Road Map To Sustainable Local Government

ROADMAP TO SUSTAINABLE LOCAL
GOVERNANCE IN KOSOVO

Consolidated Action Programme

Pristina, 26 May 2008

1

Contents

SECTION I:

Programme Overview 3

An integrated Kosovo programme for sustainable local governance 3

(a) Kosovo’s commitment to decentralization and local self government
3
(b) The roadmap to sustainable local governance 4

The consolidated Action Program 5

(a) Objective 5
(b) Key programme areas 5

Implementation Arrangements 6

SECTION II:

Detailed programme profiles 8

_____________________________________________________________________

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SECTION I – PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

An integrated programme for sustainable local governance in Kosovo

(a) Kosovo’s commitment to decentralization and local self‐governance

Over the last six years, Kosovo has become increasingly committed to a strongly
decentralized framework of governance and service delivery, culminating in the recent
Law on Local Self Government which transfers to municipalities sole or shared
responsibility over a very broad range of service sectors – including not only the more
common local services such as street paving, potable water, and sanitation – but also
many sectors that are normally considered among the more difficult services to
decentralize – including health care, education, and social services. The big question and
challenge facing Kosovo now, after legislating this bold decentralization framework, is:
are the local – and national – institutions ready to assume this new mandate? The broad
consensus is that, no, they are not ready, and that only an aggressive, comprehensive
technical assistance and institution building effort will begin to fill the gap between
mandated responsibilities – on paper – and effective local delivery on the ground. The
current Action Programme proposal is an attempt to move in this direction.

To better understand the nature of the challenge currently facing the Government, it is
important to remember that Kosovo’s decentralization process is grounded in a very
unusual set of geopolitical circumstances. Unlike most other countries, in Kosovo
decentralization did not arise as a grassroots demand for empowerment from a majority
of local communities. It was proposed, top down, by the international community as a
vehicle for reengaging the minority ethnic Serbian communities into the political
process. 1 This strategic geopolitical purpose took on increasing importance as Kosovo
moved into discussions on a Status Settlement, culminating in the Ahtisaari Proposal 2 in
early 2007 which, with the latter purpose in mind, proposed an aggressive local
empowerment agenda aimed more at placating international geopolitical demands than
at ensuring effective and sustainable local service delivery on the ground.

This shortcoming has been further exacerbated by an important stipulation in the
Ahtisaari Proposal indicating that within 120 days of resolution of Kosovo’s status, not
only must a constitution be drafted and adopted, but also four critical laws on local
governance must be drafted and approved – the Laws on Local Self‐Government, Local
Boundaries, Local Elections and Local Finance. The problem is that the clear urgency and
priority attached to the preparation of these laws has absorbed much of the time and
technical capacity available in Government – particularly the Ministry of Local
1
Specifically, in 2002, when former SRSG suggested for the first time the strategic importance of
decentralization as a vehicle for reintegration of Serbian communities.
2
The Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement, presented to the UN Security Council on
26 March 2007. Available at www.unosek.org
3
Government Administration (MLGA) and Ministry of Finance and Economy (MFE),
leaving relatively unattended the follow up requirements for Government action after
the 120 Transition Period – requirements that, in fact, are equally critical as the initial
legislation to ensure feasibility of the new decentralized framework for service delivery.

(b) The Roadmap exercise – looking beyond the 120 day Transition Period

Conscious of these shortcomings, in the summer of 2007 concerns began to emerge
among many national and international actors that systematic attention also needed to
be given to the medium and long term needs of the decentralization process – after the
120 day Transition Period. In August, under coordination of the Office of the Prime
Minister, an integrated Kosovo‐led programming initiative, the Roadmap to
Decentralization, was agreed upon. Its purpose was to prepare a national programme
for the implementation of the new decentralization framework put into motion by the
Ahtisaari Proposal, aiming to create more effective and sustainable systems of local
governance and service delivery in the country.

With coordination from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Roadmap exercise was
organized around an extensively participatory and consultative process involving not
only the Ministries of Local Government and Administration, and Economy and Finance,
but also many of the sectoral line ministries, the Kosovo Association of Municipalities,
and most of the international donor agencies who work actively in the sector. 3
Organized around a central Steering Committee, and several thematic working groups,
this partnership of stakeholders worked continuously from September–December,
preparing issue papers and preliminary recommendations for government action in a
total of 20 thematic areas. The results of this joint exercise were consolidated into a
Preliminary Programming Matrix for the Roadmap which was presented for discussion
at a Stakeholder Workshop held in Gjakova on December 6‐7, aimed at assessing
progress in the Roadmap and making recommendations on the following wrap‐up phase
of work for the exercise.

The large number of national and international participants at the Gjakova Workshop 4
underscored the widespread, multi‐institutional interest that exists regarding the
decentralization process in Kosovo. There was consensus at the meeting, among all the
stakeholders, that the programming exercise had been successful and that it was
necessary to move ahead with its final consolidation; along these lines, the workshop
produced a detailed set of recommendations for the concluding phase of work. This was
reinforced by a memo sent by the former Prime Minister, after the workshop,
3
More specifically, the following line ministries participated actively: Ministry of Health, Ministry of
Environment and Spatial Planning; Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, and Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Internationally, the Roadmap exercise counted on the active technical participation of: USAID (EMI),
UNDP, EAR, SDC, DFID, IMF, VNG and the World Bank.
4
Eight government ministries and nine international donor agencies were represented at the meeting.
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congratulating the Roadmap partners for the preliminary achievements of the exercise –
and pledging his support to encourage continuation of the effort with the new
Government.

On the basis of this mandate, since December, a core central team proceeded with the
final stage of work in the Roadmap exercise, aimed at producing a final proposal and
document for joint Government/Donor action, the Consolidated Action Programme.
Presented here in a draft version for final consultation with all the stakeholders –
including, most especially, the municipal governments – the Consolidated Programme
was formulated on the basis of the Programming Matrix and thematic Issue Papers
prepared previously by the Roadmap partners, updated to reflect conclusions and
feedback from the Gjakova workshop.

In addition, the important progress made during this interim period in finalizing the Law
on Local Self‐Government and Law on Local Finance has helped significantly in clarifying
the needs and priorities that government will face in the coming two to three year
period making the new decentralised framework of governance effective and functional.
These needs figure prominently in the final mix of recommendations proposed for the
Programme, including in particular, the need (i) to operationalise the new governance
structure with clearer, more functional definitions of new administrative responsibilities
and accompanying procedures; (ii) to put in place a more effective central support
system for the training and capacity building of municipal government staff (as well as
that of central government ministries); (iii) to put in place a framework mechanism, at
the national level, to support and speed up the process of creation of new municipalities
mandated by the Ahtisaari Proposal; and (iv) strengthen coordination mechanisms for
international assistance of municipal development, ensuring a more equitable, effective,
and complimentary distribution of aid among all municipal governments.

The Consolidated Programme

(a) Objective

The main objective of this proposal is to support implementation of the newly
mandated framework for local service delivery in Kosovo, by way of a set of pilot
programme interventions aimed at overcoming the principal bottlenecks standing in the
way of effective and sustainable governance at the local level.

(b) Key programme areas

The Consolidated Progamme consists of 12 individual programme proposals aimed at
comprehensively addressing the most critical issues and bottlenecks currently faced at
the local and national level as a result of the decentralisation process. These proposals,
listed below, have been organised under four broad intervention groups ‐ (i) local
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governance and administration; (ii) local service delivery; (iii) intergovernmental and
municipal finance; and (iv) central‐local cooperation ‐ derived from the four action
groups or components initially targeted by the Roadmap exercise.

1. Local governance and administration – a new culture of management

1. Addressing Staffing Issues at the Municipal Level
2. Effective management through transparency and accountability
3. Strengthening Social Cohesion and Public Participation at the Local Level
4. Supporting the Process of Setting Up New Municipalities

2. Delivery of local services – satisfying the end user

5. Supporting Mechanisms for Efficient Service Delivery
6. Sector Specific Service Delivery Support
7. Public‐Private Partnerships for Local Economic Development

3. Intergovernmental and municipal finances – generating resources while
building fiduciary confidence.

8. Strengthening Municipal Finance Systems
• Local revenue and expenditure systems
• Participatory planning and budgeting
• Local capital investment systems

4. Cooperative central‐local relations – building effective support and
coordination systems

9. Addressing Inter‐governmental Dispute Resolution
10. Strengthened Local Government Association and Inter‐governmental
Communication
11. Central Government Support to Municipal Development
12. Systematizing Capacity Building Systems: Local Government Development
and Resource Centre

A detailed profile description and rationale for each of the individual programme
proposals is presented in Section 2 of this document.

Implementation arrangements.

Implementation of the consolidated Programme will be the responsibility of MLGA
working through a small and flexible Project Management Unit (PMU). Based on the
experience of the Roadmap exercise, the PMU should be composed of a core team of
five specialists and experts (including a Unit Coordinator).
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Partnership for sustainable local governance and donor coordination. Seeking to
continue the very successful process of stakeholder participation created under the
Roadmap exercise, the PMU will report to a joint national‐international Programme
Steering Committee (PSC), collectively chaired by MLGA, MFE and OPM. This is
particularly important for this Programme, in light of the strong multi‐sectoral, cross‐
cutting nature of any effort aimed at local government strengthening. The PSC will be
supported by the current Donor Coordination cell in MLGA as well as the Donor
Coordination Centre in OPM, in order to ensure effective dovetailing of donor support
to municipal development. Also borrowing on the experience of the Roadmap,
stakeholder participation will also be encouraged at the more working level, by creating
thematic or sectoral working groups to support the PMU in the implementation of each
of the specific programmes within the Consolidated Programme framework.

Other implementation arrangements. As proposed in the profiles presented in the
following Section, implementation arrangements for individual programmes vary a great
deal. In most cases, given the varying institutional capacities that exist in Kosovo, the
programmes have been structured as pilot/showcase operations, limited to
representative samples of 3‐5 pilot municipalities, with the understanding that, if
successful, they could be replicated for larger, scale‐up interventions covering the rest
of the municipalities. Depending on the institutional capacity that exists for each
programme area, coordination responsibility for the programme will sometimes be
assigned to a central government ministry, while in other cases it is assigned directly to
the municipal governments with the support of an international donor institution. In
either case, the beneficiary municipalities are expected to take play a strong role, both
in the formulation and implementation stages.

