June 2014—While USAID is working to increase the use of contracts throughout Kosovo’s private sector, the lack of written agreements has been particularly problematic in the construction industry, where disputes often lead to significant delay in much-needed infrastructure.
Kosovo’s Serb dairy farmers are increasing their incomes, commercial sustainability, and local production of quality milk thanks to a novel public-private partnership.
The war that ravaged Kosovo in the late 1990s took a devastating toll on the country’s infrastructure, and its schools were no exception. Even in 2010, when USAID launched its Basic Education Program, most classrooms were little more than open rooms with very few of the kinds of educational materials that could be found elsewhere in Europe.
Miloš Grujić, a civil engineering student from Kosovo's Zupče/Zupçë village in the town of Zubin Potok, first discovered the shiitake mushroom while surfing the Internet in search of a viable business idea. An entrepreneurial young man in a country with high unemployment, Grujić did not want to wait for a job to find him. After researching what it would take to cultivate the mushrooms, he developed a business plan and approached USAID’s Community Action Initiative Program for help to purchase his startup materials.
Access to clean water is one of the most basic human needs. Without a proper water drainage system in place, wastewater can wreak havoc on communities large and small, carrying disease and damaging property. For a small village in northern Kosovo, a damaged water drainage channel had devastating effects on the health and livelihood of the community.
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