to the processes of data collecting within some sectors of the ministry. For example, during the meeting with the Chief Executive of the Kosovo Business Registration Agency, it became apparent that the first step of doing GRB has been made within this Agency. For, since 2012 within the framework of business registration, data has been segregated by gender. Meaning that businesses that are registered in this agency are divided by gender. In this way, the agency has been able to generate and analyze data and information based on gender which has shown that the number of businesses owned by women and registered has been growing throughout these years.
    KWN is now collecting data, analyzing and processing this for each department, division and agency. The following steps are setting up meetings with a few more representatives, keeping close contact with the ones that have been mentored in order to assist them with the integration of a gender perspective in their activities, policies and budget documents. 

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KWN’s Launches Policy Paper Toward “Striking Balance” in Labour Law Amendments

11.05.2016

On 4 May,  the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) launched its policy paper “Striking a Balance – Policy Options for Amending Kosovo’s Law on Labour”.
    The opening remarks were given by Igballe Rogova, Executive Director of KWN; Basri Ibrahimi, Labour Inspectorate, and Edi Gusia, Acting Executive Director of AGE. 
“The Ministry should cooperate with women and KWN, as an organisation that represents women’s rights,” said Mr. Basri Ibrahimi, on behalf of the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare. “We are aware that society cannot function normally if it does not have emancipated women, with their rights protected.” 
Edi Gusia, Acting Executive Director of the Agency for Gender Equality in the Office of the Prime Minsiter of the Republic of Kosovo said – “The amendments to the Labour Law should focus on the Maternity Leave provisions and on the mother, father and child, in order to reeducate a generation of fathers and to protect the interests of mothers and children.”
    KWN prepared this policy paper with the purpose of informing the proposed amendements to the Law on Labour. The research includes an analysis of the existing relevant legal framework, a review of practices in other countries, results from a survey of 1,301 women and 374 men in Kosovo and results from a face-to-face survey of a simple random sample of 400 employers (private, public, and civil society) from 30 municipalities. 
Responses by employers and surveyed women alike suggest that there is gender discrimination in hiring in Kosovo. Evidence also suggests that some employers are discriminating against women in hiring because of current maternity leave provisions.

  • When given the choice between a woman and a man with exactly the same education, qualifications, and experience, 45.5% of employers would choose the man.
  • 38.8% of employers say they consider a job applicant’s family plans during the hiring process
  • Nearly 3 in 4 women said that employers asked them about their marital status and plans to have children during interviews.
  • 40 surveyed women reported being required to take a test to prove that they were not pregnant in order to be hired
  • 12% of employers said they have not hired a woman because they could not afford maternity leave
“The KWN policy proposals give equal opportunities to fathers and mothers with respect to paternity leave. They don’t discriminate against men, as the current maternity leave provisions do,” said Nicole Farnsworth, KWN Lead Researcher and a co-author during her presentation. She called up on the Ministry to ensure that amendments to the law do not discriminate against women or men, as well as to ensure that gender and cost analyses are carried out in order to inform the law with evidence.
    The policy paper has interrelated policy proposals for maternity leave,  paternity leave, safeguarding women workers’ time for breastfeeding, the importance of establishing more care centres in Kosovo and other recommendations for amending the Labour Law.     
    This research and launching event was made possible through the kind donations of KWN’s individual members that provide crucial support which enables KWN to undertake urgent research when donor funding is unavailable, Sirius Hotel for the space and audio system for free, Mars A for translation in audio system for free and Night Design for free printing of the report.
To read the report, please visit www.womensnetwork.org.

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