Governance Reform – Urban Research Institute

Albania Climate Finance Conference: From Readiness to Investment Delivery

URI_Admin — Fri, 16 Jan 2026 14:52:51 +0000

The Albania Climate Finance Conference brought together key national institutions, local governments, development partners and experts to take stock of Albania’s readiness to mobilise climate finance and turn priorities into implementable investments. It focused on what was working, what gaps remained, and how reforms and coordination could unlock stronger funding flows for climate action across sectors and territories.

The conference also served as a launchpad for next steps by strengthening a shared pipeline of bankable project concepts and sustaining follow-up dialogue between government, partners and the private/banking sector. A central output was a national pledge of commitment that signalled collective intent to move from planning to delivery and keep momentum beyond the event.

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Policy and investment planning in FOLU in Albania to support the utilization of the climate change mitigation and sustainable development potential of the sector

URI_Admin — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:22:49 +0000

Albania’s forests and pastures cover approximately 65% of the national territory—46% forests and 19% pastures—constituting one of the country’s most critical natural resources. These ecosystems support both environmental integrity and socio-economic development, with forests playing predominantly productive roles and pastures supporting seasonal livestock activities. This land use sector—Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU)—is vital for its significant contribution to achieving Albania’s climate targets and sustainable development goals.

According to Albania’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), Albania aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20.9% by 2030. Of this target, 61% is attributed to the energy sector, while FOLU accounts for 37%, mainly through land use categories such as cropland and grassland. This positions the FOLU sector as a major national contributor to climate mitigation efforts.

Despite its strategic relevance, the sector is currently hampered by fragmented governance, insufficient strategic planning, weak institutional coordination, low private sector engagement, and limited technical capacities at both central and local levels.

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Implementation plan for revising and achieving the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Albania

URI_Admin — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 13:22:13 +0000

Albania has a national legal basis for climate change; the Ministry of Tourism and Environment is the National Focal Point to the UNFCCC, responsible for the national climate change agenda; an Interministerial Working Group, composed of governmental stakeholders and directed from the Ministry, is the cross-sectorial coordination instrument of the agenda; within the transparency and reporting framework of the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, Albania has to report biannually on progress towards the achievement of the NDC, beginning from December 2024; in addition, every five years, a Global Stocktake of the collective achievement of the Paris Agreement is undertaken, the subsequent one is planned for 2028; therefore, within the next mid-term period, the Government of Albania and the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, need to be prepared to provide evidence of the efforts and progress towards the achievement of the NDC.

The project aims to enhance the national strategic framework for the implementation of the NDC and build the capacities of the government, private sector and civil society actors for an effective national cross-sectorial process for the implementation of the NDC.

The goal of the project is to contribute to the achievement of Albania’s NDC through the mobilization and scale-up of climate finance.

In relation to gender equality, the project will carry out a situation analysis of the gender indicators integrated into the NDC implementation components: governance, mitigation and adaptation, identify deficiencies and gaps, and plan the activities for the gender sensitive implementation of the NDC.

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Technical Assistance to the Consultative Council between Central and Local Government

URI_Admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 12:23:12 +0000

The objective of this project was to support the actors of the Consultative Council between central and local governments in Albania to increase its efficiency and effectiveness, enhancing the Consultative Council’s contribution to the advancement of the decentralization agenda of Albania.
This project contributed to the improvement of the organization and functioning of the Consultative Council by helping enhance municipalities’ decision-making role on policies and legislation related to the decentralization process. The project also improved the capacities of the Agency for Support to Local Government (ASLG) in the operation, management and communication of the Consultative Council.
Moreover, the project helped develop staff capacities of municipalities, associations of municipalities and regions, ASLG, Ministry of Interior, and line ministries on the local legislative and budget framework in compliance with EU standards, offering a capacity building programme, a training of trainers and an autonomous online teaching course.

Factsheet

Strong Municipalities – Strengthening the Role of Council Secretary

URI_Admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 20:00:26 +0000

Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation (HSI) has been awarded by SDC the mandate to implement the “Strong Municipalities” (BF) program in Albania. After a territorial-administrative reform and a decentralization process implying for Albanian municipalities the management of bigger territories and enhanced functions, the project supports municipalities to enhance a citizen-oriented management to improve services. Technical support to administrations is combined with support for bottom-up participation and monitoring through municipal councils. The project also strengthens capacities of de-concentrated agencies at the regional level so that they contribute to the implementation of the decentralization policy of the central Government.

Factsheet

Matrix of Competencies of Local Self-Government

URI_Admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 19:58:53 +0000

The latest decentralization reform in the country started with law 139/2015 “On Local Self-government” and law 68/2017 “On local self-government finance” and should continue with the analysis of sectorial laws in order to help harmonize the distribution of authority in the two levels of governance for each area of the functions of local self-governance.
The two monitoring reports for the implementation of the Strategy drafted respectively in 2016 and 2017, have consistently identified that the lack of legal harmonization is present in many areas of functional activity of local self-government and in particular the new functions that have been transferred to this level of government by law 139/2015 and within the Territorial and Administrative Reform of 2015.
The improvement and harmonization of the sectorial legal and institutional framework are of utmost importance in order to increase the efficiency of local self-government units, in line with the vision of the Strategy; it also ensures the sustainable development of this governing level, which in itself constitutes one of the main objectives of the Strategy.

Factsheet

Information Centre for Social Services in Elbasan

URI_Admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 10:13:21 +0000

During the development of the Elbasan Social Service Improvement Action Plan under the Performance Management Project, a key concern emerged, i.e. the lack of consistent and comprehensive information on available social services. As a result, the working group, led by the Urban Research Institute, developed a plan to establish an information center – which became a reality within a few months.

Factsheet

Support to the Municipality of Shijak and Kukës for the Elaboration of Fiscal Packages, Annual Budget and Medium-term Budget Program

URI_Admin — Fri, 24 Nov 2017 09:29:32 +0000

After their official creation in September 2015, the 61 municipalities of Albania had to design for the first time the local budget based on a three-year program of implementation of municipal functions, including for the first time also the new territory under administration after the Territorial and Administration Reform. URI provided technical assistance to the Municipalities of Kukës and Shijak in this consolidation phase.

The project improved the cooperation between the financial planning department and other departments of the two municipalities, raising awareness among the public administration of the need for decentralization and allocation of responsibilities and duties during the development of a midterm budget program.

The successful completion of the first process of local mid-term budget planning in both municipalities has served them as a valuable baseline practice for continuing the completion and improvement of the process at the local level over the years.

Support to dldp Centre of Competence in PFM for the Elaboration of Fiscal Package, Annual Budget and Medium-term Budget Programme 2019-2021

URI_Admin — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 19:57:39 +0000

This project assisted pre-selected Local Government Units in the elaboration of medium-term budget programs based on their strategic planning documents, along with the preparation of the annual budget, fiscal package and FPT.

Factsheet

Support to the Municipality of Kukës for the Elaboration of Fiscal Package, Annual Budget and Medium Term Budget Program

URI_Admin — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 16:03:14 +0000

The objective of the project is to assist Kukës Municipality in the elaboration of the medium term budget program based on the strategic planning documents, along with the preparation of the annual budget and the fiscal package.

Factsheet