Aa.Vv. SOCIAL SERVICES IN ALBANIA: BACKGROUND AND STATE OF THE ART A report from Tirana, Shkoder and Elbasan Social Services and state of the artSocial in Albania: background cacucci editore bari _Cover Albania.indd Tutte le pagine 24/02/2020 18:19:17 Aa.Vv. SOCIAL SERVICES IN ALBANIA: BACKGROUND AND STATE OF THE ART A report from Tirana, Shkoder and Elbasan cacucci editore bari Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education The Project T@sk – Towards increased Awareness, responsibility and shared quality in Social Work (Project N. 585626-EPP-1-2017-1-IT-EPPKA2- CBHE-JP – Erasmus+ KA2 – Capacity Building in Higher Education) has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. © 2020 Cacucci Editore – Bari Via Nicolai, 39 – 70122 Bari – Tel. 080/5214220 http://www.cacuccieditore.it e-mail: [email protected] The on-line digital edition is published in Open Access on https://www.cacuccieditore.it/download/getdownload/4474ae7c- 5014-4fa4-a9dc-dcbebc0a5442 The present work is released under Creative Commons Attri- bution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0: http://creative- commons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). For maximum dissemination and use of licensed materials, CC BY 4.0 allows you to share any part of this work by any means and format, modify it for any purpose, including com- mercial, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author, any changes made to the work are indicated and a URL link is provided to the license. INDEX Introduction Recent history and current challenges of social services in Albania – Laura Bini, Giorgia Bulli IX PART I – LOOKING IN FROM OUTSIDE Chapter I Albania 1992-2017: the main historical events of the last 25 years Sheyla Moroni 1.1. 1990-1992. The institutional and social earthquake 3 1.2. 1992-1996. An unstable stabilisation 7 1.3. 1997. The crisis 10 1.4. 1998-2013. External conflicts and internal indecision. To the West? 12 1.5. 2013-2019. Apparent stabilisation. Another step towards the EU? 22 Chapter II Demographic background and the key social issues Giulia Mascagni 2.1. A first demographic profile 27 2.2. Poverty and inequalities 31 2.3. The Social Service workforce: from institution to perception 38 Social Services in Albania: background and state of the art PART II – LOCAL EXPERIENCES Chapter III General framework, principles and norms of Social Services in Albania 3.1. The principles of the Albanian welfare state and the norms – Elisabeta Osmanaj, Eda Cela 47 3.2. Reform of Social Services in Albania – Marinela Sota 50 3.3. The principle of decentralisation and its implementation in the Social Services policies in Albania – Visar Dizdari 53 Chapter IV Resources and actors of Social Services in Municipalities of Tirana, Shkoder and Elbasan in Albania 4.1. Resources and actors of Social Services in the Municipality of Tirana – Rudina Rama 59 4.2. Resources and actors of Social Services in the Municipality of Shkoder – Bujanë Topalli 67 4.3. Resources and actors of Social Services in the Municipality of Elbasan – Sabina Belshaku 78 Chapter V The levels of Access to Social Services 5.1. The Levels of Access to Social Services in the Municipality of Tirana – Marinela Sota 85 5.2. The Levels of Access to Social Services in the Municipality of Shkoder – Galsvinda Biba 96 5.3. The Levels of Access to Social Services in the Municipality of Elbasan – Sabina Belshaku, Elisabeta Osmanaj 104 VI Index Chapter VI Financing and quality of the Social Services 6.1. Financing the Social Services in Tirana – Marinela Sota, Izela Tahsini, Rudina Rama 111 6.2. The Quality of Social Services in Tirana – Izela Tahsini 114 6.3. Financing the Social Services in Shkoder – Visar Dizdari, Galsvinda Biba, Bujanë Topalli 117 6.4. The Quality of Social Services in Shkoder – Bujanë Topalli 121 6.5. Financing the Social Services in Elbasan – Sabina Belshaku, Eda Cela 124 6.6. The Quality of Social Services in Elbasan – Sabina Belshaku, Elisabeta Osmanaj 126 References 129 Authors 139 VII INTRODUCTION RECENT HISTORY AND CURRENT CHALLENGES OF SOCIAL SERVICES IN ALBANIA by Laura Bini* and Giorgia Bulli** In the complex political and social path to consolidation of efficient and stable democracies, a crucial role is played by the structuring of a well-functioning Wel- fare System (Titmuss 1958; Ferrera 2005). The developments in this field within the Balkan area are attracting a growing academic interest, both in a national and in a comparative perspective (Orenstein 2008; Bartlett 2013; Matković 2017). Scientific contributions are mainly centered on the analysis of the policy making in this field with a country-specific approach. Seminal studies on the developing of “safety nets” in East-Central Europe (Kramer 1997) have