On 17 December, the Prime Minister hosted a round-table discussion in the government building on the economic empowerment of women from non-majority communities. This fourth meeting of its kind with partners aimed to enhance coordination and identify shared priorities to address the challenges that limit women’s participation in the country’s economic development. Prime Minister Albin Kurti highlighted key challenges faced by women in Kosovo, including:
• Low levels of property ownership and inheritance,
• Greater care-giving responsibilities than men – on average, Kosovan women do 6.2 hours of unpaid care work every day
• High percentage of women employed in the informal labor market – 65% of the jobs in this sector are held by women
The Prime Minister also underlined the achievements of the Government through concrete initiatives, such as:
• Incentivising the registration of property jointly in the names of both spouses,
• Allocating €11 million to support women entrepreneurs, benefiting around 650 new businesses,
• Enabling 100,000 women to open bank accounts for the first time, partly through maternity payment schemes,
• Reducing women’s unemployment from 30% to 17% between 2021 and 2023.
Additionally, specific initiatives for empowering non-majority communities were presented, including:
• The diploma verification process for youth from the Serbian community who have studied at the University in North Mitrovica (57% of applicants this year have been female),
• Providing 884 scholarships to high school students from Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities, with 51% of beneficiaries being girls,
• Supporting students from these communities with 55 scholarships in public universities, 64% of whom were female.
A total of 27 development partners/ missions/ embassies in Kosovo participated in this round table with the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Emilija Redžepi, Minister Nenad Rašić and the representatives of Office for Community Affairs.
Some photos from this meeting can be found below:
