Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
12/10/2015 Mapping and Analysis of the Albania CP System A participatory documenting of practices and perceptions
Manolo Cabran, Manuel Finelli, Beth Bradford MAESTRAL INTERNATIONAL
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Albania CP System Mapping and Analysis
Maestral International, L.L.C. Suite 3250 150 S. 5th Street Minneapolis, MN 55402 U.S.A. Phone: (612) 354-3085 E-mail: [email protected]
11 March 2016
Disclaimer
Any views, opinions and recommendations presented in this report are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Government of Albania or the office of UNICEF in Albania or Terre des hommes in Albania & in Kosovo(under the UNSCR 1244).
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Acknowledgements Maestral International wishes to thank all the partners who made this research possible.
Our gratitude goes to the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth: Mr Edvin Lame, Advisor to the Minister, Ms Ina Verzivolli, Chair of the State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights, and to Mrs Denada Seferi, Director of the Department of Social Service and Integration. Ms Enkelejda Lopari, former advisor to the Minister, also contributed significantly to the research.
We are particularly appreciative to all the children, parents, service providers, and the representatives of the national and local government, civil society and development partners who shared their knowledge, expertise and time with us to enrich this mapping and analysis with first hand, heartfelt and quality information. We did not take their contribution for granted; they have been key to providing us with the insights we needed to understand the functioning of the system.
A special mention goes to Terre des hommes and its staff for their dedication and professionalism. We are grateful to Jezerca Tigani, Director of Tdh Albania & Kosovo, for having allocated significant personal resources to the research; to Blerta Spahiu, who organised, managed, supervised, and, in part, conducted, the data collection process in a very challenging context; to Arta Vorpsi and Artemida Bardhi, for sharing their expertise on the legal and public finance management aspects of the CP system. None would have been possible without the entire National Research Team: Blerta Mano, Ermelinda Ikonomi, Juni Plaku, Ana Majko, Irida Agolli, Enkeleda Sako, Rezarta Gjialpi, Andi Bregu, Juliana Ajdini, Lediona Asabella, Loreta Hysa and Migena Kapllanaj. Their commitment made it possible to complete all planned meetings. They also supported the Maestral International team in identifying the key findings around which this report is written.
Last but not least, we are thankful to UNICEF Albania: Mrs Antonella Scolamiero, Resident Representative, Mrs Vera Gavrilova, Deputy Representative, and Mrs Floriana Hima, CP Officer. The financial support and continuous dialogue and feedback between the office and the Maestral International team ensured the timely research implementation, and when challenges rose, they made all efforts to solve the problems and ensure the achievement of the goal. Their commitment to the children of Albania is clear.
Manolo Cabran, Manuel Finelli, Beth Bradford
Minneapolis, 11 March 2016
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Table of content Acknowledgements ...... 3 Acronyms ...... 6 Executive summary...... 8 Chapter 1 - Introduction ...... 12 Context and rationale ...... 12 Methodology ...... 14 Chapter 2 – Mapping and analysis of the CP system ...... 17 Legal framework ...... 19 Structures of the CP system ...... 24 Coordination ...... 31 Services ...... 36 Case management ...... 42 Public Finance Management and Public Administration ...... 46 Monitoring and Evaluation ...... 50 Chapter 3 - Conclusion ...... 53 Determinant of poor functioning: CP system Governance ...... 55 Recommendations ...... 59 Annexes ...... 64 Annex 1: Analytical framework ...... 65 Annex 2: Research protocol and methodological tools ...... 82 Annex 3: List of documents reviewed ...... 98 Annex 4: List of organizations involved in data collection ...... 107 Annex 5: Regional and municipal sampling ...... 111 Annex 6: Analysis of public finance management and public administration in CP ...... 117 Annex 7: Analysis of legal framework on CP ...... 149 Annex 8: Children and parents’ perceptions and experiences of the CP system Children and parents experiences of child protection services ...... 187
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
List of figures
Figure 1: Levels of analysis ...... 15 Figure 2: Research principles ...... 16 Figure 3: Sampled regions and municipalities ...... 17 Figure 4: Systems approach is reiterative and non-linear ...... 17 Figure 5: Main child protection actors, with their mandates and tasks...... 26 Figure 6: Sample of child protection programme and its sub-programmes ...... 60
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Acronyms
AGFIS Albanian Government Financial Information System BI Budget Institution CM Case Management CMO Council of Ministries Order CoE Council of Europe CP CP CPS CP System CPU CP Unit CPW CP Worker CRU Child Right Unit CSO Civil Society Organisation DCM Decision of the Council of Ministers DDPFFA Department of Development Programming, Financing and Foreign Aid DoSI Department of Social Inclusion ESSP Employment, Skills and Social Policy Sector EU European Union FBO Faith Based Organisation FDG Focus Group Discussions GDP Gross Domestic Product GoA Government of Albania IMS Information Management System IMWG Inter-Ministerial Working Groups INGOs International Non-Governmental Organisation IOM International Organisation for Migrations IPMG Integrated Policy Management Group KII Key Informant Interviews LGU Local Government Unit LM Line Ministry M&E Monitoring and Evaluation MDA Ministry, Department and Agency MES Ministry of Education and Sports MoF Ministry of Finance
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
MoH Ministry of Health MoJ Ministry of Justice MoSWY Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth MTBP Medium Term Budget Programme NCfPCR National Council for the Protection of Children’s Rights NE Ndihma Ekonomike NGO Non-Governmental Organizations NRT National Research Team NSSI National Strategy for Social Inclusion OBL Organic Budget Law OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe PAR Public Administration Reform PBB Performance Based Budgeting PBM Performance Based Management PFM Public Finance Management SAfPCR State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights SRM Social Risk Management SSS State Social Services TAR Territorial and Administrative Reform Tdh Terre des hommes ToR Terms of Reference UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Executive summary Albania has seen considerable changes in child protection in the last years. The government has put in place several initiatives to address the vulnerabilities and risks that affect the safety of children, while investing in the ability and resilience of children and their families to prevent, mitigate or cope with such risks and vulnerabilities. The government, in partnership with civil society organisations and development partners, has also embarked on adopting a systems approach to child protection. This mapping and analysis report aims to identify what has been accomplished and the gaps that still need to be addressed. The mapping and analysis used qualitative methods to gather the necessary information, namely desk review, key informant interviews and focus group discussions.
The report is organised into seven areas, which for simplicity have been called thematic areas; they are: 1) the normative framework, 2) the structure of the system, 3) coordination, 4) services, 5) case management, 6) public finance management and public administration, and 7) monitoring and evaluation. The report ends with some considerations on the overall governance of the system and with recommendations to strengthen the system.
There is a fair amount of existing legislation regulating child protection. It includes the constitution, the law on the protection of children’s rights, and the various codes (criminal, civil and family). The laws are often supported by rules and regulations, which can take the forms of Decisions of the Council of Ministers, or Ministerial Orders. The child protection protocol regulates the way child protection cases should be handled. The normative framework is good overall, and only requires some updates. The major challenges come from its dissemination, and knowledge and understanding of the principles and procedures outlined in the laws, policies and strategic plans. In addition, legislation is weak or lacking in areas such as roles and responsibilities at various levels, mandatory reporting and procedure for removal of a child from high risk situations and/or situations of abuse. Training on the normative framework is in place but it needs to better address the specific needs of the child protection workforce, and should be competency-based rather than focusing on the transmission of information.
Different actors, and the way they are organised, constitute the structure of the child protection system. There are several line ministries, department and agencies mandated with the task of protecting children from violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect. The Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth plays the lead role in child protection, while the Ministry of Interior is at the head of the response to combat trafficking in persons. Within the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, there is the State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights and the Department for Social Services and Social Inclusion. The Ministry of Justice is in charge of justice for children. The Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education works to ensure that children victims of violence, abuse, exploitation and neglect receive the appropriate medical treatment, both psychological and physical (the former) and to ensure that schools are safe environments for children (the latter). As part of the Local Government Units (LGU), Child Rights Units are established at regional level, and Child Protection Units (CPU) at the Municipal. Because of the scarce human and financial resources, the CPU mostly takes the form of a single Child Protection Worker. Being an area under development, the child protection workforce still requires the building of capacities (i.e. the professional know-how) to perform the duties mandated. In spite of the establishment of structures mentioned above the analysis identified a number of challenges and problems related to the structure of and within the child protection system of Albania. While Child Right Units (CRU) and Child Protection Units (CPU) are established in most of the regions and municipalities they
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania are not often fully functional, for example they may constitute only one person with no social work experience and an overwhelming number of cases. Secondly, The overall structure of the child protection system is not clearly articulated and outlined in a unique programmatic document; rather it is the result of consecutive waves of interventions and issue-based activities leading to various interpretations that may or may not be fully effective. The elements of the structure of the system have suffered from a lack of consistent investment in workforce and capacities including allied sectors of education and health. The lack of investment is even more evident at the decentralised level of the system. Coordination is an area that is clearly defined and organised in the normative framework, but its effective functioning requires additional efforts. The principle of multi-disciplinary approach is clearly stipulated in the normative framework and is a principle widely acknowledged for its importance. At the top of the programmatic coordination sits the National Council for the Protection of Children’s Rights, a body established in the law on the protection of children’s rights, which is not dealing exclusively with child protection, but oversees the fulfilment of all children’s rights. There are also a number of Inter-Ministerial Working Groups (IMWG) and Ministerial Working Groups. None of them deal exclusively with child protection, but the IMWG on Social Care Reform partially covers child protection. At the case management level, coordination is ensured by the Multi-Disciplinary Working Groups (MDWG) established through decision of the Council of Ministers at the decentralised level to ensure an inter-sectoral approach when handling cases of child victims. Evidence suggests that these MDWG are operating at very different level of effectiveness across the visited regions and municipalities. Coordination remains one area in Albania that is not fully functioning and challenged by behavioural, technical and structural aspects. For the most part it takes the form of sharing information, rather than effective and collective decision-making and division of labour. Horizontal coordination at the national is ineffective and hampered by a weak definition of collective work for all line ministries mandated with child protection. Vertical coordination is almost non- existent.
The provision of services is one of the biggest structural challenges in the functioning of the child protection system. Service provision is unanimously considered weak by both service providers and clients. Despite the provisions in the normative framework, the weak capacities of the child protection workforce (i.e. child protection workers, health workers, education workers and police officers) together with inadequate allocation of resources hamper the availability, accessibility, coverage and effectiveness of child protection services. Because of this, they mostly assume the form of ad hoc interventions rather than systemic services, meaning that they are not planned and integrated, scarcely accessible, they rely on inadequate capacities and resources, and they struggle to comply with standards of quality. Despite the grim provision of services, case management constitutes an element around which child protection could be consolidated, while being far from fully functional. The child protection workers met with during the data collection reported identification and referral as happening with some success. Assessment, case planning, service provision and follow up are aspects that require further investment in capacity strengthening. Such work can built on the availability of guidelines on case management (to date, there are four different documents specifying how different types of child protection cases should be handled). These documents lack harmonisation and possibly unification, making the work of child protection workers more difficult (for instance, which procedure should be followed in case of a trafficked child who is also victim of physical violence?).
As already mentioned above, child protection suffers from a persistent inadequacy of funds and of capacities. Public Finance Management and Public Administration is not yet directly targeting the child
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania protection workforce or their mandates, nor is it taken into consideration elsewhere. The decentralisation arrangements assign the role of funder to LGUs, but child protection is not a priority in budget allocation. On top of this, lack of planning capacities and weak capacities in generating and collecting revenues at the decentralised level further hamper the allocation of financial resources. Local elections took place in June 2015 for the first time after the law on the new territorial and administrative restructuring was passed earlier the same year. Child protection service provision is at risk for further suffering if it is not taken into consideration within the overall framework of the population’s social welfare.
Monitoring and evaluation is not well thought out, nor regularly enforced, and thus cannot provide the base of evidence needed to plan child protection services and to oversee and adjust them when necessary. There is no Information Management System in place for child protection. Monitoring is seldom implemented through time and resource-consuming monitoring visits, and very often is focusing on institutional residential care not family care or community services. There is no standard for reporting data and activity of the CP workforce, which is done only upon request from the superior level. The understanding of the importance of monitoring is mostly associated with reporting duties, rather than as an opportunity to review what is implemented and how and to make quality improvements.
All of these challenges can be explained by weak governance in the system. The management of the whole programme cycle, from planning to implementation and review, suffers from a combination of factors that can be summarised in:
1. Ineffective decision making; 2. Weak leadership; 3. Scarce resource allocation and inadequate capacities; and 4. No learning mechanisms in place.
