(02 November 2020) – The first edition of the Rural Parliament of Kosovo, which was held on 22-24 October 2020, gathered around 100 participants from a wide range of sectors with the aim to accelerate the country’s rural development reform processes in line with the EU rural policy and the LEADER/CLLD approach.
The Rural Parliament of Kosovo is the platform of the Network of Organizations for Rural Development of Kosovo (NORDK), which consists of a variety of organisations, local groups, activists and citizens. The main purpose of the Rural Parliament is to advocate for rural development in Kosovo and to ensure that the rural agenda and its priorities are reflected in local, regional and national policies.
The partnership and cooperation of NORDK with other relevant institutions and actors will enable the achievement of such goals by fostering evidence-based and research-based rural development policy-making. The main beneficiaries of this advocacy effort are the central and local government institutions, as well as other public and private actors, civil society organisations, informal groups, as well as the business community.
This first edition (RPKS 2020) brought together a wide range of rural actors in order to accelerate the country’s rural development reform processes in line with the EU Policy and Community-led Local Development (CLLD). It provided a space to exchange experiences, transfer knowledge and capacity regarding the implementation of the LEADER / CLLD approach based on good practice in several EU countries and local projects in Kosovo itself.
RPKS 2020 ended with the publication of a Manifesto, which lists the issues, values and goals of rural development in Kosovo.