For many years, Mott has been funding democracy-building initiatives in the Western Balkans, including Kosovo, through its Civil Society program. This article is the second in a three-part series that focuses on Mott grantees' current work in Kosovo.
• Kosovo Today: Strengthening the nonprofit sector [first in series]
• Kosovo Today: NGOs could stir “powerful social movement” [third in series]
By MAGGIE I. JARUZEL
Since Kosovo became the world’s newest nation, traveling internationally has become easier for Igballe Rogova.
“If you come from an established country with widely recognized travel documents, you cannot imagine the feeling of not having an identity and trying to explain the place from which you come,” she said.
Prior to independence, Kosovo had been a province in Serbia but administered by the United Nations since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999. This left Kosovo in somewhat of a legal limbo for the past decade, said Rogova, executive director of Kosova Women’s Network (KWN).
She was one of many residents who danced in the streets when the small country in the Balkans region declared its independence from Serbia in February 2008. In April, Kosovo’s assembly adopted the nation’s first constitution, which was hailed as another move toward full statehood.
“Finally we have a name, finally we have an identity, finally we are one step closer to a peaceful future for our country and the region,” Rogova said.
The monumental events have been especially significant for the women's network, based in Pristina, the nation's capital and largest city. It's membership includes 85 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that are located throughout the country and represent the nation’s many ethnic groups. Collectively, these groups work to support, protect and promote the rights and interests of women and girls throughout Kosovo.
Among other things, KWN provides members with opportunities to interact and learn from one another and it helps strengthen their organizations internally. Additionally, the network partners with members for joint educational and informational media campaigns about a variety of issues, such as the nation’s election procedures, gender laws, domestic violence, transitional justice, peace and security, and other topics.
Rogova said she and others were bewildered that not a single Kosovar woman was invited to participate in the United Nations’ negotiations in 2006 that helped determine Kosovo’s legal political status. Fortunately, she said, KWN representatives did meet several times with staff of the Special Envoy for Kosovo. They shared their expertise and experiences as Kosovar women, including their work for peace.
“Back in the 1990s, we wanted to show publicly that as women from different ethnic, religious and national backgrounds we were standing in solidarity against the war,” Rogova said.
“While the men were fighting, we women were standing together in peace.”
Although Kosovar women have engaged in peace activities for more than a decade, a formal independent coalition -- Women’s Peace Coalition -- wasn’t created until 2006. It was then that KWN partnered with Women in Black-Serbia, an international peace network whose members wear black for mourning and stand in silent peace vigils.
Kosovar women also have shown solidarity when meeting with officials of the European Commission (the executive branch of the European Union), the Swedish International Development Agency, and several ministries and departments within the Kosovo government. Together, they proclaim that pressing women’s issues -- insufficient education and health care, and prostitution prompted by high unemployment –- should be named as top national concerns, Rogova said.
In early 2008, Mott provided a two-year, $50,000 grant to KWN in support of its efforts to ensure that women actively participate in the nation’s decisionmaking processes related to its political, economic and social development.
The network promotes these goals by sharing women’s concerns with decisionmakers at the local, national and international levels; encouraging and preparing women to be political candidates; and providing venues for women’s groups to work together for common causes.
Rogova’s dream is to see Kosovar citizens continuously pushing government officials to fulfill their campaign promises.
“I’d like to say to them, ‘We are the voters. Pay attention to us!’”
Created in 2000 as an informal network and then registered as an official NGO in 2003, KWN’s name and its work are both gaining recognition, she said.
“Some people have heard leaders say, ‘We have to make sure that gender issues are included. Otherwise, we will hear from the Kosova Women’s Network,’” Rogova said with a smile.
“That makes me happy. They know we will not remain silent.”