Kosovo Women's Network

KWN Raises Issue of the Need for World Bank Consultation with Civil Society Organizations

17.10.2022

Adelina Tërshani, KWN, during her stay in Washington DC where she participated in the Annual Meeting of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund, held meetings with key actors of the WB in Kosovo. She met with the Country Manager for Kosovo and for North Macedonia, in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank, Massimiliano Paolucci, as well as the Advisor to the Executive Director of the WB Group, Hajdar Korbi.

During the meeting, Tërshani presented KWN’s recommendations to the World Bank, focusing on the need for the Bank to continuously consult women’s rights organizations in Kosovo before and during the development of their activities, with the aim of improving the impact of these interventions on women and girls life in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, Paolucci expressed his readiness for a wider cooperation with organizations active for women’s rights in Kosovo, especially with regard to the development of initiatives that directly affect women and girls in Kosovo. He emphasized that the need for consultation with organizations will increase especially during the consultations on the drafting of the Strategy on Gender Equality within the World Bank next year. “The door of the World Bank in Kosovo is open for organizations for women’s rights”, he concluded. Tërshani represented KWN in many other discussion panels within the civil society agenda during the Annual Meeting of the World Bank, where she also publicly raised the issue of the need for WB consultation with civil society organizations.

The Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group brings together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, parliamentarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organizations and academics to discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development, and aid effectiveness. Also featured are seminars, regional briefings, press conferences, and many other events focused on the global economy, international development, and the world’s financial system. This year’s event took place in Washington, D.C., in October 10-16, 2022.

19.12.25

Kosovo Women’s Network Publishes Report “Zero Tolerance? Monitoring the Institutional Response to Gender-based Violence in Kosovo”

18.12.25

Inclusive Sexual Education: A Needed Change

18.12.25

Building Stronger Responses to Gender-based Violence Across Kosovo

18.12.25

Going Glocal 2.0: Sustainable Gender-responsive Futures

18.12.25

16 Days of Activism: Raising Awareness and Strengthening Advocacy

17.12.25

Moving Forward Together: Making Transport Accessible for Everyone

Medica Kosova signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Directorate of Education on Gjakova students’ wellbeing

14.10.2022

The Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) member organization has signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Directorate of Education in Gjakova to improve the quality of education and the well-being of students in the schools of the Municipality of Gjakova. The memorandum foresees the employment of several psychologists for schools in this municipality.

They signed the memorandum at the time when Medica was implementing the initiative “Capacity building in the primary education system in Gjakova for treating children/students who are victims of violence, abuse or who suffer from the consequences of COVID-19”.

On 30 September, Medica continued the next phase of training on building positive teacher-student relationships. Their representatives held lectures in different schools of the Municipality of Gjakova, to raise the capacities of teachers about the consequences of violence on children who may be witnesses or who experienced violence.

Medica’s psychologist, Emirjeta Kumnova, spoke to teachers about the consequences of violence among children, but also the ways in which teachers can identify children who suffer from violence.

Kumnova said that “to reduce the consequences of violence and traumatic events in children, one should build positive relationships with an adult.” According to her, teachers can be those people who know the emotional needs of children.

“So the first phase dealt with children’s trauma as a result of violence, but above all, children who grow up in families that do not recognize their emotions,” she said.

She said that sometimes children cannot explain their traumatic experiences through language, but through negative behavior and disobedience in class and school.

This initiative has received support from the Kosovo Women’s Fund, financed by the European Union Office in Kosovo through KWN initiative: “Enhancing the Capacities and Resilience of CSOs: Furthering Gender Equality amid the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

If you want to support KWN and its member organisations’ future work, including to support children who have suffered violence, improve the educational system’s ability to support children and KWN’s general work to improve teaching so that it transforms traditional gender norms and relations within schools, you can donate to KWN at https://womensnetwork.org/donate/.

19.12.25

Kosovo Women’s Network Publishes Report “Zero Tolerance? Monitoring the Institutional Response to Gender-based Violence in Kosovo”

18.12.25

Inclusive Sexual Education: A Needed Change

18.12.25

Building Stronger Responses to Gender-based Violence Across Kosovo

18.12.25

Going Glocal 2.0: Sustainable Gender-responsive Futures

18.12.25

16 Days of Activism: Raising Awareness and Strengthening Advocacy

17.12.25

Moving Forward Together: Making Transport Accessible for Everyone

KWN Welcomes Approval of Draft Law on Supplementing and Amending Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code

13.10.2022

The Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) through this press release expresses gratitude for the
commitment of the Ministry of Justice in addressing gender-based violence through the Draft Law
on Supplementing and Amending the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure.

Violence against women and domestic violence must not be tolerated and the punishment
measures for the perpetrators of the criminal acts of rape, sexual violence and domestic violence
must be as severe as possible.

KWN has continuously advocated for maximum punishments for perpetrators of criminal acts of
gender-based violence, which will affect the reduction of such cases based also on the detailed
analysis “From Words to Action” of how the institutions in Kosovo handled these cases.
Therefore we welcome the fact that with this amendment it is foreseen that in cases of criminal
offenses of rape, sexual assault and domestic violence, the limits of mitigation of punishments will
not be applied.

