Newsletter no. 14 - April-June 2018

Newsletter Dldp aims through this newsletter to share to the readers the main achievements of each quarter as well as the main activities planned for the next quarter.

This format further enriches the ways of transmitting information through our website www.dldp.al

CONTENT 1

“Let’s clean Albania!”

Campaign: achievements and lessons learnt

2 The National Alliance of Women Councilors - a long way towards women empowerment Continuous achievements in

2 Waste Management Sector

3 What have I learnt from dldp?

XIV-th edition APRIL-JUNE 2018

“Let’s clean Albania!” Campaign: achievements and lessons learnt In the framework of the national campaign "Let’s clean Albania we want!", launched by the Minister of Tourism and Environment, Mr. Blendi Klosi, on 24 November 2017, dldp encouraged the partner municipalities of the program to join this initiative. The program received positive reactions from the municipalities, whether in concrete actions or in the willingness to continue this initiative in 2018.

At the beginning of 2018, dldp supported 6 partner municipalities (Shkodër, Lezhë, Malësi e Madhe, Pukë, Dibër and Shijak) with financial resources and technical assistance so that each of them could organize few weeks campaign following the action "Let's clean Albania!". This campaign aimed not only engaging municipal staff in awareness and mobilization of the community for cleaning the territory and cleaner environments, but also in actions and concrete interventions at problematic points.

The first important achievement of this campaign was to strengthen the institutional cooperation between the local government and the territorial branches (decentralized agencies) of the central government. Thanks to the coordination of the program and support from the Ministry of Tourism and the Environment, the working groups in each of the municipalities coordinated their interventions, had the support of the Prefect of the Qark, of the territorial branches supported, and organized joint actions with the forces of the Ministry of Defense. The harmonization of these actions and interventions took place especially throughout the week from April 16 to 22, culminating in the general action in each of the municipalities on the Earth Day, on 22 April.

The dldp partner municipalities’ continued this campaign even after this date, covering activities throughout the preparatory period before the beginning of the tourist season by the end of May. The 6 municipalities involved in this campaign were intensively supported by

technical assistance from service providers (REC, URI and MIA) to prepare work plans, identify hotspots for municipal interventions as well as stakeholder groups who would join the initiative.

At the end of March, were organized meetings with all local actors to determine the contribution of each actor, the results, the expected work volumes that would help both in finalizing the budget and in taking measures to find the means and the necessary equipment. At the beginning of April, the municipalities focused on documenting the problematic points, possible quantities to transport and preparing the necessary procurement and contracting documentation (where needed). While in the period 10 April - 31 May, all municipalities, in cooperation with other local, regional and national structures, organized several cleaning activities spread across different areas throughout their territory.

Other important results were the engagement of the private sector and volunteers from local, local and national institutions, as well as combining community-based cleaning activities.

As a result of this engagement during the campaign, there were not only activities with the schools and dependencies structures of the Ministry of Tourism and Environment, but also concrete commitments and contributions of the private sector to make available free of charge the means and workers in the collection and transport of inert waste and mixed ones, squares and planting trees.

In this campaign, the role of the schools involved, apart from awareness, was also the

promoter of mobilizing additional human and financial resources from the private sector, institutions and individuals.

Awareness raising with schools, competitions with recyclable materials, performances and visits besides growth and education, enriched the social and cultural life of villages, administrative units and cities in these 6 municipalities.

The direct engagement of the dldp program, municipalities and partner institutions had concrete field results by enabling collection and depositing at the Bushat landfill or in the landfills of Puka,

Porto Romano and Peshkopia of an amount of more than 500 tons of urban waste. Within this action are cleared hot spots, street sides and residential areas transporting nearly 2800 m3 of inert waste to the collection points. 110 trees and decorative trees have been planted, 1600 volunteers have been engaged by public and private institutions, 23 private companies have provided their assistance with tools and manpower, 8600 students and students have contributed and participated in joint activities.

