Main activities:

• Strengthening Local Government Structures in Albania – Phases I-II-III

From January 2010 until December 2019, a series of projects implemented by the Centre of Expertise for Good Governance and funded by Swiss Development Cooperation have supported the public administration reform process in Albania and helped the country in the transition towards a more efficient and accountable public administration and decentralised territorial administration.

Council of Europe assistance has helped shape the legal framework for local self-government, establish the basis for inter-municipal cooperation, and contribute to the policy debate on territorial and public administration reform.

The projects have also helped develop tools, standards and indicators on modern human resources practices, strengthened the role of the Albanian School of Public Administration (ASPA) in training civil servants, built leadership capacities at local and central government level, and contributed to the establishment of the Consultative Council as a platform for exchange and dialogue between central and local authorities.

Project support in Phase III culminated in the launch in April 2019 of a standardised, interoperable online Public Administration Platform. The platform serves as a single point of access to all public administration institutions both central and local and has marked a transformation in the way human resources are managed in the Albanian public administration, thanks to its many functionalities.

A Council of Ministers’ decision of the Government of Albania in October 2020 has cemented the role of the platform across public administration in Albania as a key instrument for human resource management.