What is the United Nations Kosovo Team?
The United Nations Kosovo Team consist of 14 United Nations agencies, funds and programs active in Kosovo, including UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, FAO, ILO, IOM, OHCHR, UNIFEM, UN HABITAT, UNHCR, UNOPS, WHO, and the two international financial institutions, the IMF and the WB.
Each agency, fund or program, has its own mandate and provides support to Kosovo in its respective areas of specialization – be it health, education, children and human rights, women’s empowerment and gender equality, good governance, agriculture, assistance to migrants in need, refugees and internally displaced people, assistance in urban and rural settlements, economic development and employment.
They gather under UNKT umbrella to harmonize interventions, address all aspects of Kosovo development challenges and work together with the government, civil society and private sector to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
The UNKT is chaired by the United Nations Development Coordinator (UNDC), who supports and facilitates the dialogue and coordination of the UNKT in order to ensure collaboration in a concerted and harmonized manner, with a view to improve the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the UNKTs’ interventions in Kosovo.
Mechanisms supporting the UNKT work
A number of mechanisms have been established to facilitate inter-agency coordination and support the collective action. At senior management level, the Heads of the UN Agencies members of the UNKT meet on regular basis (monthly) to discuss collaborative activities, share information on individual agencies’ programmes and set policies and priorities. Three inter-agency thematic groups comprised of technical staff- are established to focus on collective interventions in specific areas, as following: a) human rights theme group; b) HIV/AIDS and c) UN Communications and Advocacy, while the fourth group, d) statistical thematic group has been recently established.
Ad Hoc inter-agency working groups are formed when necessary to work on specific joint interventions.
The UNKT works in partnership with Kosovo Government as well as other relevant stakeholders, such as the civil society, the private sector and other international organizations in support to policy processes that address the identified development priorities and assists the governmental sector and non-governmental sector in meeting the globally agreed development objectives as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
In addition, UNKT builds strong partnership with Kosovo civil society to strengthen the civil society in its dialogue with and monitor of the government and in its role in ensuring Kosovo’s well being.
What makes the team better than the sum of its parts?
Each agency member of the UNKT provides assistance to Kosovo in its respective areas of specialization – be it health, children’s rights, education, good governance or agricultural and economic development. However, development is complex and multi–facet and thus issues need to be tackled from different angles. This is why the UNKT members come together and provide intersectorial yet specialised responses to issues that are both specific and cross-cutting in nature. By coordinating and harmonising their interventions, the UNKT agencies ensure in fact that all aspects of Kosovo’s development challenges are addressed. Such collective approach maximizes individual agency’s strengths, including non-resident agencies in Kosovo.
Also, the UNKT appreciates that a collective effort makes its agencies’ expertise be most useful and effective to support Kosovo in those areas where the UNKT recognizes its added value:
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Capacity building of the government and civil society to create a flourishing socio – economic context and effectively deliver essential socio-economic services leading to improved livelihoods of all people of Kosovo, with special consideration of vulnerable groups;
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Achievement of internationally agreed development goals such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) .
While doing so, the UNKT pays special attention to protection and advancement of human rights, in compliance with UN conventions and treaties.