Region:Asia Pacific
Current UN Women Plan Period Afghanisthan:2018-2022
World Bank Income Classification:Low Income
The World Bank classifies economies for analytical purposes into four income groups: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income. For this purpose it uses gross national income (GNI) per capita data in U.S. dollars, converted from local currency using the World Bank Atlas method, which is applied to smooth exchange rate fluctuations.
Least Developed Country:Yes
Since 1971, the United Nations has recognized LDCs as a category of States that are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process, for structural, historical and also geographical reasons. Three criteria are used: per capita income, human assets, and economic vulnerability.
Gender Inequality Index:0.575
GII is a composite metric of gender inequality using three dimensions: reproductive health, empowerment and the labour market. A low GII value indicates low inequality between women and men, and vice-versa.
Gender Development Index:0.723
GDI measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and command over economic resources.
Population:209,497,025
Source of population data: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2022). World Population Prospects: The 2022 Revision
Male:19,976,265 (9.5%)
Female:189,520,760 (90.5%)
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ALB_D_1.2
National legal and policy frameworks adopt and mainstream gender equality principles.
Significant progress was made towards gender-mainstreaming in legal and policy frameworks at the central and local level in line with international and national gender equality commitments, including the EU gender equality acquis. At the national level, the Government of Albania (GoA) was successfully supported to develop additional strategies and EU Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) programming documents that mainstream gender equality. In addition, nine IPA Unit officials in the Ministry of Finance and the Economy and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development were familiarized with gender mainstreaming approaches, and regional cross-learning experiences were exchanged in UN Women’s Gender Equality Facility meeting of practitioners in Neum/Bosnia and Herzegovina. At the local level, the Municipality of Gramsh signed the European Charter for Equality of women and men in local life while 63 local officials were familiarized with European Charter Guidelines on how to draft a Local Gender Action Plan (Elbasan, Gramsh, Gjirokastër, Tirana), and 4 draft local gender action plans were developed (in Tirana, Gramsh, Elbasan and Gjirokaster). Across this work, UN Women provided high quality international and national expertise in the framework of the EU for Gender Equality UN Joint Programme and engaged in direct coaching sessions with public officials at the central and local level. Progress was also made in improving production, availability and use of gender statistics: • The capacities of INSTAT’s (Institute of Statistics of Albania) were significantly strengthened with regards to the production, availability and accessibility of gender statistics. INSTAT representatives benefitted from UN Women’s technical support in a gender section in the PC-axis2 developing the new 5-year statistical programme and preparing the new “Women and Men” publication 2021. UN Women provided technical support in the framework of “Women Count” programme, as well as guidance in undertaking a thorough mapping of the PC-axis and recommendations for increasing the number of gender indicators and level of disaggregation, coaching, and mentoring the INSTAT team, and providing advice for preparing the new statistical programme and producing the Women and Men, 2021 edition. • 44 CSO representatives and experts (43 women) have increased capacities on gender statistics and analyses. UN Women contributed to this result through the “Women Count” programme by designing the training, comprising of an introductory and an advanced session, inviting CSOs through an open call for applications and conducting a needs assessment prior to the training . According to pre- and post-training evaluation reports, the participants showed increased understanding, confidence and knowledge in the topics presented by UN Women. Feedback from the participants will serve to design future additional support in the areas of most interest and need. This initiative was undertaken jointly with INSTAT which contributed to all the stages of the training including its facilitation. • The new National Strategy on Gender Equality (NSGE) 2021-2030, has a comprehensive performance monitoring framework with indicators aligned to SDGs and key international and national GE obligations. UN Women’s contribution included technical expertise to the overall development of the new NSGE, engaging top-level experts and ensuring a highly inclusive and participatory approach. The MHSP led the NSGE development process with UN Women support involving all central level and local level institutions, CSOs, NHRIs and international development partners. A fruitful collaboration with UN agencies, the EU Delegation, national and local institutions was essential for achieving the results explained above. Moving forward, in the context of implementing the UN Women Albania Strategic Note (SN) 2022-2026, UN Women Albania will have an increased focus on strengthening the gender equality mechanism at the national and local level and on gender mainstreaming in future policies, programmes and plans. Funding for this outcome was made possible thanks to generous contribution of the European Union Delegation through the UN Albania Multi-Donor Trust Fund and the Government of Sweden.
outcome XM-DAC-41146-ALB_D_1.3
Fiscal laws and policies prioritize revenue and budgetary allocations in favor of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment.
