Outcome ALB_D_1.1

By 2026, government institutions ensure increased and more equitable investment in people to remove barriers and create opportunities for those at risk of exclusion (UNSDCF Outcome A).

In 2024, significant progress was achieved in strengthening the capacity of central and local government institutions in Albania to deliver gender-responsive services, with tangible results in participatory budgeting, policy reform, and inclusive governance. A key result was the successful engagement of over 772 individuals, including 384 women and girls, in participatory budgeting initiatives across five municipalities—Roskovec, Vora, Divjaka, Konispol, and Maliq. This process led to the launch of 32 civic actions addressing women’s concerns, with 73 percent of issues successfully resolved by local governments, demonstrating a measurable impact on community well-being and inclusion. Policy reform was another critical milestone, with amendments to Law No. 162/2020 on public procurement ensuring that the framework now better addresses the needs of women survivors of violence. These changes also create enhanced opportunities for Civil Society Organizations to deliver specialized services, marking a significant step toward fostering systemic inclusion and gender-responsive governance. Efforts to develop pilot services for women with disabilities further reinforced the institutional capacity to deliver inclusive services. Municipal social service staff were trained to adopt gender-responsive and disability-inclusive approaches, resulting in practical tools and tailored plans to address identified service gaps. These pilots are paving the way for replicable and sustainable models to better support women with disabilities in municipalities across Albania. Capacity-building initiatives continued to strengthen municipal governance frameworks, equipping local officials with skills to utilize gender-disaggregated data and advanced analytical tools. These efforts informed the integration of gender-sensitive priorities into mid-term municipal budget plans, with a focus on economic development, public service enhancement, and accessible infrastructure, ensuring that governance frameworks address the needs of marginalized groups. These achievements align with Albania’s national strategies, including the Social Inclusion and Social Protection Strategy, ensuring that gender equality remains a cornerstone of social policy frameworks. Through these advancements, Albania has made measurable progress in fostering inclusive governance, promoting equity, and addressing the systemic barriers faced by vulnerable groups. UN Women’s efforts have set the foundation for sustained impact, ensuring that institutional reforms translate into meaningful opportunities for those at risk and fostering a more equitable society.

By 2026, government institutions ensure increased and more equitable investment in people to remove barriers and create opportunities for those at risk of exclusion (UNSDCF Outcome A).

Progress was made in 2023 to achieve this outcome. Albanian women and girls have improved access to social and community services as a result of efforts at the central and local level. UN Women worked closely with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, targeted Local Government Units, the faculty of Social Work and CSOs to develop strategies, increase capacities of local officials, costing social services, actively engaging women especially the most vulnerable ones, in voicing their needs and priorities, and preparing a new generation of social workers who are sensitive and value gender equality and diversity. Key contributions of UN Women and other stakeholders to achieve this outcome include: Five Local government institutions address and respond to the needs and concerns of the most marginalized women and girls. This was achieved thanks to budgeting and planning processes that increasingly consider the unique needs of women and girls. Local government units and civil society organizations, including at the grassroot levels enhanced their capacities to achieve these results, through UN Women’s continuous trainings and support. Through these efforts, over 700 women and girls from five municipalities, including from remote areas and diverse groups of women in Vau i Dejes Fushe Arrez, Dropull, Delvine and Gjirokaster, raised key issues during participatory budgeting sessions facilitated by partner CSOs. 60% of issues raised by women were effectively addressed and incorporated into local budgets. Another added value and key contribution of UN Women was costing services, further enhancing the efficacy of the initiative. Local Government Units accessed recommendations to enhance women’s participation and access to social services, and are being held more accountable, through five CSO budget Watchdog Reports “All-inclusive social services for women and girls”. UN Women leveraged its strategic collaboration with the PRISMA network, the leading participatory budgeting network comprised of 50 grassroots organizations to produce the reports. In addition to preparing the reports, the Network proposed concrete suggestions for improving key pieces of legislation affecting women's access to social services, such as the social services and public procurement legal framework. UN Women played a pivotal role in achieving these results by offering financial support, training, capacity building, and technical expertise to the PRISMA Network. UN Women also supported knowledge exchange and sharing of best practices from the region through dedicated study visits. The final draft of the Social Protection Strategy (2023-2030) is gender responsive and makes a clear commitment to gender equality aligning with international and national gender equality standards . The strategy identifies and addresses gender disparities, intersectional discrimination and specific vulnerabilities faced by women, which are carefully reflected into its overarching vision, outcomes, and action plan. The collaborative efforts between UN Women, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, and UNICEF played a pivotal role throughout the entire process of drafting the strategy and yielded the integration of gender considerations and budgetary allocations into the strategy. Students are equipped to deliver inclusive services that value and uphold the values of gender equality and diversity, with the support of the Department of Social Work and Policy at the University of Tirana . Through targeted initiatives, 42 master’s program students affiliated with the department are well equipped to navigate and contribute to social welfare through inclusive lens. This was the result of a well-structured workplan developed jointly by the department of Social Work and Policy and UN Women. Technical support was delivered through organization of bootcamps, joint workshops, open auditorium sessions with students and targeting diversity through social inclusion Overall, the lessons learned underscore the critical importance of institutional ownership in achieving results and, most importantly, sustainability. This highlights a profound systemic inclusion of GRB by municipalities, demonstrating their commitment and determination to address the diverse needs of vulnerable women. Additionally, collaboration with networks of organizations proves crucial in having a diverse range of expertise and fostering effective collaboration. The theory of change for this outcome remains valid, based on the progress achieved. UN Women forged synergies among various Country Office programs to establish a systematic approach that fosters the inclusion of marginalized women across diverse thematic areas. The participation of UN Women in UN Joint Programme such as the Leave No One Behind uniquely positioned the CO to achieve these results. This approach will lead to tangible benefits for more women at risk of exclusion and will ensure their increased access to social protection services. The outcome was generously supported thanks to the contribution of SDC through the Multi-Partner Trust Fund.

