MFAD unveils important programs for emigrants, the Diaspora Caravan 2022 and the Citizen Diplomacy Program

Deputy Prime Minister, at the same time Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Ms. Donika Gërvalla Schwarz, and the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Ms. Liza Gashi, today in a conference organized for the media, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, presented two important programs which are expected to strengthen even more the connection of the emigrants with Kosovo. Beyond family ties, and through the transfer of knowledge, diaspora will have the opportunity to contribute even more to the development and democratization of the institutions of the Republic of Kosovo.

The Diaspora Caravan 2022 will start its journey from the city of Gjilan on 27 July and will continue through other cities of the country until 7 August, where in addition to talking with citizens, exchanging ideas, offering a musical and entertaining program, it will be presented also the pilot-project for citizen diplomacy, as well as the possibilities of involving young emigrants, professionals, in the institutional life of the Republic of Kosovo will be known in detail.

Minister Gërvalla emphasized to the journalists that the Republic of Kosovo, an independent, sovereign and democratic state, could not be realized without the contribution of the Albanian diaspora around the world. During the occupation of Kosovo and the rule of the Milosevic regime, the organized diaspora with an extraordinary solidarity helped families in need, but above all it played a decisive role in the construction of the parallel state, the internationalization of the Kosovo issue and ensuring the support of the democratic world for the liberation and independence of Kosovo.

Even today, 23 years after the war and 14 years after the declaration of independence, emigration plays a decisive role in the development of the country. Not only remittances, which significantly reduce unemployment and help families to face life's challenges, but also investments from diaspora, and through diaspora, are an important pillar of Kosovo's economic development

Minister Gërvalla said that the experience in democratic states turns our diaspora into an important engine of the development of democracy, of the fight against corruption and organized crime and of development in the fields of education, health, science and countless other fields.

The Diaspora Caravan 2022 program is mainly based on the ShijoKosoven.com platform, where our expats will not only see the program that will be offered by three different ministries - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation - but at the same time, as Minister Gërvalla pointed out, everyone will be able to give their opinions, proposals, criticisms and whatever they think, not only about the program, but also about how they think the emigrants can be better included in the institutional, economic and social life of Kosovo.

While the Citizen Diplomacy Program is an effort of the Republic that our young people who were born and raised in diaspora, have the opportunity to know Kosovo beyond family and kinship ties, to know life in Kosovo and at the same time the professional potential that Kosovo can offer them.

Deputy Minister Gashi also spoke about both programs, and said that all this is being done within the framework of the work done for the engagement and inclusion of the diaspora within the Government Plan 2021-2024, which according to her, is the transfer of knowledge in focus, but also the connection of diaspora with the mother country.

Deputy Minister Gashi emphasized that the main purpose of the ShijoKosoven.com platform is an active conversation and journey with emigrants in various cities of Kosovo. In this journey we have a common partnership with the three line ministries, but beyond that it is important to note that at the beginning of June, Minister Gërvalla signed a cooperation agreement with the Association of Kosovo Municipalities, because it is very important to understand that the commitment of the diaspora in the concept of country is very much related to the location where they lived, have family and have a connection of both memory and social aspect.

As for the second program, Deputy Minister Gashi said that it is a leadership program, designed to last six months of engagement within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, dedicated to students who are in the last year of Bachelor studies and students of Master level.

The program, as a pilot project, aims to channel the energy of the transfer of knowledge and expertise, but above all, it aims at the circulation of knowledge within our institution in areas where we have space, a connection between us, the recognition of young professionals emigrants with life and society in Kosovo, with its heritage, as well as informing their society in the country where they live about our state - Kosovo.

On this occasion, Deputy Minister Gashi invited all young professionals in the diaspora to apply to become scholarship holders of the pilot program for citizen diplomacy of the Republic of Kosovo.