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This is an archived USAID document retained on this web site as a matter of public record.
COUNTRY SPOTLIGHT: ALBANIA
In this section:
Albania Works to Join World Economy
Child Trafficking Victims Aided in Albania
Loans Help Small Businesses Increase Products
and Workers
Public Officials in Albania Face Fines, Dismissal
Technology Boosts Healthcare in Albania as Doctors
Focus on Prevention
Albania Works to Join World Economy
TIRANA, Albania—In the wake of Albania’s
July 3 parliamentary election and pending official election
results, tackling corruption and developing the national economy
will remain top priorities.
“Albania is addressing corruption, but it is a hard
and difficult process because it is deeply embedded as a way
of life and doing business here,” said USAID Mission
Director Harry Birnholz. “It’s a challenge to make
[corruption] no longer acceptable behavior. And we hope that
we are creating enough successful entrepreneurs to create
their own momentum for real economic and social changes.”
Albania—a southeastern European nation of 3.6 million
people wedged between Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro,
and the Adriatic Sea—was under xenophobic communist rule
for 46 years until 1991.
Since then, Albanian governments have faced high unemployment,
widespread corruption, and dilapidated infrastructure.
But parliamentary elections in 2001 and local elections
in 2003 were hailed by international observers as a step toward
democratic development.
And the nation’s average income has increased, marking
a step towards economic development and integration into the
Euro-Atlantic community.
“Albania has some key advantages for the region—its
proximity to key European Union markets and several ports,”
Birnholz said. “It has a relatively low-cost and skilled
labor force. But it has a terrible infrastructure, and lacks
the judicial safeguards that encourage people to invest here.”
With a staff of 32, USAID/Albania this year is carrying
out programs in democracy, economic growth, rule of law, anticorruption,
health, combating human trafficking, and promoting religious
harmony.
FrontLines Acting Deputy Managing Editor Kristina Stefanova
visited Albania recently and wrote this series of articles.
Child Trafficking Victims Aided in Albania
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Nebi Mustafai, 52, worries about his grandson Arben
(not his real name), 9, who was trafficked to Greece.
The boy’s father is a drug dealer and his mother
is in jail. Mustafai says he lives in fear that one
day his son will come and take Arben back to Greece
and force the little boy again into living and begging
in the streets.
Stephanie A. Pepi, USAID/Albania |
ELBASAN, Albania—Dritan has begged, stolen,
washed car windows, and sold everything from flowers to cigarette
lighters on the streets of Greek cities. And on days when
he did not earn 50 or 60 Euros, he was left hungry, made to
sleep on the street, and beaten.
Dritan (not his real name) is one of hundreds of Albanian
children who have been trafficked abroad—mostly to Greece
and Italy—where they are forced to beg or work. Older
girls are often forced into prostitution, while boys may get
involved in organized crime, selling drugs or running rings
of younger victims of trafficking.
“These children are typically Roma, or Gypsy, from
poor families,” said Edlira Bashmili of the NGO Terre
des hommes (Tdh), which implements an antitrafficking project
funded by USAID and other donors. “These families are
approached by a neighbor or friend of the family…. They
say, ‘I’ll take the child, and you’ll get $100
per month. The child will have a good life, and it will solve
your economic problems.’”
In reality, children are mistreated and made to live on
the streets, while parents rarely get any money, said Bashmili.
The program, Transnational Action against Child Trafficking
(TACT), teaches thousands of elementary school children about
the dangers of trafficking. TACT workers visit elementary
schools in Elbasan once a month to show testimonial videos
of trafficked children. They distribute pamphlets with stories
of boys made to beg on the street and talk to students about
their feelings on the subject.
TACT operates in half Albania’s districts, and has
reached some 25,000 children with its antitrafficking message.
In Elbasan, the third largest city in Albania, most of the
poor are from gypsy communities on the outskirts of town,
Bashmili said. Here, hundreds of families live in cramped
quarters with no running water or power. Tdh field staff regularly
visit these quarters looking for children at risk or living
in the streets to help them reintegrate into school.
Tdh is currently monitoring Arben (not his real name), 9,
who was trafficked to Greece. The boy’s father was a
drug dealer and user, and his mother is in jail. Arben lives
in a two-room home—which lacks a toilet or shower—with
his grandparents, aunt, and 11 other children. About half
his cousins are not registered with the city, so they cannot
attend school, get healthcare, or receive social services.
The family receives flour, oil, rice, school clothes, and
books from Tdh staffers, who monitor Arben’s whereabouts
and encourage his school attendance.
Through a different NGO, Tjeter Vizion, USAID helps trafficked
children return to a normal life. Some are reunited with their
families. Those who have suffered severe trauma are placed
under the NGO’s legal custody.
Tjeter Vizion, which is funded through the Coordinated Action
against Human Trafficking Project, runs a residential center,
community daycare, and secure apartments for minors in difficulty,
including trafficking victims. It helps younger children with
school work, while older children are trained in vocations
like plumbing or hairdressing.