By 2026, government institutions ensure increased and more equitable investment in people to remove barriers and create opportunities for those at risk of exclusion (UNSDCF Outcome A).

Significant results were accomplished towards this outcome, specifically to ensure that government institutions at local level include the needs and priorities of most marginalized women and girls in their respective priorities and budgets, and more women from marginalized communities engage in local decision making, planning and budgeting processes. 73% of issues raised by vulnerable women during participatory budgeting processes in five municipalities were addressed and reflected in the municipalities’ local policies and budgets. As a result, women and girls from the target municipalities enjoy greater access to social and community services, as these have been fully budgeted and planned for. UN Women contributed this result through continued capacity building of local government units, leveraging best practices for efficient use of revenues and resources to plan and deliver gender responsive social services, and providing technical expertise on costing of such services. In addition, UN Women contributed to increase availability of gender-sensitive evidence to inform fiscal policy reforms and the design of integrated systems and programmes for gender and child sensitive social protection system, in particular in care economy. UN Women collaborated with UNICEF to conduct two research studies on 1) Developing a case for investing in free universal childcare in Albania: an analysis of childcare costs, fiscal revenue effects and gender centered multi-dimensional vulnerability and 2) Financing a social protection floor for vulnerable women, girls and children in Albania. Both studies provide tangible evidence on how gender sensitive public investment has important ramifications in terms of who benefits from childcare and job creation. They also provide essential information for policymakers that intend to adopt gender sensitive fiscal policy measures to empower women economically and, at the same time, tackle other economic and social priorities. Partnerships have been essential to achieve these results. UN Women continued to work closely with UN agencies in the context of UN Joint Programmes (JP) “SDG Financing Project” and “Leave No One Behind” (LNOB), generously supported by the Joint SDG Fund and the Swiss Development Cooperation through UN Albania SDG Acceleration Fund, respectively. In addition, UN Women’s partnership with PRISMA Network was strategic in the context of this outcome. The PRISMA network consists of 50 grassroot organizations working on participatory budgeting processes, which was leveraged to activate women and youth, to strengthen public discourse around gender equality with Local Government Units (LGUs), as well as to foster proper implementation of participatory budgeting processes with inclusion of all groups. Based on progress to date, the original strategy and theory of change for this outcome is still relevant and applicable. UN Women Albania is leveraging the new phase of the LNOB JP and other ongoing and newly developed interventions to ensure a systematic approach to promote inclusion of marginalized women and girls across thematic areas, and to guarantee a strong outreach to women and girls from marginalized communities, in partnership with grassroot CSOs and communities in remote areas. If, as expected, this strategy is successful, more women at risk of being excluded will benefit from increased access to social protection services that are gender responsive, and national partners at central and local level will have increased skills, evidence and knowledge to mainstream gender equality consideration in national and local programmes and policies.