Start Date: January 2003                Completion Date: October 2004

The project incorporated development of three components:

Component 1: Review of Decentralization Progress in Albania with the primary objective to provide the government with feedback on the process so far and an action plan for further constructive measures,

Component 2: Produce a Manual on “Strengthening Decentralization and Local Government in Albania”, which includes  three chapters  for practical use at the local government level, covering  Strategic Planning, Operational Planning and Financial Planning. The Ministry of Local Government and Decentralization has esteemed as a priority focusing of the project in capacity building of local governments in operational, strategic and financial planning The Manual on “Strengthening Decentralization and Local Government in Albania” is evaluated as an important contribution which will practically help Local Government Units to exercise their authorities in this area of concern. The Manual is the first ever produced in this area of LG interest and constitutes an important resource for increasing capacities at the local level. Therefore, we recommend this manual as a resource to be used in the future trainings to build the capacities for all the municipality, communes and regions administration and decision makers involved in the decentralization process.

Component 3: Training of trainers; another objective was to strengthen the organizational capacity of regional councils as providers of training and technical backstopping and other support services for the municipalities and communes. URI and SIPU experts implemented a local governance training-of-trainers program, characterised by participatory methods, with three  Regional Offices, including Gjirokaster, Fier, Kukes, through several steps, including: 

• Identify  the training needs of local government staff and elected officials;
• Prepare Training program and training manuals based on training needs;
• Develop  capacity of national trainers in designing and conducting training to local government civil servants and elected authorities;
• Resulting with an increased preparedness of Regional Councils to take the responsibility of organising training with the support of LGP.