Global issues are Kosovo’s issues

While working to compensate the development gap of the 90’s, Kosovo people try to move in accelerated pace to follow the global development trends and to fulfill its aspirations for the EU integration. The key to achieving the aspired future can be found not only by achieving gross domestic growth or adoption of the most advanced EU aligned legislation for good governance but also in realization of a truly social inclusion – ensuring that each single person has the access to local services which will have them fulfill their needs for a decent life.

In September 2000, UN leaders worldwide have committed to combating poverty as a global priority in its Declaration endorsed at the Millennium Summit– whereby they agreed to have 8 Millennium Development Goals achieved by 2015. The UN agencies all around the world are mandated to support government, civil society and the private sector in achieving these goals.

Being part of Europe and following their EU integration path they also recognize that the achievement of Social inclusion is important part of fulfilling the EU standards. It also means that Kosovo must orient its capacities to becoming a truly socially inclusive society where all people feel valued, their differences are respected, and their basic needs are met so they can live in dignity.

Regardless of its status as not a fully recognized country, Kosovo Parliament and the Government have committed to work towards achieving of these development goals that are relevant to Kosovo, by endorsing resolutions on MDGs and the EU integration.

UNKT with all its members has a long-standing and solid commitment to all Kosovo’s people – from the poorest and most marginalized to those responsible for leadership towards achieving deeply cherished goals.  The UN as a whole has also reached its own defining moment in Kosovo; a more complex and development-orientated context of the present is challenging the UNKT to move beyond discrete sectoral efforts towards greater policy relevance, cooperation and impact. The UNKT is best positioned of all Kosovo’s development partners to accelerate achievement of development goals by bringing the perspective of those most likely to be left behind – and by linking governance more effectively to the communities it serves.

The Inernationally Agreed Development Goals (IADG) are a set of specific goals, many with concrete time bound quantitative targets, of the United Nations Development Agenda.  They summarize the major commitments of the 34 global summits and conferences held since 1990 on different aspects of global development challenges.  These commitments are combined in the Millennium Declaration adopted by the 2000 Summit.  This agenda addresses not only the conventional challenges of economic growth, social progress and sustainable development but also extends to systemic issues.  At the national level the agenda includes governance, human rights and the importance of national ownership. At the international level, the agenda includes challenges of global economic governance such as international finance, debt, aid, trade, technology and migration.   The IADGs incorporate, but are broader than, the better publicized Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that are focused on poverty.  The goals can be grouped into the following areas:

• income poverty and hunger (MDG1);
• employment, including decent work, full employment, women and youth
• education and literacy including gender equality
• gender equality and empowerment of women including violence against women
• health services, disease and mortality including maternal and child health, reproductive health, access to treatment for HIV/AIDS, HIV/AIDS orphans
• environmental sustainability including environmental protection and conservation, water and sanitation, slums
• good governance, democracy and human rights including the rule of law, minority rights, free media
• social integration and protection of vulnerable groups including principles of social justice, respect for cultural and racial diversity, human rights of migrants
• science and technology including ICT and access to medicines
• countries with special needs including LDCs, small island and landlocked countries, Africa and issues of trade, debt, ODA, FDI and technology
• partnership with aid donors as well as national and international civil society and private sector

In contrast to previous UN goals, several features of the IADGs are unique and unprecedented:

• their comprehensive scope – the IADGs together constitute a set of mutually reinforcing goals covering all of the important dimensions of development challenges, including not only economic and social challenges but also national and international systemic dimensions as described above, and action by rich countries;
• their ambition – the quantitative targets and goals reach beyond historical trends and set an agenda to substantially accelerate or ‘scale up’ effort
• the consensus on human poverty as the central objective of international development action –  while recognizing the importance of economic growth, the IADGs single out human outcomes such as child survival; and,
• the mobilization for implementation – the UN system has itself organized and led both the international community and developing country governments to take action.