Articles about Kosovo

Young people and groups with vulnerabilities in the Western Balkans face a great many barriers to accessing sexual and reproductive healthcare. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, they bore the brunt of additional obstacles to accessing information, support and care. COVID-19 demonstrated how fragile national health systems are and highlighted countries’ unpreparedness to deal with health emergencies. But it also stimulated creativity by civil society and other actors to counter these barriers, with digital outreach and support playing an expanding, crucial role. Youth Voices, Youth Choices is a project dedicated to learning from the COVID-19 experience in the Western Balkans to ensure sexual and reproductive health services, information and education become more accessible and youth-friendly in the long term, especially for marginalised groups. Running from 2020 until 2023, it brings together IPPF members and partners in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Kosovo, supported by IPPF EN’s Regional Office. Project partners have conducted research into the impact of the pandemic on young people’s SRH needs and access to services and information, and the role of integrated digital services, with a focus on communities living in remote areas and unfavourable social conditions. They are sharing good practices and empowering young people as campaigners and advocates using digital and offline education tools. And working in multi-stakeholder partnerships, they are developing policy recommendations to support advocacy and youth-led campaigns for stronger health systems and increased access to care, in and beyond emergency situations. In October 2022, IPPF EN launched a set of regional policy recommendations based on our research into how the pandemic affected young people. All partners also created national recommendations. Collectively, we built upon these through regional and national advocacy campaigns and actions. Check out our YVYC resources page! Take a look at our series of interviews carried out by young people with their peers on how COVID affected their access to SRHR information, education and care, and their vision for the future. RESEARCH REPORT  As a basis for this work, in 2021 and early 2022, we conducted a study to provide us with a clearer picture of the impact of the pandemic on young people’s SRHR. The data was published in a series of reports presenting the findings of the study, carried out by and among youth in five Balkan countries. The reports, available for download below, document young people’s SRH needs and experiences and the perspectives of healthcare providers and other relevant stakeholders on these needs. They also capture the latter’s needs as they deliver services, information and education to young people, building on their experience of COVID-19. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS In October 2022, IPPF EN launched a set of regional policy recommendations that call on decision-makers to listen to young people and uphold their SRHR as they build back health and social systems in the wake of the pandemic. Presented at the European Parliament on 26 October by youth advocates and experts, with the support of MEP Fred Matić, the recommendations were developed by a group of specialists who came together to develop a blueprint for designing systems that prioritise access to youth-friendly SRH care, and better support of young people’s health and well-being. The policy recommendations are available for download below. The policy recommendations were used to set advocacy priorities for further actions and campaigning. YOUTH VOICES Young people are at the heart of this work: as researchers, as members of the expert groups that developed policy recommendations, and as advocates and campaigners for change. They were also in the lead at the 'Healthy Youth – Healthy Future' multi-stakeholder meeting in Tirana in spring 2023, where youth representatives and staff from our partner organisations came together with decision-makers and experts from the field - see Tirana joint declaration on protecting the health and social wellbeing of young people. The young participants presented advocacy campaigns carried out at regional and national levels, and shared their needs and experiences at an event held in the Albanian parliament. For more information about this work, please contact us at: [email protected]           This work is funded by MSD for Mothers.

SIT - Center for Counseling, Social Services, and Research is a non-governmental organization whose mission is to promote and create an equal society for all. Hence, they tackle some of the most challenging human rights issues in our society that prevent us from achieving equality, peace, and development, including Domestic Violence and Gender-Based Violence. SIT aims to achieve this by involving people of all backgrounds, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation and any other categories of identity.   Check out their website. Facebook Instagram Twitter 

