An ambitious action plan drawn up by the UNMIK Office of Gender Affairs would bring about a quantum jump in the status of women in Kosovar society.

The combined outcome from 15 gender-related events and publications held in Kosovo and elsewhere during 2000, the plan sets out over 40 goals and a similar number of ways to achieve them over the next three years. Its broad aim is to advance the women of Kosovo, regardless of their religion, age, cultural background or possible disabilities.

All the goals and means for their implementation are set out under one of six priority themes: poverty reduction and economic empowerment; education, science and culture; health care; violence against women; legislation and women's rights; monitoring of implementation and gender mainstreaming.

Endorsed by the SRSG, the plan also identifies the administrative departments that will be called on to make system changes and allocate resources. It was therefore presented and further endorsed last week by the Council of JIAS Co-Heads. 

The Co-Heads together with the heads of UN agencies will consider it again-from the perspective of the resources required and a time frame-at  an implementation meeting on 10 May organized by UNIFEM, UNDP and the OGA. Other international organizations working in Kosovo, as well as Kosovar and international NGOs, are also being invited.

OGA, UNIFEM and UNDP plan a further meeting at end June to present the plan to donors.

Less poverty, more jobs, better education and health

In the future for Kosovar women envisioned by the plan's compilers, they will improve their economic position mainly through better access to employment. Those in poverty will have equal access to financial assistance and receive special attention if they are heads of households or still living in tents as a result of the war. Women will also gain the right to inheritance.

The plan therefore proposes statistical studies and gender research on economic activities. These would also complement the work of a group of Kosovar women economic experts charged with identifying measures to increase women's participation in the economy.
Employment support would include a network of micro-credit opportunities to assess viable projects and capital investment to finance women's agricultural activities. There would be training to upgrade unemployed women's professional skills, employment promotion and anti-discrimination programmes, and assessment of public sector employment and pay for women to ensure equity.

Through education, to which girls would have equal access, illiteracy among women would be eradicated. Parents would be punished if their children were not enrolled in schools, every elementary school would offer pre-school education and child-care centres would be set up.
Support measures would include reopening of dormitories for high school students and stipends for talented students. Studies would reveal the socio-economic and cultural factors limiting school enrolment and influencing girls' early drop-out from school.

The Plan's health goals emphasize access to better services, preventive medicine programmes and information.  Infants, pregnant- and lactating mothers would receive better pre- and post-natal care, village women would have easier recourse to primary health care and all women would be offered regular medical examinations

Boosting the "J" in JIAS

The "J" in JIAS, stands for 'joint" and jointness has come a long way in the past year. But there is still more to do, the Co-Head of the Department for Democratic Governance and Civil Society urged his fellow members of the Council of Co-Heads last week.

The international DDGCS Co-Head, Robert Pulver, recalled that twelve months ago the very idea of the Council itself was considered impractical. Forty people were too many for meaningful discussions and the logistics of the language problem would be too difficult, many said. Some members, it was feared, might use the occasion to beat the nationalist drum rather than as an opportunity for inter-departmental information exchange and coordination. But while those reservations were proved wrong, three areas still warranted attention, Pulver says.

There is still a tendency for the internationals to take over and do most of the work. Resources, which DSRSG Tom Koenigs underlined a year ago should be shared equally between the local and international staff still tend to stay segregated-with local staff confined to resources paid from the Kosovo Consolidated Budget, while internationals enjoyed access to the usually much larger UNMIK budgets.

 Legal framework ready for international consultations

 Ombudsperson's Report questions an UNMIK Regulation

Briefs . . . .

Lawyers from all over Kosovo have met to discuss a Code of Ethics . Supported by the OSCE's Rule of Law Division, the seminar was organized by the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates and a French NGO, Avocats sans frontières (Lawyers Without Borders). The Code of Ethics is an important set of guidelines that will govern how lawyers will interact with their clients, with each other and with the judicial system. It also covers regulations on financial matters, such as salaries and legal costs. The new Code will replace the existing FRY Code of Ethics, which was adopted by the Kosovo Chamber in 1980.

The Department of Local Administration and the Habitat Municipal Project have identified the need for Chief Executive Officers (CEO) and other management staff responsible for staffing policy to conduct recruitment based on professional skills and equal employment policies. To promote fair policy, they have organised a series of workshops on municipal recruitment and staffing procedures for Municipal CEOs, personnel officers, and other persons responsible for recruitment.  The first two-day workshop, being held in Pristina this week, emphasizes the promotion of gender and ethnic balance. The Habitat Municipal Project has also prepared and is distributing "The Recruitment Handbook" to serve as a guideline for all Kosovo municipalities.

Value Added Tax (VAT) will replace the current Sales Tax and the Hotel, Food and Beverage Service Tax from 1 July 2001, according to a proposed draft regulation. Developed with inputs from the IMF, the EU Tax Directorate, USAID and CFA, the new provisions are compatible with the EU standards. In place of a large number of so-called nuisance taxes, which add to the administration costs for the central government, as well as compatible costs for businesses, UNMIK proposes to have only a few broad-based taxes, of which VAT is one. The IMF also supports this strategy. According to CFA, the VAT will be the single most important tax in Kosovo for the foreseeable future. As a broad-based tax on domestic consumption of goods and services, it is hoped that it will provide a reliable source of revenue and reduce Kosovo's present reliance on international and donor grants and border taxation.

Health professionals will be subject to mandatory re-licensing every five years, which in turn will depend upon proof of having accumulated a pre-established number of credit points gained in training opportunities and continuing education. The Department of Health and Social Welfare, Department of Education, Medical Faculty of the University of Pristina, Kosovo Medical Association and Kosovo Nursing Association have agreed to establish a secretariat for the existing licensing and specialization boards which will be tasked with seeking the training opportunities for health personnel and assigning credit points values.

The Department of Health and Social Welfare hopes to cut hospital staff levels by 10 per sent by the end of this year, in order to reduce overstaffing. Starting this month, all hospitals are being required to undertake systematic and critical analysis of their staffing needs, according to new departmental guidelines.

Large-scale projects that are envisaged to develop infrastructure and industry in Kosovo will be subject to a regulation on Environmental Impact of Development Projects , shortly to be promulgated. The regulation establishes a framework for ensuring that economic development does not bring with it significant further deterioration of the environment. It stipulates that any entity launching a large-scale project must undertake an assessment of its environmental impact prior to beginning work. It must also receive approval to start and thereafter undertake self-monitoring, as well as external monitoring, while the work is in progress. Under the regulation, a developer must submit an environmental impact assessment, prepared by experts, to planning authorities and the Department of Environmental Protection.

As part of its work on revising existing laws related to libraries , the Department of Culture is drafting a legal, administrative and financial framework for rebuilding the library system in Kosovo. The new framework will strive to include all categories of libraries: the National and University Library, special and research libraries, public and school libraries. A consultant from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions has been employed.

Concern over the recent rise in sports-related violence , particularly in football, basketball and handball, has led sports federations and Kosovo media to call for better quality referees, youth education, improved professionalism of clubs and federations, and severe punishments for those found guilty.