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SECTION 2: PROGRAMME PROFILES

CONTENTS

Programme Profile no. 1: ‘Addressing Staffing Issues at the Municipal Level’ .................. 9

Programme Profile no. 2: ‘Effective municipal management through transparency and
accountability’ ............................................................................................................. 11

Programme Profile no. 3: ‘Strengthening Social Cohesion and Public Participation at the
Local Level’ .................................................................................................................. 16

Programme Profile no. 4: ‘Supporting the Process of Setting‐up New Municipalities’ .... 19

Programme Profile no. 5: ‘Supporting Mechanisms for Efficient Service Delivery’ ......... 23

Programme Profile no. 6: ‘Sector specific support for local service delivery’ ................. 27

Programme Profile no. 7: ‘Public Private Partnerships in support of Local Economic
Development’.............................................................................................................. 31

Programme Profile no. 8: ‘Strengthening municipal finance systems – following up on
the Law on Local Government Finance’ ........................................................................ 34

Programme Profile no. 9: ‘Strengthened Local Government Association and Inter‐
governmental Communication Systems’ ...................................................................... 38

Programme Profile no. 10: ‘Addressing Inter‐governmental Dispute Resolution’ .......... 40

Programme Profile no. 11: ‘Central Government Support to Municipal Development’ .. 43

Programme Profile no. 12: ‘Local Government Development and Resource Centre’ ...... 45
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Programme Profile no. 1:
‘Addressing Staffing Issues at the Municipal Level’

Objective
The overall objective of this programme is to address issues of misaligned staffing at the
municipal level. While the programme brings attention to a number of critical issues,
recommended activities focus specifically on the need for a functional‐review like approach
to ensuring that municipal civil servants are proportionately addressing professional and
administrative requirements of municipal functions. Other critical issues highlighted in the
programme are addressed in other Programme Profiles – noted below.

Institutional Responsibility
Over the long run, the Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA) should assume
a lead national role, in partnership with the Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM). In
the short run, however, international donor agencies will likely have to take a lead role in
the execution of the programme, in partnership with MLGA and AKM.

Recommended Budget: TBD

Perhaps one of the most serious challenges that Kosovo will face as it decentralises service
delivery is the under‐developed administrative and managerial capacity of most local
governments today – much of it structurally entrenched issues of overstaffing and a poor
division of labour among civil servants. Without a significant, big‐push effort to engage
municipal administrations – at all levels – in a systematic modernisation and realignment effort,
the effective implementation of the new decentralisation mandates will be seriously mired
down.

Specifically, the municipalities face three major cross‐cutting administrative challenges:

Municipal staffing. Kosovo’s municipal governments are saddled with a daunting challenge in
the area of staffing: large numbers of poorly trained, underpaid civil servants with a weak sense
of “team purpose”. This is largely the result of the role of employer‐of‐last‐result that most
municipalities took on in the immediate post‐conflict period. Acting as an informal social net for
the locally unemployed, municipalities have, over the years, bloated their staffs with poorly paid,
poorly trained and poorly motivated employees. Correcting or undoing this situation will not be
simple, requiring multi‐pronged initiatives – including efforts to improve income and job
opportunities in the local economy (see Programme on Local Economic Development) – a
serious political/managerial commitment on the part of local leaders, and an effective
partnership between municipal management and staff.

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The number of Administrative staff in each municipality was also a source of concern for most
mayors. While a the majority of Mayors complained that they did not have enough staff to fully
implement their agendas a significant minority complained that they employed too many staff
and that many of them had little or no work to do. The mayors of Decan and Peja, for instance,
both claim that they would actually achieve more with considerably smaller staffs than are
currently employed by their municipalities.

Furthermore, only a tiny minority of mayors were confident of the technical skills and
competencies of their staff. While significant numbers of municipal staff throughout the country
have received relevant trainings from a whole host of national and international agencies the
prevailing sentiment among mayors is that personal competency levels among staff remain
extremely low. Computer skills were listed by many mayors and deputy mayors as the most
obvious need for most municipal staff. In many of the smaller and more rural municipalities the
legacy of communism has yet to be eliminated from the administrative culture. Furthermore,
many administrative staff seem to have been hired, at least in part, due to the role they played
in the war. The Mayor of Mitrovica believes that a University level course on public
administration might rectify some of these issues for the next generation of municipal civil
servants.

A recurring theme throughout the consultations was the lack of financial incentives for
attracting the highly qualified and competent personnel required to efficiently administer the
municipality. Salary top‐ups from international donors were frequently suggested as a remedy
for this particular problem.

While such a solution would not be sustainable, an alternative approach is to under‐take across‐
the‐board cuts in staff – which are simplistic although politically very conflictive. Another, more
constructive approach, is to build on the experience of other Easter European countries that
have dealt with similar staffing challenges by relying on functional review exercises that aim at
systematically identifying and redifining critical functional needs and organisational divisions in a
municipality, realigning staff on the basis of their skills profiles relative to redefined functional
units of the municipality, coupled with significant staff training efforts aimed at upgrading the
skill set of existing staff. Such an initiative should also be complemented by a technical
assistance package aimed at creating a sustainable, merit‐based system of personnel
management.

Management culture. Municipal managers are burdened by an outdated, bureaucratic
management culture that is ill‐equipped to systematically identify critical local problems,
propose do‐able solutions, and convert proposals (even political manifestos) into effective
results and deliverables. “Management modernisation” activities below aim to comprehensively
build critical skills and collectively shift the mindset of municipal managers and staff towards a
proactive culture of management. This issue is reflected within Component 1 of the Programme
Profile ‘Local Government Development and Resource Centre’.

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Understanding the responsibilities of local government. The capacity of municipal
administrations is critically hamstrung by the ambiguities and imprecision that exists regarding
the precise definition of competencies and responsibilities of municipal governments. Although,
critical progress has been made by the Law on Local Self‐Government and the forthcoming Law
on Local Government Finance in the definition of the broad categories of municipal
competencies, major work still lies ahead in clarifying, with functional and administrative
precision, the specific, detailed assignment of competencies between municipal and national
entities. Until the latter is undertaken systematically, sector by sector, and functional area by
functional area, municipal – as well as central – government entities will continue to operate in
the dark, leading to confusion, paralysis of initiative, and lack of accountability in both levels of
government. Many mayors expressed dismay at the fact that there does not appear to be a
harmonising strategy for the two laws. The contradictory nature of the two laws has led to a sort
of legislative paralysis in several municipalities. Many also complained that different ministries
appear to have interpreted both the new Law and the Regulation differently.

To address this problem, accompanying Programme Profiles it is proposed to have a systematic
technical assistance effort aimed at clarifying detailed competencies between levels of
government, through a series of technical dialogue and negotiation processes – organised sector
by sector ‐‐ between local and central government entities (see Programme Profile ‘Addressing
Inter‐governmental Dispute Resolution’).

Components

Component 1: Addressing Municipal Staffing Issues ‐ Functional review and
staff/organisation re‐alignment
Output 1: Design and implementation of a Kosovo‐specific detailed methodology for local
functional review and organisational/staff realignment;
Output 2: Formulation and implementation of a technical/professional training programme of
municipal staff – at all levels (politically elected leaders; upper and middle
management; line staff) – aimed at strengthening staff skills in critical functional
areas of municipalities (This is also foreseen in the Programme Profile on Local
Government Development and Resource Centre – budgetary requirements are
reflected there);
Output 3: Promotion of a sustainable, merit‐based, secure and transparent personnel
management system through: a) establishment of procedures for appointment,
promotion and disciplinary measures, b) analysis of existing possibilities for
maintenance and upgrading of professional qualifications, and c) exploration of
possible role for the municipal association in capacity building effort;
Output 4: Monitoring of results of previous activities

Approximate Budget:
11
‘Effective municipal management through transparency and
accountability’

Objective
The overall objective of this programme is to mainstream practices for increased transparency
and accountability into municipal management processes. In particular, the programme
focuses on using transparency and accountability as management tools, to capacity build
municipal leaders to undertake self‐assessments of the levels of transparency and
accountability in municipal processes, with particular focus on procurement, financial
management and urban planning, with the end goal of eventual ISO certification of
municipalities in Kosovo. This programme aims to pilot these processes in 5 municipalities, with
foreseen scale‐up for implementation Kosovo‐wide after the first phase.

Institutional Responsibilities
Executing agencies: 5 municipalities, supported by central coordination mechanism funded by
international donor

Partner support: Partnership of government and civil society stakeholder organizations

Recommended budget: TBD

Accountability and transparency are indispensable pillars of democratic governance that compel
the state, private sector and civil society to focus on results, seek clear objectives, develop
effective strategies, and monitor and report on performance. Through public accountability and
transparency, governments, together with civil society and the private sector, can achieve
congruence between public policy, its implementation and the efficient allocation of resources.
Transparency International has ranked Kosovo as being the fourth most corrupt country in the
world. At the local government level, even though specific documentation is often lacking, the
current perception among local citizens is that corruption is also commonplace, particularly in
three critical areas: contract procurement, permitting and taxation, and the hiring and
promotion of civil servants. Kosovo’s ability to fight public mismanagement and corruption will
be a crucial test for its post‐status aspiration to join the European Union. This will be rendered
particularly challenging by the decentralisation process put in motion by the Ahtisaari Proposal:
the significant increase in power and autonomy of local governments, if not accompanied by
commensurate increases in transparency and accountability, will bring with it an even greater
risk of mismanagement and corruption at the local level.

Municipal procurement systems. Currently the internal control systems in Kosovo’s municipal
administrations are under‐developed. Monitoring and control mechanisms are inefficient and
do not provide guidelines for functional administration. This has been clearly documented in the
case of local procurement systems. According to recent reports from the Office of the Auditor
General, corruption and mismanagement in municipal procurement systems is widespread. In
many cases contracting does not adhere to established procurement rules and procedures, thus
opening the door to practices of nepotism where contracts are awarded on the basis of
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friendship or family ties. Similarly, media outlets and civil society have often reported
accusations of bribery of procurement officers.

Transparency as a management tool. Little has been done to educate municipal managers and
staff on the significant benefits that can accrue from the adoption of transparent and
accountable management practices.

In the first place, by achieving internationally accepted practices in this area, municipalities can
much more easily receive ISO certification, in turn opening the door for the same municipality to
become eligible for direct international lending – once sub‐national borrowing authority is
established. Irrespective of the latter, transparency and accountability systems constitute an
important management information tool for Mayors, providing useful feedback on the
effectiveness of a municipality’s service delivery and financial administration systems.
Moreover, the streamlining and standardisation of municipal operations that result from
transparency initiatives lead to significant efficiency gains in the management and delivery of
public services.

The mayor of Kaqanik believes that his greatest challenge and the feat he most wishes to
accomplish will be the changing of the management culture in his municipality. The
administrative culture of the communist era has not yet been fully eradicated in many of
Kosovo’s municipalities. Citizens throughout Kosovo remain ill‐informed on the role of municipal
civil servants and even on the role of the municipal administration itself. Furthermore, many
mayors related how the procedures and processes involved in everyday municipal
administration are almost entirely incomprehensible to the average citizen. There is a significant
will among mayors to dramatically increase transparency and accountability at the municipal
level. The Mayor of Kacqanik, along with several others, suggested that a good place to start
promoting a culture of transparency was in the municipal work place itself. He advocated
tearing down actual walls in the municipal building so that citizens could literally see municipal
staff at work. In Suhareke, the brand new Centre for Citizen and Business Services was designed
specifically with physical transparency in mind.

