Ms. Arberie Nagavci, Minister of Education

I would like to thank you all for accepting to be a part of this innovative Youth Forum focused on the important topic of Gender Equality.

This event, organized in collaboration with KGSC, provides a space for youth perspectives on this topic and highlights the importance of enabling young people not as decision-makers of the future, but of today!

This initiative is part of UNDP’s project focused on ‘Youth Development, Gender Norms and Human Security’ and I am thrilled to learn about the great ideas already emerging from this dialogue between youth, stakeholders, CSO, experts and practitioners.

I have seen that during the first weekend you have focused on gender equality in relation to key areas like role of institutions, social norms, education, unemployment, and transition to the labor market. What stood out from your reflections and discussions are already interesting ideas with the potential to be translated into practical recommendations, such as:

Strategies and policies that fail to advance gender equality require reflection from stakeholders and policy-makers on how to better listen to different communities, meaningful inclusion of young women and men in decision-making and evidence-based solutions;

The need to research and respond to local level context regarding causes of inequality, discrimination, pay gap, lack of opportunities and resources. Stakeholders should not focus exclusively on Pristina and central institutions in order not to leave behind municipal-level actors and communities

On education, the discussions underlined the concern about the gender gap between academic achievements and opportunities to the labor market/career. Indeed, more needs to be done to make sure Kosovo has an enabling environment that employs the great talent and potential of girls and young women. Equally, young men and boys need to be encouraged all throughout their educational journey and avoid being demotivated by harmful social norms and prejudice towards academic achievers.

You also heard from the speakers and from each other about the importance of intersectionality of gender, social, cultural and ethnic background when it comes to education and transition to labor market. We are keen to hear more on this from your perspective and what can be done to raise awareness and make sure stakeholders take this into consideration in future initiatives to advance GE in Kosovo.

Today starts the second part in a series of the three stages with the intent of bringing together youth and stakeholders and extracting good examples and recommendations on how to best address challenges to gender equality in Kosovo. Thank you for being part of this discussion!

UNDP has gender equality and women’s empowerment at the heart of its mandate. We acknowledge that sustainable human development cannot be achieved unless women and girls are able to contribute equally.

At the same time, gender equality is crucial for talking many other complex challenges or our times, such as climate change. In relation to this, I should mention our support for initiatives and recent discussions on how to best integrate gender perspective to the climate agenda for Kosovo.

Gender perspective must be embedded in climate action to strengthen the effectiveness of green transition initiatives that relate to the labor market, energy, transport, construction, and food-production. This includes promoting equal access in decision-making processes on climate action - to ensure important contributions by underrepresented people and women in their wide diversity, as experts, decision-makers, consumers, careers, educators and stakeholders.

But also, to ensure creation of inclusive green jobs and educational opportunities. Focus should be on reducing the vertical and horizontal gender-segregation in the labor market, especially in STEM education and employment. This is an area where UNDP in Kosovo is also working.  

Concerning gender equality and women’s rights, major concerns remain with regards to gender-based violence, discrimination in the labour market, and gaps in access to justice, finance and property ownership. In addition, young women are disproportionally affected by unemployment rates (61% of unemployed youth are women ) and they are overrepresented in the informal economy.  Research has also shown that Kosovo has the widest gender gap in labour force participation in the Western Balkans, while the gender pay gap has been estimated to be around 5.9 percent . Among the key reasons behind this are the overall lack of job opportunities in combination with the gendered character of available jobs (lack of jobs that are ‘fit’ for women), and societal expectations for women to work in unpaid care work.  Under the impact of the pandemic on the labour market and the increasing demand for proficient technical and digital skills, more needs to be done to enhance equal access for women to developing ICT skills. This is particularly important because Kosovo employers have underlined the mismatch of skills with the labour market demands, whilst, at the same time, they have also assessed men to be much better qualified at demonstrating specific technical and computer skills.

Therefore, to reduce gender pay gap and occupational gender segregation, sustainable solutions not only need to improve the representation and productivity of women, but also address structural factors that trigger discrimination and gender stereotypes in the labour market and beyond.  

I strongly believe real change in dealing with some of the most complex challenges of our times, in Kosovo and beyond, must begin with us. Gender equality is not only about institutions, policies and measures, but also about everyday action and behaviour that can dismantle gender barriers and harmful norms at their core. You, as the future generation, have not only the right to life free of inequality, discrimination and harmful social barriers, but have the right to have a real say in how to tackle these issues.

This event aims to address all these issues by facilitating a platform for youth, stakeholders, CSO, experts and practitioners to brainstorm, debate and seek ideas on how to better promote gender equality. UNDP and our partner KGSC are very grateful to everyone who has committed to participate and work together towards youth-led solutions addressing gender equality, gender norms, socio-economic challenges and opportunities for youth. At the same time, The Youth Forum is an opportunity for direct dialogue between young people and Kosovo institutions, promoting thus youth participation in decision-making mechanisms.

So, dear young members of the forum, over the next two weekends you are invited to keep exploring key issues on the topic of gender equality in Kosovo, reflect on what you think should happen to address these and, finally, present your own recommendations. I am confident the stakeholders who have supported this initiative will continue to do so by listening to your solutions and reflecting on how to implement them after the end of this event.

I would like to take this opportunity to give my special thanks to MESTI, MYCS and AGE for their cooperation and participation in this event, as well as their openness and dedication to empower youth and make their voices heard. Thank you also to our partner NGO, KGSC for their hard work and commitment to put together this exciting event, and for managing to bring together fantastic panelists, discussants and young women and men participants. And, finally, thank you young participants for all your hard work and passion for this cause showed throughout this event, and for being such an inspiration and proving that Kosovo’s future is in the right hands with you. Wish you good luck for the rest of the event and looking forward to hearing your final recommendations!