Advancing Kosovo Together
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ADVANCING KOSOVO TOGETHER IMPROVEMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES’ ABILITIES TO SET DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES March 31, 2017 This report was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by USAID Advancing Kosovo Together implemented by prime contractor Chemonics International, with input from subcontractors Development Professionals Inc., Business Support Center Kosovo, and the Berman Group. USAID ADVANCING KOSOVO TOGETHER IMPROVEMENT OF MUNICIPALITIES’ ABILITIES TO SET DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES Contract No.AID-167-C-14-00003 The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. LIST OF ACRONYMS AKT Advancing Kosovo Together AKT LS Advancing Kosovo Together Local Solution BSCK Business Support Centre Kosovo CDP Capacity Development Plan CDKD Centar za Depolitizaciju Kosovskog Drustva CSO Civil Society Organization CoDe Community Development Institute CF Community Forum EU European Union GoK Government of Kosovo JWG Joint Working Group KIPA Kosovo Institute for Public Affairs MCR Ministry of Communities and Returns MF Ministry of Finance MLGA Ministry of Local Governance and Administration MACC Municipal Assembly Committee for Communities MCF Municipal Community Forum MOCR Municipal Office for Communities and Returns MPMS Municipal Performance Measurement System NOPM Network of Peace Movement NGO Non-Governmental Organization OSR Own Source Revenue PFD Partnership for Development PIR Project Intermediate Result PIO Public Information Officer PPRC Public Procurement Regulatory Commission RCRC Regional Community Resource Center RTC Regional Technology Center SIAP Service Improvement Action Plan USAID United States Agency for International Development TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................... 1 PROGRAM BACKGROUND .................................................................................... 2 ACTIVITIES .............................................................................................................. 2 ANNEX 1 - COMPILATION OF MUNICIPAL NEEDS IDENTIFIED ...................... 10 ANNEX 2 – REPORT ON PRIORITY CHALLENGES FACING AKT PARTNER MUNICIPALITIES ................................................................................................... 31 ANNEX 3 – SIAP TRAININGS ............................................................................... 45 ANNEX 4 – MOCR AND MACC ACTION PLANS ................................................. 47 ANNEX 5 – MUNICIPAL DEVELOPMENT AGENDAS ....................................... 110 ANNEX 6 – OWN SOURCE REVENUE ACTION PLANS................................... 237 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY USAID Advancing Kosovo Together (AKT) worked to improve the abilities of the municipalities to set development priorities (e.g. through the development of feasible plans, taking into account non-majority community needs, and empowering municipal staff to perform better). After a facilitated exercise, AKT partner municipalities are enabled with capacity development plans that focus on priority areas for improvement and, across municipalities, largely focus on human resource capacity and human resource practices, tools, and systems; municipal procurement system; sound internal control environment; financial management systems; municipal decision-making processes; and innovative municipal service delivery model. AKT worked with 139 municipal officials and community members to jointly create service improvement action plans (SIAP), which provide municipalities with roadmaps for improving municipal service delivery with 149 projects in such priority areas as public lighting and energy efficiency, preschool education, e-services, primary healthcare, waste management, traffic mobility, and university education. Municipal Offices for Communities and Returns (MOCR) and Municipal Assembly Committees for Communities (MACC) action plans (in four AKT partner municipalities) and municipal development agendas (in 12) provide municipalities with well over 500 priorities generated through citizen engagement activities with detailed information for decision-making and approximation of impact. AKT-supported own-source revenue plans in Klinë/Klina, Obiliq/Obilic, Severna Mitrovica, Mitrovicë Veriore, Zvecan/Zveçan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic/Leposaviq detail how each of the six municipalities plan to introduce or improve OSR policy and collection, so that additional funds can be used for service improvements. AKT supported municipalities to engage with all citizens in order to understand their needs (particularly the needs of non-majority