Program Details: 
Kosovo: Fostering a Peaceful and Productive Society

Mercy Corps has worked in Kosovo since 1993. During this time our focus has evolved from
immediate relief, in the early days, to short-term recovery, to long-term development. Today we’re helping to improve the lives of Kosovars through projects focused on refugee return and reintegration, participatory governance, rural economic development, support for youth leaders and financial services to help families start and expand small businesses and gain economic independence.

Assisting Returnees and Minorities
Through our Kosovo Economic Support for Sustainable Returns program, we are building on nine years of program success to improve the livelihoods of returnees and minority communities and facilitate their integration into society. Our program helps create income-generating opportunities for 120 returnees and 20 minority communities in rural and urban areas.

We partner with Kosovo municipal governments to provide household grants for such items as greenhouses and agricultural equipment, which help families return and re-establish themselves. Our community grants promote healthy relationships between ethnic groups and help returnees integrate into local Kosovo society.

Supporting Community Development
Through the UNHCR-funded Livelihood and Community Development Programme, Mercy
Corps is working to improve opportunities for minority and vulnerable returnees, refugees and internally displaced persons across Kosovo. The program is creating a better economic and social environment for returnees as well as host communities in 35 locations, with the goal of promoting peaceful integration and interaction among ethnic groups.

We’re supporting repairs to infrastructure and other construction, providing grants for 40 small businesses and other income-generating initiatives, and delivering household-level training in management and the related skills necessary to productive businesses.

Helping Minority Families Achieve Stability
Through the USAID-funded RESTART program, Mercy Corps and our local partners are assisting 50 displaced Roma minority families who are living in dangerous, lead-contaminated IDP camps in northern Kosovo. We’re helping the families move to a healthier environment and achieve durable social and economic resettlement and reintegration.

With Mercy Corps’ support, these families are finding housing, livelihoods, education, health care and social services. Participants are the primary decision-makers during the entire resettlement process, from planning to relocation to integration, so they are empowered to act on their own behalf. We approach this process in a holistic fashion, and with the support of local partners, to ensure that community needs are met and that a trusted local agency can advocate further for community members as needed.

Boosting Income for Small-Scale Farmers
Mercy Corps is working to improve business opportunities and living standards for Kosovo’s many small-scale farmers, food processors and associated service providers.

With funding from Irish AID, our Kosovo Value Chain Revitalization program works in 18 municipalities, helping farmers, bee keepers, fruit and vegetable processors and others take advantage of new technology and better access area markets. Our program focuses on activities that improve product quality and increase product availability, so entrepreneurs can create higher value goods and sell them for higher prices on both the local and export markets.

Building A Brighter Future for Youth Leaders
Through the USAID-funded Support for Kosovo’s Young Leaders (SKYL) program in 14 municipalities, Mercy Corps and our local partners are teaching young people valuable work skills, from carpentry techniques to appropriate interview behavior. To date we have placed nearly 400 youth in job internships.

We’re also promoting interethnic cooperation among youth. Our program teaches young Serbs and Albanians the skills they need to recognize and address differences of opinion and the issues underlying ethnic strife. We encourage teens to become active members of their communities in the public, private and civic sectors.

SKYL is enhancing employment opportunities for 1200 youth through mentors, on-the-job experience and entrepreneurship training.

Through civic engagement and community mobilization training, these young people are
playing a more active leadership role in their communities. The program is building new
bridges between Kosovo’s divided minority and majority communities, training young leaders in advanced conflict resolution and negotiation and helping them implement joint economic and social projects.

Financial Services for Small Businesses
The Agency for Finance in Kosovo, originally a Mercy Corps program and now an independent financial institution accessing commercial lending funds, is helping people in Kosovo improve their living conditions through their own hard work. With 3,400 active clients, the agency provides entrepreneurs with financial services so they can improve their products and services, expand their small businesses, access new markets, and increase their revenues.