Partners and Actors
The Ministry of Local Government Administration (MLGA)
The Government of Belgium
UNDP Kosovo
Background and Priorities
The preparatory phase of Art Gold Program was initiated by UNDP Kosovo in 2009. The Program activities were integrated with the UNDP project “Conservation of Biodiversity and Sustainable Land Use Management”, active in Dragash Municipality. During 2010-2011, the Program was implemented in five villages within the area of Dragash municipality: Bellobrad, Blaç, Brod, Brrut and Restelica. By late 2011 and early 2012, five additional villages/communities from Dragash Municipality were selected to be included in the second phase of ART programme: Bresane, Kuk, Shajne, Rapce, and Zlipotok.
Activities in details
Four priority projects have been completed in 2012: Construciton of a sports field for the primary school in Bresane village, the construction of a road in village centre in Kuk village, the construction of the school road in Shajne village and the rehabilitation of water supply system in Rapca village.
Besides, with the support of UNDP Bratislava Regional Office, the Program established a public blog which aimed to introduce a new way of interaction between communities (Bellobrad, Brrut, Blac, Brod, Restelica; Bresane, Kuk, Shajne, Rapca and Zlipotok), UNDP Project in Dragash and Dragash municipal leadership. Community blogging has several benefits, such as sharing of experiences and ideas, strengthening the local identity of communities, increasing female participation, improving the outreach to decentralized cooperation networks… Under this activity, 15 community bloggers were selected from 10 target villages. They received proper training and post information regularly at the blog page “Window to Dragash”, which is related to community development issues and activities. This blog project has been shared by ART Gold Programme officer in ART ISI@MED workshop on “The Use of ICT for Local Development” in Beirut.
During 2012, the Program, in cooperation with UNDP Dragash Project (CBSLM), provided training for the following areas to members of ten Local Working Groups (39 participants): leadership skills; installation of solar thermal systems; and implementation of EE measures in buildings with a focus on thermal insulation. The Local Working Groups were also consulted in identifying young people from the respective villages with good social innovative ideas to become part of the Competitive Innovation Camp organized in Dragash by UNICEF Youth by Youth section of Kosovo. As a result, five innovative (for Dragash communities) project ideas from Dragash Municipality were approved by UNICEF, and will be implemented during 2013.
A very important achievement of the Program in 2012 was also the generation of first initiatives towards establishment of decentralized cooperation networks between Dragash municipality, Umbria Region and Siena Province. As an initial activity towards the establishment of such decentralized cooperation networks was a study visit from Dragash municipality to Italy, in cooperation with FELCOS Umbria.
Results at national level
The Programme is one of the first participative cooperation projects that is based on the demand of the territory in Kosovo and is a good experience that can be duplicated in other regions of the country.
Further information: