UNMIK/PR/1211
PRISTINA – Of the €10.5 million allocated in the 2004 Kosovo Consolidated Budget for returns, 60% has so far already been committed or set aside for returns programmes.
Within the returns allocation from the Kosovo budget, UNDP manages the Government Assistance to Returns (GAR) project, which provides funding for organized returns projects throughout Kosovo. To date, 22 projects have been funded by GAR from the 2003 Kosovo budget. An additional €6.5 million has been allocated this year to support newly identified GAR projects, as well as continuations of projects funded in 2003 in Gjilan/Gnjilane, Prizren and Dragash/Dragaš municipalities.
In contrast to recent inaccurate reports in the press regarding spending on returns from the Kosovo budget, these funds are spent transparently and managed by UNDP, which sends monthly reports to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and Economy and the Inter-Ministerial Coordinator for Returns.
“The contribution of Kosovo’s revenue to funding projects on returns is essential to the success of these programmes. The money is being well spent, and all sides are kept fully informed about the progress made in allocating the Kosovo returns budget,” said Peggy Hicks, Director of UNMIK’s Office of Returns and Communities.
Funds from the 2004 Kosovo budget are also being used to support the Rapid Response Returns Facility (RRRF), which provides assistance for individual or small group returns and is also managed by UNDP. To date, the RRRF is providing housing assistance for 153 families Kosovo-wide with funding from the Norway, the United States, Ireland and UNDP. In 2004, €1.5 million of the returns budget is earmarked for the RRRF.
The remainder of the Kosovo returns budget, some €4 million, will be allocated in the coming months to additional returns programmes.
Reconstruction of homes and other buildings damaged during the March violence is being financed separately from returns projects. Although about €2 million was borrowed from the returns budget to provide immediate funding for repairing the damage done in March, the Kosovo government expressly committed that those funds would be repaid to the Kosovo returns budget.