Kosovo property rights program midterm performance evaluation

The USAID/Kosovo Property Rights Program (PRP) sought to improve the property rights regime in Kosovo, strengthen rule of law (RoL), and increase economic growth and investment. PRP has been instrumental in developing the National Property Rights Strategy for Kosovo, expanding the understanding of women’s rights to property through a popular outreach campaign, increasing efficiency in courts focusing on property rights cases, and ensuring that even the most remote municipalities have staff and institutions working toward enhancing citizens’ (and especially women’s) rights to inherit and register property. Even though Kosovo has made notable progress, led by PRP, in its property rights regime, it continues to face major challenges. Specifically, Kosovo has yet to define the different forms of public property, mindsets—most notably among men—about women’s property rights continue to impede equal access to property rights, and education at law faculties as well as in the primary and secondary school systems does not focus on gender or gender equality under the law. Even though the Government of Kosovo, supported by USAID and PRP, has passed legislation to positively impact property rights, there is still limited political and judicial capacity to enforce it.