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

6.1
CHAPTER 6
Findings and Recommendations
Towards Lisbon or
not? Kosovo’s stark
choice
In the first year of Kosovo’s recovery
from its damaging conflict and the beginning
of its new era, European states
met in Lisbon to discuss how to make
their region the most competitive and
advanced union in the world. The Lisbon
Strategy of 2000 linked economic
development and social inclusion in a
cycle, premised on the concept that
human potential is the fundamental
starting point for true and sustainable
progress. The action plan attached to
this strategy may have fallen short by
2010, but it still represents a central vision
for Europe’s future.
Kosovo, with a past mired in internal
division and its future sights firmly
set on EU membership, faces a stark
choice. Either it moves towards the Lisbon
ideals of openness, inclusion and
equal opportunity for all, or remains
locked by the very challenges it once
fought to escape.
All Kosovans are instinctively aware
that a moment of decision is before
them. In October 2009, the Assembly of
Kosovo released a White Paper entitled
Kosovo Social Inclusion Challenges, a
declaration of political commitment
by the Assembly of Kosovo to address
the issues of social exclusion and promote
the social inclusion agenda in
Kosovo. Only through participation of
all people in the development process
can a society prosper and achieve hu-
man development. This KHDR was prepared
to support these goals. It seeks
to mobilize the joint efforts of a wide
range of social stakeholders, including
Kosovo’s authorities, civil society,
development partners and socially excluded
groups to advance social inclusion
in all aspects of life. Without such
broad social ‘buy-in’, no policy addressing
social inclusion will be sustainable
and effective, regardless of the best intentions.
Since the Lisbon Strategy was adopted,
social exclusion has become
a visible phenomenon in Newborn
Kosovo. This final chapter provides a
synthesis of the mechanisms that perpetuate
exclusion across society, hoping
to inspire innovative approaches to
address them.
6.2
“People are the real wealth of a nation”
UNDP Global HDR 2010
Significant findings
and implications
(i) Drivers of social exclusion in Kosovo
have common links across economic,
education, health and political
spheres
• Absence of policy leadership on
social inclusion issues: the lack
of high-level leadership on social
inclusion issues has left Kosovo’s
ministries without direction. In the
absence of a fully Kosovo-owned
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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