Components

Component 1: Transparency and accountability assessment of municipal operations
Output 1: Develop diagnostic tools for assessing integrity levels within a municipal
department. Determine the areas where lack of transparency and accountability
exist the most, as well as areas where corruption is believed to occur the most
through interviews with mayors and department directors/heads of department.
Areas that should be assessed more thoroughly are:
o urban planning (construction permits),
o financial management (tax collections),
o communal activities (permits for taxis, businesses etc.),
o public procurement within these categories;
Output 2: Review the public procurement procedures, how they are to be promulgated within
public sector procurement departments as well as to the business community, the
training requirements for ensuring their introduction and implementation as well as
the monitoring processes for ensuring compliance of those responsible for ensuring
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an effective procurement process. Experts in local government with the help of AKM
and the Kosovo Anti‐Corruption Agency should conduct this exercise.

Approximate Budget:

Component 2: Incorporating transparency and accountability tools, aiming at ISO
certification
Output 1: Standardising municipal administrative procedures in the three high risk municipal
administration areas: urban planning, communal activities and financial
management by:
o Mapping and streamlining municipal administrative procedures at local level,
o Develop a manual for local stakeholders on front and back office processes,
showing, by way of simple tables and diagrams, the procedure, timeframe and
cost of each operation,
o Develop and disseminate written procedures and rules for procurement;
Output 2: Prepare an information and resource tool kit for local government and civil society,
which can be used as a guide of how to fight against corruption and improve the
level of good governance at the local level;
Output 3: Develop a Code of Ethics for political appointees at the local level, supported by the
AKM and a select group of interested mayors.

Approximate Budget:

Component 3: Municipal index of responsibility, transparency and accountability in the
areas of public procurement, urban planning and financial management
Output 1: Create a methodology to eliminate weak spots on transparency and accountability
focusing on the most vulnerable areas identified during the assessment stage. To be
used in future as a self‐evaluation mechanism by local authorities. The methodology
should specify:
o critical points of corruption identified in the first stage,
o anti‐corruption mechanism,
o indicators and quantification of the indicators;
Output 2: Conduct a comprehensive baseline and periodic assessment for measuring the Index
at the local level;
Output 3: Assist municipalities in establishing a register of all official documents, database of
the requests submitted, and support them in accomplishing their obligation to
appoint a designated archivist, also to facilitate process of establishment of the
Commissions for drafting the list of sensitive documents;
Output 4: Establish mechanisms to monitor implementation of the Law on Access to Official
Documents.

Approximate Budget:

Component 4: Network of local watch‐dog NGOs focusing on transparency and
accountability of municipal operations
14
Output 1: Provide capacity building for civil society organizations on watch‐dog functions,
including better coordination. This can be done by provision of grants for 2‐3 local
NGOs in each municipality to create a watch‐dog network with one NGO taking the
leadership role. Requires an annual work plan for NGO selection, and annual report
at the end of the year. Activities should include:
o training of the media on investigative journalism,
o public awareness raising on municipal transparency and accountability,
o ability to access information at local level,
o implementation of activities on the issues of transparency, accountability,
ethics, anti‐corruption, good governance aiming to enhance civil control in the
fight against corruption.

Approximate Budget:

15
‘Strengthening Social Cohesion and Public Participation at the
Local Level’

Objective
Strengthened social cohesion among municipal inhabitants by (i) advancing ethnic and
minority integration and gender equality, and (ii) strengthening citizen participation
mechanisms and the use of local volunteer organizations – piloted in 5 municipalities.

Executing agencies: Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA); Ministry of
Communities and Returns (MCR); Office of the Prime Minister – Agency for Gender Equality
(OPM‐AGE)
Partners: Civil Society


A central premise of the Ahtisaari Proposal is that Kosovo’s history of intense ethnic conflict can
be overcome by empowering local communities and generating the building blocks of social
cohesion from the bottom up, at the local level. In order for this to happen, a concerted effort
must be made in three important areas: (i) strengthening of public participation mechanisms for
all citizens in municipalities, including a proactive reliance on local volunteer organizations; (ii)
targeted social and physical integration of marginalized ethnic community groups; and (iii)
proactive efforts aimed at reaping the benefits of improved gender equality in local governance
and administration. Currently, the majority of local government administrations in Kosovo have
made relatively limited inroads in addressing problems of social/minority exclusion and
restricted citizen participation in their communities. In many cases, this has been due more to a
lack of capacity and technical and organisational know‐how among local administrators, than to
a lack of political will.

To address these shortcomings, a set of four complementary components is proposed below,
dealing respectively with: social and physical integration of minority communities; gender
equality; local volunteerism; and public participation. Moreover, the component on promotion
of the rights of minority communities to participate in decision making is divided into three
components (technical assistance to municipalities, facilitation of inter‐ethnic dialogue and
increasing access to public services of minority communities). The aim of this component is to
promote the rights of all communities living in Kosovo, as well facilitation of inter–ethnic
dialogue. The component on gender equality mainly consists of capacity building and effective
coordination of the officials that plan and address gender issues. The aim of the component on
volunteerism aims to increase cooperation with civil society and give the opportunity to the
citizens to have some practical experience and to contribute in administration. Also, this would
help the administration to select good capacities in their work. The component on public
participation aims to improve the transparency of local governance towards citizens, as well to
improve the participation of citizens in the governing of their own municipalities.

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Many mayors, throughout the consultation process, expressed a resolve to increase citizen
participation in municipal affairs. While the benefits to the public that come with citizen
participation are obvious most of the Mayors understood that there were also benefits to be
gained for the municipal administration. Most mayors, as politicians, are keenly aware that their
mandates were granted by the citizens and that they thus only stand to gain from involving
these same citizens in the governing process. The mayor of Istog, by way of example,
encourages public debates on relevant social, economic and administrative issues while the
mayor of Ferizaj meets weekly with groups of concerned citizens for up to five hours. Mayors
throughout Kosovo have introduced similar schemes to promote social cohesion and public
participation.

Components

Component 1: Social and physical integration of minority communities
Output 1: Technical assistance to strengthen outreach and participatory planning mechanisms
of municipalities with minority communities
a) Organization of yearly public information campaigns by municipal government
to promote the rights of its citizens to participate in decision making;
b) Formulation of annual community integration action plans by the Municipal
Community Offices, with direct participation by minority communities, to
identify and plan activities regarding housing, employment and integration in
public life;
c) Increasing frequency of visits by the Community Offices – through provision of
necessary transport infrastructure – to minority areas aimed at informing the
latter of relevant municipal government initiatives, and receiving inputs and
feedback from minority residents.

Output 2: Facilitation of inter‐ethnic dialogue and cooperation
a) In cooperation with civil society organisations, undertake local multi‐ethnic
activities for youth, such as camping, seminars and concerts, aimed at building a
new culture of inter‐ethnic cooperation among the youth;
b) Promotion of summer internships in the municipal administrations, aimed at
mobilizing a mix of secondary school students from different ethnic
backgrounds.

Output 3: Expanded access to local public services by minority communities
a) Technical assistance to support Community Offices in the processing and
presentation of minority community action plans with their respective
Municipal Assemblies, aimed in particular at addressing critical shortfalls in
infrastructure and other public services and utilities;
b) Technical assistance to municipalities in order to raise capital investment funds
with the Donor Coordination Cell of the MLGA, in order to finance minority
community investment needs that cannot be covered through regular municipal
budget funds.

Approximate Budget:

17

Component 2: Technical Assistance to strengthen gender equality in municipal
administrations

Output 1: Support to the Agency for Gender Equality to organise training seminars and/or on‐
the‐job technical assistance for municipal gender officers to: (i) disseminate and
discuss implementation of the Law on Gender Equality; (ii) formulate local policy or
project initiatives in support of gender equality, and (iii) review municipal legislation
and norms to identify inconsistencies with the law on gender equality;
Output 2: Technical assistance to support cooperation between Municipal Gender Officers and
relevant civil society organisations.

Approximate Budget:

Component 3: Formulation and implementation of a policy on local volunteerism
Output 1: Undertake a study to diagnose prospects for increased volunteerism at the local
level, and propose alternative forms of support promotion of the findings with
central and local government;
Output 2: Provide technical assistance to ensure adequate local dimension in proposed
national legislation on volunteerism;
Output 3: Awareness campaign to inform and encourage local citizens and NGO sectors of
opportunities, rights and responsibilities of volunteers and volunteer organisations,
as well as responsibilities of government and prospects for public‐private
partnerships.

Approximate Budget:

Component 4: Strengthened public participation and outreach at the local level
Output 1: Technical assistance to municipalities on cooperation with media, informing the
public of municipal activities and performance;
Output 2: Technical assistance to improve dissemination and organisation of public
participation in municipal meetings and events;
Output 3: Technical assistance to municipalities and civil society organisations, to encourage
greater participation in planning and delivery of local services;
Output 4: Technical assistance to develop systems and procedures to ensure regular and
timely updates of municipal web pages (Please note web‐page maintenance also
referenced in Programme Profile on transparency).

Approximate Budget:

18
‘Supporting the Process of Setting‐up New Municipalities’

Objective
The overall objective of this programme is to highlight specific process related issues of setting
up new municipalities, as foreseen in the Ahtisaari Proposal, and legislated in the new Law on
Local Self‐Government and Law on Municipal Boundaries. Moving beyond specific legislative
requirements, this programme focuses on addressing (i) increasing community acceptance of
the creation of new municipalities, (ii) ensuring that the set‐up of the municipalities is
coordinated by a central over‐sight body, (iii) set‐up is undertaken in a strategic and well‐
planned manner, and (iv) funding gaps for critical components of set‐up (hardware, training,
human resources etc.) are rapidly addressed.

Executing agency: Primary responsibility should lie with the MLGA, particularly in leading the
process of creation of an implementation over‐sight body

Co‐executing partners: Ministry of Finance and Economics (MFE), Ministry of Returns and
Communities (MRC), and the Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM), together with
international institutions with specific programmes to support this process (USAID, EAR).


Newly adopted legislation on the establishment of new municipalities (Law on Local Self‐
Government and Law on Administrative Municipal Boundaries) instructs the government of
Kosovo that the current municipality of Novo Berde/Novo Brdo shall be territorially extended, as
well as the current municipality of Mitrovica, two new municipalities shall be established
(Mitrovice/Mitrovica North and Mitrovice/Mitrovica South). Hence, new municipalities shall be
established in: Gracanice/Gracanica, Ranillug, Partesh, and Kllokot. Also the existent pilot
municipalities established in 2005 shall be certified as regular municipalities (Junik, Hani i Elezit
and Mamusha). Establishment of these municipalities is a governance priority and thus it is high
in the agenda of local and international institutions, including the donors in Kosovo.

