Kosovo: Artan Rogova, Group for legal and political studies

Artan Rogova, an ambitious 21 year old works as an analyst and researcher of economic policies in the Group for Legal and Political Studies, a non profit organization based in Kosovo.

Why did you choose to work in the non profit sector?
Because the non profit sector allows someone who wishes to promote reforms at the governing levels to so and to do so brilliantly. As a sector, it provides a well established ideology for the reforms that have to happen in my country: the democratic process and the birth of a democratic civil society. In the near future the non profit sector will be in need of new leaders, leaders who are capable of being political as well as civil, who are capable of changing Kosovo?s image and I hope to be a part of this.

So you see your future in the non profit sector too?
Yes. Until politics begins to prove that it is interested in reform and professionalism I will stick with the non profit sector. I would like to become a university professor of Economic Policy, a researcher and analyst ? maybe even a nation-wide leader! I am deeply committed to making a better Kosovo, to trans-Atlantic integration and to democracy and development.

And you think you will always live in Kosovo?
Absolutely. Kosovo is my home and I intend to live here ? Kosovo needs leaders, I want to be a leader ? we need each other!

What was the biggest challenge you had to face as a young person interested in non profit issues in Kosovo today?
I would say that the greatest obstacles were posed by the lack of financial resources for NGO activities. Politics tends to monopolise finance and in the end civilian actions end up loosing out. Political matters tend to dominate, to take the centre stage?

What is the greatest challenge that Kosovo?s civil society faces today?
To integrate political needs with civil society?s needs. In my opinion Kosovo was never a communist place, it has always looked towards Western models of democracy, so I don?t think that it is an impossible goal. What is for sure is that it is up to civilians to take action, and I think there is increasing awareness of this in Kosovo today.

What can the West learn from Kosovo?
I think that Europe and the Western world can look at Kosovo and see how a country scarred by genocide can be transformed into a country with positive values. A country that looks forward to a happy future, a future its citizens can actively participate in. At the same time the West should also remember that genocides can and have happened, even within Europe.

Tell us more about your background ?
I studied Economics at the Faculty of Economy at the University of Prishtina in Kosovo. I have travelled abroad a lot, mostly as a participant in different international conferences and training sessions. I have been to most European countries so far! And I have participated in lots of conferences across Europe, with different political and economical themes; I have also taken part in many international research projects which is great for my future academic carreer!