Kosovo : Poverty assessment, Volume 1. Accelerating Inclusive Growth to Reduce Widespread Poverty

Poverty in Kosovo is widespread and has
remained persistent in the first half of this decade. The
evidence suggests that poverty is higher among those who
live in families that are large, have many unemployed
members, and have low education levels. The poor are also
geographically concentrated in rural areas and a few
regions. The main message of this report is that the slow
and volatile growth was doubly disadvantageous. The first
disadvantage was that it did not enable a significant
fraction of the population to earn their way out of poverty.
The second disadvantage was that by constraining the
government's revenue base, it made it difficult for
many families to receive adequate public protection against
shocks. Therefore, to improve welfare in the future, the
report recommends a focus on generating high and sustainable
growth by improving urban services and infrastructure and
addressing inequities in the access to secondary and higher
education for the poorest population transitioning out of
over-reliance on migration, and improving the targeting and
expansion of the social assistance program if the revenue
base of the government improves over time.