Recommendation: The aim of strengthening the child protection response should not be establishing a system, but developing a CP programme that will respond to the needs of children in the way that only a cross-sectorial approach can. Rather than adopting a CP system, the Government of Albania should invest in adopting a systems-approach to CP, mainstreaming CP in all the Ministries, Departments and Agencies and organisations that are mandated with such responsibilities and ensuring the care and protection of all children according to their specific needs and vulnerabilities. The following would enable the achievement of this central recommendation:
1. Adopt a Social Risk Management (SRM) approach to CP to make sure that risks and vulnerabilities of children and of their families are assessed toward identifying and understanding which protection risks children are exposed to, where and why. 2. Design and implement the CP programme components that include a combination of social transfers and services to cover all the needs of identified children and families. The programme components will consist of services that: a. Protect children at risk of, or already suffering from the impact of the risks of CP episodes; b. Prevent the insurgence of risks that will expose children to abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation; c. Promote the ability of children and families to face and combat those risks; and d. Transform the environment in which children and their families live by introducing positive changes in the legal and policy framework, as well as in the cultural and social norms. 3. Establish governance mechanisms to design, oversee and adjust the CP programme and its components based on lessons learnt and feedback mechanisms.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
4. Strengthen CP workforce to enhance the provision of quality CP services that respond to the needs of children and their families where those children and families are located.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Chapter 1 - Introduction Context and rationale Albania, although categorized as an upper middle-income country by the World Bank,1 is the third poorest country in the region and suffers economic inequality2 challenged by significant demographic changes over the last two decades. The population has steadily decreased from 3.28million in 1990 to 2.89million in 2015.3 Massive emigration of the working aged population has led to, among other things, an increase in the average age of the resident population and a drop in the birth rate, At the end of 2011 there were an estimated over 1.4 million Albanians living abroad; some 12% of them left children behind.4 The government is heavily reliant on remittances. Another 20% of the population has migrated internally contributing to massive urbanization since the 1990s5 (53.7 % of the population lives in cities).6 Albania has experienced a sustainable pace of economic growth until 2008, when the annual GDP growth rate was around 6%,7 however it has steadily decrease to 1.9%8; unemployment has increased since the global economic recession: 17.2% in 2014 and 33.5% for the 15-29 years age group.9 The poverty reduction trend has also been impacted with poverty rates now on the rise. Poverty incidence reduced from 25.4 to 12.4% between 2002 and 2008, while at last count in 2012 14.3% of Albanians were found to be living in absolute poverty with 2.2% extremely poor in urban areas and 2.3% in rural.10 The poverty gap increased from 2.3% in 2008 to 2.9% in 2012.11
Despite reforms in the economic sector, education, health care and social protection over the past twenty years, the government continues to struggle in its ability to adequately respond to the needs of vulnerable groups, including children,12 who make up over 35% of the Albanian population.13 Over 20% of children live in absolute poverty (21.4 % in rural areas), 49.6% of families with more than four children are poor, and 22% of children 0-4 years old live in poverty.14 Children at risk are one of the vulnerable populations identified in
1 Demographic figures from World Bank Database retrieved at http://data.worldbank.org/country/albania and http://databank.worldbank.org/data//reports.aspx?source=2&country=ALB&series=&period= 2 Bryne, K. (2014). Analysis of policies and reforms affecting the situation of children in Albania 3 Ibid. World Bank. 4 Gedeshi, I. and Jorgoni, E. (2012) Social Impact of Emigration and Rural-Urban Migration: Final Country Report Albania. For European Commission 5 Minister of State for Local Government. (2014). Administrative and Territorial Reform: Analysis of the local government situation in Albania 6 Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2014). National Report on the Situation of Children’s Rights in Albania 2013- 2014 7 Ibid. Gedeshi, I. and Jorgoni, E. 8 World Bank, 2015 9 Ibid. Bryne, K. 10 Ibid. Minister of State for Local Government 11 UN Economic Commission for Europe. (2013). National report on the implementation of the Beijing +20 platform for action. 12 Ibid. Gedeshi, I. and Jorgoni, E. 13 Child demographic figures from UNICEF Albania retrieved at http://www.unicef.org/albania/children.html 14 Ibid. Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania the National Strategy for Social Inclusion (NSSI).15 Evaluation of the NSSI noted government commitment to advancing child’s rights through policy and legal reforms and their implementation.16 For example, current government reforms that benefit children and families include: creation of functional and efficient local government service units; deinstitutionalization and integration of social services; modernization of economic assistance; strengthening all government for planning, budgeting and monitoring based on real needs; and establishment of local CP structures.17However, not all children are benefitting from full protection: children on the move, children without birth registration, children with disabilities, children separated from their parents, and children from minority groups face obstacles to their sound and good development. Others are at risk for living in the street, trafficking, abuse, labour and exploitation.
According to the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth (MoSWY), the cash assistance (Ndihma Ekonomike) programme, the main poverty reduction scheme, covered only 23% of extremely poor households18. Regarding services, 90% of services are found in urban areas19 and are limited to residential institutions (28 State-run in total), while for development and implementation of community-based services Albania continues to rely heavily on non-governmental organizations (NGO).20 Decentralization, which began in the 1990s, has been a weakness for the Government, compounded by weak level of cooperation between levels and institutions of government.21 The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) terms of reference (ToR) for this assignment further state, “despite a clear identification of excluded, marginalized and at-risk social groups and a definition of their situation, some of the most recent socio-economic developments call for a redefinition of groups that were not as apparent when the NSSI was designed, among others, children not benefitting from care.”22
Children in Albania are confronted to a series of risks and protection breaches that negatively affect their lives and those of their families. Poverty is a widespread phenomenon and on the raise; children suffer more than adults from deprivations due to poverty and social exclusion. Children discrimination based on ethnicity is reportedly very common, but discrimination due to socio-economic status appears to be more persistent. Children are also a target population for trafficking in human being, even though statistics on the phenomenon are not available or up-to-date. Children on the move are exposed to all sort of risk more that their cohorts. Economic exploitation is a visible plague that affects children such as those living and/or working in the streets, and children collecting metal scraps; sexual exploitation is not a visible phenomenon, and requires further investigation, but anecdotally too present. Violence is a major curse especially for children and women: violence is reported happening both at home and in schools. Neglect, especially in its
15 Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Social Inclusion Crosscutting Strategy 2007-2013 16 Albania Centre for Economic Research. (2012). Albania’s National Inter-Sectorial Strategy on Social Inclusion, 2007- 2013 Evaluation Report. 17 Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2014). Challenges and Recommendations for Improving CP Services on a Local Level. 18 Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2015). National Social Protection Strategy (Draft document) 19 Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2015). National Social Protection Strategy (Draft document) 20 National Centre for Social Studies. (2013). Social care services in Albania: An updated map, characteristics and trends 21 Ibid. Minister of State for Local Government. (2014). 22 UNICEF Request for Proposal for Services LRPS-EGO-2014-9113292, Conducting the Analysis of National CP Systems in the Wider Context of Social Protection Systems in Albania (16 July 2014)
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania forms of abandonment, lack of parental control and care, contributes significantly to the placement of children in residential institutions, especially when associated with high levels of poverty or ethnical belonging.
Albania has started introducing a systems approach to child protection progressively in the last five years. After the law on the protection of children’s rights was passed in 2010, a number of measures have been put in place in this sense. Amongst the major ones we can mention: the child protection protocol that defines roles and responsibilities in managing cases adopted as a joint instruction by four line Ministries; the establishment of multidisciplinary teams for a multi-sectoral handling of cases; and the de-institutionalisation of children in residential care that has called for a more integrated provision of social services. Nevertheless, much remains to be done, as outlined in the following chapters of this report.
Methodology The on-going situation for many families and the risks to children combined with the apparent shortfalls of reforms and strategy development to date, has compelled UNICEF and the Government of Albania (GoA) to commission this Analysis of National CP Systems in the Wider Context of Social Protection Systems in Albania. Beginning from the findings of the NSSI evaluation mentioned earlier, the present mapping and analysis looks at how the Albanian child protection system is identifying and addressing the risks to child care and protection, while also analysing the CP system under the lens of broad social protection and within the child rights framework and providing recommendations for moving forward.
To begin with, the work was based upon understanding of the CP system as the set of all organised actors that work together towards the common goal of preventing and responding to exploitation, violence, neglect and abuse against children in order to create or (re)establish the conditions for healthy child growth and development23. The child protection system has been analysed in the broader context of social protection and in the frame of the on-going Social Care Reform and of the Territorial and Administrative Reform. The social protection framework is not limited to what is included in the National Social Protection Strategy, rather it is conceived in a broader sense to include Social Risk Management addressing both negative drivers that put children in need of protection (risk/shocks, vulnerabilities, deprivations, etc.) and positive drivers that work to prevent protection issues (life skills, resilience, social assets and safety nets). The analysis aims to demonstrate how (and if) the system:
Identifies and prevents child care and protection risks and protects children from those risks; Intervenes in situations of violation or protection concerns with social transfers and access to quality services; Promotes family-based care and community responses for the fulfilment of child’s rights; and Operates a transformation in the national and local context for improved results for children.
Maestral International LCC (“Maestral”) worked with Terre des hommes (Tdh) and a national research team (NRT) to conduct the analysis based upon an established analytical framework (shown in Figure 1 and detailed in Annex 1). The objectives included:
23 Operational definition developed by Maestral International, 2015. The full list of definition is provided in Annex 1, Analytical framework. The most important and recurrent ones have been also included along the report in text boxes.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
1. Provide overview of the major CP issues in Albania, including an analysis of the groups of population and categories of children that are most affected. 2. Describe the functioning structures and interactions of the CP system: legal, policy and strategy framework; structures and key institutions; levels of government; services and coverage; decision- making, reporting and referral; coordination, planning and information management; monitoring and quality assurance; education and competencies; and budget allocation and financial flows. 3. Map all the existing structures and institutions comprising the CP system. 4. Explore how children and families experience the CP system. 5. Analyse the system integration, including the formal CP system and the wider social welfare, social protection, justice, socio-economic situation and governance frameworks. 6. Develop recommendations for strengthening the CP system to serve as a basis for a national strategy on CP, and identify opportunities and specific entry points that can be built on to bring about synergies between CP frameworks and the broader social protection system in the country.
•What are factors of the risks and Analysis of vulnerabilities? the problem •Who are the children most exposed to risks?
•Is the CP system designed to respond Analysis of and prevent CP risks? the design •What are the strengths and weaknesses?
Analysis of •Is the system able to effectively and the efficiently respond to CP risks and vulnerabilities? functioning •What are the strengths and weaknesses?
Figure 1: Levels of analysis
The methodologies used are based on the research principles (see Error! Reference source not found.) and ere consultative and participatory to ensure ownership and transparency of the process, relevant and up-to- date data collection, and capacity building through knowledge transfer and discussions around the findings. CP stakeholders involved included government, civil society, community leaders, families, and children. When meeting parents and children, all ethical procedures have been respected according to the international standards for research involving children, and as illustrated in Annex 2, the research protocol. Tools included literature review, key informant interviews (KII), focus group discussions (FDG) and consultative processes aimed to answer the following set of central analysis questions.
Are children clearly identified and their characteristics well assessed? Are the risk, shocks, vulnerability and resilience factors analysed? Are there clear theories of change underpinning the interventions? Are interventions in general having a positive impact? Is there deficiency in the system design? Do the programs cover the whole spectrum of risks? Is there a systems approach to CP in Albania?
The mapping and analysis strategies included the following:
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
A desk review of 119 documents (published and grey literature) and 73 government policy documents provided the basis for initial findings and development of the qualitative research component; Maestral research A world café, participatory event with 50 people from government and civil society helped the team to principles prioritize thematic areas and issues for examination Rights-based: standards set in the during field research; international treaties, covenants, and Field research-training by Maestral prepared 14 national protocols, and intended to promote and researchers; protect human rights. Research from May to June by the NTR in six regions (see Participatory: encouraging and enabling Figure 2 below): children, their parents, service providers and all CP stakeholders to make their o 44 KII at the nation level views known on the issues that affect o 36 KII at the regional level them. o 60 KII at the municipal level No harm: No discrimination between o 6 FDG at the regional level consulted people, creating or exacerbating o degradation, conflicts and insecurity and 60 FGDs at the municipal level will take into account the special needs of Validation of findings workshop in July attended by 40 the most vulnerable groups of children and representatives of government and civil society; and women. Final endorsement of the CPS mapping and analysis Child centred: children’s rights and needs report by the Albanian Government. are the primary focus for development, and are compounded by their family, community, culture and country. The regions and municipalities were sampled and selected using a combination of criteria: 11 available indicators relevant to CP; and Transparency: open and constant dialogue and to give access to all information on all the best and worst performers for each area (north, centre and the matters involved in the analysis that south). Municipalities were selected using the definition of are not open for disclosure for privacy and municipality24, and geography (one municipality being capital of security reasons. the region, and the second furthest from the capital). Please, refer to Annex 5, regional and municipal selection for further details. Figure 3 below shows the regions selected. Figure 2: Research principles
Area Region Municipality North Dibër Bulqizë Dibër Shkodër Fushë-Arrëz Shkodër Center Tirana Tirana Rrogozhinë Elbasan Elbasan Prrenjas South Gjirokastër Gjirokastër Përmet Vlorë Konispol
24 As defined in the new Law on administrative territorial units, 2014
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Area Region Municipality Vlorë Figure 3: Sampled regions and municipalities
The team presents their conclusions, findings and recommendations in the report that follows. The report is structured in three parts: (1) mapping of the system, presenting what CP system is currently available in Albania; (2) analysis of the functioning of the system; and (3) key recommendations to move the CP agenda forward.
Chapter 2 – Mapping and analysis of the CP system The second chapter of this report presents the findings of the mapping of the CP system in Albania. It is organised into seven thematic areas (see Figure 4) each presenting both the positive and negative findings consolidated from the literature review, interviews and FGDs. The raw data was merged and analysed through a seven-day consultative process with the NRT facilitated by Maestral. The order in which the thematic areas are presented is in no way reflective of their level of importance, rather it follows the path of the analytical framework used to guide the research. In a systems approach any of these thematic areas influence any other aspect without progressive linearity, however in practice there may be a reiterative process.
Legal framework
Services Structures
Case Budgeting management
Information Coordination management
Figure 4: Systems approach is reiterative and non-linear
In addition to the thematic findings, a number of findings emerged on 1) the general CP issues that Albanian children face, 2) the risk and vulnerability factors that may affect the protection and care of children, and 3) the different contexts that influence both risk and response. These were evidenced in the desk review while also emerging in the interviews with the stakeholders, including children themselves. While they may not be new to stakeholders in the country, they are important to mention as on-going concerns to fulfilment of children’s rights:
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
CP Issues:
Children without adequate parental care (e.g. abandonment, abuse, neglect, separation due to death, imprisonment or trafficking) Violent discipline and/or other violence in the home, community, schools and institutions Bullying (in school and street environments) Worst forms of child labour (street selling, begging, recycling, chrome collection, sexual exploitation) Children in conflict / contact with the law Child marriage Drug use/abuse/production/selling Trafficking in persons Risk and Vulnerability Factors: Lack of civil registration Family poverty and resulting lack of access to basic needs (shelter, food/nutrition, health, etc.) Discrimination/neglect (based on gender/economic/ethnic/disability) Migration (unaccompanied child migration, children left behind, family migration, youth migration, child separation) Unsafe environments (includes exposure to criminality, blood feuds, street-related activities, etc.) Lack of knowledge / awareness of children’s rights Poor or inadequate parenting skills and practices Lack of birth registration and/or identification papers Contextual Realities: Living in the suburbs, remote and rural areas is associated with children’s experience of violence and higher levels of exploitation; Living in zones prone to natural disasters, or in areas with high levels of exposure to chemicals Persistent societal perspectives around acceptable/advisable ways to raise children using physical and psychological punishment exist; People are reluctant to report (and self-report) about domestic violence to police; Discrimination around ethnic, gender and ability differences continue; and Most children on the street have a “home” where they live with their parents; children working on the street do so to earn income for their families. The level of awareness and comprehension of the multiple driving factors determining CP vulnerabilities is weak and it results in interventions that do not meet needs of the target population and do not tackle the root causes of the problems. “We are a quiet town with gentle people and children well raised. We don’t have problems.” (KII, service provider, Permet municipality)
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Legal framework Central to the functioning of a CP system is the legal framework that outlines the way that issues are framed and Definition understood, establishes the structures By legal framework it is intended the whole corpus of and mechanisms, and sets forth the laws and by-laws (rules, regulations, orders, decisions, strategies, actions, procedures and guidelines, etc.) that constitute legal reference for child standards to be followed within that protection practitioners. system. This must involve multiple national actors as child protection crosses sectors, for example the ministry responsible for general social protection, the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Education related to protection of the right to education. The following section presents the mapping findings related to the legal framework of policies, laws, strategies and normative acts that intend to ensure the protection of children’s rights across and within ministries. A list of the major legal instruments is provided in Annex 7, Overview of the Legal Aspects in CP. The data on this theme was consolidated into three categories, each important to an effective legal framework: availability, adequacy and coherence25. Availability Relating generally to the availability of a legal and normative framework, Albania does have a rather extensive range of laws, decisions, normative acts and strategies, which aim to guide CP in the country.
