Kosovo Local Government Institute is providing support to the Ministry of Finance in the process of drafting the Law on Local Government Finance, and as such organized a consultative meeting with civil society stakeholders to discuss about the concept-document for this Law.

The working group of the Law on Local Government Finance has drafted the concept-document which is now going through the consultation process. Hence, this consultative meeting aimed: i) to inform civil society stakeholders on the progress of this process and ii) to gather inputs and increase their involvement in this process.

Part of this meeting were the representatives of civil society organizations, representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Local Government Administration, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

While analyzing the functioning of local government, numerous issues that need intervention have been identified. Such issues have been presented in the concept-document of the Law on Local Government Finance which was distributed to civil society stakeholders.

The issues that are addressed in the concept-document of this Law are as follows: the clarification of competences among the two levels of governance; the improvement of service delivery; the improvement of representation in the Grant Commission; the advancement of social services; the own source revenues; the establishment of criteria for planning municipal revenues; the establishment of clear criteria for investments from the central to the local level; the advancement of standards and criteria on the specific grant for education and health; the improvement of financial sustainability for small municipalities.

During the consultative meeting, it was pointed out that it is crucial for the concept-document to undergo through a wide and open consultation process, taking into account the importance of sustainable financing for municipal services. This process requires solutions to many challenges and obstacles of the current Law.

This activity is organized within the project entitled “Support for Stronger and Sustainable Municipalities (SSSM)”, financed by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kosovo.