May September 2001 Report

Transcription

1 May September 2001 Report Contents A. Introduction B. Mid year achievements Progress and constraints towards localization C. A glance to the implementing partners D. Working plan for the last quarter of 2001 E. Conclusions Executive summary This report is an update on the KWI program, its main achievements and expectations. Reconciliation and increasing responsibility of the local partners are the main results for the reporting period. The Women s Groups, the Local Women s Councils, the legal aid of Norma and the Baltazar Centers make KWI a truly multiethnic experience in spite of the highly politicized environment and the great pressure on the local KWI actors. The Local Women s Councils reached a relatively impressive result not only approving 132 projects, but also networking with women s groups and donors. Women s groups in enclaves are still suffering restricted freedom of movement. The future challenge will be to consolidate a culture of concrete and cross-ethnic solidarity and mutual support among the women s groups. Norma signed an agreement with NRC on their cooperation to offer legal aid in minority areas. Norma, as advisor to the present Kosovo Administration, won the battle on guaranteeing a 30% access to female representatives in the Kosovo Assembly. ICMC and KEP, although scoring great success in managing the microcredit program, are struggling for localization, a process that is resulting more complicated and difficult of what expected. Concern, instead, is completing successfully its program as ADS, who succeeded to hand over the management of the Baltazar Centers to an ethnically mixed local NGO. The end of the year will assist to the consultations for the new Local Women s Councils and to the revision of KWI towards a greater autonomy and sense of ownership of the program by the local partners. KWI staff will have a key role in facilitating and monitoring this process. 1

2 A. Introduction This report aims to give an update on the KWI program for the period May September 2001, to underline its most significant results and outline the plan for its future developments. The report consolidates information contained in the monthly reports of the KWI Implementing Partners, in the weekly Sitreps of the Field Offices and of the KWI Coordinator Team. In addition, we are referring in this report to the main findings of the External Evaluation Team that operated in Kosovo in September. The report starts with an analysis of some crucial activities that allowed and, in occasions, challenged the progress of the program towards its self-reliance. Another critical aspect is how to maintain and promote further its multiethnic and tolerance building vision without risks and threats against KWI local partners. Another section is dedicated to the single Implementing Partners and to their programs. At the end the report presents the working plan for the rest of the year and concludes with the projected expectations of next year s program. B. Mid year achievements One of the most remarkable results that KWI program is reaching, is a truly multiethnic experience, a vision of durable reconciliation and peace building among all residents of the country. The Local Women s Councils are a multiethnic reality; almost the 50% of the projects approved involved ethnically mixed groups or minorities. The Baltazar Centers in Orahovac/Rahovec are merging two deeply divided communities. The lawyers of Norma are bringing legal support and information to the enclaves. Many of the local partners of KWI continued their commitment to mix projects in spite of repeated threats and pressure against any mix initiative from other members of their own communities. Apparently, some influential elements did not appreciate the efforts to fill the cleavages between different ethnic groups, although living and sharing the same environment, the same reality and the same problems. May and June registered the successful start up of all six Local Women s Councils. Their members completed the first series of training and approved the first projects. Summer registered a high level of activity: many Councils members visited the sites of implementation of the proposed projects and started to monitor the projects already approved. The Councils adopted different methodologies of work: some have been screening carefully the proposals identifying and then suggesting possible reductions of the budget. This exercise allowed them to approve projects with smaller budgets, getting the advantage of saving funds for other proposals. Other Councils approved projects with budgets close to the maximum allowed, therefore limiting the number of proposals that could be received. Almost all members appear very committed to the work of the Councils; they participate regularly bringing interesting ideas and suggestions on how to improve the effectiveness of the Councils themselves. Some of the Councils, often with the help of KWI staff, promoted their own networking, involving other donors in the projects approved as cofounders. Most of the members, however, are also part of groups that got projects approved by the Councils. While this is part of the philosophy of providing funds to all groups, may limit or endanger the genuine commitment of the Councils members. The concept of the Councils is to create local coordination for fundraising for women s groups. Would the women work as hard as they do now if their groups would not receive funds from the Councils? Local and international staff of IRC, ICS and UNHCR participated to a joint training in June, organized by the KWI team on the work of the Councils and of the women s groups. This was 2

