Resource information
This sector report claims that in the
three years between 2002 and 2005 alone, almost 235,000
people have moved out of poverty in Albania. Strong economic
growth and large inflow of remittances are at the center of
this impressive achievement. However, low productivity of
predominantly small family farms has put a drag on rural
growth prospects. Moreover, Ndihma Ekonomike (NE) program,
the means-tested income support program is small in scale,
and has a low coverage so that it has had only a modest
impact on poverty reduction. As a result of these
developments, the poor are mostly rural residents, low
skilled (measured as years of schooling completed) and large
families. The main conclusion of this report is that as
Albania looks ahead it faces the challenges of consolidating
and sustaining these improvements in living conditions and
narrow the widening rural and urban differences. To tackle
these challenges, Albania needs to maintain the high growth
path, raise rural productivity and improve the targeting
performance of its NE program
