Category Archives: Diplomacy

Vjollca Hajdari: A Professional Lobbyist of the Albanian Issue

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Kosovo’s Vjollca Hajdari (originally from Mitrovica) is a political expert, publicist, and ethnologist living in Berlin since 1991.

She started her studies in Berlin and graduated as MSc. in Publicity and Communication, Political Science, and Ethnology at Free University of Berlin (FU = Freie Universität). Ms. Hajdari is an active political activist and lobbyist of the Albanian issue. In 2005, she was awarded the prize for political commitment and humanity by the Senate of Berlin and the SOS Kinderdorf.

Currently, Vjollca is a board member of two committees that cooperate with the UN. She is an official representative for South Eastern Europe and the Balkans in the Global Cooperation Council (GCC) and the Inter Press Service (IPS), as well as political analysts at EurActiv.de (informative/media portal of EU), located  near to the German government.

In the past, she worked in the Bundestag (German Parliament), in the Senate of Berlin, as well as in many important international institutes and organizations. Currently, she is part of two committees (GCC and IPS), which operate in the framework of the United Nations. She simultaneously writes as political analyst to the European Portal News – EurActiv and for other media and international press. Her analyses are published in the European Academy as well.

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As an expert of communication science and political scientist, Mrs. Hajdari has expanded her cooperation with various embassies, foundations, and German institutes. She holds a membership in the League of German Journalists, and the World Network of Journalists.

As a political scientist, Vjollca aims to directly affect the political processes about Albanians and Kosovo. As a publicist, she exercises public diplomacy, by creating networks and always focusing on improving the image of Kosovo and Albanians in general. In the field of ethnology, she aims to serve as a intercultural bridge and to present the anthropologic side of Albanians internationally.

In an exclusive interview for KosovoDiaspora.org, she explains that there is an ongoing negative media presentation of Albanians abroad. “Through my political activity and publicity, I work for improving the image of Kosovo. By using positive examples of people in politics, history, and culture, I try to inform the international public for a different reality from the one that is actually presented to them.”

Vjollca is active in institutional lobbying as well. She holds meetings with many politicians, foundations, and media. She also organizes conferences and debates that have a focus on Kosovo and Albanians.

Ms. Hajdari believes that “networking and information are the most powerful tools of governments today. Through mass communication, other states engage numerous public relations agents, the so-called Spin Doctors, Think Tanks and foundations, with the aim of lobbying and promoting a positive image in the world. Albanians are still at the beginning of this scope, so I try to professionally fill this gap.”

Depending on financial support, Vjollca plans to conduct research about the Albanian migrations and invasions around the world. She is currently having a tour throughout Germany to present her documentary film about Mother Teresa. In the future, she plans to develop another documentary on the Albanian issue.

Being asked about the importance of civic engagement in Kosovo’s society, Ms. Hajdari told KosovoDiaspora.org that “political awareness, civic courage and involvement are the key elements that should motivate people to participate in political decisions of their own country. People have the power to correct the mistakes of their government and those of the international community, which has been stationed in Kosovo for many years in a row. The fight against organized crime, corruption, and nepotism, as well the defense of human rights, rights to education, and social welfare are the key factors towards building a healthy society.”

She believes that Kosovo society needs an increased focus on education, self-respect, perseverance of identity values, and common will. During our interview, she stated that “the most intellectually productive people of Albanian origin should be united to creating a more serious movement to articulate the requirements and needs that we should fulfill internationally! More and more talents from our Diaspora are arising in the field of science, arts, culture, and sports. These personalities should be promoted, especially by their home countries! We need to organize more events that promote our values, culture, and history. We should also focus on the challenges of our Diaspora and reflect on the aspects that need improvement.”

At the end of the interview, Ms. Hajdari added that “the creation of independent electronic media – free of ideological and political interests – is another strong tool which we can use to promote Kosovo.”

Diaspora Minster Murati visits Kosovo’s Cultural Center in Istanbul

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Kosovo’s Cultural Center in Istanbul hosted  Minister of Diaspora, Valon Murati, for a meeting with the Albanian associations in Turkey. Minister Murati spoke of Kosovo’s progress and Government’s ties with its Diaspora.  Furthermore, the meeting consisted of talks over the Ministry’s programs and future involvements, learning of the Albanian language, cultural activities, providing support for investment, as well as the Diaspora registration process.