3 also an important occasion for the staff of the three organizations to confront themselves and to build up open and cooperative relationships. The challenge of working on this program doesn t have to be underestimated: in most cases, there are neither guideline to follow nor consolidated rules to refer to. In many occasions, KWI staff has been experiencing the difficulty of resolving new and unexpected situations that brought occasional tensions among them and their agencies. An external UNHCR evaluation team came to Kosovo 29 August 22 September to review the KWI program from its inception in 1999 to August The team spent three intensive weeks evaluating KWI projects, interviewing women s groups, and visiting other KWI implementing partners. KWI staff offered their services during this period to facilitate the review process and lend additional assistance to the evaluators as needed. This is an abstract from the draft paper on the main findings prepared by the evaluators: Despite conflicting priorities, highly politicised environment, poor targeting, group formation around the project and relatively high administrative overheads, the end result has nevertheless been relatively impressive. A number of new women's groups have formed and sustained themselves and some existing groups were supported at key junctures in their development. Some of the results achieved amongst minorities and groups in remote areas are particularly notable. Progress and constrains towards localization The Local Women s Councils: According to the external evaluation team: KWI has taken a number of concrete steps towards phase-out, including the formation of Councils and encouraging the participation of other international agencies in KWI network activities. UNHCR and IRC staff should consider reversing the historical approach of promoting quick dispersal of KWI funds to arrive at a situation where the first question the Council asks is "what are the alternatives to KWI funding". This not only means encouraging Councils to seek alternative sources of support (including in-kind), but also handing over to partner agencies with development mandates and resources. Fall will see a series of consultations with the Councils to assess the nature of their commitment and define the characteristics of the Councils from 2002 onward. While the system now relays on funds provided by UNHCR, the challenge for the next months is to consolidate a culture of concrete solidarity among the women groups, that should be expressed by common fundraising and mutual support to develop initiatives with and for women living in towns and in remote areas. KEP and the microcredit project: The microcredit project is strong and healthy, as long as the field implementation goes. The emancipation of KEP from ICMC and its transformation into a local microfinance institution is, on the other side, slow and full of obstacles. The local registration of KEP has been already planned and could be completed next month, but more likely it will be delayed by the internal difficulties of defining the structure and ownership of the new institution. In addition, KEP did not develop yet a strong network with other institutions to get commercial cooperation and additional technical assistance for a solid and sustainable future as local microcredit institution. ADS and the Baltazar Centers: The centers of Orahovac/Rahovec will become part of the educational plan of the Municipality and since June are managed completely and exclusively by the boards of parents. The same parents, Serb, Albanian and Roma founded together one NGO, Baltazar, in spite of the strong pressures of nationalistic groups against this joint initiative. 3

