Presentation of Country Strategy for Development Cooperation of USAID for Kosovo

Complete speech of Minister at the meeting:

Honourable Ms. Shaukat,
Honourable participants,

It is my pleasure to open the presentation of the Country Strategy for Development Cooperation of USAID for Kosovo, which covers development assistance to Kosovo for the period 2014-2018.

U.S. Government, through the assistance provided by USAID, has strongly assisted Kosovo since the war until now. As a country, the USA presents the largest donor in Kosovo, while assistance provided by the USA equates to the amount donated by the European Union.

From the annual average of over 200 million given by all donors, 30% of them come from the USA government through USAID. Therefore, I would like to express my gratitude providing much needed continuous assistance and valuable for our country despite the global financial crisis that has gripped the world in recent years. Compliance of Kosovo needs regarding foreign assistance is not easy. Actual needs of Kosovo exceed its capacity in order to finance all its needs, thus we need your technical, professional and financial assistance.

I would like to emphasize on this occasion, despite such assistance provided by foreign donors, there is a need to increase the effectiveness of assistance, avoidance of duplication of projects and also enhance the sustainability of projects. For this purpose, MEI, jointly with other central institutions, is aiming establishment of unified and cohesive planning system at the state level, to enable a base for orienting state and foreign donors resources in implementing policies and reforms which enable the country’s progress in sense of development, as well as the integration with the European Union, which represents our vision for the next 10 years.

Above all, such a system will be developed by enhancing human capacities of Kosovo institutions and at the same time enhancing inter-institutional coordination and with donors and stakeholders. The ultimate goal of this is to increase the ownership of the Republic of Kosovo on foreign assistance in Kosovo. We consider that this will be achieved through human capacity building and, at the same time strengthening partnerships with donors.

On this occasion, I would like to remind you that the Ministry of European Integration, as barriers of donor coordination, has strengthened its internal capacity for coordination of foreign assistance, and has simultaneously strengthened cooperation with our international partners. We have signed first cooperation agreements with donors and are in negotiations for new agreements with several other donors. In addition, we are enhancing the intensity of communication with all donors, and we are organising structured meetings in order to discuss donor support. These meetings took place mainly within the existing structures for donor coordination, such as the Sector Working Groups for donor coordination and Sub-Sector Working Groups. MEI continually will organize workshops and other meetings at central and local level, in order to develop and enhance cooperation between Kosovo institutions, foreign donors and other stakeholders.

Let me emphasize that the valuable assistance provided by the U.S. government has a great importance for the Government of Kosovo, and therefore, we express our readiness to provide full partnership and commit ourselves to work intensively on improving coordination among us and the improving institutional ownership.
Thank you for your attention