Heads of UN agencies and the Development Coordinator for Kosovo recently held their first meeting with the newly elected Prime Minister of Kosovo, Mr. Albin Kurti and the Acting President and Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Glauk Konjufca, including the Minister of Health, Mr. Arben Vitija, as well as other senior government representatives.

Prime Minister Kurti and Speaker Konjufca appreciated UN-Habitat’s partnership with the northern municipalities in the process of integrating them into the Kosovo-wide spatial planning framework. Under its’ Inclusive Development Programme supported by the Government of Sweden, UN-Habitat and partners are providing technical assistance to Kosovo municipalities on their way to developing local-central alignment with the Kosovo-wide planning framework. The Programme’s Capital Investment Facility enables the implementation of these planning documents through the co-financed investments on practical municipal infrastructures and service delivery with positive impacts on people’s livelihoods and well-being as well as enhanced climate and environmental outcomes.

The Prime Minister and Speaker further expressed the importance of UN-Habitat’s work on social housing with the Council of Europe Development Bank. Investments in social housing open up immense opportunities to support more effective regulation of the entire housing sector in Kosovo, especially provision of housing and socio-economic integration for the repatriated, vulnerable and middle-income households.

The meeting was an important opportunity to renew the commitment to increase UN-Habitat’s role in advancing the role of cities and sustainable urban development for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals in line with European integration.