. Constitution of Albania: addresses the issue of violence against children specifically and directly, assuring children of their fundamental right to be protected (Article 54). According to the Constitution, children have the following rights: the right to special protection by the state; the right to be protected from violence and maltreatment; the right to be protected from exploitation and work that might be harmful or put at risk to their health or development. . Other fundamental national legal instruments include the Criminal Code, the Family Code, The Law on Social Assistance and Social Services, the law on anti-trafficking, the law on domestic violence and a number of laws and specific decisions with provisions that directly or indirectly relate to the observance of children’s rights and their protection. . In 2010 Albania approved a new law on the protection of children’s rights, which provides for a number of new conditions, including requirements for public social service agencies at all levels (communes26, municipalities and district27) and their obligation to implement the law.28 States UNICEF, “the challenge now is not with the set of laws as with their application in practice, which is inconsistent and fragmented. There is need to harmonize and interconnect it, in order that a case with
25 Note that a full sub-report entitled Overview of Legal Situation on CP in Albania was prepared by national consultant Dr. Arta Vorpsi and can be found in Annex 7 of this report. 26 Communes’ terminology is no longer in use after the administrative and territorial reform. 27 District terminology is no longer in use after the administrative and territorial reform; district are now referred to as regions. 28 Law No. 10347/2010 Concerning the Protection of the Rights of the Child
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania multiple needs, i.e. who need economic aid, and protection services and services for elderly can be addressed through a unified approach.”29 The legal framework is not harmonized across ministries at the national level. “I believe that the law on children would be considered complete if its take on the issue would be towards a complex of social-economical-health welfare” (KII, Government, national level). Much of the legal framework is issue-based rather than taking a broad systems-approach to child protection (ex. standards for trafficking but lack of general framework for overall CP). At the same time, because the laws have historically been issue-driven, there are resulting issue-specific legislative gaps. Some of the gaps have been recently addressed, for example, law 93/2014 rules for the inclusion and accessibility of persons with disabilities. But more needs to be done, in order to make sure that the provisions do protect all children regardless of their disability status or any other vulnerability factor. The legal framework is found to be incomplete and unreflective of the experience and practice in CP now existing in Albania. For example, the Criminal Code (and revisions to)30, states that the child under 14 years of age in contact with the law should be treated with educational measures but it fails to define what specifically and how they should be applied. Other laws and decisions may relate to CP, however make no reference for how situations of children may be treated differently (ex. the Penal code and cases of trafficking). More child-specific legislation is also needed in the Code of Penal Procedure where, at present, it is not clear who can take the child under protection in cases of child maltreatment31 and the Family Code of Albania lacks clarity on conditions under which parents can loose their parental rights, temporarily or permanently.32 Lastly, the legal framework, while spelling out some mandates for CP at the national, district and local levels, lacks provisions to lay out clear roles, mandates and mutual articulation of the National Council for the Protection of Children’s Rights, the State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights, the Peoples’ Advocate and the Parliamentary Sub-Commission for Human Rights, resulting in fragmented implementation and lack of coordinated policy and practice. According to many regional and municipal level professional stakeholders who have responsibility for CP, there is lack of physical availability of legal documents hindered further by the fact that few government offices at the local level have computers or internet to access electronic versions. Laws, strategies, etc. have not been widely distributed. Further, hampering the practical implementation of the legal framework is the need for more training on the legal framework and the lack of institutional knowledge due to high turnover. The training that has occurred has been issue- and/or project-based. This has resulted in knowledge on the legal framework being limited and targeted to specific uses in daily work rather than a broad understanding. Regardless, most stakeholders interviewed at the national, regional and local levels do mention the law on child rights, showing there is awareness. In addition, the decision on domestic violence is widely mentioned as important to CP. Several local CP actors felt they were a part of national and regional consultations on the
29 UNICEF & Terre des hommes. (2013). Reform of Social Care Services in Albania: Assessment of capacities of social service provider’s on case management model in the field of social services. 30 Law No. 9030/2003 an Amendment of Law No. 8240/1997 Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania, amended with Law No. 8279/1998 and Law No. 8733/2001 and Law No. 8436/1998 for the Organization of the Judicial Power in the Republic of Albania 31 Law No. 7905/1995 Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Albania (consolidated version 2004) 32 Law No. 9062/2003 The Family Code
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania development of the law on child rights and the CP protocol33. However, participation does not necessarily imply dissemination of materials. Adequacy By adequacy we mean, whether or not the legal framework is sufficiently equipped to effectively deal with the full protection of children’s rights.
. The 2010 law on the protection of children’s rights has succeeded in bringing the CP issue to the development agenda in Albania, ensuring a more adequate approach than ever before. . Multi-disciplinary design in the law is beginning to bring an increasingly systemic approach to CP across ministries, at least in theory. . The law on child rights already has elements of decentralised structures and services that support the general development of local governments. . The 2010 law is helpful in mandating a CP Unit (CPU) that is responsible for the case management for children and families at-risk and foresees a CP worker (CPW) position at the municipal level and in outlining the additional duties and responsibilities of the CPU. . The Decision of the Council of Ministers (DCM) no. 334 on mechanisms and procedures for domestic violence further provides clarity on the procedures and guidance on completing forms and the procedures in cases of violence and abuse.34 While generally the legal framework does seem to be adequate, there is a lack of capacity and understanding resulting in inadequate implementation. Further, the laws provide adequate normative framework for the structures needed but lack adequacy for the specific functions35. The scarcity of resources has resulted in the CPU being typically a single CPW, rather than a proper unit or team. At the same time, CP laws lack linkages to provisions for roles and mandates in other legislation. “There is not a common understanding and interpretation of the norms also because trainings on the law interpretation are provided by different agencies for different actors” (KII, Government, regional level). “A law’s effectiveness is judged from the way it has worked for concrete cases. In high risk CP cases, we have faced lack of clarity of roles and authorities of who should intervene and how.” (KII, Government, national level) The DCM no. 334 on domestic violence also promotes a more adequate consideration of the problem as a penal issue with standardised procedures and victims support provisions. Prosecution at the local level is not working properly due to systemic weaknesses in the laws, but also the lack of understanding of the laws and the responsibility for protection and referral to social services within the judicial ministry and its regional and local subordinates. Other non-CP legislative initiatives such as the “pre-university law” or the new law on cash assistance require further adjustment and better adaptation to the realities for children and families by the Ministry of
33 Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. (2010). Working Protocol for CP Workers 34 Decision No. 334, 17.2.2011 on Work Coordination Mechanisms for Referral of Domestic Violence Cases and Procedure Thereof 35 For example, job descriptions are not available for CPW and social workers in charge with CP.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Education36. Additionally, revision is needed for the law on social inclusion involving multiple ministries to be more integrated with the CP legal framework and for the law on social services to clarify the roles of CPW and Social Administrator and Regional State Social Services Social Worker. A significant challenge to the adequacy of the laws’ implementation is the fact that laws across ministries can contradict each other when it comes to protecting children. “A shared vision for CP is needed, to spell out how all actors should work together for the protection of children” (KII, Government, national level). The ambiguity and discrepancies in the laws and their implementation affects the level of understanding and capacity to disseminate content and principles down to the community level. “Gaps in the laws make children fall out of the cracks, because the principle of the best interest of the child is not applied, in particular in the most serious cases of abuse such as sexual abuse.” (KII, Government, national level). Other gaps in the adequacy of the legal framework mentioned by stakeholders include:
High bureaucratization hinders the enforcement of laws; Alternative care legislation is weak from a broader CP perspective; There is a lack of protocol for monitoring the implementation of CP procedures; and The responsibilities concerning case management that are spelled out in the CP protocol are not widely known and clearly understood. Coherence By coherence to the legal framework, it is meant the quality and degree to which there is consistency and uniformity in legislation and its implementation. To begin, the CP legal framework and its laws are found to be in alignment with the major international frameworks, standards and practices, and appropriately connected to the negative social norms they aim to address. However, the challenges mentioned earlier about adequacy, impact coherence as evidenced by the conclusions found in the desk review and qualitative data collection:
. There is a lack of information and understanding about the existing child protection legal framework across ministries and levels. . There are conflicting provisions between the Law on Social Services and the Law on the Protection of Children’s rights. . There is no uniform in-service training and no consistent sensitisation on the content of the law on child rights and how to implement it37. Professional trainings are provided about important issues of CP, but mostly delivered or funded by NGOs not the government in a systematic manner. . The role of the CP unit (CPU) is not well understood by those working within it or in other public institutions. . CPWs tend to have weak backgrounds in CP and even social protection more generally.
36 The cash transfer programme Ndhima Ekonomike is currently under review, with support from the World Bank. 37 In-service training for Child Protection Service providers is in place, actually. The training just got accredited by the MoE so it is recognized as a formal training with credits. This program has one full module on legal framework for CP. No information has been provided on its outputs and outcomes.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
The decision on psychosocial support is not applicable because of the high numbers of children for the number of psychologists and social workers (often just one) and these positions are not available in most schools, despite the law.38 Inadequate economic aid creates friction between social service workers and the citizens they aim to serve. Further, overlaps in the legal framework, especially between the policies of different ministries challenge the support to families in need who may be identified by the various different actors. Further, there is a lack of coherence in how case management models are applied and, in some communities, a lack of reporting due to cultural beliefs and/or lack of knowledge. The health sector tends to receive most of the reports of cases of violence within families, according to the KII and FGDs, while social norms make it difficult to address cases of violence within the family resulting in identification as the first, only and last step. CPWs are insufficiently protected by the by-laws, for example if they receive threats for intervening in family39, they are discouraged in their compliance with the law because they are not legally protected to enter into family matters. These factors can be further exacerbated by lack of understanding of parental responsibilities regarding the exploitation of children (ex. child labour or child begging), which generates contradictory responses40. Bureaucratic and discriminatory legal procedures in the judicial system affect the efficient support to children, for example deinstitutionalisation of children in residential care take several months in the court system, while children are in emergency situations. Discrimination continues to occur by teachers, health workers and others based on ethnicity, socio-economic background, gender and other factors leading to inconsistencies in the way laws are implemented. There is limited to no access to services for unregistered families, widow mothers with children and children with disabilities, according to both documents reviewed and interviews. Different individual perceptions about what constitutes child abuse in domestic environments and school settings leads to lack of coherence in how the protective framework is applied. This is further complicated by the lack of clear definitions around CP in and across the legal framework. Individual CPW attitudes towards the laws on CP can result in their practice not being in compliance with laws and regulations. “What we are currently piloting with Terre des hommes (Tdh), to establish a group of professionals that will be specialized to respond to cases of sexual abuse on children will serve as a model to clarify the entire system and roles of these sectors” (KII, NGO, national level). Key findings 1. There is a good array of laws and by-laws that guide child protection interventions. 2. The laws and by-laws are aligned with the major international instruments on child protection (conventions, protocols, and others). There is need to improve their adequacy and coherence, especially in consideration of existing capacities and intended child protection goals
38 Law No. 10399/2011 on Some Amendments and Additions to Law No. 9355/2005 on Social Assistance and Services 39 In fact, the health sector professionals are very reluctant to report to other agencie suspected cases of child abuse, and even domestic violence for fear or lack of understanding of responsibility. 40 Same holds true for or decision-made to the detriment of the child such as marriage before the age of consent, insulation fear of vendetta or trafficking in children by willing relatives.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Structures of the CP system The mapping and analysis looked at the adequacy of mandated structures, the process of decentralization, the CP workforce, capacities and performance appraisal mechanisms. The legal framework should, in theory, lay the foundation for the structure that protects children’s rights. How the legal framework is translated into practice is firstly seen when look at the structure of the system in place, and secondly, at how and how well, the Definition different elements of the child protection The structure of the system is the arrangement system are functioning. This section according to which individuals, organisations, agencies focuses on the structure of the system, i.e. and institutions are organised. This may include both its components and their mutual formal structures such as government ministries, organisation. departments and agencies and informal structures such The mapping of child protection system as informal care providers and traditional community revealed a good array of child protection mechanisms for protecting children. actors intervening. The table below provides the readers with a snapshot of the main State actors, with their respective mandates and tasks.
Ministry, Agency, Department Mandate and tasks
1) Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth The Ministry is in charge of coordinating all actions for the protection of children’s rights (l. 10347)
a) State Agency for the Protection of The State Agency role is the operational body within the Children’s Rights MoSWY, in charge of planning, executing, supporting, and overseeing all child protection interventions (l. 10347)
b) Department of Social Inclusion The Department is in charge of policies and measures in the fields of gender (domestic violence), ethnic minorities (both cultural and linguistic), people with disabilities, age discrimination and race.
c) Department of Integrated Services The Department is in charge of the cash transfer schemes and Cash Assistance and of the provision of social services (social care services and socio-medical care services)
d) State Social Service The office is responsible for implementing policies of the MoSWY, in the area of aid and services of social care on: a) programming and control of state funds on economic aid, payments to persons with disabilities and social services; b) implementing standards and services and proposals for review and adoption of new services; and c) compilation of a unified documentation for the applicants for social services.