4 C. A glance to the Implementing partners main activities Support to Local Women's Councils (LWC) IRC Area: Kosovowide Microcredit Business Training for Women (KEP KWEEP) ICMC Area: Peje/Pec, Gjakove/ Gjakovica Prishtine/ Pristina region Training and in Kind Grant for Small Business start up CONCERN Area: Peje/Pec region Support to Minority Women's Groups in Enclaves ICS Area: Prishtina region Free Legal Aid for Women NORMA Area: Kosovowide Community Reconciliation through Children's Centers ADS Area: Rahovec/Oraho vac 1. IRC Total annual budget: Instalment paid to IRC until 30 of Sept 01: Disbursement reported by IRC at 30 Sept 01: 2,172, DM 1,567, DM 1, 518, DM This period of the Kosovo Women's Initiative (KWI) Program for 2001 was dedicated to managing and advising the six regional Women s Councils and ensuring that Council members remain committed to the KWI objectives and associated responsibilities, i.e. conducting regular bi-monthly Council meetings, reviewing and approving women s groups project proposals, monitoring the approved projects, authorizing the disbursal of funds, and participating in the project close-out procedures. Additional funding (20,000 DM) was allocated to each Council through budget realignment, bringing the total to 170,000 DM per Council. It is anticipated that this funding process will be completed by the beginning of November with all projects closed by 31 December To date, 132 projects have been approved and a total of 899, DM allocated. 37% of the approved projects concern income generation, 70% capacity building, and 25% psychosocial/advocacy activities. There have been some difficulties in extending Council interest beyond the project proposal review and approval process, thus the project monitoring visits have been somewhat negatively impacted. Some Council members are not willing to devote the extra time and care needed to conduct these monitoring visits. In addition, many contractors are unprepared for the monitoring visits, lacking the appropriate source documentation (narrative/financial report, receipts, etc.) to stimulate additional payments. Furthermore, the preparation of the sub-grant agreement is often not done nor explained in a correct manner to the signing parties. Therefore, sometimes the payment dates do not reflect the realities of the project, thus requiring the issuance of memos to the file to explain deviations from the sub-grant agreement. This has created extra work for KWI staff. Nevertheless, Council members remain motivated and committed to the KWI program and most have a vested interest in how their input will affect the program next year. The Council members are also open to suggestions from KWI staff on how to improve their Council, their meetings, how to keep to an agenda, and what effective methods to use in advising women s groups on their projects and analyzing their viability and sustainability. This is an important building block of the Council s foundation as it will help to explain the reasons why certain projects received funding over others and in what areas certain types of projects were funded. A future mapping exercise may assist with this analysis. Training was also provided to Council members and KWI national staff to strengthen capacity and promote skills in NGO development, time and organizational management and business planning. KWI staff continues to meet with women s groups in each AOR, disseminate information about the KWI program and solicit project proposals from local NGOs while providing technical advice on project design. Council members have been encouraged to 4

5 discuss/analyze the merits and obstacles of the current KWI program and provide recommendations for its continuation through the year Two trainings were provided during this quarter. On July, the East West Management Institute-Kosovo (EWMI-K) provided training on NGO development and management. The training was open to three members of each Council, KWI Project Officers, Youth Center Managers, and Women Wellness Center staff. The training was facilitated by Delina Fico, an Albanian consultant, and was conducted in Albanian with a Serbian translation. The training was well received. A KWI Staff Retreat took place on September in Budva, Montenegro. Trainings were provided on Team, Leadership and Individual Skill Building. The KWI-IRC Program Coordinator and Managers facilitated the two-day training for KWI Project Officers, Drivers/Assistants and UNHCR Focal Points. The participants discussed at length lessons learned, constraints and successes regarding the KWI 2001 program and offered excellent recommendations for KWI ICS Total annual budget: Instalment paid to ICS until 30 of Sept 01: Disbursement reported by ICS at 30 Sept 01: 220, DM 149, DM 112, DM ICS is presently working with 12 women s groups in different enclaves of Pristina region. These groups are all facing the challenge of restricted freedom of movement. This situation that have been lasting almost two years now, has devastating effects on many individuals and on the whole community. The residents of these enclaves perceive themselves as locked up in a sort of modern jail. The lack of security is still evident: threatens and attacks are reported daily. To break the circle of victimization, ICS promoted during the summer the participation of women in the activities of the Municipality, were the women s groups are advocating for the needs of their community through a gender sensitive approach. These groups are presently managing 20 different projects. 25% are income-generating projects. 30% of the projects have been approved and funded through the Local Women s Councils. Besides, these minority women s groups maintain regular contact with other groups of the Local Women s Councils, and some of their members are Councils members as well. These contacts are helping to break the desperate isolation of these communities. 3. Norma Total annual budget: 202, DM Instalment paid to NORMA until 30 of Sept 01: 202, DM Disbursement reported by NORMA at 30 Sept 01: 127, DM Legal Aid: Norma is giving an average of 100 legal advises per month. Most of the consultations need follow up. Many additional legal advises have been given during the workshops. During these months Norma was consulted on the following issues: Legal Activities Percentage Family issues 65% Inheritance 3,4% Property 2,5% Obligations and Contracts 1,7% Employment 3,4% Registrar s Office 9,8% Social Aid and Pensions 8,6% Registration of new NGOs 5,6% Total 100% 5

