Kosovo’s Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Arban Abrashi, announced yesterday that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kosovo has allocated 160,000 euros grants for self-employment programme in the Mitrovica region.  “With UNDP we signed the expansion of self-employment program for the region of Mitrovica, where 160,000 euros in grants where allocate for the establishment of new businesses by unemployed job seekers, who will use the grants to start new businesses and employ others.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Kosovo today organized a debate on the topic: Is there gender in corruption: Preventing and combating corruption from the perspective of women. The head of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Hasan Preteni, said corruption has gender and it is male. He said this is proved by the number of cases where men and women were found guilty on corruption charges. According to him, so far only two women were charged for corruption in Kosovo.

The institution of Ombudsman, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), organized today a workshop on "Implementation of the Law on Protection from Discrimination - Challenges and Opportunities ".The Ombudsman institution with the new Law on Protection from Discrimination is defined as a mechanism for handling cases dealing with discrimination and also has broad powers regarding the implementation of this law.  This workshop will offer the possibility of joint discussions between the Ombudsman, the judiciary and other stakeholders regarding the implementation

The paper’s front-page editorial comments on the latest Public Pulse conducted by the UNDP and USAID in Kosovo, saying that it is “a realistic assessment of the scandalous state of governance in Kosovo”. “A summary of the key indicators and findings of the survey, which covers the period March – September 2015, shows that the satisfaction of the people with the work of institutions has reached the lowest point since March 2007.

The UNDP Kosovo and USAID launched today  the Public Pulse 10, a survey  conducted during the period March – September 2015 in Kosovo.  According to this document, only 18% of Kosovo people are satisfied with the work of the Kosovo institutions. Until March of this year, 24% of respondents expressed their satisfaction with the Prime Minister Isa Mustafa’s work, while in September these ratings dropped to only 15 %. The main problem according to the respondents are related to socio-economic conditions.

“Although until now Kosovo has achieved very good results in many areas, it is still making efforts to have a more sustainable economic development,” it was said on Saturday at a press conference organized by the UN Agencies in Kosovo with the topic “Launching of Global Sustainable Goals in Kosovo”, where were reflected the efforts and achievements of Kosovo institutions in this regard.

Kosovo’s Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and the United Nations Program for Development (UNDP) will award today grants from the Self-Employment Program. In this case, 43 unemployed men and women will benefit 3000-6000 euros to establish new businesses. Following a competitive process, 43 business plans submitted will receive financial assistance and continuous mentoring in order to establish new businesses. The project is financed and implemented by the UNDP, Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland.

The UN Coordinator for Development and permanent representative of UNDP in Kosovo, Andrew Russell, spoke about corruption saying that this phenomenon is not for granted but it has to be paid for it every day.

Russell made these statements during a conference for presentation of the Targets for Sustainable Development which were officially endorsed by the UN General Assembly on 25 September.

The Mayor of Gracanica, Vladeta Kostic, and head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Andrew Russell, yesterday signed a memorandum of cooperation to combat corruption in this municipality. Kostic said that this memorandum represents the beginning of a decisive war against corruption. “We must constantly combat this bad phenomena, because neither institutions nor individuals can move forward because of corruption.

Last week in Bursa, Turkey, representatives of the Istanbul International Centre for Development in Private Sector (IICDPS) met with the representatives of the UNDP Office in Kosovo in order to address the high level of unemployment among the young people in Kosovo and to discuss next steps for the establishment of a training center in Kosovo.