Review of Institutional Arrangements, Albania Report

Review of Institutional Arrangements, Albania Report

This 2014 report describes the RIA process and its main recommendations as applied to the case of Albania.

Short description:

Although Albania did not go through the full ETF Foresight process, it did use a participative approach in finalising its National Strategy for Employment and Skills (NESS 2014–2020). This document included a vision and roadmap, the implementation of which was assigned to various actors charged with carrying out the listed measures, while finance was to be provided under the EU instrument IPA II.

It was decided to check the feasibility of implementing the roadmap by conducting a systematic Review of Institutional Arrangements. Due to the tight deadlines imposed by the IPA II programming cycle, it would not be possible to carry out a full and comprehensive RIA. The process was therefore limited to three main domains: VET reform, modernising the National Employment Service and improving social inclusion. In considering the capacity of the system to implement the VET reform agenda laid out in NESS 2014–2016, the RIA paid close attention to the capacity of the system to implement the Medium-Term Budget Programme (MTBP), which is similar to the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), an approach to budgeting that operates with a two- or three-year rolling budget that provides flexibility, specifically by allowing for the reallocation of funds from one year to the next, and more generally in its capacity to apply the sector-wide approach to HRD.

Interesting elements of the accelerated methodology include the use of a ‘review matrix’ as a guide for qualitative interviews. Analysis of the MTBP implementation identified eight challenges that needed to be addressed. In addition, four recommendations were provided for the overall improvement of the MTBP and nine for improving the application of the MTBP to the HRD sector.

The RIA recommendations were validated and integrated into an updated version of the Action Plan for NESS 2014–2020, to be financed by a dedicated Sector Support Programme (SSP), designed and launched in 2014.