We spoke to young people from the Western Balkans about how their access to sexual and reproductive health and rights was affected by the COVID pandemic, and asked them about their vision for re-designing a more youth-friendly future in which young people can flourish.  Erblin Berisha is a 21-year-old from Prishtina, Kosovo. He is studying web development.    Describe your experience of access to SRHR* education, information and care before and during COVID. COVID limited our access to SRHR because of measures like we had to wear masks and could go out for just two hours a day with our ID cards. Information was less accessible because NGOs couldn’t hold their activities. If we were interested, we could Google a topic - I did this. But before the pandemic there were activities that were a good way to let everyone know about sexual health risks. Here in Kosovo it’s kind of difficult for SRHR to be taken seriously because there’s an old mentality of not talking about sexual health. Now, that we are out of the pandemic I suppose information is more accessible – thank god, because it is really important.   Do you think anything changed for the better during COVID? Not, really no. I think a lot of things improved digitally during the pandemic, but not access to SRHR information. It was kind of like a forgotten subject, so the only information people got was how to deal with COVID-19, but they never really talked about sexual health.   What was the biggest obstacle to your SRHR during the pandemic? How could decision-makers/medical professionals have removed this obstacle?   The people who provide information on SRHR are already doing their best by building young people’s awareness and developing activities. I’m not sure if this did happen, but it would have been helpful during the pandemic to hold online meetings on SRHR, to give people knowledge about how to keep themselves safe.   What lessons do you think that governments and professionals like doctors should take from COVID about how to look after young people health? I don`t think they learned any lessons, because after the pandemic everyone acted like COVID was gone and there were no improvements, like people forgot about sexual health actually.   What is your number one recommendation of what is needed to make services youth-friendly? I would say probably make people aware of these issues from an early age. One problem is that teachers don’t want to talk about this stuff because it’s embarrassing; that happened to me at school, when sex was mentioned, the kids all started laughing and didn’t care about the lesson, and the teacher got embarrassed and just told us to read the materials at home, which probably nobody did. It would better to actually talk about this earlier on.   What difference would this make in your life, or your friends' lives? Having more knowledge about SRHR would help us to be prepared and able to take care of ourselves.   So, I guess you took part in SRHR activities, right? What helped you to become engaged as an educator? Yes. Honestly, there were a lot of benefits. Even though I started when I was at university, I still learned a lot of stuff that I didn`t know before. At first I didn’t care so much about some of the issues, I just thought they were interesting and it would probably be useful to know more. But when I started being a part of a group, it was about gender equality and other SRHR issues, and it was good to learn more about something that you need in your life.    * SRHR = sexual and reproductive health and rights Interview conducted by Elionita Rexhepaj and Elsa Rexhepaj, members of the regional youth group of the IPPF EN project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, funded by MSD for Mothers

COVID-19 created the largest health and socio-economic crisis of our generation. Many health systems were pushed to the brink by restrictive measures rushed in to respond to the pandemic, resulting in the deprioritisation of some existing healthcare services. In almost all European countries, COVID-19 had a negative impact on the delivery of vital sexual and reproductive healthcare, including maternal health and family planning, for women and groups that face barriers to accessing care, including young people. The pandemic also uncovered weaknesses within our systems and exposed the fact that countries are not adequately prepared to deal with health emergencies. To help bring about positive change for young people, IPPF European Network is working to strengthen healthcare systems through the project Youth Voices, Youth Choices, and to remove all kinds of barriers preventing youth from accessing essential care in five Balkan countries: Albania; Bosnia & Herzegovina; Bulgaria, Kosovo and North Macedonia. We are focusing particularly on the needs of those living in remote areas, as well as those from communities that face challenging social conditions, such as the Roma. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS In October 2022, IPPF EN launched a set of regional policy recommendations that call on decision-makers to listen to young people and uphold their SRHR as they build back health and social systems in the wake of the pandemic. Presented at the European Parliament on 26 October by youth advocates and experts, with the support of MEP Fred Matić, the recommendations were developed by a group of specialists who came together to develop a blueprint for designing systems that prioritise access to youth-friendly SRH care, and better support of young people’s health and well-being. The policy recommendations are available for download below. RESEARCH REPORT  As a basis for this work, in 2021 and early 2022, we conducted a study to provide us with a clearer picture of the impact of the pandemic on young people’s SRHR. The data was published in a series of reports presenting the findings of the study, carried out by and among youth in five Balkan countries. The reports, available for download below, document young people’s SRH needs and experiences and the perspectives of healthcare providers and other relevant stakeholders on these needs. They also capture the latter’s needs as they deliver services, information and education to young people, building on their experience of COVID-19. YOUTH VOICES Young people are at the heart of this work. They were part of the teams that carried out the research presented in the reports below. They participated in the expert groups that developed our regional recommendations for policy change (below) at national and regional level, and they are being supported and empowered to advocate for these changes. Youth were also in the lead at our 'Healthy Youth – Healthy Future' multi-stakeholder meeting in Tirana in spring 2023, where together with staff from our partner organisations they held discussions with decision-makers and experts from the field, concluding with the signing of a joint declaration on protecting the health and social wellbeing of young people during and beyond moments of crisis - available for download below.     Young people also carried out a series of interviews among their peers to share stories of how the pandemic affected their access to SRHR, and what their vision is for a more youth-friendly future that listens to the younger generations and upholds their SRHR.