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In this two-part article, Howard Clark looks at the development of NGOs in post-war Kosovo and how one group in particular — the Kosova Action Network — is trying to make a difference.

The more NGOs - the less civil society?

Howard Clark

After the NATO bombings, theworld's most powerful intergovernmental organisationsinvolved themselves in the administration of post-war Kosovo--not justUN and its subsidiaries or NATO, but the OSCE (for "democratisation") andthe EU and World Bank (for "economic regeneration").Most of the major international humanitarians NGOs were also keen tobe seen in post-war Kosovo. Per capita more money has been spent in Kosovothan in any other peace or humanitarian operation, and far more soldiers per heador per hectare have been deployed.

Bringing peace...

Five years later UNMIK's proud slogan "Bringing peace to Kosovo" looks tat-tered. The explosion of unrest in March shows how close to the surface there lurksethnic violence. The recent elections were boycotted by Serbs (albeit with quitesome intimidation), few of the Serbs who fled in the second half of 1999 havereturned and they often live behind barbed wire and under military protec-tion. Most of the money allocated to Kosovo has found its way into the pockets of non-Kosovars, leaving a stagnant econ-omy with well over half the potential labour force unemployed. Corruption, intimidation and various criminal rackets introduced since the war--cars, building, prostitution--are rife. Quite a large sum of international moneycannot be accounted for--not even the Italian financial police can trace the EU'smissing millions in Kosovo.

Going through the motions

At one time, almost every international activity in Kosovo was presented as"peace-building": even the loan shark claimed to be a dove--the MicroEnter-prise Bank came to Kosovo announcing that its contribution to peace would be tooffer small business loans at three times the interest rate it could charge back inGermany. UNMIK's goals have merely beensuperimposed on Kosovo Albanian society, along with various bureaucratic com-plications. Those Kosovo Albanians cooperating with UNMIK are basically goingthrough the motions rather than identifying with UNMIK's programmes. As for"civil society", often considered one of the keys to peace after civil strife, Kosovooffers a graphic example of the impact of international aid. More than 2,000 local NGOs have reg-istered--nearly all following the OSCE boilerplate constitution. Funders oftenoffer training, especially "capacity building", generally paying a foreign trainer asmuch for a day's work as a local school teacher would earn in a month. And themain capacity gained seems to be how to speak the language of the donors. Traininga local humanitarian organisation in the early days of UNMIK, a friend of minefound herself being lectured that "Serbs are genetically evil"--is it the purpose of"capacity-building" to teach locals to hide such feelings from foreign funders?(I heard the same phrase at a peacebuilding workshop, but at least on that occasionall the other participants protested.)

Authentic voices

Authentic voluntary groups usually are moved to action because they see a socialneed. Most of the new Kosovo NGOs, however, do not have their own agenda.They have go along with the attitude of most international funders--"let uschoose what you should do". It is no coincidence that the two most public conflictsbetween funders and local groups have concerned women's programmes, becausethe strong Kosova Women's Network established itself before the war and con tains groups with their own agenda anddetermined to initiate their own programmes. (See Peace News 2451, or onlineat http://www.peacenews.info/issues /2451/245110.html).What is more normal is that an NGO receives the funds, equips its office,implements the programme and then closes down--or perhaps, if its staff are lucky, takes on another programme foranother funder. Drawing up the list on Kosovo for aBalkans peace directory, one activist began phoning round those groups on theOSCE's NGO list that said inter-ethnic dialogue was central to their activities.Only one-third existed in reality, and very few were actually engaged in interethnic dialogue work--it was there main-ly to please prospective funders. Perhaps there is an equation here: the moreNGOs, the less civil society.

Note on Kosovo/Kosova/Kosov@.
Peace News is not taking a stance on the contentious question of how Kosov- should be named.

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