Between 2009 and 2012, Sweden will invest about SEK 360 million to help Albania make its public and local government administration more efficient. It will become better at collecting tax and will make the police’s fight against organized crime more effective. We are also helping Albania to plan the use of its natural resources.
One important project will establish a nationwide property register to guarantee right of possession. Other plans include introducing an employment agency and making Albania’s national debt office, which administers central government debt and internal lending, more efficient.
Institutions needed
According to economic historian Douglass North, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1993, functioning public and private institutions are of great importance to each country’s long-term development and, in particular, economic growth. You can read a summary of his theories here.
Within Sida, we know that it is difficult to contribute towards the construction of sustainable institutions in an environment such as that in Albania, where clans and blood ties influence the exercise of power, where the number of those with a high standard of education is limited and where democracy has not reached maturity.
We are therefore working with several other partners, including Norway, the United Kindgom and the World Bank, who have made some priorities together with the Albanian government. These are written in Albania’s plan of action for its engagement with the EU. Improving the conditions for Albania’s EU membership is one of the development aid’s important targets.
Special plan to combat corruption
Greater democracy and increased respect for human rights, particularly for women, children and minorities such as Roma, are tightly linked to the target of EU membership. But greater influence from the citizens is needed, which is also the case for reducing corruption, which is widespread.
Albanian society is poorly developed in terms of membership in clubs and associations – an important ingredient for citizens’ participation in society. Part of our development aid therefore goes towards strengthening non-governmental organizations that work towards influencing decision-makers, to improving equality, so women can have a greater influence in politics and to ensuring that environmental issues receive attention.
The Swedish Cooperative Centre (SCC) works with small farmers and co-operative development in Albania. Read a summary of the project in Sida’s database for projects with Swedish non-governmental organizations.
Child labour exists in Albania. Through the Swedish Metal Workers’ Union, Sweden’s Secretariat of International Trade Union Development Co-operation (LO-TCO) administers a project to combat child labour.