The work being done by the Ministry of Justice and the Working Group is to be congratulated.
KWN also supports the classification of Virginity Testing as a new criminal offense, considering that
this medical test violates basic human rights.
Furthermore, KWN also welcomes the initiative for the planned changes to the Law on Social and
Family Services, which is expected to regulate adequate housing for victims of gender-based
violence and domestic violence.

28.03.25

Reaction of the Kosovo Women’s Network to the Recent Killings in Kosovo due to illegal weapons

08.11.24

Press Release – Recommendations for the Kosovo Parliament

05.11.24

Response to Klan Kosova – Do Not Promote the Perpetrators

04.11.24

Violence Against the Minor is Intolerable – KWN Calls for Justice and Immediate Action

31.10.24

The Irresolute Resolution? After 24 Years, Resolution 1325 Remains Valid but Under-implemented

17.10.24

Letter to the Chairman of the Assembly of Kosovo, Glauk Konjufca

New Policy Brief Costs Maternity, Paternity, and Parental Leave Provisions for Proposed Labour Law

10.10.2022

A new policy brief launched today examines how much proposed reforms to the Labour Law would cost the Kosovo Budget. The policy brief, “Costing Maternity, Paternity, and Parental Leave Provisions in the Law on Labour”, was prepared by economist Dita Dobranja for the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN).

This brief assesses the costs to the Kosovo budget should Kosovo harmonise its Labour Law with the European Union (EU) Directive on Work-Life Balance (2019). This EU Directive has important implications for furthering gender equality in Kosovo, towards enabling women and men to spend quality time with their children.

The Women’s Economic Forum, a consortium of organisations, has proposed a model for the Labour Law that would better meet the needs of mothers, fathers, and children, while balancing compensation between the government and employers. The total estimated cost to the Budget of Kosovo would be around €11 million. The brief also proposes ways to pay for these changes.

The total duration of the proposed leave remains similar to the current one. The proposed changes to the Labour Law include that the first six months of leave be considered as Maternity Leave, offered to mothers.

During this period, fathers would be entitled to one month of Paternity Leave. Both maternity and paternity leave would be paid by the government at 70% of the salary.

The second six months would be offered as parental leave, to be used by mothers or fathers, of which three would be paid by the employer at 70% of salary; of these three, at least one month would be non-transferrable leave for fathers.

The last three months would be unpaid, as they are currently, and one of these months also would be for the father and non-transferrable.

This model distributes childcare more equally between parents and improves the current provisions that are contributing to discrimination in hiring, as shown by KWN’s prior research.

Moreover, they would contribute to men being able to spend more time with their children.

“The proposal model improves the currently unequal distribution of the financial burden between employers and the government [and] reduces discrimination against women”, explained Dita Dobranja.

“This would also contribute to increased revenues from personal income tax and contribute to formalization of employment”, she said.

Following the presentation of findings, a group of experts discussed the extent to which these recommendations could be implemented.

“We should also consider the cost on the society as a whole because half of the population are not active in the labour market”, said Syzana Bytyqi Jagxhiu, Official for Policy, Education, Social Policy and Employment at the EU Office in Kosovo. “The proposals given here are very justified proposals”, she concluded.

Lulzim Rafuna, Chair of the Chamber of Commerce of Kosovo, agreed that the analysis is very useful. “If we change the policies, it will be an extra motivation for businesses to hire women”, he said.

Besa Luzha, Program Coordinator from the Office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Pristina, said that civil society has been working towards amending the Labour Law for a very long time and that it is time that civil society’s evidence-based recommendations be taken into account.

“We said all that can be said from civil society. The ball is with the government now, and we are here to help every step of the process in order for the economic situation in Kosovo to be improved”, said Luzha.

The panellists agreed that businesses, civil society and international actors need to collaborate to strongly encourage the government to expedite the passage of the Labour Law and the accompanying budget reforms, recommended in this policy brief.

Sandra Horina, Head of the Austrian Development Agency in Kosovo said, “Now we need actions, and we encourage the government to take those actions [and] to undertake those reforms.”

KWN Executive Director Igballe Rogova emphasised that “it is time for us all to come together and push forward the approval of the Labour Law”.

As Visare Mujko Nimani from UNFPA observed in her opening remarks, “with these policies, we want to change the situation and women can freely pursue their career and at the same time dedicate their time to family.”

KWN wrote this report with financial support from the Austrian Development Agency, the operational unit of the Austrian Development Cooperation.

The Women’s Economic Forum is a coalition of civil society organizations: Riinvest Institute; Kosovo Women’s Network; Democracy for Development Institute (D4D); Kosovo Center for Gender Studies; Network of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Women’s Organizations of Kosovo; Kosovo – Women 4 Women; and the GAP Institute.

Please find the full report published on the KWN website, in Albanian, English and Serbian.

19.12.25

Kosovo Women’s Network Publishes Report “Zero Tolerance? Monitoring the Institutional Response to Gender-based Violence in Kosovo”

18.12.25

Inclusive Sexual Education: A Needed Change

18.12.25

Building Stronger Responses to Gender-based Violence Across Kosovo

18.12.25

Going Glocal 2.0: Sustainable Gender-responsive Futures

18.12.25

16 Days of Activism: Raising Awareness and Strengthening Advocacy

17.12.25

Moving Forward Together: Making Transport Accessible for Everyone

New Policy Brief Costs Maternity, Paternity, and Parental Leave Provisions for Proposed Labour Law

07.10.2022

Download File

Pristina, 07 October 2022