The process of establishment of new municipalities brings along many challenges and therefore
requires general mobilisation of government institutions and greater commitment of relevant
international stakeholders. It is important to stress that without successful establishment of the
new municipalities the agenda of the path of the reform of local self government is at stake. It is
highlighted by the Government of Kosovo and in particular by the international actors (EU,
Contact Group countries, etc.) that success in establishment of new municipalities interlinks
directly with success of transition process in Kosovo in general.

19
However, the creation of the new municipalities continues to be one of the most contentious
aspects of the Ahtisaari Proposal. While the majority of Kosovo’s municipalities will be
unaffected, the final outcome of the establishment process remains of critical importance to
those municipalities which will be affected. Many of the mayors of affected, or “mother”
municipalities complained that it remains unclear whether UNMIK or EULEX will supervise the
process. Some of these mayors even felt that they were being deliberately excluded from the
process by UNMIK.

Community Acceptance. The establishment of the newly created municipalities requires not
only wide acceptance from their communities but it also seeks great participation in the
establishment process. In most of these municipalities the majority of the population are from
the Serbian community which is, in fact, hesitant to participate in the process. The cooperation
of Serbian community is crucial to success. Therefore, the Kosovo Government and the
international commitment must play a crucial role in encouraging the cooperation of the
Serbian community.

In Mitrovica there are a significant number of Albanian farmers whose lands will lie in the new
municipal boundary. These farmers will find themselves a minority in ‘someone else’s
municipality’ instead of a majority in their ‘own’ municipality. This is a matter of huge
significance to these farmers and their municipal leaders. In Gjilan, which faces the almost
identical problem of ceding some of its territory to the newly expanded Novo Berde/Novo Brdo,
the mayor is fearful of the potential reaction of Albanians who will find themselves on the
‘wrong’ side of the new boundary. In fact, the new municipal border between Gjilan and Novo
Berde/Novo Brdo will actually cut several farmers’ lands in two.

Implementation (Municipalities with majority Serb and non‐Albanian populations). The contexts
for the implementation of the new municipalities differ from one another in a number of
political and economic circumstances. In municipalities where there are less political and ethnic
tensions (Novo Berde/Novo Brdo, Mamusa, Ranillug, Junik) the implementation process should
prove easier. However, in municipalities such as Gracanice/Gracanica and Mitrovice/Mitrovica
difficulties are more likely to arise.

However, in all new municipalities, critical infrastructure and training needs must be
immediately addressed if commitments made within the Ahtisaari Proposal are to be met.
USAID and EAR local government support programmes have built within them specific
components focussing on these issues – to ensure that such issues as premises, IT infrastructure,
and basic organizational and management training support are provided.

Several of the mMayors of mother municipalities also pointed out that while they may be
struggling to cope with all of the competencies being handed to them in recent times, the new
municipalities simply cannot hope to effectively handle the workload. In short, the mayors fear
the new municipalities will be swamped. The mayor of Novo Berde/Novo Brdo has indicated
(according to the Mayor of Gjilan) that his administration is struggling to cope with their
responsibilities even within the territory already allotted to them. How can he hope to progress
after his municipality is expanded?

Cross‐Institutional Cooperation. The successful implementation of the establishment of new
municipalities is linked with well coordinated management between the Kosovo Institutions
20
(MLGA, MEF, MCR, and AKM etc) and the various international donor agencies. Without a
strategic joint implementation plan and clear division of responsibilities and, moreover, a
responsible managerial and over‐seeing body, success might be compromised.

Resource Mobilisation. The process of establishment of new municipalities requires large funds
that have been only roughly outlined in the Kosovo Consolidated Budget. At this time there are
some budgetary estimates. However, these predictions are not specific and therefore it is
difficult to ask for pledges. A coordinated and unified commitment from all actors is crucial to
the successful funding and implantation of the programme.

Components

Component 1: Increased acceptance and participation of the community needs undertaken
during initial stages of municipality creation
Output 1: An awareness campaign, focusing on participation and acceptance of the project by
communities, with an emphasis on the benefits that the creation of the new
municipality brings should be prepared and conducted before the actual
implementation plan for the establishment of the new municipalities;
Output 2: The Serbian community and other ethnicities in the respective municipalities should
be continuously consulted by institutional and political leaders and respective
ministries;
Output 3: Identification and presentation of a social welfare project for the area that will
tackle issues like employment and integration should be as implemented in the
early stages of the programme;
Output 4: An extensive seminar and training programme for the new civil servants should be
conducted that would be attended jointly by all the ethnicities represented in the
municipality;
Output 5: Support for civil society, in particular local NGO‐s, will help acceptance of the
communities.

Approximate Budget:

Component 2: Creation of a Strategic Joint Implementation Plan and Oversight Body
Output 1: An over‐sight body consisting of representatives from Kosovo institutions, AKM and
the international community created to ensure the careful coordination and
implementation of the process to establish new municipalities.

Approximate Budget: n/a

Component 3: Development of a strategy for establishing new municipalities, with a specific
focus on the municipalities that suffer from greater political and ethnic
tensions.
Output 1: Rapid development of a strategy/plan for setting up new municipalities, with testing
of set‐up in Novo Berde/Novo Brdo, Mamusa, Ranillug, Junik (where there are less
political and ethnic tensions) to present a successful precedent. Such a strategy/plan
21
will also address issues that are not stipulated in the Law but which are relevant to
the successful start‐up of new municipalities.
Output 2: Meetings between the above newly established municipalities and other planned
new municipalities that are more reluctant to take part in the programme to
present concrete examples of the benefits of the process.

Approximate Budget:

Component 4: Adoption of a strategic funding plan by the Kosovo Assembly, to supplement
the funds foreseen in the Kosovo Consolidated Budget
Output 1: Rapid assessment of funding needs, with increased allocations to municipalities that
present bigger challenge to implementation;
Output 2: Engage international donor organisation to make dialogue with communities.

Approximate Budget: n/a – funding assessments have been undertaken, consolidation of the
recommendations can be done by MFE together with its international partners.
22
‘Supporting Mechanisms for Efficient Service Delivery’

Objective

The overall objective of this programme is to provide the necessary capacities to

municipalities to improve the quality and cost‐effectiveness of sectoral services delivered to

the public. These capacities focus on setting standards based on public consultation,

measuring progress and implementing follow‐up recommendations, streamlining

administrative services to improve the efficiency by which these services are provided, and

implementing cost‐effective mechanisms for back‐office functions to lower the human

resources costs of service delivery in order to redirect critical funds to capital investment and

community development programmes, piloted in five municipalities.


Central executing agency: Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA)

Co‐executors and beneficiaries: Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM), 5 municipalities

Additional partner support from: Ministry of Public Services (MPS)/Kosovo Institute for Public

Administration (KIPA); Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC); Ministry of Finance

and Economy (MFE)


In order to effectively strengthen the service delivery capacities of municipal governments, not
only must attention be given to sector specific interventions such as those proposed in the
previous Programme Profile, but also to a number of important generic management tools that
– as international experience demonstrates – are able to significantly improve the productivity
of a broad range of municipal services and utilities – ranging from the more palpable sectoral
services such as education, health, potable water and sanitation, and public transportation, to
the more intangible – but no less important – administrative services such as birth and marriage
registration; building and construction permits; automobile registration; or the issuing of
passports. The current programme proposes technical assistance efforts aimed at strengthening
the capacity of municipalities in three of these service delivery areas: (i) service delivery
performance benchmarking; (ii) one‐stop shop facilities to streamline front‐office delivery of
services to local citizens and (iii) improving the cost‐effectiveness of services by way of pooled,
inter‐municipal service delivery agreements.

Unfortunately most of the mayors who participated in the consultations admitted that, in their
municipalities, there was considerable room for improvement in this area. In particular there is a
dire need to professionalise the small community offices which deal with everyday requests
such as drivers’ licences and birth certificates. While these community offices are not found in
every municipality they present the public face of civil administration to hundreds of thousands
of Kosovars. The Mayor of Kacanik, in his attempts to alter the administrative ethos in his
municipality, suggests promoting a culture of customer care among municipal staff. This
approach may go some way towards helping to streamline the process of basic service delivery.

23
The efficient delivery of municipal services is directly linked to staff skills and financial resources.
While basic infrastructure, like computer software, is critically needed, many mayors (such as
Malisheva and Shtime) complained that many of their staff, both at the central municipal
building and in the outlying satellite offices, do not even know how to operate a computer. Thus
the retraining of municipal staff was frequently mentioned in the consultations as a way to
increase the efficiency of service delivery.

Need for performance benchmarking in service delivery. At the municipal level, regulatory
complexity and poor training has resulted in service delivery that is obscured by a series of
complex procedures, regulations, directives and licensing requirements. Citizens often
experience long delays in obtaining needed services, or are forced to rely on networks of
personal contacts. Adequate training and education opportunities are limited. This situation
often results in weak performance, a lack of transparency and corruption. The ability to measure
the performance of service delivery is further undermined by standardised data collection
methodologies, and lack of properly recorded data for comparability. Furthermore, benchmarks
cannot be arbitrarily set – in‐depth consultative processes with the local community (village
leaders, businesses, civil society) needs to be undertaken to establish benchmarks for key
services such as health care and education, access to clean water, public transport and waste
collection.

Need to streamline front‐office service delivery by municipalities. The majority of municipalities
in Kosovo have a "Reception Office" that can be usually found at the entrance of the main
municipal building. The staff at this office can direct citizens to the department in charge of their
concern. However, citizens usually have to wander around the municipal building and knock on
different doors in order to get the information or service they require, as a result of a lack of
clear understanding by reception staff of the functions and responsibilities of various
departments. Services are provided behind closed office doors and citizens cue up in the
municipal corridors waiting to be served. For some issues, such as business registration, not only
are municipal licenses required but also licenses from various ministries depending on the kind
of business – provision of information for these procedures is often unclear and results in
confusion and improperly prepared documents. Streamlining and capacity building for front
offices must be prioritised in order to offer customers the convenience of obtaining their
requirements in one stop by providing many services in one place, thereby reducing the amount
of time citizens require to obtain information. This will also reduce the amount of paper work
for the large number of civil servants it currently takes to address the specific issues raised by
individual citizens.

Previous activities initiated to set up one‐stop‐shops, or citizen service centres, in 6
municipalities (funded by USAID), have aimed to achieve similar reductions in waiting time and
traversing of municipal building corridors. The newly created CSCs offer every service previously
provided by the Intake Office and Municipal Directorates, including birth certificate issuance and
many administrative, cadastral and business certification requests. Citizens in most cases are
able to have their requests dealt with immediately or, in more complex cases, are given specific
times to return for their documents. Moreover, EMI has placed multilingual Kosovar staff at the
CSCs and trained them to fill out the request forms using an online system, which eliminates the
language barriers and lighten the burden on the citizens for obtaining a document. However, a
critical weakness continues regarding the clear understanding of front office staff of the
24
functions and mandates of various municipal departments, and the type of assistance which can
be provided to citizens in most municipalities.

