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

The UN’s Human Development Reports
(HDR) were the first to identify a
close inter-linkage between national
development and the fairness and inclusiveness
of a country’s social base.
In the two decades since the first HDR
appeared, published by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP),
“social inclusion” has grown into a partner
theory of human development. It is
defined as a fair and mutually-empowering
relationship between individuals
and broader society – along with its
norms, laws and institutions – allowing
individuals equal capacity to fulfill
their potential. Based on this definition,
the UN has promoted human development
and social inclusion as more accurate
and deeper measure of national
progress than economic growth alone.
Social inclusion has particular meaning
for Kosovo, as it reaches a critical
decision point in its history. Kosovo’s
sights are set on parity with other European
nations as well as EU membership
in the near future; however,
both of these goals will require a considerable
course change in current
economic and governance trajectories.
Kosovo’s macro-economic and
traditional social indicators are not
encouraging, with limited growth of
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) failing
to reduce the 48 percent unemployment
rate, a poverty rate stagnating
at 45 percent, Europe’s highest fertility
rate and ongoing discrimination
Executive Summary
between ethnicities, as well as against
women.
To assist Kosovo in transforming this
picture, the Kosovo HDR seeks to define
and explore the concept of social
inclusion as it applies to Kosovo’s socio-economic
balance. It analyzes how
exclusive policies and practices affect
the economic sphere, both in terms of
access to means of income and access
to life’s critical necessities. It examines
exclusion as it affects Kosovans reaching
for education and a basic standard
of health. Finally, it looks at how gaps
in these sectors are influencing public
trust and eroding participation in Kosovo’s
hard-won democratic process.
The report analysis is based largely on a
survey of the perceptions of more than
6,400 respondents entitled Kosovo
Mosaic Survey: “Public Services and Local
Authorities in Focus”, published by
UNDP in 2009. It also synthesizes the
findings of a wide range of other reports
and surveys, as well as the more
limited data available from Kosovo’s institutions
and Statistical Office.
Some of the findings herein are surprising
and counter-intuitive. For example,
economic growth and even active
employment have not protected
the most vulnerable Kosovans from
poverty. Nearly a third of those unable
to meet critical needs have jobs paying
less than a survival wage for their
families. Urban areas are more vulner-
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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