6 Most cases are related to lawsuits for divorce, claim of alimony and custody of children. Norma has a percentage of success in these cases of 60%. Norma, on behalf of the clients appealed negative court decisions. The most frustrating activity is related to claims for pension, which are impossible to resolve under the current regulations. Norma intervened successfully at the Registrar s Office to register children who have not been registered within the time limit. Norma and NRC signed an agreement and are presently cooperating regularly in organizing workshops on legal issues and human rights in minority areas and assisting clients living in enclaves. Practitioners: During the reporting period Norma trained 6 jurists that are preparing their Bar examination. During the summer Norma selected four additional practitioners. Their working schedules have been prepared to allow each employed lawyer to work with them according to their specialisation. Workshops: Norma keeps about eight workshops on legal rights and obligations to women mostly, also in rural areas. The workshops develop role-plays that involve the participants and allow them to understand what legal rights means in the practice. Workshops took place also in enclaves and with participants belonging to minority communities. In July, for example, in Fushe Kosove Norma organized two successful workshops for an Ashakalia s NGO. On 11 th of July Norma and UNHCR Protection organised a meeting on Human Rights, Women and Children Committee in Obiliq. At the prison in Lipjan Norma lawyers had three workshops on the rights of prisoners. The participants were female prisoners and working staff of this institution. Other activities: Norma chaired regularly the meetings of the advisory group for gender issues of the Kosovo Transitional Council until its closure. Norma, based on the Kosovo General Elections Rules, proposed to enforce quotas that would guarantee the access of at least 30% of women representatives in the Kosovo Assembly. The proposal was approved and sent to the United Nation Special Representative. In addition, Norma lawyers took an active role in compiling the Rules for Defence from Domestic Violence. Norma s Information and documentation Centre start working during the summer. Besides collecting information and materials produced by and on local women s NGOs, this Centre is preparing a Guide of all Women NGO s in Kosovo. 4. ICMC Total annual Operational/Administrative budget: 643, DM Instalment paid to ICMC until 30 of Sept 01: 365, DM Disbursement reported by ICMC at 30 Sept 01: 400, DM The micro-credit program is two years old since the first ever loan was made in Kosovo by ICMC. ICMC KEP offices in Peja and Pristina disbursed a total of 5,489 loans which builds the total cumulative loan disbursement since program inception (September, 1999) to 10,142,175 DM. Of these, 423 loans worth 853,400 DM have been disbursed during the month of September The total outstanding loan portfolio as at September 2001 is 3,416,010 DM with 3,213 being active loans. A high loan repayment rate of 100% has been maintained to date by the Peja and Pristina offices. The office will strive to maintain the high portfolio quality. 2,824 loans have been made to women since program inception. This represents 52% of the total loans made to women. The Peja, Gjakova and Pristina office remains committed to outreaching to as many women clients. The KEP office in Pristina is now on its fourth month of lending operation - Outreach and promotion remains the main activity in the office. This is usually a very slow process in the very initial stages of any micro finance program set up in a new locality. Positive changes are envisaged from October as exemplified by the number of enquiries we have received within the month of September. 6