Such a campaign obviously influenced the enforcement of communication of local

government structures with the community, meeting needs and expectations with reality, establishing bridges of cooperation between institutions and identifying weaknesses in management.

Despite the positive results achieved, in such a short period, each of the municipalities has already outlined its lessons learnt about the way of organization, and the appropriate actions for environmental protection and territorial management in the future. Beyond the more informed people, more waste accumulated, this was the main success of this campaign.

The National Alliance of Women Councilors - a long way towards women empowerment In cooperation with the dldp, UN Women, OSCE and Bashki të Forta, on 9 June, the National Alliance of Women Councilors gathered in Shkodra to hold a two-day meeting where the focus was to discuss on gender equality progress at local level up to the upcoming local elections.

At the meeting, the Network also discussed a package of recommendations for changes to the Electoral Code within the Electoral Reform. UN Women and dldp, as well as other partners have supported the establishment of 18 Alliances nationwide. The meeting hosted by

the mayor of Shkodra, Mrs. Ademi who talked about the challenges and achievements of this municipality with regard to gender sensitive projects.

The OSCE representatives invited to the meeting introduced the participants with the gender aspects of the Electoral Reform as well as the expected changes in the Electoral Reform Process.

In the final part was invited Mrs. Gjermeni, member of the Albanian Parliament, who spoke on gender representation in local councils and gave recommendations on improving the electoral reform for the upcoming local elections.

N a t i o n a l A l l i a n c e o f Wo m e n Councilors Network established on 8 March, this year, aims to coordinate the joint work in support of gender equality and empowerment of women nationwide.

Continuous achievements in Waste Management Sector In the meeting held on 7 June in support of the Initiative "For dumpsite risk mitigation" leaded by Ministry of Tourism ad Environment, dldp program has supported the process by covering methodological aspects, capacity building and facilitation of organizational processes. This initiative started as a necessity to acknowledge in depth the existing conditions of the dumpsites at national level and address a set of adequate measures to minimize the risks that such infrastructure facilities actually exhibit. This Initiative involved t h e sta ff o f P refe c t u re s a n d Municipalities of Albania.

Started at the beginning of February and finalized within a record time of 3months, this process required fieldwork from more than 250 local experts who continuously enriched the data platform with the necessary technical information.

Implementation of this Methodology shall be enabled through the amendments of the DCM no. 452, of July 11, 2012 “On waste landfills”, supported by GIZ Albania.

Through this Initiative, Municipalities will enable to achieve certain standards on waste dumpsites along a transitory period until the full establishment of other infrastructural facilities foreseen in the Masterplan.

The harmonization of results with the

national strategic instruments, that are being drafted, and the positive review from academia to this process, the methodology and the results of this platform, provide a strong basis for entering in the next phase of implementation of initiative “For dumpsite risk mitigation”.

In the framework of the continuous work, that dldp has done over the years and in close cooperation with local and national actors, it was achieved by Decision of the Council of Ministers no.

319, dated 31 May 2018, to publish in the Official Journal the adoption of measures for the costs of integrated waste management.

What have I learnt from dldp?

“Dldlp has also contributed with on-going trainings and qualifications for me as the sector manager and I am also a member of the Centers of Competence for over 3 years. I am very proud of the fact that I feel more competent and more professionally developed for myself and what I feel when I go to my institution. My word is heard and also decision making in the sector where I work. I think that the part of the landfill rehabilitation was very important as a dldp contribution and definitely that dldp's share with its experts has influenced the decision-making in communication with the head of the institution as we have constantly changed the titular.”

