UN-Habitat's Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme (MuSPP), together with the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Local Government Administration, the Agency for Gender Equality within the Prime Minister's Office, the Association of Kosovo Municipalities, and Friedrich Ebert Foundation, organised a roundtable debate on "The Planning Process and Gender Perspective - Challenges and Practices". The RTD was held on 21^st May 2013, in Prishtina. 

The intention of this roundtable was to present planning practices within a gender perspective as well as to address and analyse the challenges at central and local level in Kosovo.

The Roundtable was honoured with the presence of the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Governance Administration (MLGA) Mr. Besnik Osmani, who pointed out the importance of participation and gender perspective in the process of spatial planning and in its implementation. The Agency for Gender Equality (AGE) within the Prime Minister's Office was represented by its Head of Office, Mrs. Edona Hajrullahu, who pointed out the policies that have been drafted and all the steps that have been taken by the central government to address gender sensitive issues in Kosovo. The Head of the Spatial Planning Department within MESP, Mr. Agim Radoniqi, emphasized the importance of gender sensitive planning processes, having in mind the needs of men and women, boys and girls, as required by the Law on Spatial Planning (LSP) in Kosovo. The director of AKM, Mr. Sazan Ibrahimi, gave a general overview on the work that the Collegiums within AKM are doing on gender mainstreaming, and emphasized the importance of the exchange of good experiences. Mrs. Maria Melbing, Counsellor and Head of Development Cooperation at the Swedish Embassy in Kosovo pointed out the importance and centrality of gender issues in development cooperation reminding that gender issues are more than just 'women's issues'; they should be important for all. Mr. Wulf Lapins, Head of Friederich Ebert Foundation (FES) in Prishtina emphasized that gender policy is central at FES and that gender equality, as a fundamental democratic principle, needs to be strengthened at the local level in Kosovo.

After the opening speeches different cases and experiences were presented from the Agency for Gender Equality (AGE), and from four partner MuSPP municipalities (Ferizaj/Urosevac, Mamushë/Mamusa, Graçanicë/Gracanica and Junik). The last presentation was done by the director of the office for Gender Equality within the University of Prishtina.

This event was also a good opportunity to promote UN-Habitat/MuSPP's publication "Visioning Toolkit", published in 2012 during the sixth World Urban Forum (WUF) in Naples, Italy. The publication encompasses MuSPP's experiences in the visioning workshops held during 2007-2011, as well as the guidelines on visioning as a participatory planning tool. This publication is also published in the main UN-Habitat webpage and is being used from different local and international organizations in Kosovo and elsewhere.

The Roundtable concluded with discussions on challenges and problems faced by central and local level institutions in Kosovo. Feedback was collected from participants through a questionnaire, which will be a good basis for further work of the group working on gender mainstreaming guidelines.

Present at this Roundtable were representatives from central and local level institutions such as representatives from all Kosovo municipalities, Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Local Government Administration, Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, Association of Kosovo Municipalities (AKM), and MuSPP staff, in a total of 130 participants.