TIRANA – UNDP and its partners of the STAR 2 project have presented the results of the “2nd Local Governance Mapping in Albania,” a national survey combining citizens’ perceptions and municipal officials’ accounts on four Good Governance dimensions: Effectiveness and Efficiency, Transparency and Rule of Law, Accountability and Participation & Citizens Engagement. The first assessment was conducted in 2016.
“The results show an overall slight improvement of the Local Governance compared to the previous one,” said a press release issued by the UNDP office in Tirana on Monday.
Out of the four governance dimensions, municipalities fare better in Effectiveness and Efficiency, jumping from 60 to 64 out of the 100 points in 2020, followed by Transparency & Rule of Law marking an improvement from 56 to 59/100. Accountability and Participation & Citizens Engagement remained at their previous levels, with respective scores of 59/100 and 50/100.
Transparency and Rule of Law scores 59 out of 100 points, marking an improvement of 3 points compared to the year 2016, said the press release, while citizens’ perception of corruption at the local level scored 60 points out of 100, marking an improvement of 3 points compared to 2016. “Yet, local strategies, plans and mechanisms to fight corruption at local level are considered as insufficient, calling for further interventions,” said the press release.
Accountability scores at average scoring range with 59 points, the same as the 2016 assessment. The assessment shows that building of an integrated and effective complaint management system remains one of the biggest challenges faced by the local governments. Participation and Citizens’ Engagement scores the same level as in 2016, 50 out of 100 points across municipalities, representing again the weakest dimension of local governance.
“Citizen engagement sub-dimension scored lower compared to 2016 and engagement with Civil Society Organizations scored “very poor”. Citizen participation in planning, local project implementation and monitoring of public sector performance are all rated as “average” and do not show signs of improvement,” noted the statement.
The overall situation of citizen engagement has dropped to “nearly poor” when it comes to communities’ interaction with the local government or CSOs. The latter’s engagement is very low, reflecting a continued lack of engagement of the community with local governance.
In her opening remarks, the UNDP Resident Representative, Ms. Limya Eltayeb, said: “A better performance in these four governance dimensions brings local governments and citizens closer, establishes social cohesion, helps raise public employees’ ethical standards, improves the overall effectiveness of service delivery, and thus builds trust in institutions and the necessary public support for municipal activities along their political and public mandates.”/argumentum.al
