Report Identifies Strengths and Weaknesses of Kosovo Chamber of Advocates

March 2008

The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) published the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates’ (KCA) Organizational Assessment Report in January 2008. This new assessment report details the KCA’s strengths in certain areas—including administration, project design implementation, and reliable partnerships—but also reveals that many are frustrated with the KCA’s work as an advocate for lawyers in Kosovo.

The assessment attributes part of this frustration to poor communication between the leadership and membership about what the leaders are doing. The other part of the frustration is attributed to what is perceived as a lackluster performance by leadership. But the report also finds that KCA leadership is committed to improving the position of lawyers in society and to tackling the big issues confronting their advocacy. This assessment illuminates the leadership’s struggle to accomplish the “hard sell” of KCA’s stance.
 
The report was based on a series of key informant interviews, using a standardized organizational capacity assessment questionnaire. Kathy Ladun, ABA ROLI’s Legal Specialist in Kosovo and her Kosovo team, interviewed some fifty individuals, all members of KCA.
  
The assessment is intended to document the progress of the KCA to date; to identify the KCA’s relative strengths and weaknesses; and to provide the baseline information needed to develop strengthening interventions.  It can also be used to monitor and gauge progress over time.

The KCA’s Executive Board praised this assessment, stating that they will have the report on their meeting agenda in the next coming weeks.

Download the 2007 Kosovo Chamber of Advocates Organizational Assessment Report (January 2008) | in Albanian and English

For more information, please contact Fortuna Haxhikadrija <[email protected]>.