populations) and address them. AKT provided particular support to Municipal Offices of Communities and Returns (MOCR) and Municipal Assembly Committees for Communities, with 32 trainings, workshops, and exchanges on such topics as lobbying and advocacy, community engagement, transparency, project cycle management, project monitoring, and the legal framework that engaged 493 municipal officials. In cooperation with Ministry for Local Government Administration (MLGA) and Ministry of Public Administration (MPA), trainings to municipal public information officers helped improve transparency of municipal activities, with publication of municipal acts and other useful information for citizens on municipal websites. AKT facilitated engagement by MOCR and other municipal officials with communities through implementation of 66 projects in 16 partner municipalities that engaged 146 municipal officials and 540 community members to deliver solutions to priority challenges affecting 227,216 direct beneficiaries. AKT’s enabled 162 people, including 47 municipal representatives and 114 private citizens to come together in 12 joint working groups (JWG) and, over one year, work together to identify and present an additional 525 priorities and present them to municipalities for financing. JWGs’ and AKT’s own efforts to hold public discussions in less-frequented non-majority villages resulted in an increase in public participation in such events by 17 percent. Finally, AKT’s support to skills development of municipal staff enabled improved capacity to both set and meet development priorities. Always in cooperation with applicable central level authorities like MLGA, MPA, Ministry of Finance (MF), Kosovo Institute for Public Affairs (KIPA), Public Procurement Regulatory Commission (PPRC), Information Services Agency (ISA), and others, AKT delivered 105 trainings, workshops, exchanges, conferences and 1 roundtables on such topics as project cycle management, fiscal management, effective representation of communities, systemization of positions, European integration, strategic planning, monitoring of decisions, law on public debt forgiveness, own source revenue, publication of municipal acts, and transparency to 1,954 participants. PROGRAM BACKGROUND The three year USAID Advancing Kosovo Together (AKT), launched in April 2014, supports the U.S. Government’s foreign policy objective of peace and stability in the Balkans. The program does this by supporting USAID’s Country Development Cooperation development objective of improved rule of law that meets citizens’ needs and intermediate results of improved integration of ethnic minorities into Kosovo society. Since 1999, limited constructive inter-ethnic cooperation has hindered Kosovo’s social, economic and political development, prolonging the potential for instability of the region, lowering quality of life, and prolonging EU accession. This lack of collaboration causes a level of distrust and reduces economic growth, as the country is not efficiently utilizing its human resources, is furthering the segregation of Kosovo Serbs from the Government of Kosovo (GoK) structures. AKT Prime’s goal is to foster positive and constructive inter-ethnic cooperation between Kosovo’s majority and minority communities in addressing common problems of unemployment, social needs, and municipal services in 16 targeted municipalities throughout Kosovo, including six Serb-majority municipalities in the south: Gračanica/Graçanicë, Klokot/Kllokot, Parteš/Partesh, Ranilug/Ranillug, Novo Brdo/Novobërdë, and Štrpce/Shtërpcë; four Serb-majority municipalities in North Kosovo: North Mitrovica/ë, Leposavić/Leposaviq, Zubin Potok and Zvečan/Zveçan; and six Albanian-majority municipalities: Obiliq/Obilić, Gjilan/Gnjilane, Istog/Istok, Klinë/Klina, Pejë/Peć and Vushtrri/Vučitrn. AKT aims to accomplish this by pursuing four objectives listed below: 1. Improve autonomous, horizontal communication between a) Kosovo Albanian and non-majority communities; and b) GoK and non-majority communities; 2. Improve economic opportunities in target municipalities through job creation and support to entrepreneurs; 3. Increase the efficiency and capacity of target municipal administrations to respond to the needs of all their citizens; 4. Build the capacity of host organizations by leveraging local, cross-ethnic leadership to implement USAID Kosovo funded activities. ACTIVITIES Essential to the achievement of objective 3, AKT worked to improve the abilities of the municipalities to set development priorities (e.g. through the development of feasible plans, taking into account non-majority community needs, and empowering municipal staff to perform better). Development of Feasible Plans 1. Municipal Capacity Development Planning 2 AKT assisted 12 partner