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| New Decent Work Country Programme for Albania to promote balanced social and economic development |
BUDAPEST (ILO news) - The International Labour Organization (ILO), the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of the Republic of Albania and the organizations representing employers and workers in Albania announced a new partnership on 24 September 2008 in Tirana, Albania.
The Albanian "Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP) 2008 - 2010" which was launched in the presence of the UN Resident Coordinator for Albania promotes decent work as a key to development.
The Programme concentrates on three priorities: strengthening the capacity of government institutions and the social partners to improve the governance of the labour market; supporting government action to reduce the informal economy; and improving the coverage of the social protection system.
The first priority - improving the governance of the labour market - will help the country to achieve rapid, balanced and sustainable economic, social and human development, fight corruption and establish the rule of law. This includes ILO support for active and gender sensitive employment policies, a modern employment promotion law that addresses both efficiency and equity objectives, an employment and vocational training strategy, the development of a youth employment policy and related national action plans.
The ILO will also provide comprehensive technical assistance to improve the functioning and the effectiveness of social dialogue between government, workers' and employers' organizations, including the National Labour Council, in order to effectively address economic and social problems. This will directly contribute to consolidating the democratic state.
The second priority reflects the long term goal of reducing the informal economy in Albania. The ILO will help to strengthen institutions, develop policies and strengthen the capacities of the tripartite actors to implement active labour market and youth employment policies, and to create a more business friendly environment. The ILO will be working in partnership with four other UN agencies as part of the One UN approach to promote partnerships for decent and productive work for youth (MDG 8).
In addressing the third priority, the DWCP in Albania will focus on problems of governance of social security. It will advise ILO partners on the path to be taken during the reform of the scheme and offer training for upgrading the professional capacities of the stakeholders. The ILO will also help develop a new law on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and a national OSH plan that ensures the implementation of the law.
Initiatives to prevent the worst forms of child labour and human trafficking complete the DWCP.
A major contribution to international, regional and national development agendas
The DWCP also supports the international development agenda, including the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the ONE UN Programme in Albania and the National Strategy for Development and Integration of Albania. It will also help the country to meet its obligations under the Stabilization and Accession Agreement with the European Union (EU).
This programme has been developed through a participatory process with the involvement of tripartite constituents and builds upon the achievements and assessment of the previous DWCP 2006-07.
Despite considerable progress made during the last decade, Albania still belongs to the poorer countries in Europe with a national per capita income of US$2,960 per annum.
After the deep recession of 1997-1998, the country achieved macroeconomic stability in the early 2000s together with economic growth averaging more than 5 percentage points. However, these high growth rates did not translate into the creation of more jobs.
Progress has also been achieved in fighting poverty, with a fall of seven percentage points of the number of people living below the poverty line (from 25.4 per cent in 2002 to 18.5 per cent in 2005) over a three-year period.(1) This was seen as a major step towards the achievement of MDG-1, which aims at cutting the poverty rate in Albania to 13 per cent by 2015.
The overall rate of registered unemployment was 13.18 per cent by the end of 2007.(2) Compared to their male counterparts, women experience much lower participation in the labour force (in 2006 the labour force participation rate in Albania was 56.5 per cent -66.6% men and 45.9% women).(3)
With 46 per cent of its citizens aged less than 25 years, Albania is one of the European countries with the youngest population.(4) Over the past decade, the youth unemployment rate has been consistently higher than that of adults. In 2005, young people experienced a rate of unemployment of 12.8 per cent (14.4 per cent for young men and 11 per cent for young women), compared with a rate of 6.9 per cent of the working age population.
Albania has experienced high migration levels over the last years, both internally and internationally. It is estimated that about 40 per cent of the working-age population is working abroad.
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1., World Bank, Albania Country Brief 2007
2., INSTAT (Labour force, Fourth quarter 2007)
3., INSTAT - Women and Men in Albania 2006, Tirana, 2007.
4., The average age of the Albanian population is 31.7 years. See: ILO, Analysis of the youth labour market in Albania (forthcoming).
Press release in Albanian in pdf
Albania Decent Work Country Programme 2008 - 2010 in pdf in English
and in Albanian
Further information:
Ms Edit Horváth
tel. +36 (1) 473 2656
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