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During a monthly visit of workers from the Transnational
Action against Child Trafficking program, a boy in an
Elbasan elementary school reads through a brochure educating
children about the dangers of trafficking. The brochure
tells the story of a boy who is taken abroad, made to
beg and steal, and is mistreated. As his misery unfolds,
the boy begins to resemble a robot rather than a little
boy, as do other trafficked children portrayed in the
brochure.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID |
The NGO collaborates with local police, hospitals, and social
services to look for alarm signs—such as poverty, unemployment,
fractured families, abuse, alcoholism, or drug addiction—to
identify minors who need assistance.
Tdh referred Dritan, now 14, to Tjeter Vizion, who placed
him in a secure apartment. Dritan has been living there for
the past year and a half and is training to be a car mechanic.
He was 6 the first time he was trafficked to Greece. He
fell into the hands of traffickers while visiting his grandmother
in the port city Durres. He and several other children endured
a grueling eight-day hike across the mountains into Greece.
Dritan spent two months working the streets of Volos in
northern Greece. A tutor, as the trafficked children’s
keepers are known, kept telling Dritan, “You must earn
money every day. Don’t come back otherwise.” He
also recalls being told, “You must work because we send
your mother money.”
When a child returned with less than 50 or 60 Euros, he
or she was beaten or burnt with cigarettes. Often the kids
went hungry.
Because some kids were too young to care for themselves,
the tutor’s wife washed their hair, Dritan said.
“One day it was raining,” he recalled, “and
I really wanted to go back to Albania and my mother. So I
told one boy ‘Give me some money, please, I want to go
back.’”
Dritan made it home, but it wasn’t long before he took
to the streets. His parents were divorced, and his mother
“brought clients” to the house, which made all three
of his siblings avoid home.
When he was 7, Dritan was once again picked up by traffickers,
who this time smuggled a group of children into Greece with
fake visas. Dritan worked the streets of Athens for two and
a half years. He was beaten and scarred with a hot iron. He
was arrested a couple of times, but always let go. Eventually,
he took a bus back to Albania. Identified by Tdh staff, he
was soon referred to Tjeter Vizion.
Trafficking of persons is an international human rights
violation and illegal under Albanian and international law.
In Albania, convicted traffickers can be sentenced to up to
15 years of prison. But conviction rates remain low.
Loans Help Small Businesses Increase Products and Workers
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A worker at Florjan-V sh.p.k. tends a massive loom
that produces towels. As the threads stream from the
top of the machine, they are woven into giant textiles,
which will eventually be cut into individual towels.
Kristina Stefanova, USAID |
SHKODER, Albania—Viktor Marku’s towels
are used throughout Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro. As the
only Albanian towel producer, Marku accounts for a quarter
of the domestic market and has a slowly growing presence abroad.
In eight years, his business, Florjan-V sh.p.k., has doubled
in size and now employs 12 workers.
“This is a business that has a market because the consumption
is good,“ said Marku, while surveying his factory’s
humming looms and workers who are cutting and packaging towels
of all sizes and colors. “You eat at least three times
a day, so you’ll use a towel at least six times a day.”
USAID’s Small Business Credit and Assistance project
(SBCA) backs the sentiment, and is helping Marku expand his
sales though loans and technical assistance.
Three years ago, Marku borrowed $30,000 to repair some equipment
that helped him double towel production. He paid off the loan
last spring, and borrowed another $60,000 to buy a generator
and a minivan to deliver towels to his retailers and wholesalers.
“Marku is the perfect example of the businessman that
we are trying to and can help,“ said Jeff Houghton, chief
of party of SBCA.
The project has provided credit and technical assistance
to more than 4,000 businesses in 33 of Albania’s 36 districts
since March 2002. Loans, which are repaid within two years,
have gone to businesses for help in creating new products,
adding employees, or purchasing and repairing equipment.
SBCA has also offered technical assistance to entrepreneurs
like Hilmi Brace, the owner of Albania’s only recycled
paper processor, Hermes sh.p.k. His company, based outside
the city of Fier, produces toilet paper and cellophane tape
out of the recycled paper, and is about to branch out into
paper napkins and towels.
Brace needed to borrow more than the maximum $50,000 SBCA
loan. He went to other local banks, but they were not convinced
that this was a bankable project. So he used SBCA’s help
to draft a business plan that he could present to banks and
convince them of his plans to purchase new equipment.
“Up to yesterday, not a single bank would lend me money,”
he said. With the new business plan in hand “banks are
fighting each other to give me a loan.“ Brace recently
received a $250,000 loan from Procredit Bank.
SBCA works with small and medium enterprises focused on
manufacturing and agrobusiness. In its early years, its main
goal was to offer credit and general business development
support. Now the project is more focused on providing a small
number of businesses more specific aid, such as help in developing
new products and learning how to better market their products.
Marku, for instance, is being advised to invest in a computerized
accounting and production control system that will enhance
the quality of his product and, hopefully, make it appealing
to consumers abroad.
Following advice from SBCA, he has also added Florjan-V
labels to his towels and is now using some new patterns and
designs.
