Locations
Consolidation of Citizen Centric Public Service Delivery in Albania (CSDA)
UNDP Albania
Summary
The UNDP-administered “Consolidation of Citizen-Centric Public Service Delivery in Albania” Project (CSDA), with Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) as a key contributor together with UNDP, responds to further assistance requests from the Government of Albania (GoA) towards strengthening access to public services and the quality and efficiency in their delivery in Albania sustainably through citizen-centric innovation and utilization of information technology, based on shared standard requirements.
As a successor to the ISDA Support Project (‘Innovation against Corruption: Building a Citizen-centric Public Service Delivery Model in Albania’ 2014-2020), CSDA continues to support the progress of the public administration reform under the principles of good governance.
The project asserts the concept of the right to quality public services for all citizens and business in Albania mirrored by the obligation by the public administration to deliver. It emphasizes leaving no one behind, ensuring special attention to women and vulnerable groups, such as the elderly, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities – with specific reference to Roma and Egyptians, the economically disadvantaged, and the rural population in particular in remote locations.
Through its activities, CSDA is positioned to support the country's EU integration and regional cooperation agendas, and help further comply with Sustainable Development Goals, while ensuring synergy and complementarity with concurrent reform programs that impact service delivery activities, as well as partner assistance projects.
(Training Certificates Ceremony, 14 July 2023)44 civil servants obtain certificates on ISO 9001 fundamentals training, delivered as part of assistance by CSDA Project for quality management adoption in 5 central agencies. In February 2024, these agencies gain ISO certification on quality management systems.
Objectives of the CSDA Project
Project interventions take place in the key result areas (KRA) of:
- Policy and Oversight, with activities that address the need for expertise geared towards support in terms of policy, change management and oversight with a strong emphasis on public service standards
- Institutional Capacity Development, under which activities strive to provide the necessary support and expertise, in close coordination also with the Albanian School of Public Administration (ASPA), to develop institutional capabilities relative to understanding and implementing relevant standards, as well as effective and efficient performance and quality management, so that these institutions deliver sustainably benefits to citizens and businesses, fulfilling their mandate and ensuring ongoing improvement
- Service Standard Application, under which activities support the application of customer service principles in public service delivery in Albania at the central and local level, as well as crosscutting stakeholder engagement and public outreach
- Innovation and Digital Agenda, with activities built upon the premise that innovation and digitalization remain key enabler of increased benefits to citizens and businesses in service delivery, with due regard to mitigating the digital divide and obstacles to internet access.
Implementation Approach
CSDA Project builds upon the proposition that points to the need to proceed at a sustained pace in consolidating the achievement for citizens and businesses in the framework of the public services reform in Albania under the GoA’s good governance priority. The implementation work has entailed on one hand, reaching end beneficiaries with interventions that impact them directly in implementing approved standards, and on the other, strengthening capacity in institutional public service providers to support high quality delivery for citizens and businesses in Albania.
<strong>Stakeholder consultations on Albania’s state aid for broadband</strong> (June 2023) CSDA Project supports better and more affordable access to e-services especially for the more vulnerable in line with EU norms on developing Broadband as universal service.
Project Results
Key figures:
Public service delivery based on citizen-centric standards enabled for 378,496 residents (2011 Census) in 14 municipalities in Albania
Training on public service standards and instruments to improve leadership, quality management and performance in 3 ministries and 8 subordinate institutions delivered to 371 public administration staff, 67% of whom women (participants’ number expected to be doubled by project completion)
Key accomplishments by the CSDA Project include:
- Expansion of customer care standards in public service delivery in 14 small and medium size local government units, through the support for municipality-administered joint citizen service centers (co-location of central and local government services), based on the one-stop-shop and in-one-place model providing for improved transparency, quality, and accessibility, which has enabled an enhanced application, information, and assistance experience, including for online services, for target municipality residents (timeframe: 2020-2022).
- Formulation of the Policy Document on Public Service Standards in Albania, approved in April 2023, based on policy input from international and local expertise from the project.
- Provision of policy and legal expertise on improving the effectiveness and transparency of state inspections of businesses aimed at contributing to a better performance by state institutions towards businesses in Albania (timeframe: 2023-ongoing).
- Building capacity in public institutions through training and mentoring based on standards and targeted implementation support, to better serve citizens and businesses, with special attention on vulnerable groups, such as persons with disabilities as well as members of Roma and Egyptian communities (timeframe: 2021-2022).
- Successful adoption of ISO 9001:2015-compliant quality management system by six central government institutional service providers as an instrument to sustain high standards in public service delivery in Albania (timeframe: 2021-2024).
- Support for the piloting of the cascading objectives approach and the updating of the performance appraisal in 5 central government institutions as basis for a future roll-out to streamline the alignment of goals across all levels, promote clarity and enhance accountability, providing a structured framework for performance evaluation and cultivating a collaborative, cohesive and goal-oriented culture in Albania’s public administration (timeframe: 2024).
- Delivery of leadership training programs for top officials of central government institutions focused on reenergizing human capital in leadership role (timeframe: 2024 – ongoing).
- Assistance in operationalizing state aid for Broadband in line with EU norms on developing Broadband as universal service, through provision of a comprehensive analysis of EU practices and a draft detailed manual of standards operating procedures to implement identified state aid schemes for both the supply side (broadband infrastructure) and demand side (usage by citizens), to help enable access to online services for the more vulnerable groups in remote, rural and economically depressed areas (timeframe: 2023).
- Provision of a conceptual framework and actionable platform for developing innovatively adult digital literacy in Albania, as a key instrument to address the digital divide as part of support for digital transformation of public service delivery in Albania (timeframe: 2023).
- Conduct of the Trust in Government Opinion Poll (TiG), 2020-2023, which provides annual insights on perceptions by citizens on institutional trustworthiness, transparency, accountability, corruption, engagement in policy and decision-making, public service delivery, and enforcement of non-discriminatory laws and policies, as well as comparisons across years. Starting with the 2020’s 10th milestone edition, the TIG report includes also an expanded trend analysis based on the collected data over the years (timeframe: 2021-2024).
