Read the blog in Albanian: LINK or in Serbian: LINK Fjollë Caka, 31, a 2021 Climate Ambassador of the World Bank Group’s Global Youth Climate Network and an urban planner at UN-Habitat, aims to raise awareness about climate change in Kosovo. In this guest blog post she talks about why climate change matters to Kosovo and what she is doing to counter it. Fjollë holds a Masters in Architecture from the University of Pristina, a Masters in Sustainable Urban Planning from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and is a Ph.D. candidate at South East European University in North Macedonia. One cold November day, while I was lecturing on the seriousness of global warming to a class on Urban Planning at a private university in Kosovo, one of my students jokingly said, “What global warming? We are freezing here!” Other students laughed, and so did I, but I quickly bounced back, explaining how climate change is not associated with warmer days only. Climate change denotes a long-term change in the usual climate - depending on the context, this may bring both extremes, both hotter and colder weather. That student had not been my first climate change challenger. Not all people believe what they cannot directly see or in things they are not directly affected by. Two years before that day, I had myself taken my first comprehensive course on the science of climate change while pursuing my master’s degree in the USA. Within the first two weeks, around one third of my classmates had stopped coming, and apparently, I was wrong in almost everything I said. Tough topic, tougher professor, but I decided not to drop the course. After all, how could I ever hope to be engaged in climate change management and policy without a proper understanding of what climate change really is, why it is happening and what it looks like? Would we be facing a world in flames or some future ice age? Long story short, the tough professor, Dr. Rachael Jonassen, became my lifetime mentor, who continues to guide me, both academically and professionally. Dr. Jonassen also taught me how to distinguish truth from fiction, how to separate scientific evidence from baseless scaremongering or outright denial. Siding with 97% of the scientific community, it is clear to me that climate change IS happening, and that it has been mainly caused by human activities. However, according to a recent United Nations landmark report, climate change is not just happening - it is happening at a faster pace than previously thought. If we continue business as usual, we will be facing more and more severe impacts everywhere! One of the Hotspots of Climate Change: The Western Balkans Today’s global climate is different from that of hundreds and thousands of years ago. We experience warmer weather and more extreme events. There have been irreversible changes to the oceans, ice sheets and global sea levels! The Western Balkans is considered one of the world’s hotspots of climate change, which has been experiencing increased extreme weather and climate related events. Extreme droughts, floods and wildfires have caused high economic costs and show that people and institutions are not sufficiently prepared. Kosovo for example has been experiencing increasing temperatures and heat waves since the 1960s, heavy rains followed by floods since the 1980s, and forest fires since the 2000s. Droughts were recorded in 1993, 2000, 2007, 2009 and 2012. One can recall the January 2021 floods caused by heavy rainfall and increased snow melt due to sudden temperature increases. Many riverside roads were inundated, bridges destroyed, water supplies cut (in Pristina, Drenas/Glogovac, Obiliq/Obilić). People had to be evacuated in Fushë Kosovë/Kosovo Polje, Gjilan/Gnjilane, Malishevë/Mališevo, and elsewhere. The recent July-August 2021 fires had about 473 active sources across the Pejë/Peć Prizren, Gjilan/Gnjilane, and Mitrovica regions! Such fires further deplete our forests - Kosovo’s most important resource in lowering carbon dioxide and thus in combating climate change. They reduce biodiversity, and impact livelihoods. Or let’s recall the drought of July 2017, which reduced agricultural production, specifically cereals (by 20-30%) and maize (by 60%). The estimated EUR 13 million in damages were far from being covered by the allocated EUR 500,000 fund for agricultural damage compensation, leaving many farmers destitute. Or the draining of our water resources, especially during the summer, which reminds those of us lucky enough to have additional water storage of why we still keep water reserves at home. Or the reduced number of snow days, sometimes even making us forget what it was like to get snow on New Year’s Eve. Some of us in Kosovo may see nothing wrong with these changed climatic conditions. Some may even say warmer weather benefits business – for example the young man who established Kosovo’s largest blueberry orchard. But changes in other countries’ climate can still cause disruption for us here in Kosovo, such as when a warm spring in 2018 led to an earlier harvesting season for blueberries