2) Ministry of Interior The Ministry is involved in justice for children, and in trafficking in human beings interventions
a) Police The mission of Police is to protect order and security in compliance with the laws and respecting the human rights and freedoms (law 9749)
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Ministry, Agency, Department Mandate and tasks
b) Anti-trafficking Unit The Unit is mandated to monitor and coordinate the activities of institutions responsible for the implementation of the National Strategy for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings (CMO 203/2005)
c) Border and Migration Police The Border and Migration Police is in charge of patrolling the borders of the Country and to implement the required check. They are actors in the anti-trafficking efforts
d) National Civil Registration Office The Office is in charge of civil and vital registration of Albanian citizens and residents.
e) Domestic Violence Section It is a unit under the General Directorate of State Police which is specifically charged of dealing with domestic violence and gender based violence
f) Probation Unit The Unit is in charge of the implementation of alternative punishments, prevent crimes, assist the person convicted to fulfil the obligations arising from alternative punishment.
3) Ministry of Justice The Ministry is in charge of planning, implementing and overseeing the children components of justice
a) General Department of Prisons Within the Department, the Social Affairs Sector prepares and proposes social policy guidelines dealing with the development and strengthening of rehabilitation programs and reintegration of persons in conflict with the law in the prison system.
4) Attorney General Its task is to carry out investigation and criminal prosecution, represent the accusation in court on behalf of the State, safeguard public interest, assist judiciary bodies as well as guarantee the rule of law.
5) Ministry of Education The Ministry id in charge of providing educational services to children
a) Directorate of Pre-University The Directorate is in charge of planning and guiding the Education provision of compulsory basic education
6) Ministry of Health The Ministry is responsible for the provision h health care services
a) Directorate of Primary Health Care The Directorate is in charge of planning, guiding, implementing and oversee the provision of health services around people's needs and expectations
7) Judiciary The court system consists of a Constitutional Court, the Court of Cassation, appeals courts, and district courts. The Constitutional Court interprets the constitution, determines the constitutionality of laws, and resolves disagreements between local and federal authorities. The remaining courts are each divided into three jurisdictions: criminal, civil, and military.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Ministry, Agency, Department Mandate and tasks
8) People’s Advocate (Ombudsman) The role of the Ombudsman is to prevent, protect and promote human rights. Ombudsman has to advocate for the rule of law, reform of judiciary, and good governance
9) Legal Aid State Commission The Commission is in charge of providing legal aid to those who cannot afford legal representation in judicial trials.
10) Local Government Units Child Rights Units are established at regional level to oversee, coordinate and implement child rights interventions within the region. They coordinate multidisciplinary team in managing the cases of domestic violence. Child protection Units are established at the municipal level, as a separate unit or part of the social affairs division, to oversee, coordinate and implement child protection interventions within the municipality. They coordinate multidisciplinary team in managing the cases of domestic violence.
Figure 5: Main child protection actors, with their mandates and tasks
Adequacy of mandated structures “The agency (State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights) is the only structure within the Ministry of Social Welfare that has a mandate, a focus on and a good understanding of CP issues.” (KII, Government, national level) The CP legal framework in Albania attempts to set out a structure that includes layers of institutions and organizations responsible for children, their roles and responsibilities, and the relationships of coordination and collaboration between them. However, institutions specifically or potentially concerned with children’s wellbeing often do not have CP in their mandates41, which add to inefficiencies, lack of coordination, and overall ineffectiveness. This is true at the ministry, directorate and agency levels. Whether focal points are assigned and who is selected is not based on clear and coherent regulations. The weakness of the structural indications concerning specific Ministry requirements for CP positions are widespread and all levels and in all areas. “The role of the specialist for children’s rights is not clear. By being one person only, she can’t develop policies for children, therefore they rely on the agency’s information.” (KII, Government, national level). The lack of infrastructures was reported from all the surveyed regions among the most significant challenges in delivering adequate services. Numerous parents shared the perception that it is impossible to be satisfied with services that (i) do not exist for too many issues affecting their children, (ii) are not available in too many areas, (iii) are too distant to be reached and accessed, (iv) are operating with insufficient means and through inadequate premises.
41 Law No. 10347/2010 Concerning the Protection of the Rights of the Child
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Decentralisation The decentralisation process has been on-going in Albania beginning in year 2000 with the law No 8652, “On the organization and functioning of Local Government”, and successive amendments, and the law No 8653, “On the administrative-territorial division of local government units of the Republic of Albania”, and successive amendments, and including decentralization of social protection to the regional and local levels. In 2014, criteria for the redefinition of functional areas were developed, that led in 2015, to the establishment of 61 municipalities, replacing the 367 municipalities and communes constituting the structure of local government. The process is expected to create somewhat less bureaucratic structures and better-organized budget expenditures. Albania has an increased belief in institutional efficiency that comes from decentralized structures and processes. The mapping and analysis generally found that services for citizens are increasingly more accessible and functional for example, there is better health service coverage at the municipal level. The current context provides an excellent opportunity for further decentralized improvements in child protection. At the same time, decentralization has caused and faces on-going challenges. There is a lack of information and guidance at the regional and, even more, acutely local levels. Specifically, there is a lack of clear guidance amongst the CP workforce on the Territorial and Administrative Reform42. The lack of increased resources, such as transportation, digitalized data entry, human resources, etc., for decentralized processes make it nearly impossible to serve enlarged territories. The decentralisation and resource issues have resulted in some municipalities completely lacking in CP services and almost complete differences in the functioning of the system from region to region. CP Workforce In the larger municipalities, there are CPW with dedicated CP roles and responsibilities; however this is not true in more rural areas43. In bigger municipalities, the Directorate of Social Services functions with a section for social services composed of specialists for each vulnerable group (domestic violence and gender, elderly, children, disability, and minority). The mapping and analysis did find that several CPUs were operational at municipal level; however generally there were not enough human resources to cover all of the CP issues at the more local level. Even at the national level the workforce is limited. “According to the law we should inspect 265 social care institutions at least 2 times a year. We barely can see all of them once a year” (KII, Government, national level). Most of the parents and children consulted could not explain what a CP Unit (CPU) is or should be. When a CPU exists in their area, the children do not know much about the office and its mandate and, when the children dispose of such knowledge, especially in more peripheral areas, they keep referring to friends and relatives as help-providers with the conviction that is better to solve problems with known people rather than with foreigners. In all surveyed regions emerged the difficulty of children to trust someone new to them in sharing aspects of their private lives, yet the helpline ALO 116 have been frequently mentioned by children from surveyed regions as an instrument for the protection of children with a significant level of reliance.
42 See Administrative And Territorial Reform: Technical Criteria For The New Administrative And Territorial Division, Ministry of Local Issues, April 2014 43 For example, in Tirana area there is a CPW in each mini-municipality and a coordinator of CPW at the municipality level, while this is not true in most of the visited regions.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
The knowledge about CP workers in general is superficial (if afforded at all) due to the limited information available, which are compensated by more common “mouth-to-mouth”, a modality based on personal interrelations not always corroborated by exhaustive or correct information. Therefore, when CP workers are available, the parents of the surveyed contexts refer to him/her as a specific person instead of the professional running an office. CPW in municipalities were found to have many additional duties on top of their CP roles and responsibilities, very often unrelated to CP and/or social welfare. Stakeholder reported that there is insufficient specialized staff (social workers, psychologists, doctors, development therapists, etc.) to deal with the issues that cause CP risks and/or episodes44. High turnover, at all levels, results in constant changes to the workforce capacity. There is a general perception by parents and children that one of the reasons for the low quality of CP services is that all skilled CP workers at some point move to Tirana. When contacts with CP services occur, both children and parents feel generally understood by the local level CP staff, in particular by NGO CP workers. Unfortunately, understood for most of the reported experiences did not mean that improvements to their situation occurred. On the other hand, concerning the not-so-skilled workers, institutions specialists are reported to be too young, not sufficiently specialized and selected/assigned mostly based on political convenience. The parents in Dibra Municipality acknowledged the fact that many service providers do not have the adequate education for the position they hold. Children in Perrenjas, for instance, emphasised their appreciation for the support offered by the psychologists in schools; at the same time they stressed that such a form of help remains just a theoretical support, since the availability of the psychologists is insufficient to the actual needs and numbers of children. Roles and responsibilities of the CP workforce and are not always clear in the legal framework, particularly for the allied workforce such as health workers, police and teachers. Identification of cases of abuse and neglect is hindered. There are also too few specialised police officers to deal with family and child issues. Reporting and identification of domestic and family violence is negatively impacted by the lack of gender- balanced staff, particularly in police departments. Within the allied workforce mandates are either non- existent or at best weak. Where the allied workforce does exist they tend to not understand their responsibilities related to CP. Educational personnel linked to NGO-based projects are evaluated much more positively as reported for example by the parents and children in Shkodra Municipality. Children in Bulquiza reported that the teachers in school are much more committed to help them than the police and CP workers. In general the widespread corruption in the health sectors reported in all surveyed regions negatively affect the perceptions inherent the professionalism and commitment of doctors and nurses. This fact, associated with the poor understanding of CP roles and responsibilities by health workers, contribute to lack of access for children and families in need. Parents and children also complained about the lack of confidentiality regarding medical records; a child in Shkodra Municipality reported that in her area young girl abortions are openly disclosed.
44 A CP episode is the result of one or more risks and/or shocks to a vulnerable child. The way children experience risks, shocks, vulnerabilities and deprivations is shaped by five characteristics: i) multidimensionality, meaning that often children experience multiple risks, shocks, vulnerabilities and deprivations at the same time; ii) changes over the course of the lifecycle, exposing children to different risks, shocks, vulnerabilities and deprivations depending on their age; iii) the gender of the child, impacting the degree of exposure to specific risks and shocks; iv) the relational nature of childhood, which derives from the situation of material and emotional dependence on adults; and v) the particular voicelessness that tends to characterise children’s status in society. Definition from Maestral International, 2015.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
There are contradicting perceptions about the commitment and professionalism of CP workers. In urban contexts such as Elbasan and Tirana Regions, children and parents in contact with services perceive a diffused commitment among the NGOs and municipal staff they deal with. According to many other parents from other surveyed contexts, many service providers are not committed in helping people and, even when they are, they often lack of the necessary capacities for guaranteeing a quality performance. The parents in Dibra Municipality linked the diffused lack of professionalism they experience among social workers to the impossibility of building meaningful experience due to the frequent staff rotation determined by political reasons. Both in larger and smaller cities the parents mentioned that the service delivery is too often influenced by the personal relationships the CP workers have with the families in need of support. Capacity Capacity is an essential part for a functioning CP system. The term capacity is defined as the know-how necessary to perform the duties and responsibilities a worker is mandated to do. It is the result of the combination of skills and knowledge deriving from several factors, the main ones being training, previous experience, guiding framework, and performance based management. Generally in Albania, the on-going lack of capacity in child protection is negatively impacting the functioning of the overall system.
. Lack of capacities in terms of quality of staff professional preparation is pervasive at all levels. There is no mandate for capacity improvement outlined in the legal framework. Lack of capacity at various levels continues to impede reform progress (ex. only 22% of specialists in State Social Services have degree in social services)45. “If we want to have a better solid CP Unit structure, it should be better equipped. Continued education should be obligatory for CPWs” (KII, Government, national level).
. No adequate structured performances evaluation system is in place to ensure the achievement of results for children based on appropriate human resource capacity. Capacity building is not a structural component of the system in place and is not approached systematically. “We have found out that service providers at the level of local government do not even know the ministry decisions on the legal custody for children, which is actually administered and implemented at the local level” (KII, Government, national).
. Limited possibilities are available for staff to develop their capacity. While some relevant trainings have been delivered by public institutions (ex. MoSWY, State Agency, School of Magistrates, General Directory of State Police, Social State Services, MoJ, MoI, MoH and Prefecture), they are occasional and sporadic. Most training is provided by NGOs. The most common topics of training are domestic violence, children rights, violence, sexual abuse, child trafficking, gender, and law for CP. . Most capacity building activities are linked to specific issues or related to specific projects. There is almost total lack of on-going training and supervision mechanisms. Stakeholders note that specialized training and practical, case-based training is needed for CPW, including topics of case management, investigation with and on minors, etc. At the same time, on-going training is needed
45 Children Today Center. (2013). Institutional Analysis of State Social Services: Roles, duties and responsibilities in the framework of the Social Care Services Reform
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
for experienced staff on CP and children’s rights, domestic violence, case management, the legal framework, violence against children and child labour. . Some levels of the structure have the impression that they are sufficiently trained, for example magistrates tend to have a perception that they are qualified for dealing with CP and domestic violence issues. However, generally within the workforce there is a lack of awareness and/or information to implement all of the required procedures. For example, judges need training on case practice for coherent interpretation of children rights based on a consolidated jurisprudence, and to build their capacity on how to communicate with children in court. There is a sense that without increased quality and frequency of trainings nationally for the range of workforce, the legal framework will be confusing to both duty bearers and their beneficiaries. Performance Appraisal Mechanisms Performance appraisal mechanisms are critically important to the capacity of the CP workforce and therefore to the functioning of the system and service quality improvement. In Albania, the CPW’s performance is evaluated annually by supervisors based on the procedures outlined (or similar to those outlined) in the law on civil servants. The State Agency does an evaluation of work performance of CPWs, by monitoring and evaluating existing database and functioning CPWs provide reports to the State Agency every three months. Other procedures in place include: the State Police evaluate ethics, background criminal records, communication with citizens, and the procedure compliance of officers; and educational staff is evaluated by the Regional Educational Directorate every 6 months using standardized forms. This provides some basis for improvements in performance appraisal in other sectors responsible for the protection of children’s rights. At the same time there are serious challenges to the appraising performance:
. There is no evaluation procedure for professionals working in civil service institutions across sectors (psychologists; social workers, doctors, etc.). . Performance forms are the same for all civil servants and as a result are not social worker or CP specific. . Evaluation processes tend to be based more on personal relationships between staff and supervisors then on any set standard procedures or performance objective benchmarking. . The social sector lacks a system for supportive supervision structures in case management resulting in a wide variety and quality of practice. Key findings 1. Child Right Units and Child Protection Units are established in most of the regions (CRUs) and municipalities (CPUs) even while in many places they are not fully functional due to lack of clear roles and responsibilities, lack of capacity and/or professionalism, over solicitation, etc. and/or a combination of factors. 2. The overall structure of the child protection system and its actors is not clearly articulated and outlined in a unique programmatic document; rather it is the result of consecutive waves of interventions and issue-based activities. 3. The Child Protection Mandates are not clearly articulated and translated into practice in education and heath sectors leading to issues with both reporting and response.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
4. The elements of the structure of the system have suffered from a lack of consistent investment in workforce and capacities. 5. The lack of investment is more evident at the decentralised level of the system.
