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Contract with the World Learning ( www.worldlearning.com )
Start Date: December, 2005;
Completion DateJanuary, 2006
Municipalities such as Kuçove, Pogradec and Kavaja have done a particularly effective job in gathering the views of their local citizens and implementing Service Improvement Action Plans to address those concerns.
Based on citizen input from a survey, Kuçove has focused on improving solid waste management/street cleaning. It has effectively established a working group, analyzed the situation, set outcomes, indicators and targets, adopted an action plan and established a system to monitor the outcomes. And citizens are quite satisfied. Kuçove has also established with the help of a grant from USAID through the Participant Training Program the first One Stop Shop in Albania for businesses to take care of their obligations towards the municipality. This One Stop Shop not only saves businesses time but increases transparency and compliance. Pogradec has used the same steps to focus on improving green space and public lighting with similar good results. It has also piloted a system for dealing with the municipal responsibility of school maintenance involving citizens in both the identification of priority problems and solutions. Kavaje has focused on Cleaning. Using the same steps it has improved the Cleaning Service. By conducting information sessions at the city council with the proper materials prepared for the council members such as handouts (prepared by head of public service department) which included information on the survey conducted for the citizens with nice charts, map about the citizens satisfaction about Kavajas cleaning service, it is better able to convince council on approving the new methodologies to be applied and having an effective communication between the administration, City Council and citizens..
The study tour was designed to serve as a capacity building and sharing experience , with the aim of using the experiences of three model local governments (Kucova, Pogradec, and Kavaja) to show other local governments how to introduce performance management. The 14 pilot municipalities that benefited from this study tour were: Bajram Curri, Puka, Kukes, Fier, Vore, Vlore, Berat, Peshkopi, Bulqize, Saranda, Gjirokastra, Permet, Prrenjas and Lezha.
5 staff members were invited from each municipality to participate in the study tour according to their needs. The study tour will consisted on 3 trips (one trip each city) and each lasted 1.5 days.
The first day, upon their arrival, the participants were introduced to the city to be visited, the achievements of the city, and discussion/interaction with local staff and elected officials from the city.
The second day continued with more presentations on different experiences and visits in the city as well as meetings with the local government staff including the Mayor and the City Council Chairman, citizens or organized groups of the citizens who supported different projects implemented by the municipality.
Many municipalities in Albania could benefit from visiting and learning first hand from the success of Kuçove, Pogradec or Kavaje. There is considerable interest among municipal officials to visit and learn from the successes of other, more advance cities.
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