By the numbers, it is on par with some of Africa’s poorest countries – an extremely high infant mortality rate of 35 per 1000 live births, plus a rising unemployment rate of 42 percent, poor quality educational systems and extreme environmental contamination. But the UN Administered Province of Kosovo is not in Africa; it’s in the heart of Europe, and the international community has promised to help turn the page from the devastating chapters of discrimination and killing in its recent past to a brighter future.
Since the atrocities of 1999, Kosovo’s population of 2 million has been trying to return to normalcy, rebuilding their homes and neighbourhoods and establish livelihoods and employment opportunities, particularly for those under the age of 25. Many of them want to start building a new future on new foundations. This aspiration has been recognized after a painstaking effort by the UN’s Special Envoy Marrti Ahtisaari to find consensus that would lay the foundation for a sustainable future. Further delay comes at the cost of economic and social development and, eventually, the stability and security of the region. Therefore, last week’s deliberations by the Security Council and statements leaving major issues about Kosovo’s status unresolved, have been met with deep disappointment in a society with wounds that are still healing.
That is why the statement by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that “the progress achieved by the United Nations and the provisional institutions in Kosovo can begin to unravel remains valid. A Security Council negotiated consensus agreement on Kosovo’s status is by far the preferable option. However Kosovo’s troubled history requires unwavering engagement of all parties involved to open the road to the future.
It is clear that the status quo is unsustainable. Assuming a lasting multilateral commitment to financially support the country as a given, the current perversity of resource allocation needs to be turned around urgently. Now approximately US $2 billion annually are spent to support the administration and security to ‘run’ Kosovo. This is roughly a staggering 10 times the amount that is spent on development programmes, ranging from investments in infrastructure and energy provision to key interventions in education, health and the environment in Kosovo. This ratio must be turned on its head. There will be no investments in productive sectors unless basic conditions for private initiative are met and current exports will start to offer the huge current import imbalance. Nor will young people see or pursue their future in a place without jobs. With this untenable situation on its doorstep, the European Union faces the obligation to prevent an economic and social fiasco by taking the lead in tipping the balance towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals in Kosovo – Goals to which it is strongly committed everywhere else in the world.
This was also the promise to Kosovo’s internally displaced who are returning, defying the fears or expectations that Kosovo could not become a multi-ethnic society. The importance of supporting their common future extends to the whole of the region where still tens of thousands of displaced people are returning to their neighbourhoods, despite the horrors of just 10 years ago. Moreover, investing in the stability of the region finds its reward in a trend of increasing economic growth which is inextricably linked to securing the political setting, including the prospects of joining NATO and the European Union sooner or later.
There is a need to overcome the current piecemeal approach of assistance to Kosovo to ensure that the donors, the World Bank and the European Commission and the UN agencies, funds and programmes work to complement each other’s strengths. This is crucially important for successful transition in Kosovo.
It will be no easy feat, but we have a moral obligation to move from the current status of ‘limbo’ to turning the spotlight on the economic and social fabric of the communities that live in Kosovo. Another few months to set this transition in motion may be needed; it will not and should not alter the commitment to act.
Ad Melkertis UN Under-Secretary General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and has recently returned from a visit to Kosovo.
