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Restricted movement and increased health safety measures disrupted everyone’s life. For rural women, this meant fewer opportunities for gainful work, and even less access than before to training, networking, and having more perspectives
As a follow-up of the Professional Women’s Network (PWN) meeting, organized by Leadership and Growth Council Linda Baleta, Communication and Public Relations Manager, PPSE Project, Swisscontact discussed the topic “Adapting specific activities for women to the circumstances created by the pandemic”.
The overall goal of the Promoting Private Sector Employment (PPSE) in Kosovo is to provide increased sustainable gainful employment for young women and men in Kosovo through small and medium enterprises that operate in well-organized and inclusive economic sectors.
PPSE is focused and operates in two sectors: food and natural ingredients and tourism, sectors which employs a large number of women.
- 42% - of workplaces opend with the help of PPSE, are full-time jobs for women
workplaces have been opened for women, with the help of the PPSE in the second phase
“We aim to change norms and behaviors through perspective and gender analysis, especially within the private sector,” said Ms. Ballet.
Some of the activities that had already started before the pandemic situation, have been adapted by PPSE in order to create more profit opportunities for women or to develop new activities that were not planned. For example, the tourism sector invested in the renovation of 10 guesthouses in Rugova, and the direct beneficiaries were women as owners or co-owners.
PPSE supports the medicinal aromatic plants sector with tailored activities, including cultivation and processing and organic certification. As a growing sector, PPSE support seeks to boost employment and income generation in both primary level and processing level of the value chain. 
Through this training, women farmers from across Kosovo had an opportunity to gain more knowledge and network even during the lockdown and restricted movement period.
Ms. Baleta pointed that: “I think that in addition to disseminating information and increasing the capacity of these women, another positive aspect has been that women farmers used the time to receive useful information during the pandemic and expand their network.”