During the third week of November 2017,framed within the Inclusive Development Programme and facilitated by UN-Habitat and Community Building Mitrovica, a programmatic workshop was held with the participation of more than thirty-five representatives from the partner municipalities of Leposavic, Mitrovica North, ZubinPotok and Zvecan, as well as the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP) and Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA).

The aim of the workshop was to take stock of the one-year inception phase of the Programme and to discuss and agree on the concrete way forward at the municipal level in line with the priorities emerging from the comprehensive baseline assessment undertaken at the start of the Programme and the state of play of governance in respective municipalities with a focus on kick-starting strategic planning processes.

The workshop was opened by Mr. Ivan Todosijevic, Minister of Local Government Administration, Mr.Besim Demi,Deputy Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning and Ms. GwendolineMennetrier, Chief Technical Adviser of UN-Habitat Kosovo.

This was followed by framing presentationson findings and recommendations derived from the baseline assessment at municipal, civil society, public perception and gender level. Dedicated presentations documented milestones achieved so far and next steps, notably for the spatial and sectoralassessment made available for the four northern municipalities and community planning tools and steps pioneeredin Mali Zvecan in support of the drafting of the Municipal Development Plan(MDP) and strengthening mutual and constructive dialogue with communities on enhanced living conditions.

To complement the framing picture, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning introduced the Spatial Planning and Construction Reform Packageand the Spatial Planning Application for Kosovo (SPAK) as an overarching instrument encapsulating municipal data and generating maps in support of planning at the local level.

Based on the above and the inspiring example of Peja municipality when it comes to the MDP development process, the associated tools, schedule and participatory mechanisms, group exercises started focused on the development of work plans and identification of stakeholders for a given urban issue in relation to the MDP drafting process. Each group was composed by representatives of one municipality plus supportive representatives from MESP and UN-Habitat.

All groups had the opportunity to report backon their selected approach to the exercise and their proposal for the outline work plan, as a preliminary step to draft comprehensive work plans for the drafting of their respective MDPs. Feedback and exchange sessions acknowledged the important role citizens should play in the development of their municipalitiesand ministries emphasised their readiness to support the local governments in that endeavour.

This workshop provided a great opportunity to strengthen professional dialogue and exchange of ideas between local and, central governmentsas well as civil society. Throughout the three days of the event, participants proved to be highly engaged with further implementing the programme activities in line with the integrated approach and next steps presented and largely opened to deepen the collaborative approaches early initiated between the different levels of governance within the Programme.

The programmatic workshops for the seven northern municipalities are part of Inclusive Development Programme, an initiative that is being 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.