“This project is all about getting Albanian products
into Albanian stores,“ said Houghton. “And consumers
are demanding these days, so we have to make products as attractive
as possible.”
Public Officials in Albania Face Fines, Dismissal
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A popular poster around Tirana, which urges Albanians
not to trade their rights for money. Its 24-hour hotline
can be used to report instances of corruption.
Citizens Advocacy Office |
TIRANA, Albania—Last year, Albania sacked a
high-level official from the Transportation Department after
an audit of his assets revealed he owned the country’s
largest asphalt company. And in the months leading up to the
July 3 parliamentary elections, journalists discussed the
assets of public officials on the ballot.
“There are some blatant conflicts of interest here…This
was a very closed society, so the concepts of transparency
and accountability are just not accepted or understood,”
said Andrew Pentland, senior anticorruption specialist advising
Albania’s newly formed High Inspectorate on the Declaration
and Audit of Assets (HIDAA).
HIDAA, which was created on legislation recommended by a
USAID-backed NGO coalition, is the first of its kind. It audits
all public officials at two-year intervals. Its mandate was
recently enlarged to include the implementation of a new conflict-of-interest
law, also drafted with U.S. assistance.
USAID has provided computers, scanners, and other equipment.
It has helped design declaration forms, and put in place a
state-of-the-art information management system that includes
an official website. The Agency is also training inspectors
and providing on-site technical assistance to HIDAA through
experts like Pentland, who works out of an office in the High
Inspectorate’s sleek new headquarters.
Fatmira Laskaj, a former judge who now heads HIDAA, has
handed over cases of conflict of interest or suspicious assets
to the Prosecutor General’s Office. As a result, some
officials have been dismissed and others prosecuted.
In May, two months after the official deadline for asset
declaration submissions, Laskaj issued fines to 84 public
officials who were late with their submissions.
“It is difficult to change the attitude of officials
to declare their assets,” Laskaj said in an interview
with FrontLines.
But attitudes are changing, said Pentland. “You often
feel like you’re getting nowhere, but then someone comes
a month later and says ‘That was a great idea,’
and does what we suggested,” he said.
Another sign of change is that journalists have been asking
for the records of public officials leading up to parliamentary
elections, Pentland said.
Albania loses about $1.2 billion per year because of graft
and unpaid taxes, according to a recent World Bank study.
Obtaining a business license or other documentation can
be a lengthy and costly process. The regulatory system is
not transparent, and often businesses have difficulty obtaining
copies of laws and regulations. Rules are also often inconsistent,
leading to unreliable interpretations.
USAID provides training, technical assistance, and small
grants to anticorruption NGOs such as the Albanian Coalition
Against Corruption and the Citizens Advocacy Office. The Agency
also supports judges and chancellors’ associations with
binding codes of ethics and tries to strengthen the enforcement
of judicial judgments.
Technology Boosts Healthcare in Albania as Doctors Focus
on Prevention
LAPARDHA, Albania—Dr. Ajet Veleshnja is high-tech
for a general practitioner (GP) in rural Albania. He uses
a laptop to keep track of his patients’ records, and
he recently invested in ultrasound equipment that allows him
to diagnose all sorts of ailments.
“We should not just focus on the curative,” said
Dr. Veleshnja, echoing the sentiment behind a USAID project
that strengthens primary healthcare through Albania. The effort
aims to empower GPs and refocus their work from curative to
preventative care.
In the years since communism collapsed in Albania, healthcare
centers have suffered. Doctors fell behind on medical techniques,
equipment became obsolete, and recordkeeping was poor. At
the same time, more specialists started practices, attracting
patients who believe that specialists provide better care.
Patients also try to save money by only going to a doctor
once, when they are sickest. This has skewed the healthcare
system and largely demoralized GPs.
Since 2001, USAID has been trying to improve the system.
Now GPs like Dr. Veleshnja have been trained in recordkeeping,
case management, and budgeting. In a health center in downtown
Berat, a city about an hour’s drive from Lapardha, a
simple switch from a walk-in system to one of appointments
has made a big difference in the doctors’ efficiency,
said Dr. Donika Papa.
The center also has new practice guidelines, recordkeeping
forms designed to make disease prevention easier, and a new
health information system, Dr. Papa said.
All visits to the clinic are recorded and stored in a software
program developed by USAID. Based on monthly reports generated
from these data, GPs can track the types of illnesses diagnosed,
treated, and referred to hospitals. Reports are prominently
displayed in every clinic, and doctors and nurses from the
region meet monthly to evaluate their performance statistics.
In Berat, these reports helped doctors identify an alarming
incidence of hypertension, which is linked to smoking and,
possibly, a genetic predisposition.
With the data, local health officials designed an awareness
campaign highlighting the dangers of smoking and justified
a request to the Ministry of Health for more antibiotics to
treat inflammations.
In March, the Ministry of Health took the health information
system nationwide. It had previously been active in only four
regions as a USAID pilot project.
“We have changed many things in the way we are working,
which has a big impact on how we manage patients,” Dr.
Papa said.
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