In 2021, budget policies prioritized revenue and budgetary allocations for gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE): for the 2022-2024 Medium Term Budget Program (MTBP) 45 budgetary programs, 60.8 % of the total budgetary programs, are engendered. The amount of funds planned for addressing gender equality issues is approximately 490 million USD, 9 % of the total budget. UN Women supported the Ministry of Finance and the Economy (MoFE) to achieve this result by providing technical assistance to MoFE and Line Ministries. Over 560 government officials (68% women and 32% men) from 11 line ministries now have increased knowledge on GRB integration including through use of gender statistics in MTBP 2022-2024, thanks to intensive capacity building efforts through a series of 10 trainings. Twenty Gender Equality Employees of all line Ministries, INSTAT and Albanian State Police have improved knowledge on GRB, gender statistics and gender analysis. For the first time in Albania, gender expenditures can be tracked and their impact measured thanks to the improved and engendered Albanian Finance Management Information System (AFMIS). The CO supported MoFE to use data from AFMIS to issue the First Gender Expenditure Monitoring Report 2021. The 2022 Budget is open and transparent to citizens and oversight mechanisms thanks to the Gender Sensitive Citizen's Budget 2022 published annually by MoFE with UN Women’s technical assistance. Oversight bodies are increasingly proactive in demanding accountability of public institutions on budget allocations and application of GRB. In this context, UN Women was instrumental in establishing new partnerships with the Supreme Audit Institution, the Ombudsperson and the Anti-discrimination Commissioner, who are now more knowledgeable on gender equality and gender-responsive budgeting and demonstrate a commitment to co-draft thematic reports on GRB monitoring in public finances. Twenty municipalities have strengthened capacities to apply GRB within local budgets with focus on gender mainstreaming in policies and related budgets associated with municipal services. 203 municipal staff (60 men and 143 women) have improved skills on gender analysis and GRB application at the local level. Eight concrete initiatives were budgeted for and implemented by municipalities as a direct result of GRB training and mentoring processes, including: · More women and girls in need in Kavaja Municipality will benefit from a special fund of 100 000 ALL through 2022 budget for awareness raising activities on how to access services · More women and girls in the Municipality of Cerrik will be able to open new businesses due to two fiscal incentives budgeted in the 2022 Budget providing for 20% reduction of local taxes and tariffs for women and girls who want to start a business. · For the first time, vulnerable women and girls in the Municipalities of Skrapar and Polican will benefit dedicated social care services due to a specific fund placed in the 2022 Budget which is linked with the municipalities' Local Social Care Plans. · Women and girls in the Municipality of Rrogozhine can now access missing social services which are budgeted accordingly in the 2022 budget due to improved coordination and information sharing between the structures of social services and budget and finance departments. · Vulnerable women, women head of households and women victims of domestic violence in Puka Municipality will be able to obtain social housing due to introduced specific criteria in the social housing program which is now more inclusive of these groups. · Women and girls of Lushnja Municipality rural areas will be able to benefit from social care programs and activities due to a specific budget fund within its 2022 budget for activities with women and girls pertaining to social care programs. UN Women contributed to these results through cooperation with the Albanian School of Public Administration (ASPA), and jointly developed and delivered two standardized training modules for Local Government Units (LGUs) on gender responsive planning and budgeting. These modules will be used by ASPA also in the future to train local public administration on GRB. Over 1200 women and men in 12 municipalities partook in participatory budgeting processes. Over 840 vulnerable women and girls, including youth, older women, rural women, women with disabilities and unemployed women have benefited from training and awareness events and voiced their needs. About 20% of concerns that were raised will become priorities in the future budget. At the municipal level, the CO helped ensure that plans and budgets respond to the needs of vulnerable women and girls. Ten economic journalists are more knowledgeable on how to report on gender equality financing thanks to the first-of-its kind training by UN Women on GRB and its importance when they report. Ten grassroot CSOs demand accountability for gender equality and related allocated resources through 6 budget watchdog reports on integrated social care services, expenditure monitoring and accountability. UN Women trained, mentored and supported the CSOs to scrutinize budgets with a gender lens and produce watchdog reports which were shared with public stakeholders and municipalities. The results of social exclusion, vulnerabilities, and gender-based discrimination at the local level in 15 municipalities can now be measured using the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions survey as a baseline. UN Women and INSTAT finalized Gender Responsive Mapping of linkages between social inclusion and vulnerabilities, and the report is a key resource for future policy makers in the field of social protection. It highlights the peculiarities of women’s poverty in Albania in 15 municipalities and provides evidence that income-based poverty measures, complemented with material deprivation and social exclusion, increase gender inequality. Twenty-six entrepreneurs, of which 15 women, have increased capacities to establish and develop their own social businesses in the upper Vjosa basin, thanks to 5 business plans that are now fully developed. The Albania Country Portfolio Evaluation (CPE) has identified GRB as a flagship area for the CO, recognizing the impact and significant results this work has achieved over the implementation of the previous SN. In this context, the UN Women SN 2022-2026 continues to include a significant focus on this thematic area and is closely aligned with the UNSDCF. Moving forward, the GRB portfolio will continue to leverage synergies with the EVAW work. These synergies have been highlighted as a good practice form previous programming to increase the impact of UN Women comprehensive programmatic interventions to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality in a holistic fashion. Funding for this outcome was made possible thanks to the generous contribution of Sida, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation trough the Multi-Donor Trust Fund, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) through the Joint SDG Fund.
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