The meeting was attended by Mr. Rahim Morina, Consul General of the Republic of Kosovo in Istanbul; Agron Tare, Consul General of the Republic of Albania in Istanbul; Mentor Borovci, General Secretary of the MOD, and Qamil Bytyqi, Acting Director of Kosovo’s Cultural Centre in Istanbul.

HERE you can read the full article on this activity published in Albanian by Ministry of Diaspora.

Diaspora Business Network to Reach Australia

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Strengthening the diaspora community through its businesses is a set priority for the Kosovar Diaspora Ministry. Recently, the Ministry of Diaspora and the Union of Diaspora Global Businesses have held fruitful meetings with the business community in Australia. With key figures such as Mr. Naim Dedushaj, the meetings have resulted with the creation of the Australian Central Branch, located in Melbourne, where the largest Albanian community is located.

Kosovo’s Ambassador Mr. Sabri Kiçmari spoke on the importance of establishing such business networks in Australia, inviting all Albanian businessmen to join. Mr. Naim Dedushaj also spoke of the importance and benefits of this network. At the end of the meeting, he emphasized the goals achieved by the already established networks of diaspora businesses throughout the 16 countries.

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If you are a Diaspora member from Australia, we invite you to support the Diaspora Registry process*. If you would like to register, please click HERE.

*The Diaspora Registry process is developed by the Ministry of Diaspora with the aim of strengthening Diaspora’s ties and participation in policy development processes in Kosovo. The Kosovodiaspora.org platform has partnered with the MoD and Diaspora Engagement for Economic Development (DEED) to promote the registry among our widespread diaspora communities across five continents.

Harvard Diaspora Project Wants Your Say!

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The Center for International Development (CID) at Harvard University in partnership with MAAS BESA announced the Albanian Diaspora Program. They invite all Albanian-Americans to be actively engaged in the program, which began on 06 March 2015 with a short online survey.

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The CID shows that “at least one third of Albanians live outside the borders of their home countries in the Balkans. In the countries where they currently live and work many of them have achieved levels of professional and economic success that would not have been possible at home. We are driven by the image of what the impact of connecting this wealth of knowledge, connections and economic capital with the home countries would be on the Balkans.”

The objectives of CID’s Diaspora Program include:

  • It ensures that the diaspora relations have proper place on the political agenda of the countries in the Balkans.
  • It facilitates the relations between the home governments and the diaspora community organizations abroad.
  • It supports the home governments with building capacities to engage with the diaspora and develop strategies for leveraging its potential to promote economic and social development in the Balkans.

CID’s Diaspora Program starts with reinforcing the relations with the Albanians in the USA, but has the ambition to include all countries with significant Albanian population. Their action plan has three stages:

The first stage involves a series of meetings in the USA between the diaspora on the one hand, and government officials and private sector representatives on the other. The first three meetings will take place in Washington D.C., New York City and Boston in spring of 2015. In June or September of 2015, a joint delegation of Harvard and Diaspora leaders will visit the Balkans and work on establishing the foundations of a strategy for engaging the diaspora in the country’s development. The diaspora strategy should be the main outcome of the visit. The third stage involves implementation of this strategy.

For further details on eligibility and regulations to participate in the program, you can click HERE. To fill out the survey, click HERE.

London Focus Group on Diaspora Virtual Registry

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London – On February 25, 2015 the new focus group on diaspora’s virtual registration (DVR) “From a Concept to Success” met in London at the Refugee Council office.

This event was part of the on-going series of focus groups meetings in several countries aiming to bring together Kosovo and Albanian business and civil society leaders to discuss and develop options for making the Diaspora Virtual Registration (DVR) platform a success. The DVR has been developed by Kosovo’s Ministry of Diaspora (MoD) with the aim of mapping out diaspora members living abroad, and strengthening diaspora’s ties and participation in the policy development process in Kosovo. The DRV can be found in the following link: http://rd.rks-gov.net.

