This month, the Kosovo Women’s Fund (KWF) Grants Review Committee reviewed 77 applications from member organizations of the Kosovo Women’s Network (KWN) that applied to benefit from the 18th round of grants from the KWF. In this round, grants totaling €215,000 will be allocated thanks to donors such as the Sigrid Rausing Foundation (SRT), the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), the Swedish Agency for Development and International Cooperation (SIDA), and the European Union Office (EU) in Kosovo.

Prior to this, the members of the GRC were nominated during the regular KWN membership meeting. Following online voting, member organizations elected three new members to the committee: Nermin Mahmuti, Aida Dërguti, and Anisa Ismaili. The other two members are Yllka Soba and the regular representative from the KWN, Donjeta Berisha.

After consolidation, the Committee worked in collaboration with KWF to review the applications and provided constructive feedback for member organizations that applied with initiatives aimed at advancing women’s and girls’ rights and gender equality in Kosovo. During this period, KWN member organizations are finalizing their applications based on the Committee’s feedback, which is part of KWN’s ongoing efforts to improve the capacity of organizations throughout the project cycle, starting with the application and continuing through implementation and project completion.

“We are pleased to continue providing organizational support to our members, which allows them greater flexibility in achieving their strategic plans and goals. This is in contrast to other financing options that may be more conditional on specific activities and objectives,” says Donjeta Berisha, Manager of the Kosovo Women’s Fund.

More specifically, their initiatives are expected to directly contribute to the implementation of the strategy and its objectives identified by the KWN members for the period 2023-2026, which advocate for the support, protection, and promotion of the rights and interests of women and girls, and promote human rights while aiming to bring about lasting change.

In order to inform the member organizations in detail, KWF previously held an information session about the 12 grants given by the Sigrid Rausing Trust for organizational support, each worth €10,000, €112,000 in total. KWF also held two informative sessions in the form of workshops related to grants for the field of education and health, where members had the opportunity to work directly with experts in the fields in designing their initiatives based on the developed methodology and legislation in the country. More specifically, 15 grants will be awarded by ADA, co-financed by Sida, in the amount of €5,000, €75,000 in total. While the next informative session was also held for the two grants that are allocated by the Office of the European Union, each of €10,000, €20,000 in total.