across Europe – the primary export location for Kosovo blueberries – causing our young blueberry farmer to face plummeting prices, decreased profitability, and threats to his very operations and livelihood. According to the latest IPCC assessment report on the physical science basis of climate change, the Western Balkans region is expected to face increased temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns, leading to extended periods of drought, increased soil erosion, forest fires and flood risk. Temperatures in mountain areas are expected to increase more than the world average, reducing snow cover days and increasing spring flooding. There is an increased risk of water shortages and competition between different water users (agriculture, industry, tourism, households), especially during the summer. Demand for energy will increase, for example to allow for air conditioning or cooling, followed by related emissions (which in 2019 already made up around 86% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in Kosovo) and atmospheric pollutants (already high across the region). Related climatic impacts will severely affect land ecosystems and species distribution, terrestrial carbon cycle, food production systems, agriculture, infrastructure and the overall health and well-being – causing significant habitat, human and economic losses. There is still time to escape the Avalanche… But while this “avalanche” is coming at us, there is still time to act and lower its impacts. The way we have been producing food (intensive chemical-based agriculture) and consuming it (intensive meat-based diets, exotic foods traveling long distances to come to our plates, food waste), producing energy, running factories, and travelling (on fossil fuels), building our homes and cities (losing open and green spaces, sprawling cities, not thinking of their life-cycle), washing ourselves, dishes, clothes or yards (wasting water or polluting rivers) or choosing our clothes (from polluting industries), has clearly changed the climate, making it the greatest risk for us all. So, if we have had it within us to alter the global climate to this point, we must surely be capable of exploring alternative ways to sustain Kosovo - and the Earth - and limit further destruction. Worldwide advances in tackling climate change are leading to cleaner air and restored nature and at the same time have supported economic growth and new jobs. We should also use the momentum to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and increase resilience to further shocks and stresses in a way that safeguards our environment for future generations, building back better and greener. Even though increased global climate action has been taken towards decarbonization, we are not even close to limiting global warming to 1.5 OC by 2030. We are currently at 1.1 OC warmer surface temperature than in pre-industrial times, and if we continue with the same emissions trend, we may reach 4.4 OC by 2100 – resulting in catastrophic impacts! Therefore, rapid greenhouse gas emissions reductions are needed to limit the warming effect, as well as air pollution. At this year’s (26th) United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), countries committed under the Paris Agreement will come together to accelerate their emissions reductions plans, encourage ecosystems restoration and resilience building, collaborate with others, and mobilize finance - especially supporting developing countries. The European Union has committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2030, and this cannot be achieved without increased climate action in the Western Balkans, including Kosovo as well. Tackling Climate Change is not a Lone Wolf Thing People may tend to avoid their anxiety by ignoring climate change, or may be slow to adapt to change, but we need to wake up and internalize the fact that the climate IS changing, and its impacts will directly affect us – and more importantly our children and grandchildren! While each of us starts changing our own behavior or tries to impact those of our families and communities, we need to encourage increased climate action at our workplaces as well! On a personal level, this can mean small changes like taking shorter showers or turning the lights off when leaving a room. It can mean choosing local products in the supermarket or avoiding products with excessive packaging. It can mean growing more plants, or walking, biking or using public transport. Influencing our workplaces can be done whether you work for a government institution, civil society organization, academic institution or private company! Personally, working as an urban/spatial planner at UN-Habitat Kosovo, I have tried to push forward more low-carbon and resilient spatial planning approaches towards a more sustainable and climate-savvy development in Kosovo – among them supporting the development and implementation of a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan in Mitrovica South, drafting urban mobility guidelines for Kosovo’s cities, supporting