Participants included distinguished representatives of the Albanian and Kosovo diaspora organizations, Ministry of Diaspora from Kosovo, Kosovo’s Embassy in London, Albanian Embassy in London, the International Organisation of Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the representatives of charities of the Albanian community in the UK. Vebi Kosumi, the chair of the roundtable discussion, opened up the meeting and gave a presentation on the online registration process for professionals, students, and other members of the Kosovo diaspora.

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© 2015 Xhevat Morina. More pictures from the event can be found here.

“The event was an opportunity for the Ministry of Diaspora representatives to engage face-to-face with the Albanian community organisations and individuals to discuss the online Diaspora registration process. It also provided an open forum for the diaspora representatives to ask questions and have an interactive discussion with the government officials. The focus group meeting was successful as it brought together the Albanian community with the Kosovo government representatives. I received a lot of positive feedback from the participants afterwards regarding the useful topics covered. I would like to thank the KosovoDiaspora.org platform for giving me the opportunity to organise and chair the meeting, and my special thanks go to the representatives from Kosovo, the Ministry of Diaspora, IOM and UNDP as well as to all participating organisations and individuals from the UK who came to the meeting,” said Vebi Kosumi.

At the London meeting special guests included: Mentor Borovci, Lorik Pustina, Flaka Braha from Kosovo’s Ministry of Diaspora; Besian Bicurri from IOM; and Ardian Spahiu as the UNDP representative. During their speeches, Mentor Borovci and Lorik Pustina explained the process of the online registration for the Kosovo diaspora.

“I invite everyone who is a member of the diaspora to register. This registration is important so the Republic of Kosovo would know how many people live abroad, as well as identify the needs of diaspora professionals,” said Mentor Borovci, a representative of the Kosovo Government.

Mr. Pustina further pointed out that, “all ethnic groups who originate from Kosovo and are living abroad qualify to register. This registry does target as well, all Albanians living abroad, as for our Ministry, the Albanian diaspora is unified and undivided, regardless where they endeavor from – Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Presheva…”

The Embassy of Kosovo and the Embassy of Albania were present at the meeting through Mr. Mustafë Avdiu and Ms. Migena Baholli and they spoke about the help, which they provide in furthering the online registration through face-to-face meetings with members of Diaspora in the UK.

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The Q&A session followed with an open discussion by representatives of the diaspora organisations and individuals such as Luljeta Nuzi of the Shpresa Programme, Esat Braçe of the Nënë Tereza Charity, Artan Llabjani from UK Albanian Proffesionals, Indira Kartallozi from Chrysalis family Future, Beqir Shillova from the British Albanian Kosovar Council and other legal, medical and educational professionals.

Key themes of the discussion related to procedures for registration, and the eventual benefits and uses that the finalization of the database will provide. Some concerns were raised regarding the privacy of personal data shared with the MoD via the DRV. Other discussion points focused on the results of the registration process to date. It emerged that the registration process uses encryption technology to protect the data shared with the MoD, which has planned and designed the system to ensure privacy protection throughout the process of data collection, clearing and analysis.

Diaspora representatives present at the focus group provided positive feedback, and committed to promoting the DRV among their circles as well as ensuring to find ways to make it a succes.

This was the first focus group meeting held in London, preceded by others in New York, United States, and Stockholm, Sweden. Two additional focus groups will take place in Vienna, Austria and Zurich, Switzerland, where large numbers of Kosovo’s diaspora reside.

The organizer of the focus group is NGO Germin in partnership with the International Organization of Migration (IOM), the United Nations Development Office (UNDP) and the Kosovo Ministry of Diaspora (MoD).

Germin is an organization that uses technology to connect and support the Albanian Diaspora communities with their home countries. Germin has founded and manages the www.kosovodiaspora.org, a crowdsourcing digital engagement platform for Diaspora.

The IOM and UNDP are implementing partners of the Diaspora Engagement in Economic Development (DEED) in Kosovo, funded by the Finish Government – www.deed-ks.org.

