Housing reconstruction in Kosovo

Abstract

Housing reconstruction is one of the first steps towards environmental and economic recovery and development after a ‘complex emergency’. This paper presents the main aspects and experience of the Housing Reconstruction Programme (HRP) in Kosovo since its beginning in 1999 until 2001. The special reference to the Peja/Pec (Peja is the Kosovar name of the most western municipality in Kosovo whose Serbian name is Pec. In the paper both names (Peja and Pec) appear because of the uncertain political status of the country at the time at which the paper was written.) region helps to contextualise the case-study, giving concrete images of the HRP. Kosovo has been a special case because the United Nations has managed the entire reconstruction process since soon after the NATO bombing. A great many economic and human resources have been deployed, since the United Nations, the European Union and many international organisations have been thoroughly involved. This has created high expectations both in terms of quality and quantity of results and duration required to stabilise the tremendous hotbed represented by the Balkans. The previous deep involvement of the international community in Bosnia a few years before and in the same area of the Balkans has also created mutatis mutandis a comparable antecedent. The literature on the subject, in terms of manuals and articles, supports the analysis and criticism. The reconstruction process analysed ranges from damage assessment to housing reconstruction management and implementation, where implementation is not only intended as the physical reconstruction of the country but also the institutional and capacity building that the UN, the most important international organisation, has been creating in Kosovo. In spite of the bulk investment, not all the strategies and actions implemented can be considered successful. Certainly, some could even be considered best practices and hence are replicable. Among these is the Municipal Housing Committee (MHC), which has the lion's share of the institutional bodies set up by the UN temporary government to manage housing reconstruction. Apparently the MHC has dealt with only the selection of beneficiaries. In fact the MHC has created an adequate peaceful and democratic environment in which housing reconstruction has taken place, as well as the allocation of housing assistance to minority families. Within the HRP the role of the NGOs has been crucial as always, but limited to a much more sectoral-specific involvement, contrary to the Bosnia experience. This has impeded the adoption of appropriate building technologies, a real participatory and integrated approach, and post emergency local development where housing and people (ethnics included) were pivotal. However today in Kosovo, the games have already been played, the decisions have been taken and development is somehow in progress.