Newsletter no. XV

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

Eastern Europe Advocacy Workshop in Albania

2 Dldp engagement for the

implementation of the cost and tariff calculation model

3 What have I learnt from dldp?

XV-th edition JULY - SEPTEMBER 2018

Eastern Europe Advocacy Workshop in Albania In the context of the HELVETAS Programme 2017-2020, advocacy has been defined a transversal topic for the organization what means that advocacy is being addressed in all country programmes, as well as through specific projects. Hence, HELVETAS together with its partners and allies advocates on many different themes or issues, depending on the national, regional or local context and ranging across all five working areas. In order to ensure coherence and coordination throughout the organization, HELVETAS provides conceptual and strategic guidance around a number of key themes and issues, and facilitates knowledge exchange and joint learning among various organizational entities.

In this framework, Eastern Europe Unit at Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation held a oneweek workshop on Regional Advocacy in Durrës, Albania during 17-22 September 2018. The workshop hosted by dldp programme gathered Helvetas programmes active in Eastern Europe.

This workshop aimed to actively discuss and understand what advocacy is all about through the advocacy cycle, covering analysis, strategy and monitoring and evaluation. The workshop, based on the ca s e s d eve l o p e d by p a r t i c i p a nt s , elaborated and practically applied key advocacy concepts and practices. The workshop used the working definition of advocacy as "the deliberate process of influencing decisions within political, economic and social systems and institutions with the aim of making policies and processes more just, inclusive and propoor."

Participants could better understand and

exchange throughout interactive discussions of different topics within advocacy issue such as analyzing and understanding the advocacy ecosystem as a complex and dynamic relationships of functions and rules.

In the course of few days participants could underline as very important role of other stakeholders in advocacy, including donor agencies, thus in the workshop there were invited four representatives from international NGOs and development partners to talk and discuss on their role in advocacy and policy dialogue. The discussions focused on the support that other stakeholders give to projects such as Helvetas has and the boundaries within which such support can offer, the coordination and competition of different stakeholders in advocacy and mechanisms for managing the processes, successes and "failures" cases in advocacy. Also referring to concrete examples in interactions with dldp programme and beyond it building on their own experience.

The third day topic of the workshop was “Advocacy: Theory of change”, for that dldp facilitated a meeting with Mrs. Elgantina Gjermeni, who is a member of Albanian Parliament, former Minister of Urban Development and Tourism and civil society activist on women rights and representation.

Mrs. Gjermeni hosted the meeting in Kruja

and participants had the opportunity to visit the Castle and the old bazaar of this historic city. The discussions with Mrs. Gjermeni, organized as a round table, stressed interesting opinions on the role national civil society organizations have in Albania, the importance of foreign-funded programmes such as dldp in policy dialogue, the ways to strengthen the participation of CSO in advocacy, the potential synergies between organized civil society and elected parliaments for building effective policy dialogue.

The last day of the workshop closed with a simple and flexible but very effective format by organizing large group dialogue based on three topics where discussions focused on recommendations and forward-looking solutions.

Topic 1 was to convene the Eastern Europe Regional Advocacy Working Group for anchoring many of the points raised and discussed in the advocacy workshop. The group, led by Valbona Karakaçi from Dldp, had members from the different groups.

Topic 2 was to engage partners for an effective advocacy intervention. A successful development agenda requires partnerships to lay the foundation and ensure long-term and largescale impacts. It requires that we know exactly what kind of partners we seek, who they are, how to increase partnership effectiveness, and enhance understanding of our roles and responsibilities for a shared vision. Gramos Osmani from Risi Albania Programme led the session.

Topic 3 was to manage and embrace the failures as challenges of lessons learnt. There were a number of reasons for this including uncertainties if failures are to be rewarded or penalized by donors or host governments. Denalda Kuzumi from Bashki tĂŤ Forta led the discussions.

There is a long way to go towards a successful cooperation and development in Eastern Europe countries and advocacy is one of these challenges.

Dldp engagement for the implementation of the cost and tariff calculation model Implementing DCM no. 319 date 31.05.2018 "On the adoption of measures for integrated waste management costs", the Program for Development and Decentralization (dldp) has expressed readiness at the Ministry of Tourism and Environment for organizing additional training sessions for cost calculation models and service tariffs.

In the same line, was the engagement undertaken by dldp at the meeting of the Forum of Waste, organised in Gjirokastra on July 6, 2018, to assist all those municipalities that expressed the will or presented difficulties and challenges in applying the model. The purpose of these joint efforts of the program and the Ministry, was to increase the capacities of local staff to absorb the available financial instruments for a funding plan for service, as close as possible to the reality according to the principles that Law No. 10463, dated 22.9.2011 "On integrated waste management ", as well as all other sub-legal acts for its implementation.

The issue of local staff training for the appropriate implementation of the service cost calculation methodology dldp addressed at the Center of Competence meetings with partner

municipalities during 2018 as well as with the concerned municipalities outside the program area, following the approval of the DCM in May 2018.

One of these municipalities was also the Municipality of Berat, which was under p re p a rat i o n o f t h e p ro c u re m e nt procedure for waste management. From the preliminary work of the municipality staff, there were encountered difficulties in applying the model.

Dldp organized several coaching sessions with the municipal staff and a visit of the Berat Municipality staff in Shkodra municipality on 18 July. These activities were very productive in increasing the capacities of Berat Municipality staff in understanding and applying the model.

