Kosovo Human Development Report 2010 - UNDP Kosovo - United ...

1. Where is Kosovo headed?
After decades of political and social
turbulence, Kosovo has recently experienced
some decisive and formative
changes. The “Constitution of Kosovo”,
which envisages a significant role for
the European Union in Kosovo, entered
into force on 15 June 2008. In
the past three years Kosovo has been
recognized by 70 countries, joined the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and
the World Bank and is aspiring to become
a full member of the European
Union (EU).
With such high ambitions, the trajectory
of change across Kosovo’s governance
structures and macro-economy
has necessarily been extremely steep.
Of Kosovo’s neighbours taking a similar
path, none are burdened with quite
such a heavy legacy of political discrimination
and neglect. Most, if not
all, are much further ahead. They remain
an incentive to encourage Kosovo’s
ongoing efforts, but also serve as
a reminder of just how far there is to
go.
Kosovo’s significant international presence
has also reconfigured itself to support
the EU accession process – both
financially and with a high volume of
mentoring and technical assistance.
Since 2000, the international community
has probably invested more nonmilitary
resources per capita in Kosovo
Introduction
than in any other post-conflict arena.
The EU, Kosovo’s largest donor, has announced
its intention to devote more
funds to Kosovo per capita than to
any other place in the world over the
next three years. 1 Already the EU alone
has provided nearly one billion EUR
to Kosovo between 2000 and 2006 2
through the CARDS programme (Community
Assistance for Reconstruction,
Development and Stabilization) and a
further 426 million EUR under the Instrument
for Pre-Accession Assistance
(IPA) from 2007. 3 Other development
partners, including the US Government
and UN agencies, funds and programmes,
have provided even more
with a view to remodeling Kosovo’s
entire political and economic structures
to align with European standards.
The sheer weight of change required
has created a human development
conundrum. In striving for an
ideal future of prosperity and stability,
Kosovo risks stalling its internal human
development process. The EU accession
process is extremely complex,
requiring a vast remodeling of legislative
frameworks, compliance with
a very high standard of governance
and regional cooperation to maintain
a fundamental philosophical cohesion
across the European family. This
process has brought both benefits
and pressures for Kosovo’s governance
structures, which have been passed on
INTRODUCTION
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