The Beneficiary Institutions
The main Beneficiary Institutions of the Kosovo Environmental Programme are the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP) and the Inter-Ministerial Water Council (IMWC) of the Republic of Kosovo. The mandate of the MESP was defined by the UNMIK regulation no.2002/5 and 2005/15 while the general organisation was defined by the Administrative Instruction n. Within these regulatory responsibilities the MESP is responsible to the drafting and implementation of the legislation and related policies in the field of Environment, Water, Waste Management, Air Protection, Nature Protection, Housing, Spatial Planning and Construction. In order to do such a thing, the Ministry has set up departments, institutes and the Kosovo Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA). The MESP has the mandate to develop, recommend and implement policies, norms and standards and the coordination of activities for environmental protection, water management, environmental inspection and spatial planning. It is also responsible for the implementation of the policies and legislation with respect to environmental protection and spatial planning. The IMWC is a committee of relevant Government Ministers chaired by the Prime-Minister, which is also responsible for improving the situation in the water sector through the development of sector policies and action plans based on good practices. The main functions of the IMWC are: (i) to propose laws and other sub-legal acts relating to the regulation of matters of the water field in general; (ii) to implement the laws and other sub-legal acts relating to water management; (iii) to draft and approve the National Water Strategy; (iv) to develop the policy in the field of water; (v) to resolve the financial policy in the water field. Therefore, the IMWC is a coordinating and decision-making body composed by relevant Government Ministers chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, which is responsible for improving the situation in the water sector through the examination of the systematic issues of water, the harmonization of the different needs and interests and the proposal of measures for the development, utilization and protection of water resources and water system of Kosovo. The IMWC provides the forum for collecting and evaluating the positive experiences in the water sector, but also the drawbacks in implementation, communication and cooperation. Furthermore, it offers a platform for the development of policies for reforming the water sector considering different perspectives, from the one of the water users to the one of the water service providers. The IMWC also develops and approves the policies required to ensure the sustainability of the reforms and the investments in the water sector.
The Funding Agency
The implementation of the Kosovo Environmental Programme is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), which is a government authority with the main goal of contributing to enabling poor people to improve their living conditions. As other Swedish government agencies, Sida works independently within the framework established by the Swedish Government and Parliament. They decide on the financial limits, the countries with which Sweden (and thus, Sida) will cooperate, and the focus and content of that cooperation. For additional information, please visit Sida. The Embassy of Sweden in Pristina represents Sweden in Kosovo. The Embassy engages in political dialogue and monitors and reports on political and economic affairs to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Stockholm. The Embassy also manages Sweden’s reform cooperation with Kosovo. The Embassy is fully delegated, which means that it decides on and monitors all bilateral support financed by Sida in Kosovo. The reform cooperation between Sweden and Kosovo is governed by the Swedish government’s “Results strategy for reform cooperation with Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans and Turkey for the period 2014–2020”. One of three expected results within the strategy is a “A better environment, reduced climate impact and enhanced resilience to environmental impact and climate change”. With the aim of contributing to this result, Sweden and the Kosovo Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning (MESP) have entered into an agreement 2016-2020, on support to MESP and Inter-Ministerial Water Council (IMWC) in implementing the Kosovo Environmental Programme (KEP).
The Team
The Team of the project is composed by the officials of the Beneficiary Institutions and by the experts selected by the Framework Service Provider (FSP) to implement the related Technical Assistance (TA) services. Each of the 8 KEP Components is lead by a Head of Implementing Unit represented by a public official of the beneficiary institution under the coordination of the Head of a Project Facilitation Unit (PFU) represented by the Director of the Environmental Protection and Water Department of the MESP. The FSP is composed by the Core Team (CT) Specialists, a Pool of Short Term Experts (STE), and the Framework Management (Backstopping) Team (FMT). The Core Team, led by the Programme Team Leader (PTL) and also encompassing the Participation and Gender Expert (PGE), the 3 Component Team Leaders (CTL) and the 2 Local Team Managers (LTM), is the main point of contact with the counterparts in the implementing Units, and together with the counterparts, identifies the need for Short Term input. The support of the Core Team (CT), interacting with their respective counterparts in the different implementation Units, needs to be complemented with additional expertise covering a wide range of specific competences. The Framework Service Provider (FSP) has broad networks of consultants that match the areas covered by the KEP. The Framework Team assists the PFU and Implementing Units in identifying and planning short term input needs, to be able to engage experts as early as possible, ensuring the availability and continuity of the short term assistance.
The Consulting Companies
The Kosovo Environmental Programme is implemented with a support of a Technical Assistance provided by a Consortium of International Consulting Companies that awarded the related tender during the first half of 2016. Such Consortium, also called “Framework Service Provider” (FSP) is lead by FCG Sweden, the new face of ORGUT and SIPU International. Combining ORGUT and SIPU’s experience with that of the wider FCG Group, FCG Sweden gives access to its customers and partners to a much broader selection of services and best practices from a wide range of sectors and countries. Together, all these companies represent 40 years of Swedish expertise in international development consulting. The partner of the Consortium is EPTISA Servicios de Ingegneria S.A. from Spain. EPTISA is a multinational company specialised in engineering, consultancy, information technologies and institutional, economic and social development, clearly oriented towards service to the client, carrying out the most complex projects in the fields of Transport, Water and the Environment, Building, Energy and Industry; applying technological knowledge, creativity, innovation and the latest technologies to progress towards sustainable development of society, to the benefit of people’s welfare. Other 2 companies are sub-contracted for the provision of the Technical Assistance Services. These are RECURA from Kosovo, mainly providing the best Kosovan experts that are required by the KEP and NCG from Sweden that is providing the international and Kosovan experts that are assisting the project team and the beneficiary institutions in the horizontal implementation of the gender and equality policies within all KEP components.