Issues related to service funding and the application of the cost calculation model, were also addressed from dldp in the m e e t i n g o r ga n i ze d w i t h a l l t h e municipalities of Berat district on 27 September. In this meeting, the difficulties encountered in applying the model and the questions for its specific elements were answered not only by dldp representatives but also by Berat municipality experts who already had the information and knowledge necessary for the full application of the cost calculation model.

By the end of 2018, dldp will continue its

support to municipalities in order to apply this model as a normal part of the work with the municipalities, ensuring increased service effectiveness, increasing transparency and optimizing the use of public funds.

What have I learnt from dldp? “I represent the National Territorial Planning Agency and, as the name of the agency itself indicates, our field is Planning. With dldp we started to cooperate relatively late in comparison with the start of the program, so we started approximately from 2015 - 2016. Dldp had begun to assist local municipalities in the territorial aspects, with their development strategies and seeing that the Ministry of Urban Development to which we belonged at that time undertook the Territorial Reform so to empower all the new municipalities also with the General Local Plans which in some sense are the Constitution of the development of the territory without an opportunity, I think, to cooperate with the Ministry and to make it their work up to that moment to apply to this other process. Therefore, I see these, in some way as a skill to connect the parts with each other and to contribute to another level. If I want to define, our experience with dldp is definitely a very good experience, very valuable also in terms of the lessons learned from this collaboration. Planners have a way of seeing the processes while their involvement in this process of an actor as dldp led to another level of territorial planning at least in the context of Albania. We managed through dldp to add a component that is very important, the component of translating the plans into good development instruments, to give the mayors an instrument that would really guide development territory for the next 15 years, but through concrete elements. What I mean by this, since dldp worked in parallel with the Law on Local Finances, it was possible for local plans to have a link to the MTBs that are the Municipal Medium Term Budget Projects and all the projects that local plans propose, let's say, is the way an MTBP is expressed. Which means that the mayor whenever he has to prepare an MTBP every three years which is revised every year has the opportunity to look at the local plan in concrete terms and to get elements from that plan and to include them in the MTBP. Therefore, this is a very good solution and a very good instrument in the hands of the municipality to reach and develop its territory well, but also to turn planning documents into useful documents. As I see that, we have done a job that is with concrete results. Another very important component that came because of cooperation with dldp is also the involvement of somehow forgotten actors in the planning processes. What I mean by this or what I want to underline here is the involvement of the Diaspora. This has been a dldp contribution because dldp was focused on some municipalities that were territorially disadvantaged, such as municipalities where development was almost stagnant due to immigration, depopulation, removal of the local population or towards the center, towards Tirana, DurrĂŤs or even abroad. Under such conditions, the development of these municipalities remains somewhat not clear, because in order to develop a territory there is a need for investment.

Then dldp with a very thin intuition caught that perhaps Diaspora, which is the outgoing population, and has accumulated a kind of capital over the years, it could be the potential of development in these territories, and this became the link we hope will now be truly translated.�

Adelina Greca Director General in National Territorial Planning Agency

“Personally I consider a privilege to be part of the cooperation as a representative of the Shkodra Municipality to cooperate with dldp. From dldp, the benefits of the Shkodra Municipality have been great. We can list the technically and professionally, through awareness and transparency. I say it technically and professionally since we have created a lot of experience in the framework of cooperation on forms of urban waste management, for the calculation of costs and tariffs for urban waste management and the most important of these is the optimization of costs for urban waste management service. All this work that has been made, technically expressed in the letter, can not be a success, if not the awareness of people. So first of all we have created personal awareness as structures of the Shkodra Municipality services, as representatives of urban waste management to make the whole community present to this experience gained by dldp and I believe that the results are positive in the municipality of Shkodra for urban waste management. What is most important recently, the maximum benefit we have achieved from dldp is transparency. One of the key points of the local government units is transparency with its community. If a municipality manages to have a proper communication with its people, its problems and concerns, the forms of cooperation it has its own success and a success with the urban waste management service. The Municipality of Shkodra has been continuously implementing the transparency with the community, with all the local units, for the form and standards that we have to achieve for the management of urban waste, for the forms and ways of realization of services, waste management, but at the same time in the end these costs also have charging. We have achieved a common understanding with all that based on these standards we have the charging process. So all these benefits have been benefited from the cooperation that the Municipality of Shkodra had with dldp, which I believe will be in the future for further success of the Shkodra Municipality for the management of urban waste, for the selection and reduction of waste."

“We find the opportunity to congratulate dldp staff for its activity in supporting the respective municipalities in terms of solid waste management, where there is a significant improvement in municipalities that are supported by dldlp for waste management. In addition to the institutional support and support with accompanying measures to improve the infrastructure, I think that in the future there is need to support for capacity building and waste management infrastructure for these municipalities where much remains to be done especially for the management part of the treatment plants waste and plant construction to European Union standards. "

Fatbardh Kuçi Responsible of Public Services Department in Shkodra Municipality

Isa Memia Specialist in the Solid Waste Treatment Policy Sector at the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure

“From the cooperation of the Lezha Municipality with the dldp program we would underline as one of the most successful the cost calculation instruments. This instrument helped the municipality to make a realistic calculation of waste management service delivery costs and assisted the municipality to make tariff planning as close as possible to the residents' affordability. Currently, the Municipality of Lezha provides service in all areas of administrative units, so service delivery is done in all administrative units, cost calculation is made for all administrative units through this instrument."

Dritan Gorica Environmental Expert at URI