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Background – Years after the end of the war, Kosovo still suffers from the consequences. Key challenges for the economical development are the unsettled political status and the latent animosity between the different ethnicities. Additional barriers are historically rooted weaknesses and the destroyed infrastructure that has not been rebuilt completely yet despite build-up aid worth billions of Euro. The weakly developed industrial sector is not able to provide enough jobs. It has to be feared that unemployment – already one of the country’s biggest challenges – increases further. Extremely difficult is the situation for women, who are often disadvantaged in a patriarchal society and who do generally have fewer opportunities than men.

The project – Since 2001 Swisscontact is active in the region. It is our aim to create new employment opportunities to help reducing poverty. We empower small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and support a stable economic state.

Young women receive further training to support their entry into the employment market. We advance local vocational schools in the sectors of advice and apprenticeship and in the development of courses according to the needs of businesswomen and unemployed women.
Thereby we ensure that Kosovarian women gain on-site knowledge.
Businesswomen are able to participate in management, accounting and marketing courses at reduced costs. This allows them to establish and expand their businesses and to create new workstations. For unemployed women further education with subsequent internships in local businesses are offered.

Together with the media we work on the transformation of traditional patterns and the sustainable improvement of the social and economical framework requirements.
Beyond that we organize exhibitions where successful businesswomen and their products or services are presented to encourage young women and to dismantle prejudices.