Improving efficiency of service delivery costs through joint administration. The objective of
inter‐municipal cooperation is to improve the management of local affairs and quality of
municipal service delivery against acceptable costs. Inter‐municipal cooperation is most
appropriate when it leads to gains in economic efficiency, in cases where municipalities combine
their resources to take advantage of economies of scale and divide tasks according to
appropriate expertise. For example, a group of municipalities may join forces to reduce
administrative costs for tax collection, financial administration or building inspectors by
specializing in a specific administrative function serving all municipalities, lessening the number
of civil servants required, and freeing up financial resources for capital investments. Likewise, a
group of municipalities may also jointly fund a specific function, such as a notary public position,
or local economic development agency. Excellent examples of inter‐municipal cooperation can
be seen in Macedonia (joint administration), Hungary (jointly funded position), and France (joint
management of public utilities). While the concept and added value of inter‐municipal
cooperation is understood, technical knowledge of planning, funding, and
implementation/management modalities are weak, and data on efficient numbers of civil
servants vis‐à‐vis service provision has not yet been constructed.

Components

Component 1: Creation of service delivery performance benchmark systems in
municipalities. Creation of minimum standards and baselines on sectoral
service delivery by municipal authorities:
Output 1: Undertake policy discussion and draft administrative instruction to require
municipalities to implement a standardised benchmarking system;
Output 2: Initiate a pilot programme for benchmarking, including on the job coaching for data
collection, analysis and setting benchmark recommendations through community
participation;
Output 3: Based on outcomes of the pilot programme, create an action plan for the scale‐up
and institutionalisation of benchmarking of public services.

Approximate Budget:

Component 2: Strengthening one‐stop‐shops as a tool for streamlining front‐office
services of municipalities. In order to (i) strengthen front‐office
responsiveness and efficiency of municipal governments in dealing with
citizen clients, (ii) improve accessibility to municipal services by citizens
residing in geographically more remote locations, it is proposed to:
Output 1: Undertake a cost‐benefit analysis of services most efficiently and effectively
provided via OSS and draft an MLGA administrative direction on the establishment,
function & operational procedures of the OSS;
Output 2: Pilot the set up of OSS through the provision of training to municipal staff and
management on the software related to OSS and on customer service and one‐stop
shop duties, including concrete knowledge of the functions and mandates of
municipal departments
25
Output 3: Establish satellite OSS of 1‐2 staff in areas geographically removed from main
municipal building, based on a pilot funding programme from the central
government;
Output 4: Increase remote access through ensuring that municipal web‐sites are upgraded and
maintained in order to cope with service/information requests from citizens
(particularly those residing abroad) (Please note that web‐site strengthening is also
addressed in the programme on municipal transparency).

Approximate Budget:

Component 3: Inter‐municipal cooperation for service delivery. To address the
widespread lack of technical knowledge on the advantages of joint
administration of municipal functions and services as well as joint project
management (particularly in relation to the management of public utilities),
it is proposed to:
Output 1: Implement a technical support programme to increase the awareness of IMC
modalities, particularly on planning, management, financing and implementation of
joint projects and joint administration programmes;
Output 2: Undertake a cost‐benefit analysis of the rational size of municipal civil service for
the provision of public services;
Output 3: Implement a government programme to provide on‐the‐job technical assistance to
pilot the planning and implementation of joint administration agreements in two
micro‐regions in Kosovo
Output 4: Find out the rational size for efficient service provision of different types of POEs for
future municipal budget requests to the central government.

Approximate Budget:
26
‘Sector specific support for local service delivery’

Objective
The objectives of this programme are to (i) strengthen local delivery mechanisms in four
sectors – health management, environmental management, social services, and community
safety; (ii) establish more clear‐cut, operational divisions of functions, responsibilities, and
funding mechanisms/levels between municipal governments and central ministries in charge
of these sectors, piloted in five municipalities.

Executing agencies: Ministry of Health (MoH), Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning
(MESP), Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MLSW), and Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA),
respectively, for Sub‐programmes A, B, C, and D (below)

Co‐executors and beneficiaries: 5 municipalities for each component
Additional partner: Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM)


Kosovo’s new mandates on municipal competencies will require a significant technical
assistance effort, at both local and central levels of government, to become operational – i.e.,
for municipalities to be able to clearly and efficiently administer their responsibilities, and
coordinate with central government ministries. Eventually, individual exercises of technical
assistance will need to be formulated and implemented for each of the service sectors now
assigned to the municipalities. So far, the Roadmap exercise was successful in formulating
preliminary programme proposals for four of these sectors: health management, environmental
management, social services, and community safety – thanks principally to the clear
commitment shown by the respective central government ministries of these sectors to
proactively engage in the decentralization process. Accordingly, the programme presented
below consists of four stand‐alone components, one for each of the participating sectors, each
with its own executing structure, led or facilitated by the respective central ministry in charge of
the sector.

The most common issue cited by municipal leaders in relation to service delivery in specific
sectors (education, health care, social services etc) was the lack of financial resources. While
many of the mayors had sector specific projects they wished to implement the lack of available
capital has continuously held them back. Generating more funds for sector specific services is
seen as the priority in this field by the mayors who participated in the consultations.

Health management. A number of critical bottlenecks in local health service delivery were
identified by the Roadmap exercise, including:
• a need for far greater operational clarity on decentralisation mandates, both for primary
health (in all municipalities) and, in the case of minority communities, secondary health
care;
27
• poor inter‐governmental coordination, dialogue, and technical support mechanisms.
The MoH currently lacks an adequate mechanism to respond to ongoing technical
support and administrative coordination needs of municipal governments;
• insufficient management capacity of municipal health authorities. Poor quality of local
health services, due to lax application of standards and norms, and a poor
understanding of patients’ rights;
• lack of citizen awareness on rights and entitlements regarding health care, hand in hand
with no citizen participation in planning and monitoring of municipal health services.

Environmental planning and management. As in the case of the other three sectors, the
overriding concern that exists regarding the local delivery of environmental management
services centres around the incomplete inter‐governmental normative and operational
framework that currently exists for the transfer – and implementation – of competencies in this
area. In addition, the following specific issues have been identified for priority action:
• ambiguity regarding inter‐governmental responsibility for EIAs;
• inadequate mechanisms in MESP for outreach and technical assistance to municipalities;
• insufficient municipal capacity to: (i) formulate environmental policy and (ii) implement
the environmental protection law and the environmental components of municipal
development plans;
• Weakness of local system of environmental inspection and control. Inefficiency of
system for the enforcement of fines and penalties; risk of corruption of environmental
inspectors due to low salaries; ineffective mechanisms for controlling illegal
construction.

Social services. As a result of the Ahtisaari Proposal, municipalities have been clearly mandated
to assume responsibility for delivery of social assistance (with the exception of pension
payments) and social services. There is little clarity – both at the municipal and central levels –
over how to implement this mandate. Up until now, MLSW has managed these services via a
deconcentrated delivery mechanism of municipal Social Work Centres. The task of transferring
management of these Centres to the municipalities will require careful planning, coupled with
systematic follow‐up technical assistance. The sorting out of delivery mechanisms between
municipalities and MLSW will be particularly challenging, since the services offered by the
current Centres include the pension payment system, which is slated to remain under
responsibility of MLSW. To address the latter, as with the other sectors, there is a strong need
for a well‐structured system of inter‐governmental communication, negotiation, and technical
support in the sector. In addition, the working group for this sector also identified a high risk of
municipal funding gaps, as a result of the new competencies on social and family services that
could seriously compromise the quality of future service delivery in the sector.

Community Safety. Unlike the previous three sectors, it should be noted at the outset that the
management capacity of municipalities in the area of community safety is currently quite
advanced and established– thanks to the longstanding technical assistance efforts on the part of
OSCE and other international donors to create a strong, reliable voice for local stakeholders in
the management and planning of activities related to citizen security and safety – irrespective of
the fact that the explicit designation of municipal competence over this sector was only made
official very recently (under the Ahtisaari Proposal and the Law on Local Self‐Government). On
the other hand, quite irrespective of progress made within municipalities, at the inter‐
28
governmental level similar bottlenecks and weaknesses exist as in the other sectors. Specifically,
there is no comprehensive policy framework at the national level, to guide and assist policy‐
making and strategic planning at the local level. Similarly, there are no structured mechanisms
for local‐national dialogue on matters related to the sector, or for specific, on‐demand technical
assistance needs of municipalities.

Components

Component 1: Municipal health management
Output 1: Technical assistance to facilitate a joint working group, with representatives from
MoH and the municipalities, to formulate an Administrative Instruction on local
health care delivery, defining operational procedures and assignments of
responsibility, minimum standards (where still unclear), and resources for both
levels of government;
Output 2: Technical assistance to MoH in setting up a permanent body that collaborates
closely with municipalities to support the effective implementation of primary
healthcare policies. Specifically, to: (i) respond to specific technical assistance
requests by municipalities; (ii) monitor the implementation of good practices in all
municipalities and assist in improving any weak areas including data and
information systems through National Institute of Public Health; (iii) establish a
regular communication mechanism with the Association of Kosovo Municipalities
and other relevant stakeholders;
Output 3: With the support of the MoH, formulation and implementation of technical
assistance programmes to municipal health authorities, paying particular attention
to procurement and management functions vis‐à‐vis health care supplies, capital
investments and operating costs;
Output 4: Technical assistance to municipal health authorities to create mechanisms for
citizen information and outreach and, to local advocacy groups, to inform citizens
on health care options and rights.

Approximate Budget:

Component 2: Environmental planning and management at the local level
MESP and the municipalities, to formulate an Administrative Instruction on local
environmental management services, defining operational procedures and
assignments of responsibility, minimum standards, and resources for both levels of
government – with particular attention to the assignment of responsibilities
regarding EIAs;
Output 2: Technical assistance to MESP in setting up a permanent body that collaborates
closely with municipalities to: (i) provide respond to specific technical assistance
requests by municipalities; (ii) monitor the implementation of good practices in all
municipalities; (iii) establish regular communication mechanism with the Association
of Kosovo Municipalities and other relevant stakeholders;
Output 3: Technical assistance programme to strengthen environmental inspection
mechanisms – including (i) case‐specific evaluations and proposed solutions
29
regarding numbers of inspectors and salary levels; (ii) improved system of
environmental fines and fee structure; (iii) strengthening system for processing
building permits and building inspection.

Approximate Budget:

Component 3: Local delivery of social services
MLSW and the municipalities, to formulate an Administrative Instruction on local
social service delivery, defining detailed operational procedures and assignments of
responsibility, resources for both levels of government;
Output 2: Technical assistance to MLSW in setting up a permanent body that collaborates with
municipalities to: (i) provide responses to specific technical assistance requests by
municipalities; (ii) monitor the implementation of good practices in all
municipalities; (iii) establish a regular communication mechanism with the
Association of Kosovo Municipalities and other relevant stakeholders;
Output 3: Costing of municipal mandates in the sector, including for monitoring and enforcing
minimum standards, ensuring the minimum level of service provision and applying
remedial action as needed.

