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Weak capacities and institutional fragmentation remain one of the main obstacles to the long-term impact of reforms in Albania, according to the recently published independent UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) report on the evaluation of the program in Albania.
UNDP emphasizes that it has helped establish legal frameworks, policies, and institutions in areas such as social services, environment, governance, justice, and gender equality, but the sustainability of results is limited by the incomplete incorporation of reforms into permanent state structures.
According to UNDP, many reforms still remain project-based rather than sustainable state mechanisms. Changing institutional mandates, high staff turnover, and limited capacities, especially at the municipal level, have weakened the sustainability of new practices.
Although the government has increased the number of employees in the administration and their spending, the UN Programme in Albania notes that the continued dependence on UNDP for coordination, systems maintenance or technical support.
One of the most obvious examples is related to data systems. The report mentions that several management systems operate in parallel, without each other, such as the Social Care Services Registry, the Economic Assistance Registry and REVALB, the system for managing gender-based violence cases. This makes it more difficult to monitor policies, coordinate between institutions and create a common impact.
The problem appears to have an institutional source. According to UNDP, the fragmentation stems in part from limited coordination between departments within the Ministry of Health and Social Protection. For example, systems dealing with gender-based violence and social care have been developed separately, although in practice they often address the same vulnerable categories.
Staff turnover is another recurring weakness. The report notes that frequent movements of local coordinators and police officers create a constant need for new training and weaken institutional memory.
At the local level, the report highlights the same problem in disaster risk management. Smaller municipalities face a lack of human resources, staff turnover, limited technical expertise and infrastructure gaps. For this reason, some of them have called for prefectures to take on more coordination functions, to ensure economies of scale and greater efficiency in emergency management.
UNDP warns that without stronger inter-institutional coordination, interoperable data systems, and sustainable public financing, reforms risk remaining fragmented and dependent on donor projects.
For Albania, this takes on even greater importance on the eve of European integration, where the administration will have to prove not only the ability to draft reforms, but also to implement, monitor and finance them in a sustainable manner, the international development institution notes./ Monitor
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