Kosovo is one of the poorest countries in Europe. GDP per capita stands at €2,800, less than 10 per cent of the EU average. Over 60 per cent of the population live in rural areas. There the situation is most challenging: bad infrastructure, bad services, and very few jobs. In 2012, only 26 per cent of Kosovo's population older than 15 years had work.

Since 2001, ESI has conducted a lot of empirical research on Kosovo's socioeconomic challenges. We did case studies of local economies in Peja, Gjilan, and Mitrovica. We engaged an economic historian, Michael Palairet, to spend weeks digging through the archives of Mitrovica's mining giant Trepca, formerly one of Socialist Yugoslavia's biggest companies. His work shows a company that never operated profitably, and then was deliberately run down by the leadership installed by the regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

We examined the internationally led privatization process. In 2004, we presented ideas for a Kosovo Development Plan. In Cutting the lifeline. Migration, families and the Future of Kosovo, we examined Kosovo's patriarchal family structures and the impact of migration on rural Kosovo.