Approximate Budget:

Component 4: Community safety services
Output 1: Technical assistance to MIA in setting up a permanent body that collaborates closely
with municipalities to: (i) provide respond to specific technical assistance requests
by municipalities; (ii) monitor and disseminate the implementation of good
practices at the local level; (iii) establish a regular communication mechanism with
the Association of Kosovo Municipalities and other relevant stakeholders;
Output 2: Technical assistance to support (i) an intergovernmental policy debate, and (ii)
formulation, approval, and budgeting of a national policy and strategy for
community safety;
Output 3: With the support of the MIA, technical assistance in the preparation and
implementation of municipal community safety strategies (in line with the national
strategy) – giving special attention to issues of citizen access and information,
funding shortfalls, and special training needs.

Approximate Budget:
30
‘Public Private Partnerships in support of Local Economic
Development’

Objectives

Working with three pilot municipalities: (i) strengthen municipal capacity to engage in

partnerships with the local private sector in local economic development programme

planning and project execution; and (ii) implement specific technical assistance projects

jointly funded and executed by the local public and private sectors.


3 municipalities as pilot executors, in partnership with local chambers of commerce, with

direct coordination support from specialized donor agencies

Possible additional support (in Steering Committee) from:

Ministry of Finance and Economy (MFE)

Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA)

National Chamber of Commerce (NCC)


Given the critically high levels of unemployment that currently exist in Kosovo, particularly
among youth and minority communities, there is a growing consensus – both at the national
and local level – that business development with a high content of job creation and income
generation must be given high priority by government. International experience has
demonstrated that one of the most effective ways of creating jobs and generating income
opportunities for large numbers of people is by encouraging the development of micro, small
and medium size enterprises at the local level – otherwise known as Local Economic
Development. In the past, international donors and government – central or municipal – have
provided little systematic support to local business development, job creation, or local economic
planning. In the case of muncipalities, this has been compounded by very low levels of capital
investment in local economic infrastructure (especially transportation and communication), and
the absence of an explicit legal mandate for municipalities to engage in this kind of support.

Under the Ahtisaari Proposal and the recently approved Law on Local Self‐Government,
municipalities in Kosovo have now been assigned an explicit mandate over local economic
development activity. This opens the door for municipalities, with the support of central
government and international donors, to take on a more proactive role. By partnering up with
their local business sectors municipal governments can improve the competitiveness of their
regional economies by supporting regional business clusters and supply chains, encouraging
innovation, eliminating infrastructure bottlenecks, promoting exports and market access,
regional brand names, and strengthening the local labour market with effective technical and
professional education. It should be noted that some donor organizations have recently begun
responding to this challenge, turning their attention towards new programmatic lines of funding
in local economic development, such as is proposed below.
31

Many of the mayors consulted have already implemented public‐private partnership schemes to
promote local economic development. Some municipalities, as in Istog and Prizren, have built
industrial zones offering sites to local businesses at very reasonable, and even symbolic, prices.
These schemes have met with considerable success so far and are encouraging.

In another innovative scheme to promote public‐private partnership the mayor of Rahovec
instigated a tax amnesty whereby any business who owed revenue to the municipality could half
their bill if they agreed to pay within a designated time‐frame. This was a quick way of securing
considerable municipal funds while also allowing many local businesses to save in the long term.
Another classic example of effective public‐private partnerships which emerged during the
consultations was the collaboration between municipalities and local businesses on tourism.
Obviously tourism holds massive potential for many rural municipalities in Kosovo and several
municipal administrations have seized on tourism as a sort of proverbial golden goose.

Other municipalities have tried to promote public‐private partnership by establishing municipal
centres for business promotion. Shtime, Suhareke and Peja have all established such institutions
and report considerable success.

Despite these encouraging signs it is worth noting that many mayors made it clear that there is
still a sizeable gap between municipal and private business activities. The mayor of Shtime, in
particular, referred to the fact that before the war private business had seen local government
(Serb administered) as an adversary. The legacy of this passive resistance to local government
seems to linger in at least a few municipalities.

Components

Component 1: Strengthen municipal capacities to promote and support local economic
development
Output 1: Technical assistance to undertake individual business development needs and
project identification assessments in three pilot municipalities;
Output 2: Technical assistance to pilot municipalities and the local business sector in the
formulation of joint public‐private strategic economic development plans; technical
assistance to municipalities in the formulation of Capital Investment Plans (CIP);
Output 3: Based on the business development assessments (recommended above) create
matching grant funds to finance demand‐driven projects presented by local
institutions (local business collectives; locally active technology or education
entities; or joint public‐private ventures) in diverse sectors – such as tourism,
cultural industry, agriculture, metallurgy, artisanry – depending on the competitive
advantages of each region. These projects would aim at:
a. Supporting strategically critical needs of local business clusters in areas such as:
IT development; technological development; regional branding; elimination of
logistic bottlenecks; strengthening of supply chains. The latter can include
collaborative agreements between individual entrepreneurs and knowledge
institutions, such as universities or international technical centres;
b. Strengthening a region’s pool of social capital that supports business
development and job creation, and generating a greater appreciation for the
32
benefits that can be gained from collective action. Encourage joint venture
initiatives between private and public sector stakeholders aimed at improving a
region’s competitive standing in the larger national and international markets;
c. Strengthening joint private‐public initiatives, between municipalities and central
government agencies, on the one hand, and the local business sector and other
local institutions, on the other, aimed at improving the competitiveness of local,
regional economies.
Output 4: Technical assistance to bolster inter‐municipal cooperation for economic
development of micro or meso regions, facilitating collaboration on project design,
financing, or execution. Such projects could support diverse sectors, such as tourism
promotion, joint‐ventures in agriculture or agri‐business, and pooling resources to
develop industries that employ local residents;
Output 5: Technical assistance to organize vocational education in areas such as trade,
agriculture, entrepreneurship, industry and services in the respective municipalities
that have a tradition in one of these particular areas and then share that knowledge
with other municipalities.
33
‘Strengthening municipal finance systems – following up on the
Law on Local Government Finance’

Objective
The overall objective of this programme is to create the necessary capacities in five
municipalities for the implementation of the Law on Local Government Finance, to enhance
the process of fiscal decentralisation in Kosovo.

Ministry of Finance and Economy (MFE)
Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA)
Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM)


In keeping with the Ahtisaari Proposal and the recently approved framework law on local self
government, a new Law on Local Government Finance (LLGF) is currently being drafted with a
view to significantly strengthen the fiscal autonomy and financial management responsibilities
of municipalities – commensurate to their new competencies in service delivery – while at the
same time ensuring an effective framework for intergovernmental fiscal responsibility. The
current programme proposal is aimed at complementing the LLGF with a set of follow up
support activities in three priority areas:

Local revenue generation and management: Tax collection is a massive challenge for Kosovo’s
municipalities who receive most of their funding from the central government who, in turn,
receive the vast majority of their funding from the international community. If Kosovo’s
decentralisation plan is to become sustainable this situation will have to be remedied.

On the one hand this has led to significant discussion regarding the appropriate levels of grant
funding to municipalities – i.e., whether municipalities have been given unfunded mandates. In
order to minimise confusion and controversy on this issue, the current programme proposes the
development of a fiscal gap analysis instrument, capable of quantifying the difference between
the potential own‐source revenues of a municipality and its funding requirements to administer
currently mandated services. Many municipalities that were having difficulties in this area
reported that a culture of paying tax had not yet taken root in their municipalities. Many of
Kosovo’s citizens have, for decades, seen the dodging of taxes as a form of passive resistance
against Serbian rule. Even in the wake of the declaration of independence this custom has
proven to be stubbornly resilient.

Other municipalities who were having difficulty in collecting appropriate taxes complained that
citizens sometimes openly refused to pay their taxes because they could see no improvements
in infrastructure or service delivery. Transparency is thus paramount in the promotion of a tax
paying culture. The mayor of Peja, for instance, instigated a massive overhauling of the tax
system which focused on transparency and business registration. This scheme helped bring
34
about a 130% increase in tax revenue for Peja. On the other hand, despite promising efforts
made to encourage own source revenue generation, by awarding a stimulation grant to
municipalities that achieve performance benchmarks in property tax collection, overall,
relatively little progress has been achieved so far in increasing municipal reliance on own‐source
revenues. There is general consensus that the current incentive system for own‐source revenue
generation needs to be critically reviewed with an eye to strengthening its effectiveness.
Moreover, it needs to be complemented by a more proactive programme of capacity building
aimed at strengthening the inefficient revenue collection and management systems currently in
place in most municipalities.

Budgeting and planning systems: Municipal budgeting systems in Kosovo have the advantage –
and disadvantage – of functioning with relative centralised control and efficiency under the
umbrella of the national Kosovo Consolidated Budget. This has allowed for the creation of
uniform accounting standards and relatively efficient treasury controls. On the other hand it has
also contributed to two critical shortcomings in the fiscal management of Kosovo municipalities:
(i) the atrophying of municipal planning systems and (ii) the absence of a culture of local
taxpayer participation and accountability in the setting of financial priorities. The current budget
process in most municipalities operates self‐sufficiently, disconnected from municipal planning
processes. This has resulted in annual budgets that lack a strategic development vision, and
undermine the relevance of local planning systems. In addition, the latter has been
compounded by a very weak culture of citizen participation in both municipal planning and
municipal budgeting, leading to an almost complete absence of fiscal accountability of municipal
administrations to local taxpayers.

One of the mayors, in relation to his planning and budgeting processes, confided that he has
learned not to accept extra competencies without receiving extra funding. His budget is
stretched too thinly as it is and he has no desire to stretch it any further even if it does entail
added competencies, something that almost all mayors desperately want. Other mayors
complained of similar disparities between the competencies handed to them and is thus almost
impossible.

The Fair Share Finance scheme came under considerable fire from several mayors in mixed
municipalities who believe that they are forced to spend a disproportionately large percentage
of their budget on minorities who do not make up an equivalent percentage of the
municipalities population. Several other municipalities also complained that the central
government was short‐changing them by awarding them funds based on old censuses which do
not accurately reflect the demographics of the municipalities at present. This puts further strain
on the budget.

The scarcity of financial resources has also led to a shortfall in funds for unforeseen
emergencies. Such was the case in Podujeve where the municipality struggled to fund the extra
border security needed during the unrest in March.

