94 women and girls benefited from the trainings organized by EcoKos Women (EKW), member organization of Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN). These trainings were organized in the framework of the initiative „Advocacy for easier access of women to grants in the municipality of Prishtina“, beneficiary of the 14th Round of the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF).

During June and July, EKW organized ten trainings in different villages of the Municipality of Prishtina. The main topics during the trainings were on advocacy and on increasing the number of beneficiaries of subsidies and grants of women farmers from The Directorate of Agriculture in the Municipality of Prishtina.

EKW has held trainings in villages such as: Prugovc, Barilevë, Dabishevc, Bërnica, Slivovë and Keqekollë, with small groups of women respecting the recommendations of The National Institute of Public Health of Kosova. From all these meetings EKW came up with recommendations to address to the officials from The Directorate of Agriculture in the Municipality of Prishtina.

Shpresa Mjekiqi-Gosalci, the presenter, encouraged all participants to advocate to decision makers in their respective communities to find solutions for challenges they face.  The participating women welcomed this initiative, as together they shared the difficulties they faced.

On September, an online meeting was held through the ZOOM platform, which gathered women farmers from different communities and Ms. Merita Tolaj, Senior Officer from the Directorate of Agriculture in the Municipality of Prishtina, to discuss the importance of increasing the support of women and girls in receiving grants.

While on 24 September at the Municipality of Prishtina, was held the round table. Present at this gathering were representatives from UN Women, Caritas Kosova, Directorate of Agriculture, civil society and women participating in the project activities. During this activity it was discussed about the identification of challenges and problems that girls and women in the agricultural sector face.

Havushe Bunjaku, a farmer, commented that the training was very useful for learning mobilization and advocacy techniques in order to solve the problems faced by the farmers of this village. She also highlighted the importance of the women farmers, adding that: 

“Women do the most work in agriculture. The whole process before the transport and sale is done by women, but unfortunately this work is invisible. Therefore, it is more than necessary for the Municipality to support as many women farmers as possible and to break this inequality that is happening in the allocation of funds”.

This initiative is supported by the Kosovo Women’s Fund, and is funded by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and UN Women.