Beyond the international development cooperation : criticalities and potentialities of development in Albania. Case study : Atelier Albania & Albania Domani

Albania is a small country in the southwest of the Balkans. Its population does not exceed 3.2 million inhabitants. Since June 2014 Albania is a “candidate” country for accession to the European Union. The history of this process is the result of nearly 25 years of political openness to the Western countries, considering the totalitarian regime which ruled the country between 1945-1990. By gradually absorbing the “new” model of the free market, the Albanian economy is nowadays still facing the issues of informality and public transparency. Urban development is the best case to describe this ‘syndrome’. Although this process seems very fast and caotic, Albania shows a good case to study a series of events concentrated in a span of 25 years. The first phase of this thesis will investigate on this processes, showing a major interess on four main internal events; demographics and cultural heritage, urban development and its environmental effects, the planning tools and finally the administrativ/territorial reform. From the internal dynamics, it can be argued that in recent years a continuous work to stop uncontrolled development and informality is taking place in Albania. Beyond this process of “relief” a consistent group of policy maker wants to foster a competitive development in accordance with the guidelines of the European Union. For these reason the International Cooperation for Territorial Development should be considered as an important “actor” in the development processes. The “Star” project for the Territorial and Administrative Reform, “Atelier Albania” from the Dutch cooperation, and “Albania Tomorrow” from the Italian cooperation are some examples involved on these territorial processes. On the survey of these projects it has been made a double line work; one through the research on the internet of Development Cooperation projects in Albania, and the other thanks to the interviews conducted in the field. For the first part of investigation it has been very helpful the work I have done as an internship at the “Laboratory of International Cooperation”. During these intership I had the possibility to prepare a brief Report named: “Actors, Instruments and Programs of Internationa Development Cooperation in Albania”, which shows an overall view of the International Development in the administrative system and the territorial location. Once recognized these actors who works in Albania in the various sectors of development, the research took a new narrative approach, based on the interviews (chapter four). As we can see on “particular thanks”, the interviews have been directed to seven actors; one to an universitary professor about Albanian development and cooperation, other two interviews to the actors in the public administration (central level), and other four to ONGs working in the Albanian territory - from the most rural areas from the north Albania to the south (Shkoder and Permet). Once clustered the projects in categories and sectors of intervention to public administration the thesis focused on two macro categories of development and “Capacity Building”: the “Ability Building” and “Skills Building”, with their respective projects: “Atelier Albania” and “Albania Domani“ (Chapter five) In these research conditions the term “territorial development” will be regarded as an object of observation and criticism on the adaptability in urban and rural areas. (Graph on Chapter 5. “Albania Domani” and “Atelier Albania “ in the Administrative System) So international projects for the development will be studied to understand the problems of development in the Albanian territory in order to be able to direct the future development of Public Policies. And this, for two reasons; a) the first is that the international projects appear very scattered around the territory and without a national strategy, and b) the other reason is because the territorial cooperation shows us that it is possible to obtain development results also there where the Public Administration for Spatial Planning can not arrives - considering the several different shortcomings and advantages of these forms of development. In addition to the need for an extension of the Public sphere there is a also a need to criticize the planning tools on each administrative level - acknowledging that Albania presents a particular case for the Western countries. Finally, this thesis research criticaly sums up two possible scenarios to connect the territorial policies on development from the Public Administratiion to the Civil Society, and vice versa; the first one is based on the context of the Balkans countries and on the role that Civil Platforms (CiviKos), or the National Agencies on Civil Empowerment, has in the public-private-civil society cooperation, while te other is focuced on the process which is already taking place - such as the accesion to the European Union. Considering that the Administrative and Territorial Reform is even a Juridical and Political matter, and not only a development question, the structural funds, CBC programs and others relaited to the second scenario will have only a tecnical proposition on the planning tools by carring out the criticalities of the develoment in tha Albanian territory - chapter 5.