Photo Credit: USAID/Albania

FORECAST Training Program

Duration: September 2005- September 2010

Geographic Focus: National

Partners: World Learning

Description:
FORECAST is a follow-on activity to the previous Participant Training Program (2001-2005). It is designed to support the implementation of all USAID/Albania’s Strategic Objectives through a variety of human and institutional capacity development activities. These activities include training, technical assistance, institutional performance assessments, and small grants. Assistance in this area addresses gaps not covered in the scope of other USAID/Albania activities, but which directly affect the success of the Mission’s development goals or assist existing programs to achieve their results.

• Tailored training, designed often in collaboration with USAID’s partners, usually involves sending professionals, government officials, and/or academics from Albania to the United States or another country to see firsthand the practical aspects of how their counterparts have solved similar issues.
• Attendance at conferences or courses abroad may also be supported.
• In-country trainings are conducted using experts hired locally or internationally.
• Technical Assistance helps local organizations or institutions develop specific capacities to meet development goals.
• A modest amount of commodities can also be provided to local institutions or organizations.
• Institutional Performance Assessments identify a variety of interventions needed to help an institution improve its performance.
• Participants in training programs may apply for grants of up to $10,000 to assist them in achieving the goals of the action plans, which they developed during their training.

USAID provides tailored training for more than 300 individuals annually, with another 250-300 assisted through attendance at conferences or courses. Most training is conducted in either Albania or the region. Approximately 25% are trained in the U.S. The program aims to maintain a gender balance with a target of 50 percent of the participants being women. Annually, about eight to ten small grants are awarded for small infrastructure, training and service improvement projects.

Key Accomplishments:

• Technical assistance enabled the screening of 2000 high school youth at risk for carrying the defective gene that causes the debilitating blood disease, Thalassemia. The screening not only identified the carriers so that they can make more informed  decisions about marriage and child-bearing in order to avoid having children with the disease, it also provided a basis for targeted intervention on the part of the health authorities.
• A grant to a former training participant who works as a social worker for a local NGO has allowed more than 40 street children to find a refuge off the streets for a few hours of their long day.  The drop-in center has enabled social workers to reach out to the parents of these street children so that the children are registered, vaccinated and encouraged to attend school.
• A grant to a former training participant enabled the passing of the Domestic Violence Law and training of legal professionals to facilitate its proper implementation.
• A local expert was hired to conduct a study of immunization in three areas of the country. The study has resulted in recommendations to the Ministry of Health to consider certain changes in the vaccination schedule and type to provide more effective protection to children, especially regarding whooping cough and hepatitis B.
• The National Chamber of Advocates totally revamped the way the Albanian bar exam is conducted after lessons a training program in the US. The higher standards now required ensure that only well qualified legal professionals may practice law.
• The Albanian Association of Municipalities is more able to provide services and lobby for issues of common interest to towns and cities thanks to a training program in the US followed by technical assistance for a business plan. Participating mayors saw the importance of a strong association and are working share this vision with newly elected mayors.
• Fax machines provided to the Central Election Commission allowed 70 of the most important rural administrative units (communes) to communicate partial and final election results as they came in. This rapid and credible communication improved the ability of the Central Election Commission to provide accurate information to the public, reducing room for manipulation.

For more information on the Forecast Program in Albania, please visit: www.eetraining.net/countries/albania