Kosovo Earth Days campaign, and supporting the Kosovo Climate Action campaign. I have introduced my PhD research on assessing human and institutional capacities on climate change management within the planning and urbanism departments in Kosovo’s municipalities, and supported other activities towards institutional and civil society mobilization towards low-carbon development and climate resilience building. But tackling climate change is not a lone wolf thing. My and your actions alone cannot stop it. Increased action is needed by ALL, supported by strong and visionary leadership, fact-based and well-informed planning, inclusionary processes, as well as technological innovation (luckily, we have so many bright minds). Surely, we can reduce climate change impacts on our communities and limit further warming! So, hop on, roll up your sleeves, and join us in saving Earth! The views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the United Nations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What are you doing to combat climate change? Tweet about it by tagging #KosovoClimateAction. Or ask your employer to join the Voluntary Commitments  English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GMKTKJ6 Albanian: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GMKTKJ6?lang=sq Serbian: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GMKTKJ6?lang=sr

The world stays with young people, and it is the youngsters who are agents of change for the better. What is their legacy in Kosovo? Do they take care of cultural monuments and nurture traditions? This year's European Heritage Days are a celebration of Inclusive and Diverse Heritage, emphasizing that interaction between individuals and communities with diverse backgrounds can enrich our lives. UNDP Kosovo is implementing the Cultural Heritage as a Driver for Intercommunity Dialogue and Social Cohesion project funded by the European Union and its Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace — precisely with the aim to actively involve young people in respecting their heritage, building it and preserving it. Through this project, we came across fantastic young people for whom cultural heritage, in any shape or form, is something special. These young people are role models for others and their contribution to the preservation of cultural monuments is already immeasurable. Through the Cultural Heritage project, which UNDP Kosovo has been implementing for four years now, young people from Kosovo of all ethnicities and nationalities are participating in camps for the restoration of cultural monuments and places of public importance. These young people, dedicated to the care of their heritage, gather, learn, and work diligently to cleanse and restore them. Just recently, we met one of them. Melisa Syla, an architect from Pristina, participated in several restoration camps when she was in her final year at the University of Prishtina, studying architecture. We met in the old town in front of Sahat Kulla, one of the oldest monuments in the capital of Kosovo. It dates from the 19th century and manifests an example of architecture representing economic development and the beginning of the Western influence on the Ottoman architecture of the time in Kosovo. “Sahat” means “clock”, so this tower was meant to show the time and serve as a landmark for giving directions. We met Melisa there. Melisa is looking forward to the restoration of this monument, and as an architect, sees it in a special light and significance. We talked to Melisa about her experience in restoration camps and how much they mean to her. “I have been part of restoration camps since 2016, and in Kosovo, I have worked on the restoration of Catholic Letnica Church and an old watermill. It was amazing to meet other young people who share the same interest. My job was to talk to local people and search for data about the watermill and its importance. I met the owner of that watermill who is now in his late 80’s and he showed us how it works and told us stories about it. Just beautiful," Melisa told us. “As an architect employed in Prishtinë/Priština, I am passionate about old buildings and premises, monuments and their original look. Why was I in the restoration camps? For me, turning an old building or monument into function and use presents a special approach to our past. I had an opportunity to meet new friends of all ethnicities and we are still in touch,” Melisa told us. Her positive personality shows a bright future for Prishtinë/Priština and at the same time her interest in this topic is not over, in fact it has just begun. Just a few kilometers from Prishtinë/Priština , in Graçanicë/Gračanica, exciting projects are taking place on the topic of youth cooperation in Kosovo. NGO Young Active Gračanica, with the support of the Cultural Heritage Project, has launched an unusual initiative that only young people can think of: the “Dictionary of the words that need no translation” project. The initiator of this activity is Petar Djordjević, manager of the NGO Youth Active Gračanica. The project