Coordination Coordination can be defined as “the organization of the different elements of a complex body or activity so as to enable them to work together effectively”46. Coordination has been analysed under two core aspects: a) policy making and programmatic coordination, and b) case management coordination. For each of the two aspects, both vertical (from national level to sub-national, and vice-versa) and horizontal (amongst actors at the same level) coordination has been considered.
Policy and programmatic coordination
The overall coordination within the Albanian government includes a Strategic Planning Committee as an inter-ministerial committee chaired by the Prime Minister to review and endorse the government’s policy and fiscal priorities. This involves: (i) Defining the policy priorities and the strategic directions within a sound fiscal framework at the beginning of the annual planning process; (ii) Deciding on the inter-sectoral resource allocation (MTBP ceilings) over the medium term; (iii) Reviewing the draft MTBP prior to the preparation of the state budget; and (iv) Receiving regular reports on the progresses against the key commitments. In order to ensure coordination and cooperation among line ministries within specific sectors, a number of inter- ministerial working groups (IMWG) have been established. CP should fall under the responsibility of the IMWG on social care services, but no evidence was made available whether CP was ever discussed in this body. Reportedly, there is not any CP coordination group within NGO, but there is a coalition of NGO for child protection in place, BTKF. The law on the protection of children’s rights provided for the establishment of the National Council for the Protection of Children’s Rights (“The Council”).47 The Council is an advisory ad hoc body whose first two tasks are to “a) to coordinate national policy for enabling child rights and providing protection to children in every aspect, with priority on the justice, social, educational, cultural and health aspects; and b) to propose to the minister responsible for protection of child rights the main national programs on the rights of the child and children’s protection issues, as well as to orient national policies towards improving their current state of the art.”48 The establishment of The Council was a significant improvement to the CP agenda providing institutional leverage and a more inter-sectorial approach. However, since its creation, the Council convened once in 2012 and twice per year this last year in spite of the mandate to do so. The existence of an inter-sectorial strategy in CP appears to be seriously challenged on several fronts. There is no multi-stakeholder coordination during the development of the MTBP on children’s issues. The coordination between the MoF and the LM and BI that takes place during the MTBP and the budget implementation assumes the form of a bi-lateral negotiation, rather than inter-sectorial coordination. Several meetings are organised based an approved agenda to discuss budget ceilings and budget allocations. This is done following a general framework, since children’s issues are not identified as priorities in the MTBP.
46 Definition borrowed from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/coordination 47 Law No. 10347/2010 Concerning the Protection of the Rights of the Child 48 Section 34 of the law 10347/2010.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
At the national level, in terms of aid coordination, over forty bilateral and multilateral donors support the GoA requiring complex harmonisation among very different actors and their agendas. Aid coordination falls under the responsibility of the Deputy Prime Minister with support from the Department of Development Programming, Financing and Foreign Aid (DDPFFA). A high-level donor-government dialogue takes place once per year as 'round table' to focus on project database, meetings of the international donor community, issuing of a monthly donor dialogue newsletter and guidance of the Sector Working Groups. Service provision and case management coordination
The challenges in coordinating policymaking and programming have an impact at the service-delivery level. Coordination of service provision and activities concerning CP is at best limited and fragmented. Some sectors are involved on a low level and some sectors are not participating at all. “Bulqiza has always been in limbo due to the lack of cooperation at national level.” (KII service provider, Bulquiza Municipality) Many of the service providers consulted report positive feedback about how coordination is working at the local level. However, triangulation of different sources revealed that the understanding of the goals and functioning of proper coordination mechanisms is very weak. This contradiction can be explained by widespread confusion between what constitutes coordination, what is just collaborating and what is merely information sharing around a case of CP. Both at the regional and municipal levels, the health and education sectors tend to have a passive attitude concerning structured multidisciplinary interventions in CP. Research participants indicated that coordination with the health sector is among the most challenged of inter-sector collaboration. There are too few medical doctors working in public health in all of the surveyed regions that received training and information of child protection and thus able to assist children that are victims of violence, abuse or neglect. In general, there are no consolidated practices of medical professionals interacting with social workers. The scarcity of psychologists and social workers within police CP also emerged as a significant limitation. “We do not coordinate our work with other actors or local service providers; up to this moment we have never been part of any group to discuss on CP.” (KII, service provider, Vlora Municipality). In fact, almost none of the police officers interviewed mentioned any experiences of coordinated CP activities and, when they did, it was only concerning generic prevention initiatives and case-specific referrals, while even fewer experiences were reported by the prosecutors interviewed. A number of relatively structured collaborations have been mentioned within the education sector, with regional directorates collaborating with the municipalities, the health directorates, the police prefectures and NGOs. However, this collaboration seems to be limited to awareness raising campaigns on drug abuse or trafficking, as well as crime- prevention/reduction activities, rather than on actual CP case management. Some isolated cases of consolidated collaborations have been occurring with the health sector concerning birth registration. In general, the parents from focus groups do not see the different CP actors coming together around their children’s or family’s issues, nor do they note any sign of cooperation and integration between the different institutions. For example, the parents in Dibra clearly identified the school psychologists, the police and the medical doctors as CP actors, yet, to their knowledge, no sort of coordination exists among them. Children in contact with services have the perception that different service providers are not collaborating in providing them with the support they need. According to them, mostly it is about only one organisation providing for
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania their specific case. The most common form of collaboration around case management that the children and parents reported occurs between social services and the health sector concerning vaccinations and treatment of serious illnesses. Some collaboration was reported as occurring also with the police for the most severe violations. Across the surveyed regions the following have been the most frequently reported coordination mechanisms with some level of functioning: (i) Economic aid offices coordinating with civil registers and educational directorates; (ii) Schools and health centres collaborating for health education initiatives, vaccination campaigns and birth registration campaigns; (iii) Schools and police coordinating to organise crime and violence prevention initiatives, as well as enforcement of safety on school premises. In all surveyed regions, the NGOs and INGOs play a determinant role in convening and organising coordination meetings. In most of the surveyed contexts, the NGOs were organising capacity building and awareness raising around coordination in CP. These initiatives seem to be aimed at supplementing a deficit in the system functioning at the decentralised level. In that they fill a gap they are positive, but there are drawbacks: NGOs are not legally mandated with a coordination role; they tend to promote issue-specific coordination which is hard to scaled-up into broader and systemic coordination in CP; and NGOs are private- sector entities, sometimes faith-based and often usually with donor-driven priorities. NGO efforts in building and enhancing coordination can be directed towards goals which change over time to the detriment of sustainability of the investments in bolstering more coordinated interventions for CP as a whole. Determinants of poor coordination Coordination is challenged by a complex array of behavioural, technical and structural aspects, and their reciprocal interaction. Behavioural aspects are those linked to personal attitudes and behaviours of the CP actors. Very often, coordination does not occur as a consequence of a management approach, but also depends on the individual initiative of the concerned actors in regards to isolated issues, situations and cases. “The case management process is successful more because of the inter-relationships between the service providers on CP than the legal responsibilities that force (institutions) to collaborate.” (KII, service provider, Vlora Municipality) “Coordination occurs based on personal contacts rather than institutional ones. Coordination is more functional in human terms rather than through institutional procedures.” (KII, service provider, Dibra Municipality) The highly bureaucratic design of each system component appears to be conducive to these attitudes, which in turn become a response to maintain a level of effectiveness when compliance with the rules and standards is difficult. “Responding to official letters takes time and brings delays: informal cooperation is more fruitful.” (KII, service provider, Permet Municipality) The communities’ perceptions can be considered as cause and effect of such an attitude. Some of the service providers consulted, for example, indicated the families’ reticence in having their children’s protection issues disclosed as an aspect which discourages them in liaising with professionals of other sectors such as the school directors or teachers. Similarly, concerning the school environment, attitudes do not facilitate work in accordance with government guidelines.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
“We have very few cases reported from school psychologists. The school psychologists justification is that they have many children, to me this is a false justification. It is a fact that most of psychologists haven’t graduated in psychology.” (KII, service provider, Shkodra Municipality) Technical aspects hinder good coordination as well. Not surprisingly, relevant coordination experiences collected through the research made reference to the management of cases in emergency situations and, to a much lesser extent, for the response to situations of children without adequate parental care. In general, what is considered coordination takes place only when a concerned actor cannot handle the situation alone and s/he involves actors from other sectors who may have the resources or expertise to bring to resolution of a specific case. “Coordination has great impact in providing first aid because it is the right mechanism for solving the problems.” (FGD, service providers, Dibra Region) This may be a result of generalised lack of awareness and understanding concerning the reasons for coordination mechanisms, investing individual time and resources in coordination, sharing decision-making in cases and making efforts to negotiate and mediate among various actors with diverse agendas and backgrounds. As directly or indirectly indicated by service providers consulted, the aim of the current coordination efforts is not to join forces to provide more effective and sustainable interventions, but it is about filling the gaps and scarce services currently provided. Finally, other aspects refer to the framework within which coordination is supposed to happen, and thus the issues are structural in nature. At the social work practice level there is a generalised lack of structured coordination occurring around the management of CP cases. The common approach to coordination within the institutions was described as top-down, which does not promote committed or effective coordination among different actors and sectors.
“The actors consider the help for the child as a personal favour that they do for the CP worker…” (KII, service provider, Bulquiza Municipality) The division of labour within the coordination mechanisms is reported being confusing and CP actors and their supervisors are not clear about what areas they cover and what roles in terms of case management they should be playing. Given poor capacity, weak supervision and lack of guidance, too much room is left to interpretation and service providers and parents alike describe a system intensively orientated by personal choices and connections instead of one guided by institutional decisions and professional relationships. The frequency of staff turnover was another aspect repeatedly mentioned a significant challenge for maintaining coordination. Persistent turnover of personnel means constantly changing actors and constant rebuilding of the interpersonal and interagency relationships. This, in turn, implies significant costs in terms of resources and professional frustration hampering any effort in coordinating. Further complicating the reality is the inadequacy of the human resources involved in coordination and the fact that the actors who should coordinate often lack sufficient professional capacities to make it happen. Also in terms of coordination, the lack of adequate human resources affects the system in all regions and contexts, while it reaches drastic magnitudes in the more remote and rural areas, where there are no CP actors to coordinate with. The roles and responsibilities in coordination are not aligned with individual job descriptions and defined roles and responsibilities. Institutionally, different sectors are mandated to coordinate amongst each other,
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania yet in the mandates of individual professionals, there is no mention of the tasks that must be shared. In a highly bureaucratic professional culture, this represents a significant disincentive to act. The gaps in mandates and accountability also result in a lack or confusion of leadership in coordination, for example, the multi-disciplinary meetings happen to be convened either by CPUs, mayors, NGOs or Prefects, not because of any mandate or organised schedule. Another generalised structural impediment to coordination that emerged is the lack of organised and multidisciplinary information sharing mechanisms. Not surprisingly, the anecdotal information currently available shows that gathering people together to coordinate efforts in really lacking. Territorial reform as an opportunity conducive to improved coordination
In all the surveyed regions, the great majority of the service providers shared positive expectations concerning the Territorial and Administrative Reform presuming that the reduced number of local authorities will facilitate significant improvements for collaborations and coordination. Considering many of the current challenges, the territorial reform has been described by many service providers as an opportunity for enhancing and establishing collaborations for CP case management, provided that there will be a clarification and harmonization of roles and responsibilities of the various actors at the local level and more specialised staff assigned where necessary. As per the current plans, based on the new territorial division, the administrative units will be re-organized. The new responsibilities and duties are yet to be defined for each expense unit. “The territorial reform will have in its structure the multidisciplinary groups for making easier the work of every structure for children’s protection.” (KII, service provider, Vlora Region) Coordination will be considered a new task for each authorizing and executing officer. A new law on local government financing is foreseen, which should clarify the fiscal relationships between the central and the local government. Taking stock of the widespread confusion or lack of information about the territorial reform and the impact it will have on the coordination mechanisms, the service providers expect a challenging induction period with an initial period of carefully guided transition. In some cases, CPW expressed the concern about whether they will maintain their jobs or they will lose their position. To date, the Territorial and Administrative Reform has not taken into consideration social welfare, and hence CP, amongst the criteria for the establishment of the new functional areas. “People have high expectations from the territorial reform, but no one know what will happen and how. We are not clear what to expect and how long we will need to stabilize.” (KII, Government, Gjirokastra Region) Key findings 1. Coordination remains one area not fully functioning. 2. Horizontal coordination at the national level through the National Council for the Protection of Children’s Rights is not effective and hampered by a weak definition of collective work for all line ministries mandated with child protection. At the local level, coordination happens mostly around case management, but rarely and more frequently when one agency is unable to manage a case alone. 3. Vertical coordination is almost non-existent; where collective actions across different layers take place they are mostly due to: a) top-down decisions from central ministries to
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
decentralised actors or b) to supplement deficiencies (e.g. CRU can manage cases when there are no CPUs in given municipalities). 4. Coordination mostly takes the form of sharing information, rather than collective decision- making and division of labour. 5. Coordination is challenged by an array of behavioural, technical and structural aspects, and their reciprocal interaction
