Support Project to Strengthen Gender Equality in Access to Economic Opportunities

Supporting women’s economic empowerment in Albania

Women’s economic empowerment is a major issue for the economic development of Albania: every year, the country loses about 20% of its potential gross domestic product (GDP) due to the limited access to the labour market for women. 

There are many reasons for the difference in access to economic opportunities for women and men: persistence of traditional social norms and attitudes, low level of care facilities for children and dependent persons, limited range of employment services, problems to access (and of the recognition of) property, labour legislation… While there has been significant progress in legislation, in particular in terms of labour law, the implementation of the new laws remains fragile and they are still largely ignored by professionals and the women themselves.

In the context of a gradual rapprochement between Albania and the European Union – it was granted the status of candidate country in 2014 – gender equality has been identified, by both the Albanian authorities and European Union, as a major issue for the integration of the Community acquis and, beyond this, for raising social norms and promoting a more inclusive development model.

Promoting more inclusive and equitable growth

The programme for women’s economic empowerment in Albania aims to support and promote more inclusive and equitable growth, by addressing the factors that deprive women of the same economic opportunities as men. In doing so, the project is contributing to achieving the social criteria required to integrate the European Union.

The programme addresses three specific objectives:

1) Promote greater equity in the right and access to inheritance, by recognising the rights acquired by women concerning the ownership of land;

2) Promote labour market opportunities for women through:

• The application of labour legislation, which provides for equal treatment for workers and the creation of favourable working conditions for combining the private and professional lives of women;

• The creation of employment services adapted to women living in rural areas;

• An improvement in the quality and range of education services for children in order to promote and facilitate the participation of women in the labour market.

3) Strengthen the institutional framework in order to take the gender dimension into account at the national and local levels, in particular in the definition of public policies. This involves monitoring the results of gender-responsive budgeting and progress in gender equality.
 

To achieve these objectives, the programme built jointly with the World Bank will benefit from a EUR 50m loan allocated to the Government of Albania by Agence Française de Développement (AFD). This financing will be combined with a EUR 1.5m technical assistance budget to support the implementation and monitoring of the reforms.

Expertise France fully mobilised with the Albanian authorities

AFD has called on Expertise France to support the negotiation phase for the loan allocated to the Government of Albania to promote women’s economic empowerment in Albania.

This 19-month transitional phase, between March 2019 and September 2020, involved:

• Strengthening the dialogue with the Albanian authorities;
• Finalising the action matrix for public policies which provides a framework for discussions and negotiations;
• Providing technical assistance to the various partners to achieve the objectives conditional for the first disbursement;
• Identifying opportunities for technical assistance and defining the scope of the future technical assistance programme, devoted to the monitoring-evaluation of the programme and communication;
• Providing initial technical assistance to achieve the first objectives and prepare the ground for the future programme (for example, an analysis study of the needs of women in rural areas in terms of access to employment and economic opportunities).

Following this transitional phase, Expertise France will implement the technical assistance programme which will be deployed as soon as the loan has been signed between the relevant bodies.