brings together young people from all over Kosovo for the creation of the dictionary of common words from Albanian and Serbian languages. Petar told us that he managed to gather 34 participants from both communities for three days in Brezovicë/a, including the NGO volunteers, where they identified as many as 400 common words. We met Petar and other participants of the workshop: Alban, Elona, Edona and Lidija at the Ulpiana site in Graçcanicë/Gračanica. They presented to us their vision. "We do it through fun! Only while we are sitting and talking do we come to words like patos,' 'laminat,' 'asicare,' 'hajde,' and many others. We agreed that the continuation of this project will be an 'Obviously a super initiative,' said Petar. This project seems attractive to Elona, as well, as she is travelling from Prizren just to be part of this. Edona is from Pristina and she is doing an internship in Graçanicë/Gračanica, exchanging her knowledge and experience with young people of different ethnicities.  As you watch this young, talented group, you realize how much opportunity for friendship is missed and how much more space these people need to express themselves. Peter says that this is not only an opportunity to create a dictionary like this, but it is also an opportunity to make friends. Just like this group of young people, who are yet to start their careers, proves that there is great potential for cooperation across communities. We ended the conversation with Alban, a guy from Pristina, a cheerful and smiling spirit, who gave us his impression of this project: "It's very simple! We have a lot of differences but when we hang out, we realize how many similarities we have! This approach helps to celebrate similarities and let's leave the differences aside." We reach Prizren, a historic city and a cultural heritage hub. Outside the city center, on the way to the mountains, we stop by a picturesque setting: green peaks in the background, river running through the gorge, and a two-story building that resembles a small castle. It used to be a hydropower plant known as "Prizrenasja," and it supplied the city with electricity from 1929, when it was built, until the early 1970's. Its exterior has since been restored and now remains an architectural monument of cultural heritage, while the Cultural Heritage project will be restoring its interior and making it accessible to all.   This is where we meet Sinem Dana, a young Prizren native of Albanian and Turkish background. She's an aspiring interior architect with a passion for exploring and restoring the legacy of cultural institutions in her community. She has had the opportunity to do that — in the company of fellow youngsters from diverse backgrounds, no less — at restoration camps held in 2019 in her own town Prizren, as well as in Gjakova/Đakovica.   These experiences had a profound effect on her, as they offered her a chance to connect with fellow citizens of an older age by having in-depth conversations with them to inform the restoration efforts. As she says, "Before, I never really had an opportunity to go and ask people questions, and so when I asked them, usually they said 'No, no, I can't talk', but once they started, they told me so many things about the towns' histories, about the ways they used to socialize back then and how that has now changed." As she starts talking about the fruitful discussions she's had with other participants in these camps and the lessons now ingrained in her head, her voice goes up an octave from excitement. "There were many of us and we discussed everything that we saw and heard during those days, because every single one of us noticed a different detail."  On a more personal level, she's used the camps to develop her professional skills by doing intricate manual labor such as wood carving. They also marked the first and second time, respectively, that she went up on a scaffold, along with other creative and strong young women who made up most participants. "The people in the houses around us stood there watching," Sinem said proudly. "Hey, the girls are also working hard." UNDP Kosovo’s support to cultural heritage in Kosovo is now in its third phase with generous and continuous financial support from the European Union’s Instrument contributing to Stability and Peace (IcSP). In the last several years, more than 30 cultural and religious sites have been renovated or rehabilitated across Kosovo - enabling residents and visitors to enjoy beautiful architectural buildings. The selection of sites for renovation has always been done in close consultation with all religious communities, including the Islamic Community of Kosovo, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church in Kosovo as well as Dervish Orders. The cultural sites, such as the Hydroelectric Museum, represent buildings that each ethnic community in Prizren and in Kosovo can relate to and enjoy the visits to. These activities would not have been possible without close partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, municipalities, and community representatives.

