Albania is taking radical steps in the local government reform process

The Kosovo Local Government Institute (KLGI) and the London-based Institute for Local Democracy and Information (LGiU), England, held a series of regional visits over three consecutive days to central and local institutions in Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania to learn about the successes and challenges of local governance in these countries.

The English delegation from the LGiU Institute was led by Mr Jonathan Carr-West, Executive Director of the Institute, and Mr Andy Johnston, Head of Operations. The meetings and visits were coordinated and facilitated by Mr Besnik Tahiri, Executive Director of the KLGI Institute.

During the visits to the Republic of Albania, they were received in separate meetings at the Ministry of Local Affairs and the Municipality of Tirana.

At the meeting with Mayor Veliaj, a series of topics were discussed, ranging from innovation in governance stemming from electoral programmes and e-government to the ‘tirana ime’ application; there was also discussion of the problems local units face with the interdependence of problems arising from sectoral institutions and laws.

Mr Besnik Tahiri, Executive Director of the Kosovo Local Government Institute, spoke at the meeting about the necessity of exchanging good practice between the countries of the region, also describing the initiatives that the KLGI Institute and the London-based LGiU are undertaking to draft a policy paper to make local governance as efficient as possible in the countries of the Western Balkans.

On this occasion, at the invitation of Mr Tahiri, Mayor Veliaj will present his model of governance in Prishtina before an audience of mayors, the diplomatic corps, people from the business world and other senior public figures.

At the meeting at the Ministry of Local Affairs, with Mr Enea Hoti, senior adviser, the discussion covered the territorial-administrative reform and the tasks arising from drafting and redesigning a series of laws, starting with the new law on local government, a new decentralisation strategy, public administration reform including the local level, a review of fiscal decentralisation and the provision of a new package for the grant scheme.