Services The mapping of the child protection services revealed that not many services Definition are available for children that are victim A service is a performance rendered by public or or at risk of abuse, violence, exploitation and neglect. What was found on the private organizations aimed at addressing the needs ground could be rather classified as and problems of the most vulnerable populations, interventions. While both have the including those stemming from violence, family features of benefiting others, of being breakdown, homelessness, substance abuse, not for profit and of being accessible, immigration, disability and old age. These can include interventions lack: adequate planning, day and residential care, income support, home integration across different sectors, visiting, and specialist services such as drug and alcohol adequate capacities and resources, and rehabilitation, etc. effective standard compliance. On top of Better Care Network Toolikit this, interventions are mostly an ad hoc response to an emergency situation. The distinction is very often hard to tell, especially because the resources and capacities inadequacy severely affects both services and intervention. Examples of services that are available are: the Ndihma Ekonomike, a cash transfer programme to alleviate poverty; the disability allowance, a cash transfer programme targeting people living with disabilities; residential and day-care for orphans, poor children and other children without parental care; primary health care in clinics and hospitals; public housing for economically deprived families. Of the many interventions aimed at addressing child protection concerns, the following were found:
psycho-social support for children in some schools; promotion of birth registration, both in terms of awareness raising campaigns and support to actual registration; assistance to children in conflict with the law; alternative care, especially kinship care and some examples of foster care; prevention of street-based child labour and of exploitation of child work in scrap metal collection; prevention of domestic violence and of violence at school; sensitisation and awareness raising for the inclusion of children from Roma minority; family tracing and reunification for children victims of trafficking; pre-school services;
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
provision of goods to meet primary needs (food, clothes, etc.); institutions for economic aid, (such as microcredit for income generation activities; and info-points It is worth mentioning that most of participants to the FGDs and to KIIs, reported identification of children in need and referral to service providers as being child protection services, rather than being part of the case management process. All the surveyed regions revealed the lack of a concrete and organised information system about how services are delivered and what impact they have on children’s lives. This has resulted in poor service design and planning often developed without consideration for the reality of the people or CP workers. "Everything that happens indoors between the families and the children remains there, and the children have difficulties in revealing them.” (KII, service provider, Permet Municipality) In general, the implementation of monitoring mechanisms is almost absent or not operational, while the limited data collection in place is fragmented across sectors and CP thematic areas. “The school did not refer cases to the service providers in the Municipality, maybe there are children at risk, but no one knows what are the steps to follow.” (KII, service provider, Konispol Municipality) Both service providers and clients unanimously consider service provision weak. “We are used to meet people from Tirana that want to talk with us then nothing is solved.” (FGD, children, Dibra Municipality) The current prevention and response to CP risks and shocks in Albania consists mostly of a set of activities and initiatives rather than structured package of interrelated services. The difference between CP services and CP interventions might seem small in terms of possible outcomes, but the distinction is quite substantial considering the key characteristics of a social service: they benefits others, they are planned and integrated, not for profit, and accessible, they rely on adequate capacities and resources, and they comply with standards of quality. Whenever one or more of these elements are missing the actions are interventions, which might have some effectiveness, but are not the result of a systemic service approach. When available, the personnel is often considered inadequate in terms of professional capacities as a consequence of different dynamics such as the following: (i) Too frequent staff-turnover does not capacitate workers to acquire sufficient experience and contextual knowledge; (ii) The lack of incentives discourage the deployment of workforce in the most-needy places; (iii) The weak/incomplete professional training curriculum does not provide with sufficient technical knowledge and tools; (iv) The staff-assignment based on political/personal convenience determines out-of-place professionals in CP positions. “It should be a social service worker to deal with children's rights issues, not an engineer like me.” (KII, service provider, Dibra municipality) The presence of INGOs/NGOs and FBOs is frequently a main driving factor for the availability and coverage of CP services. In the contexts where NGOs are present and/or the issues are part of the NGOs agenda, the services are more available than in others. For example, human trafficking and early migration are addressed in most regions of the country, although basically through prevention initiatives, rather than systemic and coordinated responses to actual cases. Root causes of CP issues, being unclearly defined, are not addressed through systematic prevention, promotion and transformation programmes.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
To various extents, country-wide there are some community-based actions to reduce economic exploitation of children varying according to the different forms of child labour forms which get more attention in different contexts, such as the prevention of street-based child labour in Tirana or scrap metal collection in Bulquiza. Yet, while there is a strong emphasis on preventing those forms of exploitation, proper services with adequate case management mechanisms are still absent, leaving children and families without the sustainable support they need. The issues of violence, especially peer violence and bullying at school and involvement in criminal activities, particularly drug-related, constitute additional thematic areas on which prevention efforts are made often through actions implying a certain level of coordination between the police and the school. More focused activities targeting teachers are conducted to reduce discrimination and promote school inclusion of children from Roma and Egyptian communities however, although the most prevalent discrimination occurs based on socioeconomic status, none of the reported activities against discrimination focuses on this aspect. Numerous CP activities take place at the local level to provide support, response and transformation of CP shocks and vulnerabilities yet, they are mostly based on individual or organisational initiatives or contextual emergencies, rather than following an organic and systemic approach. None appears to suffice in terms of national coverage and accessibility. The types of interventions are different and mostly revolve around: operation of shelters and daily centres for children in difficult circumstances and/or without parental care, as well as for victims of domestic violence; psychosocial support to victims of violence and child sexual abuse; and assistance to children in conflict with the law, as well as facilitation of access to social State services. Of a more generic and structural nature, yet equally important in CP terms, the following are the most diffused activities provided in the surveyed regions implemented by both State and non-State actors: provision of informal education for children from vulnerable groups; provision of public housing programmes for economically deprived families, as well as cash assistance schemes for single parents and for children with disabilities; satisfaction of basic needs such as food and clothing (mostly by FBOs); and promotion of birth registration, both in terms of awareness raising campaigns and support to actual registration. The most attention is given to emergency situations that attract most of the, however limited, human and financial resources available to CP workers. Emergency is not defined as a situation of crisis, e.g. natural disasters, but it is rather characterised by the severity and suddenness of the occurrence. “CPU workers mainly deal with urgent and extreme cases, such when the children have been trafficked, abused or end up at the police station." (KII, development partner, national level) There is a strong tendency to identify case management, or parts of it, as a service provided to children. Informants reported that key concepts are clearly defined and not sufficiently explained and disseminated to service providers. Such a modality harms a systemic approach to CP and it necessarily leads to lack of harmonisation in service delivery. “Not having standardized concepts of poverty, of disability, etc., makes impossible to deal with a problem: we don't have a common understanding and leave to the subjectivism of what the concept means.” (KII, Government, national level) Service coverage
Serious concerns emerged in terms of territorial coverage of the CP and social services. “Here in Bulqiza we parents don’t have any place where to go; all our problems we resolve by ourselves.” (FGD, parents, Bulqiza municipality)
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
“There is no social service here, families in need try to find a solution by themselves” (FGD, parents, Perrenjas municipality) “Having a child with special needs in our city is a curse and a financial ruin for the entire family. The child's family should go to Tirana to obtain the necessary services for a child” (FGD, parents, Gjirokastra municipality) Poor coverage is the result of several factors. In fact, most of the available services and implemented activities are concentrated in major urban areas with an evident countrywide unbalance of quantity and quality of service provision between urban and rural areas, as well as between bigger and smaller cities. Scarce allocation of resources leads to unavailability of services. “For emergencies, we put our hand in the pocket as we do not have fund available.” (KII, service provider, Gjirokastra Municipality) “The budget allocated to the municipality is discriminatory since it does not consider the needs of each population.” (KII, service provider, Fushe-Arrez municipality) Due to infrastructural characteristics many premises cannot serve children in inadequate ways. “There is a lack of infrastructure: there is not a special room were the child can be interviewed.” (KII, service provider, Tirana municipality) But also poor planning may lead to poor coverage of CP services. Often, the interventions are not tailored to clients needs or to contextual priorities. One territorial area might have good interventions for people with disabilities like day centres, mobile services or rehabilitation, but no services for children without parental care, although the latter are much more prevalent. The issue of corruption of service providers appeared to be a worrying concern for the system functioning. The rather diffused requests for payments in order to have services delivered is an unethical practice affecting, with particular magnitude, access to services for the most vulnerable groups in all surveyed regions. The request for informal payments to get public health care was reported in all surveyed regions as a significant challenge to accessibility, since, as reported by parents and children in Elbasan, most families in economic distress cannot pay to have services delivered. “Health care providers are committed to money, not to children with health problems.” (FGD, parents, Elbasan municipality) “Lot of times for these services you have to pay money or they don’t do anything for you.” (FGD, parents, Bulquiza municipality) In general, the parents and children interviewed know the services that they need the most such as hospitals, health care services for vaccines, pre-school services, provision of food/clothes, institutions for economic aid, microcredit institutions for income generation activities, and info-points at the municipality level. In more peripheral contexts, like Rrogozhina, the parents are aware that municipal services exist or should function including cash assistance, payment for disability, the civil statue office, the housing office, pensions for orphan children and the labour office. Concerning the knowledge and understanding of CP services, the parents are aware that different problems require different responses (and expertise), although they realistically mediate such awareness with the reality of the lack of services and social workers. Generally, being in contact with some type of social service and support appeared to be key for the level of knowledge
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania and understanding of children and parents concerning the services and their functions. This appears to be particularly true for CPUs, which remain unknown to a wide range of the public. Service accessibility
According to children and parents, the level of accessibility, availability and adequacy of CP services vary significantly according to the different contexts. Some services are available and functioning in the major cities, yet limitations occur in smaller towns, in big cities’ suburbs, as well as in remote and rural areas. Even when available, CP services might not be accessible. In some cases, the limited working hours affects the availability of services. “In Perrenjas, we teachers sometimes do the role of the psychologist because the children can´t find him at school. He has to go in different schools and sometimes in different villages and the children never have a conversation with him.” (FGD, service providers, Perrenjas municipality) When existing, access to the premises are affected by remote or inappropriate locations of the structures, such as services located downtown when service users live in faraway suburbs, uphill, rural areas, etc. The distance between the places of residence and the location of the different services is an impediment to access in all regions. Significant distances must be covered from smaller cities to regional capitals, as reported in Konispol, where parents and children with disabilities have to travel up to Saranda49. Not surprisingly, the longer the distance, the lower the services accessibility. Participants from more remote/rural areas such as in Perrenjas, reported that children must walk for 1 hour in order to reach school and 1.5 hours to get to the nearest health and police centres. “Do you see where our office is? On the hill and on a street paved with stone. Here the persons that have difficulties cannot come.” (KII, service provider, Gjirokastra municipality) The expenses for transportation are prohibitive for people needing to access CP services and often lead the people to give up trying. In Rrogozhina, many parents said they have to travel for twenty km with a cost of 200L per person to access important services such as the labour office, the housing office, the professional training school, the cash assistance and the development centre for children with disabilities. In Perrenjas the medical consultations may cost from 200 to 500L, which is a sum many families cannot afford. In Vlora, the issue of medicine purchase was reported as a significant limitation to health service provisions. In Gjrokastra and Permet, but is the case of most parents of children with disabilities all over the country, the costs of transportation to get specialised treatments, daily care and consultations exceed any form of support they may receive. The presence and support of state and (more often) non-governmental CP practitioners appeared to make the difference in accessing and delivery of services in education, health and social welfare sectors. NGO-staff covering transportation costs and providing orientation to access services and departments seem the most effective way of getting services delivered. “The police officers wouldn’t take us seriously if we go alone.” (FGD, children, Shkodra municipality) Discrimination is a major factor in accessing services. Surprisingly, according to the consulted children and parents, the main discriminatory factor in receiving services appeared to be based on socio-economic factors rather than ethnicity. In all surveyed contexts, the children of poor families are discriminated in dealing with
49 One hour drive to cover 37 kilometers, provided you have a car.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania health and social services; a diffused (and pragmatic) reason is due to the fact that they cannot afford the payment of the bribes requested, nor the indirect costs related to schooling. In many of the discussion groups, numerous accidents and constant attitudes were reported at detriment of children from Roma and Egyptian communities. Roma children in Elbasan mentioned of being called “arixhi” by teachers; similarly, a Roma child in Fushe-Arrez was told by his teacher “You don’t have money, you are so poor! Where do you find the courage to talk to me?” Cases have been reported also where children with disabilities have been excluded from receiving social care interventions due to a diffused mentality that makes families ashamed of their problem, and thus hide them and make them invisible50. Discrimination can be part of the very design of the services. Several research participants (parents but also service providers) highlighted the fact that benefiting from one programme may exclude access to the other, regardless the different needs applicable to both. The participants from the surveyed regions share the opinion that institutions are the least accessible for those who need them most (e.g. children and families from Roma and Egyptian communities, children with disabilities and children from poor families). Children’s perceptions concerning ethnic-based discrimination emerged as more relevant among children who are not in contact with CP services. However, across the surveyed regions, some reports about teachers’ positive inclusive attitudes were also mentioned in these regards. In addition to socioeconomic and ethnicity status, the children indicated many other reasons to be discriminated such as: being with disabilities (relevant in most of the research contexts), being a child of divorced parents (Rrogozhina), belonging to dysfunctional families (Tirana), being an orphan (Bulquiza), coming from rural areas (Fushe-Arrez) as well as bigger cities’ suburbs (Vlora), coming from a family supporting a specific political party (Shkodra), having returned/arrived from migration experiences (Shkodra and Permet) and just the fact of being a girl which constitutes a frequent reason for discriminations both in school and family environments (as children reported in Bulquiza). In Dibra, the children reported of feeling discriminated also from Police officers who tend to communicate with them without being friendly and/or using languages that children cannot understand. A CP actors limited care concerning confidentiality in managing the cases was also reported by parents and children as a significant self-limitation for accessing services. “I’m afraid to go to the psychologist because my problem will be known by all the others.” (FGD, children, Bulquiza Municipality) Key findings 1. Most of what is made available to children takes the form of interventions rather than services, lacking integration, planning, resources and capacities. 2. Services are mostly designed around issues rather than on clients’ needs. 3. Coverage of services is hampered by their availability and scarce resource allocation, focusing more in urban areas than in rural/remote ones. 4. Accessibility to services is limited by weak capacities, discriminatory practices and corruption and hidden fees.