The #RealitetiRi project partners, namely the President of the Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, Berat Rukiqi, and the Executive Director of the CiviKos Platform, Donika Emini, held a joint press conference to present their recommendations on the latest developments in dealing with the pandemic and the possibility of increasing the vaccination rate in  Kosovo. The following recommendations were gathered from consultations with business representatives and partners from the civil society during the project activities: 🟢 Removal of the bureaucracy in booking appointments for simplified and easier access; 🟢 Enabling vaccination at the nearest center, regardless of the officially registered place of residence; 🟢 Vaccination through mobile teams at businesses premises, as their economic activity is being hindered by limited vaccination hours meanwhile the risk of unvaccinated employees continuing contact with people increases; 🟢 Mobile vaccination teams for more rural and isolated areas, especially those inhabited mainly by communities that have less access to proper information; 🟢 Reorganize the healthcare resources for extending vaccination schedules over the weekend. This is especially important given that many citizens find it impossible to get vaccinated during working days, especially if they work in other cities away from their registered place of residence; 🟢 Vaccination in the main cities’ squares in order to achieve figures that coincide with a mass vaccination; 🟢 Cooperate with other countries to ensure that our vaccination passport will be accepted as evidence by them and prevent any obstacles to free movement. The full press release for today's conference can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/kcc-civikos

As long as he can remember, he was compassionate towards vulnerable persons, especially children. As soon as he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy - Department of Social Work at University of Prishtina, Tahir started working as a volunteer, an experience that exposed him to how vulnerable children cope in their daily lives. Although rewarding, he struggled at times to handle the emotional stress from the work. But, with persistence and a true vision of wanting to make a difference, he persisted and kept working with and support vulnerable children, and that – in turn - made him understand the transformational power of being listened to, loved and valued. And so for Tahir, communication was key!   “This part of the community is in need for attention, and I needed to do my part!”. Right after graduation, given that his major was on a very specific field, he was skeptical about employment prospects. Yet, his ambition to find a job that would allow him to contribute to the society kept his hopes up. After a few attempts, he came across an advertisement published by UNDP and he decided to apply. The project ‘Response to COVID-19 Emergency and Early Recovery Support’ was looking for 40 UN volunteers to work in centers for social work across Kosovo. The aim of the project is to assist the most vulnerable by improving socio-economic support systems, including delivery of social services and enhancing access to equitable, qualitative, integrated social protection for the most vulnerable groups including women and girls. ’Today, thanks to this project I’m able to do what I loved doing since I was a kid’, says Tahir.  After a few months into the job, Tahir is thrilled and excited about the prospects of the change he, with his colleagues in the center, can make. This includes his involvement in 6 cases where he’s supported the reconciliation and rebuilding the trust within families, 8 cases with children that were left on the streets, 1 case with a child without parental care, 2 child adoption procedures, and lots of counseling sessions with families who have asked help on how to solve different family problems.   “Tahir is hardworking, energetic, passionate, and ambitious. He brought so much energy and professionalism with the work that he does with us, that I would easily compare him with other members of the staff that have professional experience” – notes Dervish Tahir, director of Center for Social Work in Gjakovë/Djakovica. As far as his career ambitions go, Tahir considers that he will continue in this line of work. In face, if you ask him, he would not change it for anything in the world, because he knows the impact his work has, and that this is what he wants to pursue. Even when asked about the difficult cases that he must face on daily basis, Tahir says: “Cases vary. I had cases of children abandoned by their families, children of whose caretakers were elderly grandparents who themselves are in need of support and therefore struggle to take care of children, and cases of street children that does not want to go home because of the domestic neglect and abuse - these cases have significantly increased during the pandemic. You hear so many different stories from these children, it sometimes affects you psychologically and creates problems on carrying with my daily activities. But, the good thing is that now, I have learned to better manage my work and private life and mental health, so I can go to the gym, hang out with my friends, attend courses - to live life, really. After working with children for a while, I see progress - they are happier, they grow, they are full of love! This gives me so much joy! I continue to keep contact with them, so they understand that people care about them, that I CARE, and I WORK HARD to support them live better lives”. Tahir shares one particular difficult case. This involved an 8 year-old boy from the roman community. When we first got in touch with him, he was clearly neglected, malnourished, hungry, barefoot, and very aggressive as a result of the violence he had experienced in his family. His parents got divorced, the mother did not want him since she got remarried, his father was unemployed and living in very poor conditions, and they had a really hard time convincing him to agree on living with a foster family. “This was the case that made me understand that communication, affection, empathy is what these children need. This was the case that moved me to the core and it also made me realize that this boy is not the only one, there are a lot of vulnerable children out there and needed the most basic care, food, clothes, a roof on their heads and on top they need to be loved and taken care of”. Tahir shared how the wellbeing, attitude and mental health of the boy has drastically changed. “Even today, I still go and check on him to see how he is doing. I had an extraordinary experience with him, and through this experience I followed up the progress and understood how important my work and the work of our center is” - said Tahir. The engagement of the 40 UN Volunteers work in all Centers for Social Work (CSWs) across Kosovo continues to provide an immediate capacity boost of human capacities and innovative energy for the Centers, while, at the same time, provide professional experience for young social workers. This activity is part of the Response to CODID-19 Emergency and Early Recovery Support Project, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by UNDP in Kosovo.