As soon as the military conflict of 1999 was over, Kosovo found itself unprepared and unable to respond to the reconstruction challenges and rapid urban development of that period. There was an urgent need for assistance and responsive actions to the challenges of uncontrolled urbanization. UN-HABITAT was one of the first group of development agencies to respond to this need. Its mandate from the UN General Assembly it’s to promote socially and environmentally sustainable towns and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

For many years UN-HABITAT has been promoting good governance, security of tenure, sustainable human settlements development and inclusive spatial planning in Kosovo and the broader region. UN-HABITAT’s initial interventions were focused on the establishment of institutions, such as the Housing and Property Directorate and the Kosovo Cadastre Agency to deal with property issues and on building capacities for efficient management of local governments through several programmes: Local Government Programme, Municipal Support Programme, Urban Planning and Management Programme, Governance and Development Planning Programme. The last three programmes were funded by the Government of the Netherlands.

At present, UN-HABITAT implements the 2^nd phase of Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme (MuSPP2) funded by the Government of Sweden through Sida. This programme is a follow up to the first phase initiated in 2005 and completed in 2008. Under the current 3-year activity schedule, MuSPP2 will support partner municipalities in the consolidation of participatory urban and spatial planning, implementation of capital projects, and will strengthen their capacities for inter-municipal and cross-border cooperation.

The motto of the MuSPP is “Making Better Cities Together” which shows that better life for the citizens of Kosovo can be achieved only by working and planning together. The first phase of MuSPP was concentrated in 6 secondary cities of Kosova and assisted these municipalities in drafting Municipal Development Plans and Urban Development Plans. The purpose was to help the municipalities drafting plans which would be strategic, action oriented and drafted in an inclusive, participatory and gender- sensitive manner.

Today most of these municipalities have completed these plans and are in the preparation phase for drafting Urban Regulatory Plans which are to provide basic for projects to be implemented by private and public investments. The new phase of the programme, MuSPP2, has a regional approach and promoted closer cooperation between municipalities. It operates from four main municipal centres and provides limited assistance to new established small municipalities.

MuSPP 2 applies two primary methods for enhancing municipal capacities: on the job assistance and learning-by-doing. On the job assistance is conducted through MuSPP teams composed of international and local planning officers who assist the municipalities in identifying strategic capital projects which result from the planning process. This method is also used to ensure that planning process is participatory, inclusive and action oriented.

Throughout its implementation, MuSPP conducted different projects, activities and events that contributed towards sustainable human settlement development.

Addressing problems of Informal Settlements is a critical part of tacking poverty and improving governance in Kosovo. Therefore this has been an important objective of MuSPP Programme. Several conferences, workshops and meetings were conducted with relevant stakeholders. Detailed technical advice has been provided to the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning which is currently formulating the strategy on Informal Settlements.

Transport and mobility is one of the key thematic components of the programme. Nonmotorised transport is one of the issues that has been in the focus of cooperation activities involving different stakeholders including International and local agencies, NGO’s and civil society organizations in general.

The “Tour de Culture”, an event aimed at promoting non-motorized transport with the special emphasis of cycling. It showed how the promotion of non-motorised transport can be linked to sport, recreation and the promotion of cultural heritage sites within Kosovo. The Tour of Culture will become a fixed event in the sports and cultural calendar of Kosovo and will become part of World Heritage Days and European Mobility Week which are held every October.

Taking into consideration past experience in Kosovo regarding natural disasters, MuSPP2 has established a small team to assist the Municipalities to undertake the initiative to conduct a disaster and risk management assessment as one of the components of Kosovo’s Municipal and Urban Development Plans. Many municipalities have been hit by natural disasters such as floods, forest fires while buildings built in the last decade do not always respond to the construction standards for earthquake-prone areas. This is the primary reason why this issue has to be recognized and seriously addressed in these plans.

The MuSPP2 will, throughout its implementation, will work closely with local and central level institutions as well as civil society aiming at strengthening their capacities and enabling them to take tasks related to spatial planning and project design, implementation and monitoring, while recognizing different interests and, needs and priorities of girls and boys and men and women.

Source: Article was written for and published in: KFOR edition of MIKE, March 2009