The Property Rights Initiative is the next project that Kosovo has benefited from the World Bank, namely from the State and Peacebuilding Fund implemented by ATRC. This project, which has been implemented since last year, aims to inform citizens of their property rights through public advocacy, as well as to reduce existing inequalities between different groups, including members of communities, women, and youth. This is what the official for Communication and Public Information in the PIAKOS Project of the World Bank in Kosovo, Adelina Nitaj, told KosovaPress.

Nitaj says that with various activities and in cooperation with local institutions, the project will extend to 27 municipalities of Kosovo, in which citizens will be informed in different ways on how to protect and benefit from property rights.

Among other things, with the Property Rights Initiative, it is intended to increase the percentage of women who own real estate.

"The Property Rights Initiative is in line with the national framework for partnership of the World Bank with the Republic of Kosovo and the goal of the project is the advancement of property rights. We hope to achieve this through direct advocacy for women, vulnerable groups and youth, and also through various media campaigns, which will raise civic awareness of property and also increase the number of real estate owners. Based on official statistics, currently only 19.8 percent of women own real estate. As a project, we expect that by the end of the activities, this percentage will increase, and to create an equality between property registration, between different groups, genders, and to create a social cohesion above all", said Nitaj.

Nitaj emphasizes that the implementation period of the project will be three years, where she adds that during this period the entire project will be a collaboration between civil society, institutions and citizens to advance property rights and in general the entire cadastral system.

"The implementation period of the project will be three years, during which the entire project will be a collaboration between civil society, institutions and citizens to advance property rights and to generally advance the entire cadastral system. ATRC as the implementing body of this project will cooperate with ten civil society organizations which will be co-partners of the project in the implementation of door-to-door campaign, public awareness activities, and the organization of various workshops, capacity building at the institutional level with important actors who will also be project partners. Citizens will benefit from all these activities through recognition of property rights, but also benefits through property registration and the various benefits that this registration brings", said Nitaj.

The project will focus on 27 municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo.

"This project for the first time will bring together civil society, institutions, and citizens to raise public awareness about ownership and the benefits that come with property registration. The Property Rights Initiative project will be created in such a way that there will be a partnership with ten different civil society organizations, which we expect to join the project through the call which has been public until today. And, from this application we expect to have a partnership with these civil society organizations which will help the project in the implementation of activities on the ground. The project will focus on 27 municipalities of the Republic of Kosovo and we expect that from these activities we will have a territorial coverage, and we expect that all the citizens of the country will recognize the property rights that belong to them, know how to protect and benefit from the property rights", said Nitaj.

Among other things, Nitaj said that during the implementation of the activities there will also be counseling campaigns.

"A project that will bring new energy of cooperation with civil society, institutions, and citizens. We have exceptional cooperation with the Government of Kosovo, with the relevant ministries, because during the implementation of the activities there will be direct counseling campaigns for the citizens of the country, where based on the information they will receive and the help they will receive from the Agency for Free Legal Aid. Also, during the implementation phase of the activities of this project, we will also help the executive agencies that operate within the various ministries of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo with their media campaigns, with public advocacy and information campaigns… It is important for citizens to know that just having a certificate, be it a court decision, notarial agreement, or a verbal agreement is not enough in terms of ownership. So, a property is officially recognized as registered only when it is registered in the Register of Real Estate Rights, so then a property is officially recognized as a registered property and the owner is recognized as the owner of the property", said Nitaj.

She also emphasizes that through the funding of the World Bank in Kosovo with various initiatives and projects, and the existing ones, many significant reforms have taken place in the cadastral system, but according to her, there is still a lot of work to be done in this direction.