7 In September ICMC/KEP was granted additional funding to cover the salaries of two expatriate staff (KEP director and finance officer) from September to December 2001 and provide an additional fund for training. The revision increased the budget of 94, DM. The director of KEP is circulating a staff manual that includes a proposal to establish a provident fund for local staff. This initiative should strengthen the commitment and the interest of the local staff towards the organization. KEP needs to promote equal opportunities within its structure to maintain consistency with its objectives and commitment to facilitate the access to women to the business world. Although there are non Albanian microcredit clients, KEP is presently not working in enclaves, due to the difficulty of establishing commercially profitable business in areas with severely restricted freedom of movement. Presently KEP is expanding in Mitrovica area: UNHCR/KWI encourages KEP to study the way to work also in enclaves now that a bigger portion of Kosovo will be covered by the program and new business networks can be promoted. The localization process is proceeding slowly and with difficulty. Regular meetings on the subject involve different KEP stakeholders, including UNHCR. ICMC/KEP international staff, alone and with the support of an external consultant, prepared plans for localization, which are not fully operational. No local staff is apparently involved in the process at this stage and ICMC is not reporting any advancement towards localization in its monthly project reports. 5. Concern Total annual budget: Instalment paid to CWV until 30 of Sept 01: Disbursement reported by CWV at 30 Sept 01: 265, DM 173, DM 232, DM Concern completed the training and the distribution of in-kind grants in 11 of the 13 villages where the organization is active. About 180 women are presently benefiting from the project. Most of the women have an age comprises between thirty and fifty. Few are single. All the others are married (or widow) and with an average of 3 to 5 children per family. Activities Percentage Livestock 40,4% Sewing/embroidery 28,1% Agriculture 26,4% Retail business 1,1% Bee keeping 1,7% Weldering 0,6% Carpentry 0,6% Ironing 0,6% Hairdressing 0,6% Total 100% In each village, CONCERN chose the beneficiaries together with the village activists and the Community Management Committee, to ensure that the women enrolled in the program could fully benefit from the project and make a profit. Concern put a special emphasis on selecting extreme vulnerable women: Female Head of Household, rural women with poor socioeconomic background, unemployed or with limited income Special attention was given to women from minority communities by encouraging them to participate in the programme. The In-kind grant that the women received, changed considerably the situation in the family. In most cases the whole family is involved in the new activity (ex. agriculture, livestock) and the benefits are equally shared among the members. In some cases, when the woman is head of the household, she has the burden of the job that becomes particularly heavy in certain sectors like agriculture, because she cannot afford the cost of casual labour and she has to work alone. 7

8 The women participating in the program, including those who had no previous experience in small business, developed quickly a good network of business contacts to sell their products. One of the most popular comments that most of them repeated was that the training was very easy to understand, and even women with lower education lost their fear and were able to follow and learn from it. 6. ADSi Total annual budget: Instalment paid to ADSi until 30 of Sept 01: Disbursement reported by ADSi at 30 Sept 01: 141, DM* 132, DM 121, DM *48% of the budget is funded by the Brunei Government. ADSi was granted an extension of the subagreement, which originally ended the 30 th of June, until 31st of December 2001 to support the handing over phase. The budget was revised with an addition of 9,174 DM to cover the salaries of the animators and rent of the premises. From January 2002 UNMIK has accepted to integrate Baltazar in the Municipal budget for education. ADSi aimed, with its children s centers, to promote reconciliation between the Albanian and the Serb communities in Orahovac/Rahovec. They pursued this goal organizing common training of ADSi educative teams, then organizing training for the two committees of parents. At the beginning, these committees have been involved in the management of the centres separately. Later, since all parents were facing similar problems concerning their children s future, the committees and centres started to have contacts in order to realize a joint management of the Baltazar Centers. In June, after 18 months without significant results, ADSi succeeded to organize a meeting with Serbian and Albanian parents and animators all together. During this meeting, which took place in the Municipality building and was supported by UNMIK administrator, the parents agreed to create a single mixed interethnic NGO. The new NGO, called Baltazar, will manage the three centers in cooperation with UNMIK. Baltazar is now constituted of 10 people: 6 Albanians 3 Serbs and 1 Roma and is meeting every week. The statute was presented to UNMIK in July to complete the formal registration process. ADSi reported that the main obstacle to the constitution of a joint NGO was strong pressure over the parents participating in the projects from other influential members of the Community and the discouraging attitude of the rest of the Community. The Albanian center, since the beginning of the program (Sept 99), was granted free space by Rahovec Municipality. With the cooperation of parents and animators it was renovated during the past summer. This center hosted a total of 892 children from its first opening to now while 236 are going presently regularly. The Serb centers are paying rents. These costs will be covered by the Municipality from January children frequented the center in Orahovac town. Many of them left for Serbia to attend the school there. 45 children are now attending regularly the center in Orahovac and 94 children are attending in Velica Hoca. The children allowed to attend the centers are aged from 3 to 12. ADSi promoted the Eldest Clubs in order to maintain contacts with teenagers too old to attend the centers. Th initiative wants to give them a chance to participate in some of the activities of Baltazar. The Serbian Eldest Club results the most active and the most needed one, due to the restriction of movement suffered by the minority enclaves and due to the small number of teenagers living there. The Baltazar centers promoted several successful thematic activities with the children: the international day against tobacco, introduction to the nature, different learning activities, preschool education and a pre-exams support. Baltazar has a web page that details the activities 8

