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 last 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: Women on frontlines of democracy building [second in series]
By MAGGIE I. JARUZEL
These are exciting times to live in Kosovo, says Bashkim Rrahmani, executive director of the Foundation for Democratic Initiatives (FDI), a Mott grantee.
From his perspective, now is the perfect time to build and strengthen the country’s overall civil society sector, and its nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in particular.
“When NGOs really start working together, it could be like a powerful social movement,” Rrahmani says.
“For us, it could be like it was in the 1970s in the United Sates when there were many active human rights and women’s groups working together for social change.”
Although there are 5,000 registered NGOs in Kosovo, only about 500 remain active, Rrahmani says. As a result, before a genuine movement can gain momentum, the nonprofit sector needs to develop a Kosovo-wide survey to determine who the country’s current service providers are, what they do, for whom, and how they are funded. He says that NGOs and grassroots groups also could start asking questions, such as “What is our social vision for Kosovo?”
In addition, Rrahmani says, NGOs need to reach beyond Pristina, the nation’s capital and largest city, to meet with residents and hear them describe their needs firsthand instead of relying on “generic pre-packaged strategies” for change.
By design, he says, FDI works throughout all areas of Kosovo from its main office in Gjakova, a historic city in Western Kosovo, and also plans to have a small office in Pristina. Hopefully, having breadth and depth will enable FDI to use both the bottom-up and the top-down approach to fill a national void, Rrahmani says.
“What we are lacking — what all institutions in Kosovo are still lacking — is a clear understanding of how to bring citizens close to the government and the government close to its citizens.”
Two other pressing problems cannot be solved without the government and its citizens working together, he says. They are widespread unemployment — ranging from 50 to 60 percent in some places, to as high as 60 to 80 percent in others — and equal treatment for Serbian citizens in the new Kosovo where they are now a minority.
For almost a decade, FDI has tried to tackle the region’s toughest issues. Established as a NGO in Kosovo in 1999, FDI began making small grants two years later to other NGOs. It has provided more than 80 grants totaling about $700,000 to Kosovo grantees from 2005 to 2007 alone.
While FDI is Kosovo’s only indigenous grantmaker today, Rrahmani wants that status to change soon.
“Even though Kosovo is a small country, there is still a need to have more indigenous grantmakers because there are so many issues to address.”
Through its grantmaking, FDI supports projects that encourage citizens, including local youth, to tackle specific community development problems. FDI also provides opportunities for majority Albanian and minority Serbian populations to work together in designing local programs and events that promote the region’s diverse cultural heritage.
Rrahmani says he enjoys meeting with other NGO leaders from the Balkans — such as those from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia — and sharing similar experiences and ideas.
“We discuss common projects, integration into the EU (European Union), and the strengths and challenges of the ethnic groups we have in common,” he says.
“What we are really doing is opening channels for future cooperation.”