50 Grounds for discrimination have proven to be having parents in prison, or the involvement in the blood feud, having parents with disabilities or children being born out of wedlock.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Case management Case management can be defined as “The process of ensuring that an identified child has his or her needs for care, protection and support met. This is usually the responsibility of an allocated social worker who meets with the child, the family, any other caregivers, and professionals involved with the child in order to assess, plan, deliver or refer the child and/or family for services, and monitor and review progress.51” Case management is ruled by four different documents that are highly issue based52. In all surveyed contexts, the response of the system to CP shocks and vulnerabilities is generally conceived as sum of short-term and/or emergency-driven interventions. As a consequence, the case management is mainly aimed to provide with some support to most serious cases that happens to be identified, without adopting a strategic approach conducive to the sustainability of the interventions. There is a widespread tendency to confuse case management as a service. The endemic inadequacy of budget allocation affects heavily the case management practices in all the surveyed contexts. Even where services and staff are in place, they cannot be fully operational (or functioning at all) because they are not provided with funds for transportation and communication costs, for the purchase of urgent basic goods, etc. When funds to operate are available, another relevant difficulty in managing the cases is that regulations for the procurement do not allow the acquisition of adequate services. Several CP workers in fact reported that the bureaucratisation of procedures, especially when multidisciplinary teams are involved, implies significant hick-ups in providing with timely responses. Protocols vs. practices
For most of the consulted regional level service providers, the case management procedures included in the CP Protocol appear to be very well known both among staff from SSS and Educational Directorates. Equally recognized are the case management guidelines regarding specific situations such as domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual abuse, involvement of children in court procedures, etc. At the local level as well, the municipal and local NGOs service providers who are knowledgeable about case management find the inherent procedures are clearly outlined in the national guidelines. As per the daily practice, according to SSS workers in Elbasan, Tirana and Vlora municipalities, the cases are handled following the procedures indicated by the CP Protocol; however the same could not be confirmed with reference to more remote and smaller urban areas. In fact, most of both regional and municipal actors interviewed reported a serious lack of compliance in the everyday case management practices. The level of knowledge of the guidelines, protocols and regulations assigning roles and responsibilities for an adequate service delivery is heterogeneous and decreases among actors going down from the national, regional and local levels. “We have not been oriented by line ministries on the correct procedures we have to pursue on the matters of CP.” (KII, service provider, Konispol Municipality)
51 Better Care Network Toolkit Glossary, Better Care Network, 2014 52 These are: the Decision no.334, date 17.2.2011 on work coordination mechanisms for referral of domestic violence cases and procedure thereof; the Decision of Council of Ministers 265, date 12.04.2012 for the creation and functioning of coordination mechanisms of work among governmental authorities, responsible for referring cases of children at risk, and the way of proceeding in these cases, and the Standard Operating Procedures for the Identification and Referral of Victims of Trafficking and Potential Victims of Trafficking, and Order No.573, date 24.6.2015 “For the approval of the services standards of child protection units MSWY”.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
As emerged clearly from the interviews, such knowledge tends to be mostly theoretical and superficial, therefore may lead to misinterpretations generating confusion and hampering the delivery of services. “Sometimes we have conflicts because the role is not defined and someone says it is not my responsibility.” (FGD, service providers, Tirana Municipality) CP actors are generally confused or not fully knowledgeable about the attribution of roles and responsibilities within the case management processes. “The feeling is that interventions depend on case by case and that there is not an appropriate understanding of the case management process, nor of the role of the CPU.” (KII, service provider, Rrogozhina Municipality) “There is confusion about case management, the term is not familiar being not included among social workers functional tasks.” (KII, service provider, Permet Municipality) Concerning the dynamics of the identification process, it is relevant mentioning that a significant proportion of the identification of children in need of protective services does not occur by state actors. Service providers from the all the surveyed regions described the identification by the Social State Services as very weak. A relevant reason for such weakness is the limited outreach capacity of the State social services worsened by a generalised passive attitude of the CP workers. As a communitarian reaction to this lack of CP awareness, many service providers from the surveyed regions highlighted the growing relevance of the role of the media in identifying cases of children in need of protection and support. “In some cases we learn about children at risk through the television programmes.” (KII, Government, Elbasan Region) On one hand, this trend demonstrates the enormous steps forward the CP agenda made in Albania during the last decade: nowadays the general public is much more sensitive, careful and capable of seeing violations of child rights, than when physical violence, sexual abuse and work exploitation were ordinary facts of daily life commonly tolerated. However, leaving aside that only the most severe and peculiar child rights violations tend to get to this attention, such a significant role played by the media brings along serious concerns in terms of protection of children from further harms, stigma and exploitation, as well as – on the analytical front - it implies an everything-but-systemic way of functioning. The CP workers in many of the surveyed contexts reported the fear of family retaliations when addressing child rights violations occurring within the family as a relevant impediment to identify CP cases. For instance in Bulqiza, service providers described their fellow citizens as “generally recalcitrant” concerning CP issues. Family members were often reported as resistant to CP case management also due to the lack of trust concerning the police care in safeguarding the confidentiality of the subjects involved which, in some cases seemed to be justified. “We share the information with anyone. It is one of the rights of everyone to know.” (KII, service provider, Gijrokastra Municipality) If sometimes children and, especially families, may be refractory to have CP situations taken into consideration, much more often they are left outside the processes. “Children have no idea of how a case is managed by the Municipality or by the service providers.” (FGD, service providers, Konispol Municipality)
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The participation of children and families in structured case management processes appeared to occur in none of the surveyed regions and, during the research consultations, it emerged as an issue only in Elbasan and Konispol which was a signal of the low level of awareness spread across all surveyed regions concerning this lack of compliance in the service delivery practices. This is, unfortunately, a clear indication of case assessment and reviews being implemented very poorly, and, more generally, a sign that children and families are seen as passive recipients of services rather than having an active role in the solution of their problems. The children and families in contact with social services through NGO activities generally reported a reversed and more positive opinion on this front, with their involvement occurring much more frequently. There is not much evidence on how assessments of cases are conducted; informants at regional and municipal levels indicated that the only action taken after identification is referral, and very often, not even this. “The school did not refer cases to the service providers in the Municipality, maybe there are children at risk, but no one knows...” (KII, service providers, Konispol Municipality) The involvement of children and parents in multidisciplinary meetings for case management occurs on a very sporadic basis and only when assessments are conducted by some NGOs. In general, children already in contact with (mostly NGO-run) services shared a much higher perception of being listened to and considered. At the same time, they reported a much weaker incidence in being involved in school and family environments. When participation occurs, the children highly appreciated the fact of being heard by CP workers. “Respected”, “Considered”, “Listened” were some of the words the children used to describe those perceptions. On the other hand, the parents in many of the sampled contexts, such as Bulquiza, Konispol and Vlora, shared a profound disappointment for never have been invited to share their opinions about their children’ situation. The most significant gaps reported by service providers in all surveyed regions is the absence of monitoring and follow up activities. Not much is known and reported on the services that are provided, delineating a scenario in which the components of the current system may be able to identify cases, but are just capable to provide responses weak in terms of quality and sustainability. “Random monitoring is done only when some funds are available” (KII, service provider, Gijrokastra Municipality) As a consequence the whole case management process results fragmented, discontinuous and incomplete. Referral is the most quoted intervention happening at the municipal level. Service providers from the surveyed regions often define case management as a CP service and not as a working process. Despite the widespread knowledge of the importance of referral, its implementation is quite challenged. Gaps cause delays or difficulties in effective referral and coordinated case management, even in cases of severe violations, and additionally they challenge the prevention of further abuses generated by the lack of child- sensitive procedures and proceedings during the investigations. “If the Police structures have referred 100 cases to us, we have responded to 95 cases. In the other hand, if we have referred 100 cases to the Police, they have responded to only 3 cases.” (KII, service provider, Tirana Municipality). Also the procedures inherent the “closing” of cases lack of adherence with what is outlined in the national guidelines; among some of the service providers consulted, the sense in these regards was that a CP actor can archive a case considering it was “managed” when the responsibility has passed to somebody else.
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“They leave the case in the middle of the procedures!” (KII, service provider, Dibra Municipality) Across the different level of authorities and the sectoral accountabilities the lack of clarity concerning when a CP case can be considered closed is common. “One case is considered closed when the process of decision making is finished.” (KII, service provider, Vlora municipality) “A closed case is a referred case.” (KII, service provider, Bulquiza municipality) More consolidated case management practices in relation to specific issues and geographical areas can be found where there have been more consistent investments in capacity building; such efforts have taken place mostly (if not only) by the NGOs who happened to be responsible for their organisation or - at least - their funding. Where NGOs have been active on the case management front, the CP workers present a better level of knowledge and understanding concerning case management practices. Yet, NGOs operate mostly based on temporary projects, focusing on relatively definite issues and targeting specific populations/territorial areas; consequently, the enhanced capacities have partial connotations and coverage. The lack of specialised services on the ground is the other paramount obstacle for an effective case management, as a Magistrate in Dibra informed “it is a serious problem missing a residential centre for children and families under the order of protection.” The data collection procedures are limited and fragmented and only where CP settings are more structured; basically do not exist at all in more remote/rural areas. Very limited and sporadic information sharing mechanisms were reported being operational, in particular between different sectors. Data in school are more systematically collected, although they do not include specific CP aspects. “General standard forms are not used to document the case management.” (FGD, service providers, Dibra Municipality) “Information usually get shared only inside the schools: between directors, teachers and psychologists.” (KII, service provider, Fushe Arrez Municipality) Despite the law 10347 provides for multidisciplinary teams to handle cases, this is not regularly happening. While CP actors have some level of awareness concerning the complexity and the importance of an appropriate case management, the same did not emerged concerning most of interviewees from other sectors. “The CP workers have to insist all the time to convince the other service providers to address the needs of the case.” (KII, service provider, Bulquiza Municipality) “Many actors must constantly be encouraged to attend multidisciplinary groups, although they are obliged by law to do so.” (KII, service provider, Elbasan Municipality) It seems to be not only a matter of awareness, since sometimes problems have been indicated also due to a deliberate lack of compliance as stated with reference to the Tirana Region. “Even though some of the personnel know their roles, they do not take their responsibility. (FGD, service providers, Tirana Region)” Participants from the health sector in most of the surveyed regions could not answer to questions related to case management, since they barely knew what case management is or should be. Not surprisingly, very scant experiences have been shared about identifying or referring CP situations for case management.
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“During my every day work it never happened to identify cases of abused children. Of course sometimes we have seen children with suspected marks in their bodies, but they have been declared to have been accidents…” (KII, service provider, Vlora Municipality) “If a child comes to the ambulance full of bruises, I would not report him, because it is none of my business to do so.” (FGD, service provider, Gijrokastra Region) In all the surveyed regions, in the regards of case management, the justice sectors have to deal with significant infrastructurual and institutional gaps. For the in-house management of cases, as reported in the Elbasan region, the justice prosecutors dispose of no separate premises for the questioning of children and, when dealing with crimes committed by minors, there are no institutions available to liaise with in order to help these children to reintegrate in the society and no specialized judges and psychologists are available to properly handle those cases. A number of consolidated relationships have been developed between NGOs and police stations, NGOs and State and Municipal Social Services, NGOs and health centres, NGOs and schools. The fact that, among the case management practices, the identification of cases was indicated as the most prevalent area of achievement, it is due to the fact that such capacity is determined by the prominent role of the NGOs. In contexts where first steps towards a CP system have been undertaken, the NGOs are progressively handing over to the State and Municipal Services. “All the things were organized and done by NGOs now the institutions play a very important role on case managing.” (FGD, service provider, Tirana Municipality) As a matter of fact, in all regions, for CP case management, the only constant point of reference reported by all actors involved are the NGOs. In all surveyed regions, the civil society organisations - including faith-based organisations - are often crucial to provide specific situations with some sort of support. Even where State Services exist and function, NGO remain crucial to catalyse the service providers response. As unanimously emerged from the children and parents consultations, when an NGO is involved, the probability that the State Services response is more effective increases. Key findings 1. Case management is defined in four different documents. 2. Evidence seems to point that identification and referral happens often and regularly, while reporting and assessment are not implemented consistently and habitually. Follow up of closed cases very seldom happens. 3. Child and families are mostly considered passive clients rather than active solvers of their proper challenges. 4. Case management is implemented in a more thoroughly way when it is implemented by non-governmental organisations and civil society organisations.
Public Finance Management and Public Administration As any other programmatic area of the Government functioning, CP interventions are subject to and dependent upon the financial resources allocated53. The legal framework for budget in Albania revolves
53 A full sub-report entitled Overview of Public Finance Management and Public Administration on CP in Albania was prepared by national consultant Dr. Artemida Bardhi and can be found in Annex 6
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania around the Organic Budget Law (OBL) and the subsequent laws and by-laws upon which the budget of the state is prepared, approved, implemented and monitored. However, the current OBL does not assign specific obligations for Line Ministries (LM) and/or Budget Institutions (BI) to budget, monitor, evaluate and account for child related policies, and, specifically, CP.54 The GoA has been using mid-term planning documents since year 2000. The Medium Term Budget Programme (MTBP) is the guiding document in which every LM and/or BI is requested to submit its policy goals and objectives, outputs, activities and related budget costs (revenues and expenditures) for investment projects for a 3-year period. The MTBP sets out the overall policy objective of each ministry, outcome and output targets, and the programs that will contribute to meeting those targets. Each programme has a number of specific targets specified for each year and it is further divided into outputs, which each have specified objectives, output targets, and expenditure allocations for the medium term. The organization and functioning of public administrations (PA) in Albania is regulated by the law on the organization and functioning of local government.55 The PA is organized and operates according to the principles of unity and hierarchy, accountability, decentralization, clarity in the definition and distribution of responsibilities, economy, efficiency and effectiveness, as well as cooperation between PA institutions. The new strategy for Public Administration Reform (PAR) 2015-2020 aims at and focus not only on the civil service, but also on other important elements to address the need to improve the services provided to citizens and businesses, to increase transparency and accountability or issues such as governance innovation, priorities which have been set forth also in the Government’s political programme of 2013-2017.56 The PA is composed of nearly 88,550 employees, working in the central government and some independent institutions. From this total, it was not possible to disaggregate the number of employees working exclusively or partially in CP programmes, or linked to it. The decentralization strategy aims to increase the number of functions and competencies of LGU, while minimizing risks to fiscal sustainability. The law on the territorial reform will be accompanied by a bylaw specifying the functions and competencies of local government as well as by a special law on local finance and measures to increase tax and non-tax revenues, accruing to local government.57 At present, LGUs are financed from the State Budget (conditional and unconditional transfer) and from local sources of revenue. With the fiscal decentralization the sources will remain the same but the approach, such as the share of transfers, will adapt in order to enable more financial means and higher autonomy. Budget preparation The Government is responsible for the preparation of the budget within the Albanian balanced budget cycle . Parliament approves the budget and once approved it is implemented by the local and central levels. Parliament controls the implementation of the budget through the High State Control, an independent institution charged with monitoring implementation.