From A Concept To Success: Diaspora Focus Group In London

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As part of the Diaspora Registration initiative, Kosovodiaspora.org alongside DEED and the Kosovar Ministry of Diaspora are holding the third Diaspora Focus Group Discussion. The event will gather representatives of the Kosovar and Albanian embassies in the United Kingdom, as well as opening speeches by representatives of UNDP, Ministry of Diaspora and IOM. The London Diaspora Focus group is expected to have greater attendance (with already 30 confirmed participants) due to the coverage of the Kosovodiaspora platform and the Kosovar community living in London.

The discussion will be held on 25th of February at 16:00 Hrs on Gredley House, 1-11 Broadway Stratfford London. Refugee Council, Meeting Room F.

After the discussion, the Kosovodiaspora team would like to invite the participants for an informal gathering at the The Langthorne, Stratford, 12-14 The Broadway, Stratford,London.

 

#InstaKosova Winners Announced

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Organized for the second time in celebration of the seventh anniversary of Kosovo’s independence, the competition has brought about  25 thousand photos posted in all social networks with the hashtags #InstaKosova and #InstaKosovo.

#InstaKosova competition is a platform for supporting Kosovo’s digital diplomacy in promoting the young country to the rest of the world. The competition seeks to bring about the best of Kosovo through engaging its citizens at showing their frame of how Kosovo looks like in the morning,  the way Kosovo streets portray life and the daily macchiato breaks. All in all, the competition seeks to highlight what is the force that produces the love that so many have for the little country of Kosovo.

The #InstaKosova team explained that “the selected photos represent the purest illustration of the feelings by the people breathing in this country. They channel the views from the eyes of the youngsters that wake-up in the city center, in the sprawling suburbs, in the picturesque villages, on the magnificent mountain peaks, or at dazzling festival parties and after-parties all over this country. So yes, these are the photos that we wanted to showcase in this edition of #instakosova/#instakosovo and these are the select photos that your eyes will gaze upon in this book.”

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This year’s winner is Sara Rodiqi and her photo titled “N’kamp verës në Ngom Fest, Prizren”. The jury consisted of Blerim Racaj (photographer), Nita Salihu (designer), Blerta Kambo (photographer), Arjeta Emra (director at the British Council) and Era Istrefi (singer).  The  jury commented that “the winning photo gave an aura of  sincere, pure, real, and lush with life feel- a charming snapshot of friends that seem to have all the world bubbling within them, conveying a state of limitless utopia with each other and with us as viewers. It is not a photo that is instantly noticeable, but it is one whose beauty gracefully grows and multiplies as you stare at it.”

Winners of the 10 best photos are: Jetmir Idrizi, Diellza Hasani, Armend Krasniqi, Agon Syla, Agron Beqiri, Nita Deda, Orgesa Arifi, Fisnik Dobreci, Drenusha Lika and Nëntor Oseku. The jury has also selected 100 photos which will be published in a book of photographs. Available for free throughout various state institutions around the world.

#instakosova is initiated and supported by The Ministry of Foreign Affairs Kosovo and is present online at  www.instakosova.com, where you can check all winners and best 100 photos.

Albanians in UK Meet Kosovo’s Minister of Diaspora

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On February 16, Kosovo’s Diaspora members living in UK gathered in a meeting held at the “Haverstock” primary school in London. Members of the Albanian community in UK, businessmen, students, representatives of the Albanian associations and diplomatic institutions had the chance to meet with Kosovo’s new Minister of Diaspora, Mr. Valon Murati, and Kosovo’s Ambassador in the UK, Mr. Lirim Greicevci.

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Mr. Greicevci opened the meeting by welcoming the Diaspora members and extending appreciation for their continuous contribution to the good of the Albanian community in UK.

The Minister of Diaspora, Mr. Valon Murati, presented the future plans and recent activities of MoD, which include the signing and implementation of the education curriculum on Albanian language, to be implemented in cooperation with the Republic of Albania. Additionally, Mr. Murati mentioned the necessity of developing a new approach towards Diaspora, which will take into account the different needs of Diaspora generations in countries where Albanians live. The creation of a strategy that would provide better conditions and facilitated procedures for Diaspora businessmen, who aim to invest in Kosovo, was another highlight of Minister’s speech during the meeting.

During the event, Minister Murati answered several questions from representatives of the Albanian associations and received direct information regarding concerns and the challenges faced by the Albanian community in the UK.