November 2008
The Kosovo Chamber of Advocates (KCA) is drafting its firstever 5-year institutional strategic plan. The ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABAROLI), in cooperation with the KCA and the USAID, held a three-day workshop forthe KCA executive board and its strategic planning team as part of ABA ROLI’S efforts to promote and support legal professional association development.
The KCA, which was established in 1973, embarked on drafting its plan during the October 10–12 strategic planning workshop in Prizren, Kosovo. Once drafted, the strategic plan will establish benchmarks for the more than 500-member KCA in its transition and progress toward becoming a fully independent and financially sustainable institution.
“This process and the resulting 5-year plan will allow the KCA to solidify its mission and will, hopefully, guide the organization through a period of intensified growth and targeted development,” said John Allelo, USAID senior rule of law advisor.
Musa Dragusha, President of the KCA, emphasized the need to have a strategic plan to serve as a point of reference for what the KCA wants to achieve. “It istime that we, KCA leadership, have a strategic plan according to which we can focus our work,” he said.
The strategic plan will incorporate the findings of the recent ABA ROLI’s legal professional reform assessment in Kosovo and those of the recent KCA organizational assessment. Both identified the need for a longer-term strategic plan so the KCA could better focus its resources on meeting the needs of itsmembers and the legal profession.
Donna Wright, ABA ROLI’ s Europe and Eurasia director, said the strategic plan will help the KCA face its challenges by enabling it to assess where it isand determine where it wants to go. Daragh O’Shea and Kevin Hoy, members of the Irish Law Society, and Dawn Shock and Laura Berger from ABA ROLI’s Washington, D.C., office are facilitating the strategic plan drafting process with assistance from the ABA’s Bar Services Division. ABA ROLI has been working withthe KCA since 2000 to strengthen its contribution to the rule of law in Kosovo.
For more information about ABA ROLI activities in Kosovo, contact Gjeneza Budima at <gjbudima@ceelikosovo.org>