Current Situation 
Over the last fifteen years since its transition to elected government, Albania has weathered political instability brought on by economic collapse in the 1990s to confront new challenges related to consolidating democratic institutions – so far with mixed results.  Although free and competitive, Albania’s elections continue to be hampered by partisan conflicts that undermine their integrity and fairness. Autonomous local government institutions have sprung from the debris of a centralized communist state, but the quality of governance and participation at local levels remains weak. Civil society spawned a free media and assertive NGOs, but public cynicism about institutions, from parliament to the courts, spans the political spectrum.  Judicial independence is firmly established, but judicial decisions are beset by undue private influence, weakening the public’s trust in the integrity of the court system.  The Government forged in 2005 vowed to tackle corruption problems and since then has pushed through needed anticorruption legislation with modest results.  With possible EU and NATO candidacy on the horizon, Albania has an opportunity to cultivate the rule of law and improve its Euro-Atlantic integration prospects.

USAID/Albania is assisting these efforts. Our program aims at reinforcing the accountability of public institutions and strengthening governance at the central and local levels.  Our assistance targets institutions such as the High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets, with authority to detect and report corrupt practices.  On the nongovernmental side, the program forces greater accountability by supporting nongovernmental “watchdogs” and associations, investigative media as well as opinion polls and surveys.

Program Focus

• Enhancing public sector accountability and transparency, reducing corruption;
• Strengthening civic advocacy and watchdog NGOs;
• Improving investigative media and media ethics, public opinion polls, and surveys;
• Strengthening political parties and the integrity of the electoral process;
• Increasing independence and capability of local governments;
• Improving the professional and ethical performance of the judiciary and other government institutions.

Key Accomplishments 2007

Electoral Process:

• Large domestic elections monitoring effort in the February 2007 local elections which recruited and trained around 3,000 monitors stationed at polling places throughout the country;
• A media monitoring effort that used a computerized system to track bias in broadcast/print coverage during the 2007 election campaigns produced an interactive reporting system that forced media to provide balance in covering election events and issues;
• USAID funded pre-election public opinion polls in 2007 before the local government elections as well as in 2005, prior to the parliamentary elections;
• Good Governance Campaign organized by the Albanian Coalition Against Corruption (ACAC) during the campaign of 2007 to hold elected officials to their election promises; 
• Televised election debates in 2007.  

Government Accountability/Transparency:

• Support to High Inspectorate for the Declaration and Audit of Assets resulted in the strengthening of that institution’s role as enforcer of the asset disclosure and conflict of interest laws;
• Significant numbers of officials dismissed for conflicts of interests/ fraudulent disclosures in 2007;
• Better enforcement of the Freedom of Information law as a result of cooperation with the Ombudsman and training of officials, civic watchdogs, media;
• Third annual USAID-funded Corruption in Albania Survey (2004, 2005, 2006) released in March 2007 served as a focal point in policy debate and for civic monitoring effort on government performance, and further strengthened Albania’s domestic survey research capacity.