Local capital investment systems. In order to fulfil their new responsibilities in sectoral service
delivery defined in the LLSG and Ahtisaari Proposal, municipal governments will require major
increases in capital investment financing – if not a complete overhaul of the existing local capital
investment financing system. Currently Kosovo municipalities function with weak, ad hoc
mechanisms of capital investment financing limited largely to the options available within the
35
current annual budget process. Given the lack of a development planning vision in the budget
process, noted above, capital investment financing in the municipalities has been equally
hampered by ad hoc, short term decision making. In addition, the amount of local capital
investment financing has been woefully inadequate relative to the investment needs of
municipalities – reflecting a classic problem of unfunded mandates. Aware of this, the draft Law
on Local Government Finance is giving consideration to the creation of a new local capital
investment financing mechanism; however, it appears that the details of this new mechanism
will need to be worked out and discussed in a follow up effort, which could be supported
through the current programme. Such an effort will need to give attention to several alternative
sources of capital investment funding, including: (i) self‐funding of investment needs by way of
increased user fees charged by municipal service providers; (ii) unconditional grant mechanism:
explore prospects for expanding unconditional grants to municipalities to include capital
investment earmarking; (iii) creation of a project driven central Capital Investment Fund,
managed by central government; and (iv) creation of a sub‐national credit market.

Throughout the consultations process mayors consistently complained that they simply did not
have sufficient resources at their disposal to meet with the costs of their projects. This lack of
capital investment has seriously curtailed the ambitious reform programmes proposed by many
local administrations.

Components

Component 1: Increasing capacities and opportunities for own‐source revenue
generation and management
Output 1: Technical assistance to municipalities in the design and implementation of collection
and management systems for own source revenues;
Output 2: Technical assistance to municipalities to assist in implementation of new property
appraisal system proposed by MFE;
Output 3: Develop fiscal gap analysis mechanism to inform decisions on appropriate grant
levels to municipalities and assist in dispute resolution.

Approximate Budget:

Component 2: Support to the creation of Municipal Capital Investment System
Output 1: Fund study to explore cost benefits and feasibility of alternative approaches for
funding (see 4 dimensions above); include funding of national policy forums to
discuss results and formulate final policy;
Output 2: Develop accompanying financial/credit rating system of municipalities that can be
used by MFE for (i) allocation of project driven capital investment financing
(whether as grants, credit, or a mixture of the latter two) and (ii) as a reference and
part of an incentive system for financial capacity building of the municipalities.

Approximate Budget:
36

Component 3: Supporting integrated, participatory planning and budgeting systems
Output 1: Marketing and education campaign with municipalities, demonstrating benefits of
strategic development planning;
Output 2: Technical assistance to municipalities, aimed at integrating strategic development
planning with MTEF and annual budget process;
Output 3: Develop guidelines and provide technical assistance for (i) extensive public
participation in budget planning process (at least 3 meetings per year), and (ii)
taxpayer information campaigns on budget planning and budget performance.

Approximate Budget:

37
‘Strengthened Local Government Association and Inter‐
governmental Communication Systems’

Objective
The overall objective of this programme is to enhance the capacity of the Association of
Kosovo Municipalities and its members to effectively lobby and engage with central
government on issues related to local government and the decentralisation process.

Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM) and its professional collegia


Inter‐governmental communication is a critical aspect of effective local government – without
effective and efficient communication structures, local government participation in the
discussion and drafting of national policies and regulations will be ineffective, and the
implementation of central government regulations and policies related to local government
could result in uneven or partial implementation of regulations, limiting their effectiveness.

One of the key mechanisms by which inter‐governmental communication is fostered and
conducted is local government associations. Currently in Kosovo, the AKM is a critical conduit of
information between central and local governments, however, the actual inter‐action of both
levels of government on important processes as legislative drafting and budget formulation is
extremely ad hoc. One of the issues related to this weak inter‐action is the lobbying capacities of
local government and the AKM towards the central government. The AKM has a number of
structures by which it can harness the information and requests of local government,
particularly through its professional collegia, however, a strategic approach for lobbying of
central government has not been put in place.

The AKM is a recognized and highly appreciated institution for the advancement of local
government reform and development, and will continue to be so over the coming critical
months and years. While significant support for internal capacity building and knowledge
management for the AKM has been present since its inception in 2001, nonetheless, the scale
up of its activities, as well as a more targeted approach to service delivery is an important step
in its on‐going development.

Many municipal leaders openly admitted that they were previously of the belief that the AKM
was incapable of aiding them in any significant way. Furthermore, many mayors from smaller
municipalities actually believed that their delegates were being ignored at AKM functions. It was
thus promising to discover that most of those consulted now believe that the AKM is improving
rapidly and increasing its capacity to unite and represent the municipalities.

In particular a considerable amount of support was expressed for the AKM’s new Collegia
system. The publications, meetings and guidelines of the Association seem to be being received
38
favourably. Furthermore, several mayors also acknowledged the AKM’s increasing role as a
lobbyist at central government for the concerns of the municipalities. This is encouraging news
for the AKM which serves as the municipalities’ champion at central level.

Components

Component 1: Enhance the capacities of the AKM to facilitate inter‐governmental
communication processes and inform on new trends/practices in local
government.
Output 1: Continue to build on the relationship with MLGA and PMO, and sign MoUs with
other ministries to allow for the inclusion of the AKM in policy discussions and
legislative drafting and general inter‐governmental communication, including the
formulation of an action plan for the participation of municipalities in central‐level
policy making;
Output 2: Improve lobbying skills towards central government through collegia focal points ‐
procedures for follow‐up, effective documentation and presentation skills, capacity
for inter‐action with citizens’ advocacy groups, awareness raising on
improvements/changes made
Output 3: Enhance levels and quality of information exchange through the development of
transparent and uniform communication procedures with members, MoU with
government on communication procedures with Ministries, and increased visibility
of information products of the LGA (LOGIN, LOGON, NALAS, CEMR, newsletters).
This may also include:
o Diagnostic to identify specific shortcomings and obstacles,
o Formulate proposal for coordination mechanisms;
Output 4: Create a knowledge exchange and management system between local governments.
This can be done by including more strategic information in e‐newsletters,
improving the visibility of information sources (LOGIN, LOGON, NALAS, CEMR, etc),
regularizing/standardizing AKM collegia meetings, and building the capacity of the
IT/Communication section of the AKM;
Output 5: Strengthening capacity of municipalities to communicate upwards
o Diagnose specific bottlenecks
o Formulate and implement training and technical assistance proposal.

Approximate Budget:

Component 2: Enhance the capacities of the AKM to provide more targeted services to
municipalities and local government civil servants for future inter‐
governmental communication and local development initiatives.
Output 1: Undertake a strategic assessment of activities which can eventually be self‐financing,
needs for a front‐office/one‐stop‐shop service and resource centre, e‐services,
including stream‐lining request forms and back‐office processes;
Output 2: Internal training programme for AKM staff on service delivery issues for the
Association, with specialised training on specific services.

Approximate Budget:
39
‘Addressing Inter‐governmental Dispute Resolution’

Objective
The overall objective of this programme is to ensure that the risks for inter‐governmental
disputes can be significantly reduced by addressing the unclear division of responsibility

between central and local government related to the own‐competencies laid out in the Law
on Local Self‐Government, and in particular on issues related to inter‐governmental finance.
With particular attention directed to the clarification of the central government mandate in
line with the principle of subsidiarity, initiatives to identify specific mechanisms and
procedures which will be solely dedicated to addressing and resolving disputes of an inter‐
governmental nature.

Executing agencies: Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) and Ministry of Local Government
Administration (MLGA)

Partners: a Steering Committee chaired by MLGA, and composed of AKM, representative

municipalities and representatives of line ministries.


Disputes between central and local government are inevitable in any decentralized political
system. Many of the municipalities who participated in the consultations declared that they
enjoyed amicable and productive relationships with the Ministry for Local Government
Administration and the central government in general. However, many more did not enjoy such
a cordial relationship with central institutions. Disputes between municipal and central
government are inevitable and many of the mayors wished to express their opinions on the
matter.

Arguments over the benefits of resources situated inside municipalities provide a majority of the
disputes between central and local governments. For example, Obiliq municipality is the home
to the KEK power stations which cause considerable damage not only to Obiliq’s environment
but also to its infrastructure. The mayor of Obiliq firmly believes that not only is the municipality
not being compensated for hosting KEK but that his complaints are also falling on deaf ears
inside the government. This has led to considerable resentment. In Kamenice the mayor
complained that the central government was reaping all of the benefits of the municipality’s
quarrying industry without adequately compensating the municipality which was required to
carry out the surveying. Istog has also had a similar bone of contention with central government
who the mayor believes are obstructing his plans to ban logging in Istog’s forests.

There was also a feeling among some mayors that the proposals and demands submitted by
their municipalities were being shunned by central government on political grounds. Again this
has led to considerable resentment to central government in some municipalities.

40
The Law on Local Self‐Government, while specifying in which fields central and local
governments should have a close relationship (Chapter X), does not provide any channel or
mechanism for the communication of this central‐local relationship or for dispute resolution
when the authorities of central and local government may overlap.

Specific role of central government vis‐a‐vis decentralized municipal competencies. Further, the
capacity of municipal administrations is critically hamstrung by the ambiguities and imprecision
that exists regarding the precise definition of competencies and responsibilities of municipal
governments. Although critical progress has been made by the Law on Local Self‐Government
and the Law on Local Government Finance in the definition of the broad categories of municipal
competencies, major work still lies ahead in clarifying – with functional and administrative
precision, the specific, detailed assignment of competencies between municipal and national
entities. Until the latter is undertaken systematically, sector by sector, and functional area by
functional area, municipal – as well as national – government entities will continue to operate in
the dark, leading to confusion, paralysis of initiative, and lack of accountability in both levels of
government.

Unclear procedures and mechanisms for inter‐governmental dispute resolution. The Kosovo
court systems are currently too backlogged to handle inter‐governmental disputes. In the case
of the Ombudsman system, a lack of mandate and procedures for dealing with
intergovernmental conflicts presents a challenge. Roles and responsibilities of the Ombudsman
institution, courts, MLGA and AKM vis‐a‐vis dispute resolution are not clear. Therefore, the gap
that exists in the channel or mechanism for central‐local dispute resolution needs to be tackled
with great care. Satisfactory resolution to disputes between central and local governments can
only result from mechanisms that are agreed upon by both parties. The design process for these
mechanisms should therefore rely on considerable participation from both the MLGA and AKM.

Components

Component 1: Legal clarity on the enhanced competencies of municipalities and central
government monitoring functions achieved
Output 1: Define the allocation of general powers to municipalities over matters not regulated
and defined for other administrative bodies;
Output 2: Undertake a strategic review of laws on inter‐governmental finance, natural
resources and public enterprises and environmental protection issues to ensure
municipal competencies are clarified/amended as necessary;
Output 3: Prepare administrative instructions in order to supplement the laws. To be
undertaken in close cooperation with municipal leaders to incorporate municipal
principles on development, to avoid challenges in functionality if administrative
instructions are poorly conceived and without clear legal guidance from the central
government.

