TIRANA, Albania (ILO Online) – Citrus and olive trees dominate the landscape, giving it a classical Mediterranean beauty. But the economic, not idyllic landscape, has presented the people of this transition country with a stark reality.
In the past decade, many Albanians left the country in search of work and the remittances they send home remain an important source of revenue for the country as a whole. In 1999, nearly half a million ethnic Albanian refugees from Kosovo spilled over the border into the country, imposing additional burdens on Albania’s already fragile economy.
Today, despite signs of economic progress and some growth over the last years, unemployment is high (13.8 per cent in 2006); child labour and poverty are widespread.
“The transformation to a market economy in Albania has generated a large informal economy in which child labour is widely used. Poverty, lack of schools in certain regions, family breakdown, and discrimination against ethnic minorities play a role in this”, explains Etleva Vertopi, National Programme Manager for the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC).
According to the Albanian Institute of Statistics, 32 per cent of children between age 6 and 17 in the country are working.
In 2006, the ILO launched its Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) in Albania, as an integrated approach to economic and social development targeting the unemployed, the workers in the informal economy, the poor, the victims of trafficking, the homeless, and working children.
The DWCP was based on earlier ILO technical cooperation assisting the government and the social partners with labour market reform and labour legislation, the fight against trafficking of human beings and child labour, the promotion of social dialogue, the extension of social security and institutional capacity building. Partners included the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, employers’ and workers’ organizations, local government and handicraft associations.
IPEC signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Albanian government in 1999 and set up a Child Labour Monitoring Unit in the Ministry of Labour aimed at eliminating child labour. The ILO’s Migrant Workers Branch has run a project in the country since 2003 to improve migration management capacities, link labour migration services with employment and training services and directly assist victims of trafficking with reintegration services.
In 2006 and 2007, successful pilot initiatives were implemented to make productive use of remittances of migrant workers and to move informal micro-enterprises managed by women to the formal economy. Under the coordination of the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator, the same programme is planning interventions to enhance decent work opportunities for youth in the country to reduce migration.
A testcase for the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda and UN reform
But coordination and concertation did not stop at the level of the ILO and its DWCP. The youth employment programme cited above is part of a wider effort involving the United Nations (UN) to support Albania in reaching its development goals. On 24 October 2007, the Albanian government and the UN signed an agreement making Albania one of the eight, “Delivering as One” pilot countries (Note 1) who volunteered to participate in this UN programme.
The UN’s Delivering as One programme aims to bring together the comparative advantages of each part of the UN system within a single country programme in the areas of Development, Humanitarian Assistance and Environment, and to complement the assistance provided by other development partners. Within Albania, it combines and synthesizes the work of 12 UN organisations and funds.
The programme in Albania, which aligns and supports the country’s development and European integration goals, aims to maximise the impact of UN activities in five areas: more transparent and accountable governance; greater participation in public policy and decision making; increased and more equitable access to quality basic services; regional development to reduce disparities; and environmentally sustainable development. The ILO is participating in three of the five main development goals: governance, participation in public policy and decision making; and regional development, all of which are interrelated.
The Delivering as One programme for Albania encompasses a financial contribution of US$75 million over the next four years. UN agencies will contribute US$40 million and the remaining US$35 million will be funded by donor countries and institutions.
As the ILO has been working with the government and social partners – workers’ and employers’ organizations – the model championed by the ILO will be an integral part of the One UN process in the country.
“This tripartite approach is the bedrock of the ILO since its foundation in 1919, while it is something new for the other organizations in the UN system”, says Ms. Petra Ulshoefer, Director of ILO Subregional Office for Central and Eastern Europe. “So we can safely say that ILO is leading the way in this respect.”
Gülden Türköz-Cosslett, the UN’s Resident Coordinator in Albania, confirms this view: “The role of ILO is unique and quite significant in the One UN programme and I am confident ILO’s contribution will have a positive impact in Albania.” According toUlshoefer, the Delivering as One programme also reflects the fact that the UN and the EU have embraced the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda as a global goal and an integrated approach to economic and social development.
Meanwhile Albania is on the way to a functioning market economy, but will need deeper reform to be able to cope with competitive pressures and market forces in Europe.
“Our specific role and main purpose is to help the country move towards EU accession and to put the necessary reforms into place”, says Ulshoefer. “We are working at both levels: the policy level and the operational level, which go hand in hand.”
Overall, the success of Albania’s experience will impact how countries in the region and around the world pursue UN reform.
Note 1 - The Delivering as One pilot initiative will test in eight countries how the UN family can deliver in a more coordinated way at country level to ensure faster and more effective development operations. In addition to Albania, the countries include Cape Verde, Mozambique, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uruguay and Vietnam.