Resource information
Reducing poverty continues to be one of
the main priorities of the Government of Albania. Currently,
Albania has an ample platform to provide social protection
to its citizens through social insurance, social assistance
and employment programs. However, these programs are not
efficiently linked to each other, which can lead to unclear
and occasionally overlapping roles among the programs. Among
these social protection programs, Ndihma Ekonomike (NE) is
the only poverty-targeted social benefits program available
to the Albanian Government, but despite the continued
efforts of the Government to improve the program's
impact, the poverty impact of NE remains low. Against this
backdrop, the objective of this note is to assist the policy
makers in Albania with identifying reforms that would
improve the overall effectiveness and targeting of NE.
Specifically, the note will present key challenges faced by
the Government, as well as outline the reforms that would
contribute to a more efficient and effective social
assistance system in Albania, resulting in a process with
improved transparency and accountability. The note is
organized as follows: Section 2 presents a brief overview of
the social protection system in Albania while at the same
time discussing inefficiencies that arise due to lack of
linkages between these programs; Section 3 assesses the
current effectiveness of NE; and Section 4 concludes with recommendations.
