Pejë 01 July – The Syri i Vizioni organization in partnership with Save the Children, supporting the strengthening of the ROR monitoring group and the involvement of children in decision-making with special emphasis on child-friendly budgeting, had a meeting with the municipal institutions in Pejë, the chairman of the assembly municipal Islam Husaj and directors Jeton Abazi, director of budget and finance, Fatmir Asllani, director of public administration, Petrit Loci director of health and social welfare, as well as representatives from the Directorate of Education.
The municipal officials have welcomed the meeting and highly appreciated the willingness of the children to be part of decision-making, especially in the drafting of the municipal action plan and the municipal budget. They have pledged that the municipality will include children during the drafting of the municipal plan and budget, and that the municipality will make every effort to have a very transparent budget that will directly affect children as direct beneficiaries.
“Children should not only be included in the drafting of the budget and the action plan, but they should also be informed about the municipality’s budget possibilities, how those funds are spent and what we as institutions can do to improve their situation in each sector” said the chairman of the municipal assembly Islam Husaj.
On the other hand, the director for budget and finance said that “Frequently the budget limitation that comes from the central level makes it impossible for the municipality to invest in different sectors, especially in the improvement of children’s conditions in education, health, etc., but we, together with we will try to have a budget that affects the interests of children and improves their position” said director Abazi.
Regarding the recommendations made in the “Our Reality” report, published last year by the ROR group, especially in solving the problem of transportation for children who travel from rural areas, or even for those children who live on the outskirts of the city.
The director for budget and finance Mr. Jeton Abazi has promised the children that he, as the chairman of the board of directors for budget and finance in the Association of Municipalities of Kosovo, will address a request to the Ministry of Education on behalf of this association to resolve the issue of the transportation of children traveling from villages or rural areas. Since MEST can do such a thing.
At the end of the meeting, the chairman of the Assembly together with the directors of the directorates promised that the commission for drafting the action plan and the municipal budget will have special meetings with the children’s monitoring group so that the future budget of the municipality will directly affect children and be satisfactorily for them, he also expressed the confidence that such a budget will find the support of the municipal assemblymen who will also approve the budget.
They also congratulated the children for the work they are doing and thanked the organization Syri i Vizioni and Save and Children for the work they are doing in improving the situation of children and for the help they are providing institutions in involving children in decision-making and growth transparency of institutions towards children.
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