A Voice For the Voiceless

MISSION

The Advocacy Project seeks to help community-based advocates produce, disseminate and use information, and so become more effective advocates for human rights and social justice

Claudia Zambra And The Kosova Women's Network (KWN)

Claudia Zambra was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela. She earned her BA in Political Science from Swarthmore College, where she focused on development in Latin America and the Balkans. After graduating, Claudia worked for the Law Offices of Bagia and Morley in Philadelphia, preparing asylum cases. She is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Foreign Service at Georgetown University

In 2002, As part of a summer job, Claudia helped to produce a website for Globovision, the largest news channel in Latin America. Given this, and her interest in the Balkans, Claudia was a natural to work with the Kosova Women’s Network (KWN), a network of 32 women’s organizations in Kosovo. The KWN was the brainchild of Igballe Rogova, a former journalist and prominent Kosovar feminist who founded the women’s group Motrat Qiriazi. The Advocacy Project profiled the work of Igo, as she is popularly known in Kosovo, in 1999 following the war.


Claudia (right) discusses networking strategy with Igo Rogova, the
KWN coordinator (left) and Dilina, the KWN communications
director.

Igo took the initiative to form the KWN in 2001, after she became convinced that women in Kosovo would have far more impact with their lobbying if they spoke with one voice. Eleven of the organizations (including Motrat Qiriazi) had existed prior to the war. The experience of living under Serbian rule, and surviving the 1999 war, had given them valuable experience.

At the same time, the immediate aftermath of the war threw up many new challenges: the United Nations proved to be a difficult partner for civil society, preferring to impose solutions rather than adapt to the needs of local organizations. In addition, criminals were able to exploit the lack of security in Kosovo, which quickly developed into a center for the trafficking of women in Eastern Europe. These and other challenges have continued to preoccupy the KWN and its members, and given an urgency to their advocacy.

Soon after the creation of the KWN, Igo invited The Advocacy Project to help develop a communications strategy for the network. AP secured a grant and was able to design a website for the KWN, assist in developing the network, and launch a newsletter. Parallel to this, AP’s Technical Director Teresa Crawford also remained active with the Internet Project Kosovo (IPKO), which Ms. Crawford helped to establish in 1999. By 2001, IPKO was in a position to provide several IT connections to NGOs in Kosovo, free of charge. In all, IPKO has connected x KWN member organizations to the internet.

By the time Claudia arrived, the KWN had launched six separate campaigns: Education of Women; Women in the Economy; Violence Against Women/Domestic Violence; Coalition: NGO’s and Politicians; Trafficking of Women; and Refugees/IDP’s. These were described in detail on the website. They succeeded in mobilizing large numbers from across the province.

 “Claudia that while the idea of a network is appealing, it can take a lot of hard work, skill and resources to coordinate a diverse group of organizations”

Based on the request from Igo Rogova, it was agreed in advance that Claudia’s main task would be to focus on updating the KWN website. This would involve collecting information from KWN members, and also training a KWN member in how to update the website following Claudia’s departure. It was, we decided, the best way for someone of Claudia’s background to help the network over a period of three months.

After she returned, Claudia herself concluded that she had only partly achieved her objective: “The website was updated and new material was posted, including everything from large-scale publications by UNIFEM to profiles of the individual organizations. However, only about half of the organizations were profiled. I was also able to redesign some parts of the website and tailor it more to the needs of the organization, plus I attempted to make it more dynamic by adding a highlights section and making an actual home page for the website.”

Claudia herself ran into several practical difficulties: “The biggest problem was gathering the information. Most members of the organization do not speak English well enough to sit through an interview, much less provide the necessary information for profiles or any other information they want to post on the website. I was dependent on my trainee for translation, but she was frequently absent. Alternative translators were a possibility, but I would have had to pay them for their services, and it was difficult to find someone who would be willing to travel around Kosovo.”

This suggested to Claudia that while the idea of a network is appealing, it can take a lot of hard work, skill and resources to coordinate a diverse group of organizations: “The KWN is very large with its current thirty-two members, yet it has little institutional capacity. Most of the NGOs are primarily concerned with their activities and then the network. And because of the diverse nature of the NGO’s, ranging from organizations that offer legal counsel to others that teach hairdressing and sewing, it is difficult to envision a network that is strongly interconnected.”

Claudia’s recommendation? “The network needs to have at least one staff member to take care of the website, coordinate activities and meetings, act as translator if necessary, and serve as a contact person for the KWN. Another Advocacy Project intern could help train this staff member in all necessary areas, including website maintenance.”

• Email Claudia Zambra
• Visit the KWN website.
• Read Claudia's blog.

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