What is the project about?

The Government of Albania is determined to fundamentally change the way public services are provided in Albania through a variety of interventions under a citizen-centric approach, which combat corruption, foster a customer-care culture, enhance access, as well as increase efficiency in the Albanian public administration.

Under the Innovative Good Governance priority, led by the Minister of State of Innovation and Public Administration (MIPA), the Programme “Innovation against Corruption: Building a Citizen Centric Service Delivery Model in Albania” (ISDA) entails a multilayered reform that focuses on key administrative central government services to the citizens. Its key pillars are i) the establishment and management of the integrated nationwide model of service delivery whereby, the front office interface with the public is separated from back office processing, including the implementation of the one-stop-shop and in-one-place approach of the Citizen Service Center, and (ii) service provision standardization, simplification and digitization.

The Crosscutting Public Administration Reform Strategy (2015-2020) in Albania, taking into account the EU integration process requirements, provides the overall framework for the modernization and transformation of public administration institutions and practices in the country, focusing not only on overall civil service development, but further addressing the need for more effective delivery of public services to citizens and businesses towards increasing transparency and accountability and strengthening governance innovations.

In synergy, the crosscutting Digital Agenda of Albania 2015-2020, in line with the EU Digital Agenda, includes as part of its vision, the emphasis of providing quality services for the citizens through the use of ICT.
 
As part of the public services reform, in October 2014, the Agency for the Delivery of Integrated Services in Albania, (ADISA) was established. Its expanded mandate includes the implementation of the separation of the front office from the back office in all central institutions. This process entails the overhaul of public service delivery in Albania with the establishment of service delivery standards for the citizens and performance monitoring for service window clerks, based on customer-care principles.

While a large scale funding pledge is being made by the World Bank, starting with a Project Preparation Facility, donor support provided primarily by UNDP, the EU Delegation in Albania, through the IPS II Trust Fund, as well as OSCE, has been essential for the reform start-up phase in terms of developing the framework, design of piloting and building MIPA’s management capacities.

Since mid-2014, UN Albania has supported through provision of technical assistance for the inventorying of public services delivered from central institutions. From early 2015, this technical assistance was structured within a project format under the name of “Support for Innovation against Corruption: Building a Citizen Centric Service Delivery Model in Albania”. UNDP is prepared to play a donor pool fund manager role, thus managing donor contributions to ISDA under MIPA leadership.

The project focuses on:

• The development of a long-term public service reform policy document.
• The design of the Front Office - Back Office separation model and its piloting.
• The establishment of service delivery standards.
• Institutional capacity building for ADISA, the newly-established national Agency for the Delivery of Integrated Services in Albania to become operational and able to implement the service delivery reform.
• Technical assistance for MIPA in reform management and monitoring.
  

This project ties naturally to the goals of the “Support to Territorial and Administrative Reform project to support the territorial and administrative reform undertaken by the Albanian Government, which includes as an objective also the provision of a greater range of services with greater quality and lower unit cost at the local level.

What have we accomplished so far?

• ISDA Program conceptual framework is designed.
• MIPA technical capacities for Program management are strengthened through provision of long term local technical assistance for developing, managing and monitoring various program components.
• ADISA – the Agency for Delivery of Integrated Services of Albania is supported with IT equipments to carry out its opreations.
  
• International experience  on centralized public service delivery is gathered and made available.