Luxembourg's development cooperation in Kosovo
Kosovo is the main beneficiary of Luxembourg's development cooperation assistance in the Balkans. After the 1999 conflict, Luxembourg's initial focus here was on humanitarian aid and reconstruction, which subsequently made way for development cooperation programmes from 2001 onwards.
An initial joint commission between Luxembourg and Kosovo took place in Luxembourg on 23 April 2013 during which a general cooperation agreement defining the collaborative framework between the two countries for the period 2013 to 2016 was signed. The second cooperation agreement was signed on 24 October 2016 in Pristina. The agreement, covering the period 2017-2020, puts the focus on four sectors:
- education and vocational training;
- health;
- strengthening civil society;
- technical assistance in the context of Kosovo’s European integration.
In the vocational education sector, two centres of excellence (professional schools) have been built and are currently being supported to make them sustainable and better adapted to meet the requirements of the labour market. In the health sector, Luxembourg's development cooperation programme aims, among other things, to create over time a computerized health information system, and has already succeeded in developing an integrated national health sector strategy and an action plan to go with it. This close collaboration with the health ministry has seen Luxembourg's cooperation programme being awarded the role as the health sector's lead financial partner.
Kosovo's European future has been confirmed with the entry into force on 1st April 2016of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the European Union. This is the context in which technical assistance will be provided to the Kosovo Government to help it meeting its obligations towards the European Union and transposing the Community acquis. This latter project comes in addition to an ATTF (Financial Technology Transfer Agency) /House of Training programme, which is being implemented since several years in Kosovo.
The new cooperation agreement also helps to develop the civil society in Kosovo via two local NGOs: the Foundation Kosovo-Luxembourg and Kosovar Civil Society Foundation.