Final Report ALBANIA: POLITICAL PARTY DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTING CITIZEN PARTICIPATION USAID Cooperative Agreement 182-A-00-02-00104-00 Project Dates: June 1, 2002 to October 31, 2004 I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY From 2002 to 2004, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) conducted a program in Albania to facilitate the long-term development of political parties and to promote the participation of citizens in the political process. This program built upon the Institute’s previous work in Albania, which from 1991 to mid-2002 had focused on a combination of political party and civil society strengthening programs. This included the founding of the Society for Democratic Culture (SDC), a domestic non-governmental organization (NGO) engaged in election monitoring activities; assisting young reform-minded political party activists to increase their skills and influence within their party; and helping thousands of citizens participate in the local government and carry out community development projects to improve their communities through such actions as building roads and creating access to clean water and electricity. The June 2001 parliamentary elections demonstrated greater political stability in Albania but also revealed a serious disconnect between underdeveloped political parties and a politically inactive citizenry, which inhibited the development of a representative and participatory democratic system. To address this challenge, NDI designed and implemented a program from June 2002 to October 2004 to facilitate the long-term development of political parties through the training of select emerging leaders on professional political management skills and by working with groups of citizens to develop the organizing and advocacy skills necessary for their participation in local political processes. Linkages between both NDI program components and with other USAID democracy programs were fostered to connect parties and their constituents - an important element in building government transparency and accountability. NDI’s 2002-2004 program had the following objectives: · Citizens involved in Civic Forum actively engage government and party leaders through participation in local political processes; · Community organizers, facilitators, and trainers exist at the local level; · Targeted women and youth political leaders increase their political skills and positions within their respective parties; and · Targeted political parties undertake institution-building activities. To increase citizen participation in local government, NDI held bi-weekly discussion groups with citizens to give them the skills and encouragement to conduct community outreach activities. The Civic Forum program developed supplemental initiatives to support the participants’ abilities to effect change in their communities. These included the Engaged Citizen program,1 the creation of community platforms,2 and local government monitoring. As a result, citizens and politicians began working together to bridge the divide between them. Now, thousands of citizens in central Albania are working together to identify community priorities and develop tactics to improve community health care facilities and schools, ensure infrastructure needs are met, establish citizen information offices, and set and monitor local budget priorities. These new community activists are doing this through successfully identifying available community resources, and seeking outside funding. To promote reform within political parties and increase the participation of women and youth in politics, NDI conducted two rounds of an intensive political management academy for emerging leaders. Participants in the political management academy have made changes within their parties through the almost 400 local branch development projects and training sessions they conducted. These projects have helped the parties to modernize and become more accessible to party members and citizens by holding public meetings and engaging in direct voter contact. Through initiatives of the academy participants and consultations with party leadership, many parties have also begun to implement institutional reforms, such as the use of one-member-one- vote (OMOV), for the selection of party leaders and candidates. While NDI fulfilled its objectives for this program, Albania is still in need of further democratic development. The Institute will continue to work in Albania through its new USAID-funded Democracy and Governance in Albania (DGA) program. The DGA program, which is composed of civil society, political party, and media strengthening components, will be implemented by NDI and its subgrantees, the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) and Partners for Democratic Change (PDC). The program will run from October 2004 through September 2007. II. BACKGROUND Albania has overcome substantial political and social instability since the fall of communism in 1991, including riots in 1992 and the failed pyramid schemes in 1997 that brought about social anarchy and deepened political divisions. Political stabilization emerged as a result of the adoption of a constitution in 1998 and an improved election campaign atmosphere 1 The participants in the Engaged Citizen training come from existing Civic Forum groups that have reached the action/advocacy stage. The participants are selected for advanced skills training based on their achievements in their Civic Forum groups and in applying the knowledge and skills gained from the program in their communities. 2 The community platforms are a survey-based selection of high-priority community issues developed by citizens to be presented to and addressed by local politicians and candidates. 2 in 2000 and 2001. As a result of these improvements, in January 2003, Albania began talks with the European Union (EU) on the creation of a stabilization and association agreement. This reform process, however, has undergone strains that seriously threatened Albania’s democratic development and European integration. Political parties were unable to work together to reach a consensus on important issues, such as electoral reform. Although improved, election processes were subject to fraud and other irregularities, causing many to question their integrity and the legitimacy of elected officials. Political parties, many of which were personality-based, were met with skepticism regarding ethical behavior and financing, and the private interests of political and government officials often guided policymaking. State resources were concentrated in the hands of a few while public service agencies languished for lack of funding and expertise. As a result of Albania’s communist legacy, citizen participation in civil society and local government was low. Citizens felt disconnected from the officials that represented them and believed that they did not have the power to fix the problems in their communities. While mechanisms for citizen involvement in local government existed, such as the requirement that local budgets must be open to public comment, they were rarely utilized. To address these challenges, NDI’s program had the following objectives: · Citizens involved in Civic Forum actively engage government and political leaders through participation in local political processes; · Community organizers, facilitators and trainers exist at the local level; · Targeted women and youth political leaders increase their political skills and positions within their respective parties; and · Targeted political parties undertake institution-building activities. To involve citizens in local government processes, NDI implemented the Civic Forum program, which is composed of a series of moderated, community-based discussion groups. Through these groups citizens learned about democratic principles and used that knowledge in community organizing and public advocacy initiatives. NDI provided education and strategic planning rather than grant assistance to citizen groups to increase their ability to use political processes to effect positive change in their communities. In addition to the discussion groups, NDI engaged the participants in other activities, such as the creation of community platforms prior to the 2003 local elections, the Engaged Citizens program to provide advanced organizing skills to community leaders and the creation of citizen networks to bring participants from similar geographic areas together to implement community improvement projects. In addition to promoting citizen participation, the Institute supported political party development in Albania through its political management academy for emerging leaders. The academy, which was composed of weekly lectures and discussion sessions, enabled the Institute to work intensively with carefully selected party activists over a longer period of time. To help institutionalize the skills gained by the participants, they were required to design and implement institution-building projects, such as campaign planning and management, candidate training, constituency and voter outreach, and local branch membership development. These projects 3 helped to modernize the campaign and outreach techniques of approximately 10,000 party activists in branches across the country and to build the profile of the program participants. NDI also worked with political party leadership on party reform. In 2003, NDI launched an initiative to open internal decision-making structures by adopting a one-member-one-vote (OMOV) system. In such a system, all party