During the first week of June, 2017, UN-Habitat delivered a series of cartographic documentation workshops for central level and municipal staff from the four Serb-majority municipalities of Zvecan, Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Mitrovica North. The workshops are part of the Inclusive Development Programme, an initiative implemented by UN-Habitat and its partner agencies, PAX and Community Building Mitrovica (CBM), in seven municipalities.

The cartographic documentation workshops took place between the 1^st and the 8^th of June. The sessions form part of the Rapid Spatial and Sectoral Situation Documentation and Assessment, a set of activities which will lead to a comprehensive spatial and sectoral planning catalogue, which in turn will serve as a basis for future planning interventions in the four Serb-majority municipalities.

In addition to the municipal staff, north-based officers from the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP) participated in all the cartographic documentation workshops. The participants worked in groups on a spatial and sectoral basis, each of the groups were assigned a specific aspect for the mapping exercise, such as land use and natural resources, technical infrastructure (waste-water, electricity, telecommunications etc.), transport and road networks, social service centers and other public facilities like schools, government buildings and health care centers. After creating a registry of all of the facilities, networks and infrastructure systems, the participants continued by mapping these physically on printed orthographic satellite images of each municipality. The latter exercise is preparatory work for the subsequent geo-referencing, which will be conducted by the UN-Habitat team.

The next activity will be photographic documentation of the systems, facilities and networks that were mapped during the workshops. The field sessions will be held in the second half of June. The participants had already participated in a one-day Geographic Information System (GIS) training delivered in partnership with the Institute of Spatial Planning (part of MESP).

The programme Fostering inclusive development and good governance in northern Kosovo is funded by the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The aim of the programme is to strengthen municipal planning capacities in the northern municipalities of Kosovo and promote good governance principles, such as transparency and accountability, in the respective local government administrations. The programme also strives to strengthen social cohesion, support the active participation of civil society and foster integration efforts.

Please visit the Inclusive Development Programme Facebook Page for social media updates on this initiative.