”Democracy, Openness and Prospects of the Serb Community in Kosovo – Open” is a new initiative of the Kosovo Foundation for Open Society (KFOS), initiated in 2020. Open is realized in cooperation with nine civil-society organizations that are active in the Serb community in Kosovo.

A general objective of this new initiative is development of an open and dynamic space for discussion within the Serb community and between the Serb and other communities, as well as among institutions in Kosovo.

• The initiative will specifically be engaged in the analysis and estimate of the impact of civil-society and political organizations on the implementation of democratic principles and openness of the Serb community in Kosovo.
• Implementation of democratic standards and the openness of institutions, public policies, and important processes in their relations with the Serb community in Kosovo will be analyzed and estimated, as well a degree of openness of the Serbian community towards them.
• These analyses will assist in understanding the current position and prospects of the Serbian community in Kosovo, serving at the same time as a basis of their argumented advocacy among citizens, institutions, local and central authorities, and the international community.

Experienced and established civil-society organizations will make eight (8) sectoral analyses with the purpose of meeting general and specific objectives.

The areas analyzed by our partners in 2020 are as follows:

Media – To what extent media in the Serbian language in Kosovo have an impact on the degree of openness, possibility to hear and pluralism of opinions and topics? This area is researched by Medija centar and Crno-beli svet.

Civil society – How civil-society organizations give their contribution to openness and principles of democracy of the Serbian community and generally of Kosovo society? Nova društvena inicijativa and Forum za razvoj i multietničku saradnju are dealing with this topic.

Political parties – Observance of democratic principles and pluralist activism of political parties of the Kosovo Serbs, as well as their openness to participate in the political system of Kosovo and give their contribution to the improvement of public policies. These issues are in the focus of Nova društvena inicijativa and Medija centar.

Responsibility of institutions – Better understanding of the position of the Serbian community in Kosovo by observing the openness of the institutions to address the problems of the Serbs. This analysis is made by Crno Beli Svet and Forum za razvoj i multietničku saradnju.

Security – How the feeling of security affects the openness of the Serbian community to Kosovo security institutions? The answer to this question is sought by Humani centar Mitrovica.

Economics – To what extent are business entities from the communities with Serbian majority open to be integrated in the economy of Kosovo? This area is analyzed by Institut za teritorijalni ekonomski razvoj (InTER).

Rights of minorities – How to get to a more open society through pointing out to the gaps in the implementation of the rights of minorities? This topic is dealt with by NVO Aktiv and Centar za prava manjinskih zajednica.

Process of dialogue and normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia – To which extent and which positions of the community of the Kosovo Serbs are represented relating to the impact on and future of the process? NVO Aktiv and Forum za razvoj i međuetničku saradnju are dealing with this issue. 

These sectoral analyses will be included in a publication with consolidated findings of all analyses and positions of the public opinion by the analyzed areas.

 In addition to the sectoral analyses and publication of consolidated findings being the primary deliverables of the Open Initiative and a basis for an argumented discussion and advocacy, a series of articles by genuine experts in current socio-political issues and processes in Kosovo, the region and Europe will be published within the Initiative and in collaboration with RTV Kim, https://www.radiokim.net/. These articles will offer to the reading audience in insight into different opinions, thus improving the open discussion, as well as pluralism of views.

Kosovo Foundation for Open Society Vera Pula Program Coordinator vpula@kfos.org	Crno Beli Svet Sanja Sovrlić Executive Director sanja.sovrlic@gmail.com
NGO AKTIV Miodrag Milićević Executive Director mmilicev@gmail.com	Humani Centar Mitrovica Srdjan Simonović Executive Director sbsrdj@yahoo.com
Forum for Development and Multiethnic Collaboration Dejan Radivojević Executive Director dejanr7@hotmail.com	Institute for Teritorial Economic Development Dragiša Mijačić Executive Director dmijacic@regionalni razvoj.org
New Social Initiative Jovana Radosavljević Executive Director jradosavljevic@newsocialinitiative.org	Centar for Protection of Community Rights Dejan Repanović Executive Director dejan@crmc.org
Media Center Budimir Ničić Executive Director mcentar.caglavica@gmail.com	RTV Kim Isak Vorgučić Executive Director isak.vorgucic@gmail.com