Building Civil Society Capacities to Improve Decision-Making Process in Kosovo’s Public Institutions

While the civil society in southern Kosovo, and progressively also in the northern part of the divided city of Mitrovica, has enjoyed a constant inflow of donor support aimed at the building of capacities of non-governmental organisations, the northern municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok have been kept off radar of donors present in Kosovo. The absence of financial resources has slowed down, even brought to a halt, the development of civil society in the region, which is mirrored in the inability of most organisations to remain active over extended periods of time. In the context of political instability resulting from the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina and the initiated but uncertain and slow process of integration of the North into the rest of Kosovo, weak civil society constitutes a missed opportunity for the public institutions to make use of valuable “local knowledge” of the non-governmental sector. On the other side of the governance spectrum, citizens see their priorities unadressed as the low capacities of non-governmental organisations prevent them from filling in the gaps left by public institutions.

The overall objective of the project is to support effective cooperation between the governmental and non-governmental sectors in Serbian and other minority communities in Kosovo.

The project also has the following specific objective: non-governmental organisations in Northern Kosovo actively represent local interests and participate in the decision-making processes of, and cooperate with, the governmental sector.

Guidelines for the cooperation of nongovernmental organisations with public institutions in Northern Kosovo

Informational flyer

The project is sponsored by the Slovak Aid.