“I worked with dldp for a long time as a service provider. I work for the Albanian Local Capacity Development Foundation and our work is focused mainly on the municipality of Dibra, but we have also worked in Mat and Klos. I appreciate all the work done by dldp for these municipalities in increasing the capacities of the municipal staff, but also in the preparation of the strategic documents that the municipalities are successfully using today. Dldp especially in Dibra municipality has supported the full cycle starting from the Territorial Strategy, first with the Functional Zone in fact, and then with the Mid-Term Budget and Waste Management. This has been a success because it has given to the municipality the opportunity to move through the entire capacity development cycle provided by dldp, and also to become part of the Competence Center and in sharing knowledge and knowledge management. The same applies to the Klos municipality for a one-stop office. I appreciate the professionalism but also the sustainability in the intervention that the dldp staff has provided even through the service provider, but also directly to the local units.”

Antike Torba

Lindita Manga

“As part of the consultancy, technical assistance with dldp we have a history of over 10 years where we started with the identification of the existing unit of attention about 10 years ago which was followed by the drafting of the training curricula where the local units were trained and today they are the curricula that ASPA, we together with ASPA, develop the training of all specialists in the waste management sector. Also we have been part of many works in the planning process where we have drafted the local plans, where recently with the company "Studio D" we have drafted the Integrated Waste Management Plan for the Municipality of Shkodra which was drafted on the basis of a monitoring system already set up in the city of Shkodra and the prospect was to extend the entire administrative territory of the new municipality. Also, part of the tools that helped us in our work and were drafted by dldp were the Cost Model we improved and together with the SDC experts we were able to actualize it for the concrete case of the Shkodra municipality. There has also been a benchmarking and monitoring system that is expected to extend to all administrative units of the big municipality in Shkodra. The experience, in addition to ASPA trainings, the recent experience with the Shkodra plan was a highly productive interaction between the staff of the municipality, mayor and dldp staff and their interest has been at every moment and their contribution to the design process of the plan has been at a very, very high level compared to all the other experiences.”

“The Municipality of Dibra, a deep and mountainous municipality and with great poverty, the belief that Dibra could become an area where it manages and provides good services to the citizens was not so great when we first went there but today I fully believe that the citizens of Dibra believe that waste management is a service that can be provided that can be met and can provide a better quality of life in that area not only for the city but also for rural areas, for remote areas with a tourist priority. The other distinction is that Dibra managed to find solutions that serve the whole country. In addition, today, as we speak of the Albanian Government, the Ministry of Environment has undertaken nation-wide initiatives that generate out-of-the-door ideas such as improving waste dumpsites to reduce the risk they face in those environments for human health. For Dibra, support has been in many dimensions, it has been in infrastructure, so we have improved the whole infrastructure service waste. The city already has service with new tools and good quality. An infrastructure service expanded in several areas of the municipality where the automobile routes arrive. On the other hand, the whole unit has been planned, which had not happened before, so the whole Dibra unit with 15 zones within the administrative units has an Integrated Waste Management Plan and unit-by-unit selection. More interesting was the campaign we made for the community's awareness, its involvement in the planning process that has taken place with citizens, head of villages, heads of local units, mainly with schools. With schools, it has been very intensive; we have also found solutions within schoolyards and areas with special priority in the Municipality of Dibra. Citizens could see with their own eyes how the service can change with easy and well-received forms. Dibra, I believe there has been a complete management cycle where everything has happened.”

“Dldp support for the General Local Plan and the Integrated Waste Management Plan has had a major impact on the development of tourist areas as well as in the new areas of Malësia. Specifically in Razma, Vermosh, Reç and in Bogë has now a very good waste management, it covered all touristic areas giving direct impact on the development of tourism. In addition, Kopliku as a renovated center of Malësia where is offered this 100% service in the town of Koplik and in the town of Bajza. Even in Gruemirë that no cleaning service was ever offered. Apart from the fact that the main centers of Gruemira, are starting to be offered in other areas a bit deeper. The cleaning service in Malesia e Madhe has increased significantly with the assistance of dldp, namely in 2 administrative units previously was not provided cleaning service while today this service is provided in all administrative units of Malësia e Madhe and covers about 80% of the territory and about 80% of the population with this cleaning service.”

Teida Shehu

Eduart Cani

Alfred Gurraj