Approximate Budget:

41
Component 2: Capacities built at central level to lower potential for inter‐governmental
disputes and respond to disputes between municipalities and line
ministries
Output 1: Develop clear coordination mechanisms between MLGA and line ministries for
drafting the legal framework to avoid overlap and contradiction with sectoral laws;
Output 2: Continuous efforts on training of managers and officials in the legal departments in
order to decrease the capabilities for legislative gaps in the decentralisation process;
Output 3: Review strategic dispute resolution options, particularly the ability of the MLGA to
take on the primary function of resolving disputes between municipalities and line
ministries;
Output 4: Regularise the follow up and reporting by the MLGA on the implementation of
recommendations given to municipalities;
Output 5: Training to MLGA staff on methodologies for monitoring and evaluation of
municipalities in line with principle of subsidiarity.

Approximate Budget:
42
‘Central Government Support to Municipal Development’

Objective
The objective of this programme is to enhance central government capacity – especially the
Ministry of Local Government Administration and Ministry of Finance and Economy – for
more targeted support to municipalities for their development, assisting in: (i) the
facilitation/coordination of aid and technical assistance to municipalities in the respective
areas of responsibility of the ministries; (ii) direct support to municipal teams in
programme/project development, implementation, and resource mobilization efforts; and
(iii) ensuring effective and responsive central level coordination.

Executing agency: Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA)

Co‐executing partners: Ministry of Finance and Economy (MFE) and other central
government agencies that share responsibilities with municipalities in the delivery of local
services


In order for the new decentralisation framework to function, central government entities will
need to play a strong pro‐active role in the process, ensuring the effective and sustainable
performance of local services. This will require, on the part of most central ministries – but
especially MLGA and MFE – the creation or strengthening of mechanisms responsible for
support and interface with municipalities, including in particular: (i) mechanisms for technical
assistance, training and mentoring of municipalities; (ii) coordination, communication, and
knowledge networking systems; as well as (iii) information and monitoring systems to ensure
compliance with national standards. Furthermore, central government institutions can also play
a crucial role assisting in the orchestration of aid and international assistance to municipalities,
helping to correct or compensate for significant problems of uneven distribution and/or
redundancies of international aid that currently exist among Kosovo’s municipalities.

The MLGA as a line ministry is responsible not only for oversight but, moreover, for support to
municipal development and thus, is the main institution addressing local government at central
government. However, involvement of other line ministries such as MLSW, MoH, MEST and MFE
is equally important when municipalities need support in the fields that these line ministries
represent.

The mayors consulted had very little to say about this programme other than the fact that they
believed, unanimously, that central government did not offer enough support for municipal
development.

Components

43
Component 1. Strengthen MLGA capacities to actively support municipal development
Output 1: Create and build capacity of a specific team within the MLGA to mentor/assist
municipal teams on programme coordination, implementation and resource
mobilisation;
Output 2: Provide technical assistance to the MLGA on developing a strategic plan to promote
and support cross‐institutional cooperation related to municipal development at the
central level;
Output 3: Technical support for MLGA to establish methodologies for monitoring and
evaluating municipalities in line with the principle of subsidiarity, including the
establishment of a system for follow‐up reporting by MLGA on the implementation
of the recommendations given to municipalities.

Approximate Budget:

Component 2. Strengthening other key central government institutions to contribute to
municipal development
Output 1: Based on the clarification of roles and responsibilities between municipalities and
line ministries, targeted capacity enhancement within line ministries on their
functions vis‐a‐vis municipalities should be undertaken. Specifically, on reporting
processes, communication, and possible mentoring of municipal civil servants by
Ministry staff.

Approximate Budget: These activities are elaborated under the programme ‘Sector Specific
Support to Service Delivery’. Budgetary considerations are mentioned there.

Component 3. Supporting more effective delivery of aid and technical assistance to
municipalities through a strengthened donor coordination cell at the
MLGA
Output 1: Continued strengthening of the donor coordination cell of the MLGA to respond to
donor initiatives, based on a needs assessment (human and technical resources,
software, communications strategy, reporting templates, etc);
Output 2: Introduce regularity and consistency in communication and coordination
mechanisms with donors and line ministries with devolved competencies to
municipalities;
Output 3: Regularised evaluation mechanisms established which will more easily facilitate the
MLGA’s response to the strategic needs and requirements of municipalities for their
development.

Approximate Budget: These activities are also found under the programme ‘Local Government
Development and Resource Centre’ Output 3. Budgetary considerations are mentioned there.
44
‘Local Government Development and Resource Centre’

Objective
Create a consolidated and sustainable mechanism for municipal capacity building and
training of local government civil servants and other specialised professionals on state of the
art practices in local administration, management and service delivery systems. Operating as
a specialised training and technical assistance centre, the facility could be directed
collectively by a group of interested stakeholder institutions, or be housed in a specific
location; however, the overall mechanism should have oversight undertaken by the MLGA
Donor Coordination Cell.

Executing agency: Local Government Development Centre

Supporting partner institutions (through Board of Directors): Ministry of Local Government
Administration (MLGA; particularly the Donor Coordination Cell); Ministry of Public Services
(MPS)/Kosovo Institute for Public Administration (KIPA); Association of Kosovo Municipalities
(AKM); Ministry of Finance and Economy (MFE); universities

Recommended budget: TBD

The mayors consider the nurturing of the personal capacities of their staff as the highest
priority. Very few mayors consulted could say that they were pleased with the myriad of
trainings offered to and undertaken by their staff. While there are a whole host of national and
international agencies providing capacity building trainings to municipal staff, very few
municipal leaders could name any of the trainings that they felt were truly beneficial for their
staff. There is thus considerable room for improvement in this sector.

Often the development of municipalities has depended largely on individual leadership. As a
result municipalities have developed in an ad‐hoc manner and not in a national or regionally
cohesive manner. Thus, strengthening of municipal leadership and municipal civil service
capacities is crucial aspect in ensuring sustainable development at local government in Kosovo.
The process of decentralisation will put the aspects of local authority and responsibility closer
together by giving local leadership many more responsibilities regarding policy making, planning
and budgeting and resource generation. Further, with the principle of subsidiarity, municipal
civil servants will be solely responsible for their day to day work, rather than simply carrying out
the directives of central government. As such, feelings of ownership of municipal services will
allow for a more serious approach to capacity development for the improved effectiveness of
their work.

Need for specialised mechanisms to develop local leadership skills. With the adoption of the Law
on Local Self Government, which is based on the European Charter of Local Self Government,
legislative and policy changes transfer more competencies to local leadership. This devolution of
power involves almost all local government affairs, thus strengthening of local capacities is
45
crucial. Decentralized authority now means that local leaders have the opportunity to
implement the ‘vision’ which they have foreseen for the development of the municipality.
Therefore, the ability to link vision with policy making and implementation of activities to
support development is essential. Building up and enhancing skills in strategic management and
goal setting in line with realistic time frames and resources is a critical capacity that municipal
leaders will now require in order to make the effects and potentials of decentralisation
positively impact their communities.

Management skills, strategic planning, policy making, basic and advanced computer skills,
customer care and budget planning were all identified as the areas in which municipal staff were
most in need of instruction. The mayors who were asked appeared to view the idea of a Local
Government Development and Resource favourably and recognised the need to standardise the
education of municipal staff.

Weak national mechanism for training and development of government civil servants. The
establishment of the KIPA as the only institution charged with the training and education of civil
servants, including those at the municipal level, initially produced positive results but the
majority of the training programmes and modules were largely donor driven and provided on an
ad hoc basis. Further, KIPA’s mandate limits them to programmes focused on general issues,
such as administration and finance, and did not discriminate between approaches taken to
those issues at the local level, which is much different to the tasks of civil servants at the central
level. As a result, application of the knowledge gained was either extremely difficult or not
undertaken as training in general principles does not necessarily translate into practice, without
linking those principles to specific day to day functions.

Trainings on specific municipal functions have been carried out by donors and NGOs, as well as
by the Ministry of Local Government Administration, usually in relation to new regulations and
directives for municipal administration. These types of specific issue‐based trainings are
generally one‐two day initiatives, which do not explore application of the knowledge gained into
day to day work deeply enough. Further, the plethora of trainings and training providers has
resulted in training fatigue. Thus, motivation to attend trainings which do not have high value
added, is weak, resulting in senior municipal civil servants delegating attendance to more junior
staff who may then gain some knowledge which does not necessarily apply to their own
functions within the administration. Real motivation for capacity development is thus lacking at
the municipal level as a result of a lack of strategic approach to capacity building of municipal
civil servants over the past years.

Furthermore, several mayors expressed dismay at the one‐day training that many staff are
offered. Several indicated that they believed most of those who went on these trainings did so
not to learn valuable skills but for the monetary compensation or even for the free lunch.

Lack of coordination of capacity development initiatives. The donor coordination facility within
the MLGA lacks critical capacity to assist municipalities in responding to the deployment of
donor assistance, resulting in inefficient aid to local government. A result of the generalist
trainings provided by KIPA, donors as well as civil society groups tend to by‐pass KIPA as a
training provider. Further, capacity building initiatives which are not specifically ‘training’
currently cannot be provided by KIPA – restricting the type and method of capacity building
available to municipal civil servants directly provided by the central government.
46

A number of institutions in Kosovo are capable of undertaking capacity building activities,
including coaching, mentoring, exchanges, distance learning, and certification programmes.
These institutions include the AKM, line ministries, issue‐specific civil society groups,
international institutions and their implementing partners, as well as academic institutions.

Components

Component 1. Building local leadership capacities in a decentralised government
environment
Output 1: Technical assistance on strategic management skills, related to planning and
implementation of activities to support vision of municipal leadership – either
through the AKM or international leadership forum.

Approximate Budget:

Component 2. Ensuring that capacity development mechanisms respond to the particular
needs of civil servants for increased ownership of municipal mandates
Output 1: Establishment of comprehensive modules and methods within the training
institutions (such as KIPA) to train civil servants in practical issues, to avoid ad hoc
capacity building initiatives, allowing for/initiating long‐term courses on specific
municipal functions in which civil servants can be certified;
Output 2: Establishment of an on‐demand resource facility specifically for local government
civil servants to assist in transferring knowledge into practice (such as coaches
available in‐person or via email, or civil servant exchanges/partnerships – possibly
through the AKM).

Approximate Budget:

Component 3. Strengthened donor coordination cell with the MLGA related to capacity
building initiatives at the local level
Output 1: Continued strengthening of the donor coordination cell of the MLGA to respond to
donor initiatives, based on a needs assessment (human and technical resources,
software, communications strategy, reporting templates, etc);
Output 2: Introduce regularity and consistency in communication and coordination
mechanisms with donors and line ministries with devolved competencies to
municipalities;
Output 3: Establish regularised evaluation mechanisms which will facilitate more easily MLGA
response to the strategic needs and requirements of municipalities for their
development.

Approximate Budget:
47

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