9 and reports the achievements of the centers and allow all children centers promoted by ADSi to be in contact. D. Working plan for the last quarter of 2001 The Gjilan/Gnjilane Women s Council will host Mitrovica North and South Boards in Gjilan/Gnjilane on October the 2 nd. It is the first time that the members of the Albanian majority and Serb majority boards meet all together. This event required a long preparation and a series of smaller meetings facilitated by UNHCR Community Services Officer of Mitrovica, Lynda Thomas, who deserves a special mention for her outstanding commitment to make this event possible. The meeting will be an opportunity for the Mitrovica Boards to discuss and analyze their complex situation and environment and compare it with the Gjilan/Gnjilane Council s experience. The KWI team will consolidate the results of a consultation on next year s program done with all Councils members through individual forms. Each Council will have a meeting, facilitated by KWI staff, to analyze the answers and prepare their contribution for the Women s Council Forum, scheduled for November the 21 st at the Grand Hotel in Prishtinë/Priština. All Council members will be encouraged to attend along with KWI IRC and UNHCR staff and other interested parties. Findings from the individual consultation forms that Council members completed will be used as part of the agenda to discuss the main objectives of the KWI 2001 and 2002 programs. Star Network has been invited to facilitate this forum. While waiting the input of this meeting, the KWI team is drafting a concept paper on KWI program for 2002, where the Councils will continue to promote initiatives and projects, which allow women to progress permanently and increase their participation in all aspects of public life. For 2002 the Councils may intend to work on the following objectives: Education: Scholarships for secondary and tertiary education and for vocational training to face the high drop out rates of adolescent girls. Institutions / Decision making positions: Participation in counselling boards to present administration and networking with all stakeholders and local institutions, in order to support women to get involved in decision-making positions at different levels and in different areas. Women in the Economy: Provision of grants for income generating activities; facilitation of technical assistance in terms of business training and access to small and microcredit and promotion of networking activities with business associations. Psychosocial support and advocacy: Maintain and strengthen the support to women's groups to get together and socialize, receive counselling and legal advise. Capacity building of the Council members: promotion of awareness and members' skills and competencies and strengthen their self-conscience in order to facilitate their role of actors of change and emancipation among the women s groups. Reconciliation: ensure multiethnic composition of the Councils also in 2002; develop good interethnic working relationship within and among Councils; promote tolerance building initiatives of local women's groups increasing the number of mixed projects. A Women and Economy Conference is planned for November at the Grand Hotel in Prishtinë/Priština. Ideally, Council members and ICMC-KEP staff will be part of the agenda and thus encouraged to attend. As such, KWI will contribute to the financing of the conference. The KWI team is preparing a KWI calendar for 2002 with pictures of the work of the Local Women s Councils and a book that wants to give a visual perception of the life of women in Kosovo, their public activities, their private life, their achievements, their difficulties and their different roles in the society in rural as well as in urban contexts. 9

10 E. Conclusions During the reporting period, the KWI program followed the main objectives of increasing the responsibility and the self-reliance of the local partners, as well as promoting a multiethnic cooperation among the groups and the individuals involved. The process is difficult and full of challenges. Nevertheless, the commitment of all actors is quite evident and encouraging. The financial implementation of the projects follows, for all agencies, the plan presented in the subagreement. UNHCR approved small revisions and realignments for IRC, ICMC/KEP and ADSi. What emerges from the analysis of the different activities of this period is that the Implementing Partners and all KWI staff are playing a key role in all projects and at all levels of intervention. They facilitate and very often promote contacts and interchanges among partners and actors of KWI and consistently reaffirm in their work the main purposes of the program. ANNEX 1: detailed chart of the projects approved by the Local Women s Councils updated to the 30 of September. ANNEX 2: maps of the locations where KWI projects are implemented. 10