been followed by comparative analysis focusing on the Balkan area (Bartlett, Xhumari 2007; Feta- hu 2017). In this complex and sometimes fragmented scenario, Albania has until now received a relative scarce attention, when compared to the other Western Balkan countries (Hotchkiss, Hutchinson, Malaj, Berruti 2005; Miluka 2016) Scientific research developed until very recently describes the Albanian Wel- fare State system as grounding on several pillars, structured through social pro- tection programs such as pension schemes, employment promotion programs, and economic aids. However, despite these general descriptions, it is still difficult to reach an in-depth analysis and multilevel examination of the organization of each of these pillars, of their concrete functioning, and of the main social and political actors responsible for their management and development. The reasons behind these difficulties are multifaceted. On the one hand, Alba- nia has a very recent social policy system (Pere, Bartlett 2019) whose functioning has been recently affected by a new lawmaking on territorial decentralization that is going to profoundly affect the distribution of responsibilities in the So- cial Services delivery (Dauti 2015; Dizdari, Troshani, Drishti 2019). On the other hand, the development of the basis of the Albanian Welfare System has undergone several steps of evolution that were deeply influenced by the political events that marked the new Albanian democracy since the end of Communism and the difficult transition to democracy. The problematic consolidation of the democratic regime – particularly in the mid 1990’s – not only influenced the * OAS Toscana. ** Università degli Studi di Firenze. Social Services in Albania: background and state of the art development of the Albanian Welfare State. It also reflects a relatively poor atten- tion to the systematization of data with regards to the delivery of Social Services. As a result, reliable and accessible data is predominantly missing – both at the national, and at the local level. The above described situation makes it very difficult to reach an encompass- ing description of the state of the art of the Social Services’ delivery in Albania that would be the starting point to further research focusing on the following questions: i) What model of Welfare System is Albania developing (if one can talk of a single model (Vampa 2016); ii) Who are the responsible actors in the newly designed decentralized system of Social Services’ delivery? iii) How are the resources for Social Services’ delivery assigned to the responsible actors at the national and local level? Detailed answers to the questions above would permit to make a first step towards the study of a crucial case in the Balkan area. Albania is indeed an essen- tial point of reference in the analysis of Welfare systems mostly for three reasons: 1) compared to the other Western Balkan countries, Albania experienced the consequences of a totalitarian regime whose main characteristic was the nearly complete isolation in terms of international relations; 2) External actors that affected the process of democratization also influenced the initial organization of the Welfare provisions in Albania. The traces of this influence are still visible (i.e. algorithm elaborated by the World Bank); 3) The limited investment in the creation of a functioning Welfare State resulted in a growing importance played by international NGOs which currently provide Social Services to numerous segments of the Albanian society in an only limited accordance and coordination with the responsible organizations of the Albanian national and local govern- ments. A first attempt to answer the questions above was made thanks to the coo- peration amongst three European Universities, three Albanian Universities and the professional Order of Social Workers of the Tuscany Region in the field of the ERASMUS+ Capacity Building T@sk Project – Towards increased Aware- ness, responsibility and shared quality in Social Work1. The main aim of the T@sk project consists in reinforcing and modernizing the delivery of Social Services in 1 The T@sk consortium (T@SK project Towards increased awareness, responsibility and shared quality in social work - Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education, 585626-EPP-1-2017- 1-IT-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) includes three Albanian Universities – the Department of Social Work and Social Policy of the University of Tirana, the Department of Psychology and Social Work of the University of Shkoder Luigj Gurakuqi, and the Department of Social Sciences of the Aleksander Xhuvani University of Elbasan – three EU Universities – Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche