Last week, on 10-14 September, 2017, were held in Durrës the programmatic workshops for two partner municipalities (Skenderaj/ Srbica and Vushtrri/ Vucitrn) of the Inclusive Development Programme. The main purpose of the workshops was to familiarize various municipal officials from diverse departments with the importance of spatial planning and their respective roles, especially when it comes to the drafting and implementation of various planning documents. More specifically these workshops aimed at making all participants further acquainted with the objectives of the Inclusive Development Programme and respective components tailored to their needs and to be supported by UN-Habitat, PAX and CBM, as well as getting commitment by all respective stakeholders to devote and take responsibility during development and implementation of working plans for these components.

Workshops were attended by 70 officials and representatives from various municipal directorates of Skenderaj / Srbica and Vushtrri / Vucitrn as well as civil society organizations operating in these respective municipalities. The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning and the Institute for Spatial Planning together with UN-Habitat, PAX and CBM facilitated the workshops.

These were two-day workshops. The first day was dedicated to presentation and discussion of baseline assessment findings related to the municipal capacities in spatial planning, as well as the capacities of civil society organizations to engage in the drafting processes of municipal strategic documents. While the second day concentrated entirely on the group work (composed by officials/representatives/facilitators from municipalities, civil society organizations, Ministry of Environment and Spatial planning, Institute of Spatial Planning and UN-Habitat) for the development of work plans (defining tasks, responsibilities, timeframe, current status of activities, potential risks etc.) for 6 identified priorities (separately for  each of the municipalities).

In total there were four working groups for the Municipality of Skenderaj and four working groups for the Municipality of Vushtrri. The groups were tasked with discussing and completing draft work plans for: the Evaluation of the Municipal Development Plan; establishing Database for Spatial Planning (local level); drafting of the Municipal Zoning Map, drafting and implementing of the Citizen Participation Plan, Neighbourhood-based planning deliberation and strengthening the Civil Society Organizations.

At the end all the groups presented their draft work plans, which are expected to be harmonized, finalized, presented to the Board of Directors/Mayor and consequently to start implementing them.

The programmatic workshops are part of the inception phase of the Inclusive Development Programme an initiative that is jointly implemented by UN-Habitat, PAX and CBM. The programme is funded by the Swedish Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, and strives to foster good governance in northern Kosovo.