54 Law No. 9936/2008 On Managing of the Budgetary System in the Republic of Albania 55 Law No. 8652/2000 on Organization and Functioning of Local Governments 56 Crosscutting Public Administration Reform Strategy 2015 - 2020 57 Draft expected by the end of year 2015.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
The central and local governments units are obliged to follow the established calendar for the MTBP preparation. Interested stakeholders, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and representatives of children might participate in the hearing sessions. During budget preparation process, children are taken into account only by the institutions responsible for their protection and rights. There is no policy that outlines financing for children’s rights priorities. Currently, CP is not set as a priority in this process, making it impossible to estimate the budget allocation and expenditures in CP58. The approach to budgeting and costing in CP is weak. In addition to the absence of specific CP programmes in the MTBP, the analysis of other planning documents reveal that budgeting and costing are not a primary concern within the sector. For example, the Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, reads, “while the present Action Plan only contains the budget source, but not the exact cost of each measure, it is foreseen to establish full budget and expenditure reports from 2009 onwards”, which should be noted is one year after implementation.59 Its successor action plan for 2011-201360 and the national action plan for the fight against trafficking in children for the same time period, under “Resources” it is simply listed, “existing resources” or “existing resources and with the support of donors/partners” or, in few cases, the name of specific ministries, departments and agencies (MDA), but no budget estimate is given. Similarly, the cost of many activities in the strategy on gender equality and domestic violence “should be calculated”.61 The Action Plan for Children 2012-2015 has budget indications only for the component of “the right to legal protection”.62 Budget execution In the MoF there are no specific data on the allocations and expenditures for the children protection. These statistics are kept and updated from the institutions that are responsible for implementation of the specific programmes. The current arrangements do not allow disaggregation of allocations and expenditures for CP, since there are no programmes dealing specifically with children. Many programmes include mixed activities for different target groups, but due the economic classification system used for the budget, disaggregating the costs for CP cannot be done automatically or easily, if at all. On top of the funds received from the State Budget, LM and BI implement programmes and projects funded by different donors (e.g. the European Union Delegation, UNICEF, Save the Children, Embassy of Switzerland, and others). The funds received from development partners are considered a source of revenue for the
58 It is worth mentioning that the budget software in the MoF can technically tackle the allocations for any specific target group; but, as said, to enable this, the target group (in this case the “children”) should be handled as a priority itself when the midterm budget (MTB) is prepared, which is not. Furthermore, budgets associated to the activities for children should be recorded in the software and linked directly with this priority. The line ministries should also be aware to prepare their budgets considering this approach. The MoF had a similar experience with the gender equality issue which is already addressed with DCM 465 dated 18.07.2012 and the Guidance no. 21, date 21.06.2013 specify the procedures of integrating the gender issues in the MTBP. 59 Ministry of Interior, National Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Persons 2008-2010 60 Ministry of Interior, National Action Plan for the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings, and the National Action Plan for the Fight Against Trafficking in Children and Protection of Children Victims of Trafficking 2011-2013 61 Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, National Strategy on Gender Equality and Domestic Violence 2007-2010 62 Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Action Plan for Children 2012-2015
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania receiving institution. Such funds can be channelled through the treasury system or they can be received directly by the LM or BI within dedicated bank accounts. The analysis of the budget allocations and expenditures for CP presented in Annex 7 is based on estimates obtained through proxy procedures63. It was not possible to have precise figures on budget allocations and expenditures. Far from being exhaustive, the intent of the budget analysis is just to provide a first look at magnitude of funding available for child protection. With the budget classification used the disaggregation of budgets for CP programmes is not possible. The figures obtained were done so using the budget classification according to the programmes focused, both directly and indirectly, on CP. Some of them clearly disclose budget information on children while others include mixed services for different target groups. Programmes that do not clearly focus on CP were excluded from the list. State Police costs are not included in the calculations because no data were made available64. Budget monitoring and reporting As already stated, the automatic identification of expenditures for children extrapolated from the total costs is not possible. Expenditures incurred by each institution are recorded based on the current expenses/capital expenses and within the overall expenditure of the institution. There is no interface between the budget software (where budgets are recorded based on the objectives/outputs/activities) and the treasury software (where expenditure is recorded based on the current and capital expenditure)65. Spending on children is scattered across a diverse array of government programmes, projects and activities, and many of the programmes serving different target groups require estimations of the share for children in order to be understood in this context. In addition to the difficulties related to the system design, there is discrepancy between figures published by MoF (i.e. total budget of running costs) compared with those of the Ministries in their monitoring reports. When the funding comes from development partners, budget reporting is done, for the most part, directly to the donor, and it thus slips away from the control of the government. Channelling of external funds through the treasury system is one of the objectives of new Public Finance Management (PFM) Strategy.66 The bulk of external funds from donors (ex. foreign agencies, embassies, national/international organizations, etc.) that are at the disposal of the GOA are not fully managed and controlled. They are not recorded in the GOA financial information system (AGFIS), which limits the possibility of effectively coordinating, understanding and managing all these funds. Implementation of budgeted expenditures and discussion of performance against these targets is reported in quarterly monitoring reports published by the MoF for each MDA67 and on an annual basis in the Report on the Implementation of the Budget. All budget institutions are obliged to prepare and submit in a quarterly
63 Refer to the PFM briefing, for more details on how the proxies have been estimated. 64 Since there is no mechanism in place to monitor the budget expenditure for CP, nor to track it, the figures indicative of a magnitude, rather than real figures. A proper budget analysis would have gone considerably too far from the scope of the exercise; nevertheless, it is of primary importance to present what is available because it immediately shows one of the causes of the poor functioning of CP system. 65 This issue is being addressed by the Government in the new PFM Strategy as one of the objectives through the establishment of the External Assistance Management Information System (EAMIS) to effectively manage development finance & implementation and to promote accountable and transparent use of resources. 66 Ministry of Finance, Public Finance Management Strategy 2014-2020 67 Actually not all reports are published, only part of them.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania basis the monitoring reports. These reports provide more detailed revenue and expenditure reported according to the programme classification. The MoF produces monthly fiscal statistics for general government that cover revenues, expenditures, and financing and are published on the website within 20 days of the end of the month. The treasury reports provide actual spending by economic and functional classification, but the latter has no comparison with budget and outturn information reported by administrative, economic, and programme classification. The mapping and analysis of the CP system made evident that financial reporting on CP is not implemented regularly, at any level. A significant aspect in financing CP is the decentralisation of the provision of different social services. In the last ten years, Albania has registered some progress in terms of increasing the fiscal autonomy of local governments, but full financial autonomy is not yet secured. The LGUs have responsibilities for pre-university education, local infrastructure, water provision, sewage and waste management, and other services. Their spending is about 8% of the spending of general government (2.4% of GDP). LGUs are highly dependent on the financial support from the state (about 50% of their revenues). Unpredictability of transfers is very high. There is limited capacity to collect revenues, which is also hampered by the high levels of informal economy. Reduced vehicle tax and the abolition of tax on small business negatively affected the local government revenues. Albania is among the very few countries in Southeast Europe, in terms of fiscal decentralization, that do not have a national system of tax sharing with local government. The inter-governmental fiscal relations have become more transparent since the introduction of formula-based allocations of the unconditional transfers. However much remains to be done to strengthen the management of the local government including fiscal risks. Key findings 1. Child protection benefits from some resource allocation, but it is not possible to gauge the level of allocation and out-turns due to the absence of expenditure tracking mechanisms. 2. Almost none of the child protection programmatic documents (plan of action, policies, etc.) have indications of costs of activities and interventions. 3. Child protection is not indicated as a priority area when developing the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
Monitoring and Evaluation Monitoring and evaluation is critical to CP system’s functioning in that it informs all other processes from decision making to implementation. A sound monitoring and evaluation process and systems results in sound decision-making, planning and services that are based on the needs of the target population. Without monitoring and evaluation stakeholders cannot know if resources are being expended efficiently and effectively. A lack of data at the beginning of strategic interventions can result in poor planning, inadequate resource use, and an inability to adapt to a changing context. For example, trafficking in persons has been found as a priority in most of the documents analysed, but almost none of the research participants mentioned trafficking as a priority issue and none of them reported of specific cases of trafficked children known. Yet, trafficking constitutes a key point in the draft of the social inclusion strategy, but the same draft
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania quotes the International Organisation for Migrations (IOM) saying that “However, no referrals had been made by 2011 and there is no evidence of any referrals having been made since then (IOM, 2014).68” Unfortunately, this process is not functional within CP in Albania. Monitoring mechanisms in place at national level are fragmented and specific organization or department-oriented rather than being cross-sector. UNICEF, in reporting on birth registration, finds that only 56% of health facilities where children are being born have computer systems.69 Centralized and issue-oriented monitoring does exist within the Department of Social Inclusion (DoSI) for monitoring the situation of Roma communities70 and system for monitoring domestic and gender-based violence at the regional and central levels but these do not cross over to the State Social Service Agency (SSS) for CP service planning. Other existing mechanisms to monitor organizational issues include those that follow. The few decentralized and issues-oriented monitoring mechanisms that are in place are affected by significant lack of personnel, resources and technical capacities for monitoring and evaluating.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) annual reporting to the Permanent Council, The OSCE project self-evaluation process, The State Social Services (SSS) Audit Sector financial and operational auditing, and The State Agency for Children Annual Report on the implementation of the national Plan of Action for Children 2012-2015. While the legal framework provides no clear mandates concerning sharing information for or from data collection, the mapping and assessment team did find that the following statistics are available:
The number of children receiving economic aid The number of children with disabilities and number of those receiving aid The number of Roma and Egyptian children School attendance, dropouts, quality of teaching and school violence cases Domestic violence Repatriation of children Vaccinations, disease prevention activities delivered, sexually transmitted disease and other medical Domestic violence, divorced families, orphaned children, custody and protection orders Registration, identification, household income, civil status and court verdicts Housing information children who abandon the school and children with disability The result of poor monitoring and evaluation reinforces issue-based CP and the system’s responses. The Centre for Economic Research reports, “Incomplete statistical data at both the central and local level hinders adequate understanding of the situation of excluded and marginalized groups and their needs.”71 Some of the resulting issues include:
68 Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, Draft Social Inclusion Policy Paper 2015-2020 “Equal access to public services for all”, p. 47 69 UNICEF. (2013). Assessment of feasibility for the electronic registration of child births 70 Several participants mentioned data collection concerning Roma children, but the impression they shared that is basically about counting them rather far from monitoring their conditions 71 Albania Centre for Economic Research. (2012). Albania’s National Inter-Sectorial Strategy on Social Inclusion, 2007- 2013 – Evaluation Report.
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The identification of the priority issues is often driven by donors or NGOs rather than a planned process of the government; Some family-related social norms hinder the identification and analysis of certain issues (e.g. domestic violence, blood feud, etc.); Statistics and qualitative information on target groups, risks, vulnerabilities and available services are incomplete and/or occasional; CP episodes are addressed mostly to manage emergencies with little attention on prevention; CP episodes are not analyzed and understood in consideration of their driving factors (risks, vulnerabilities, social assets and resilience); Focusing on issues limits child-centeredness and a systematic approach to protection of all children; and The CP issues are identified and understood only in their visible components. There is a lack of deeper causal analysis, which in turn results in response instead of sustainable change. There is no coordinated system of data recording and keeping in CP resulting in a complete lack of sound evidence base and inability to plan or strategize based on the actual needs of the population and issues. The lack of case monitoring and record-keeping prevents the ability of higher level monitoring. This is in part due to confusion about forms to be used. Monitoring visits are conducted in the residential institutions and some generic reporting standards exist and are available, but they are not filled consistently and do not necessarily build on previous inspections. This results in discrepancies in data depending on the region and who is collecting information. Stevens, Graham and Milligan in their report on foster care suggest, “The State Social Services should examine ways of creating a more active monitoring system and building accountability into the foster care service delivery. Allocation of funding should depend on meeting performance targets and having evidence of meeting the foster care standards.”72 There is no established information management system. What results is documentation of information rather than data that can be worked with. “We have found out that social administrators do not do a comprehensive assessment of the situation of child and family to make a judgement about what is in the best interest of the child, rather they would do a simple meeting or interview with the child and make a recommendation to place the child in the institution” (KII, Government, national level) Often only specific cases of children are recorded. In the KII there was virtually no mention of case monitoring or family visits to check on cases. “The dream of every CP worker is to have a database. There are problems with the confidentiality because is very difficult to put a code on the case. The persons that works are not qualified and have problems on using the technology.” (FGD, service providers, Tirana region) Albania does have some experiences in digitalizing data collection73 and NGOs have supported the establishment of databases in selected municipalities, however there is virtually no data collection happening in the more remote areas and use of the digital systems is limited.
72 Stevens, I., Graham, C. and Milligan, I. (2013) Moving forward on alternative care: Assessment of the foster care pilot project in Albania. Report for UNICEF. 73 Amongst all KII FDG four references were made: 2 from police, 1 from Social sector, 1 from Health sector. None was reported as “good practice” but just as existing.
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“World Vision has more data on CP than state institutions” (FGD, service providers, Dibra Region) In terms of the availability and quality of data collected, the mapping and analysis found that there is a lack of disaggregation of data by age groups and by gender, existing data is often contradictory (for example, data on school drop out rates), and there are significant differences in data coming from different institutions. The availability of data is different across different regions resulting and consequentially collation and comparisons are nearly impossible. The categories that seem to present particular data collection challenges include: the number of Roma children, children involved in judicial processes, and abandoned children or those without parental care. There is no guidance or clarity on how to use the information that is gathered, in part due to lack of planning for information gathering (i.e. the data collection is rather ad hoc). “I started to register the data because at some point I was asked to report about the violence in school. First, I kept this data in terms of numbers all together. Only this year, I used a manual that I first learned about in training organized by Tdh, that I think it is a manual about protection of children. Now I have categorized the information according to the type of violence, but the problem is that teacher or psychologist does not even recognize what type of abuse a child is suffering, therefore they tend to report it all as physical abuse. I am sure there are lots of other cases that don’t get reported.” (KII, Government, national level) It is important to highlight that work is underway to improve monitoring and evaluation. Objectives of the MoSWY’s National Social Protection Strategy pending finalization include: to build an integrated information system at regional and central level to identify and refer the needs for social care services; and establish and strengthen the monitoring and inspection mechanisms for the quality of services offered at local, regional and central level.74 “Half of the social care institutions for children are daily centres, for which we have no standards for inspection” (KII, Government, national level).
Key findings 1. Monitoring and evaluation is not regularly happening in child protection. 2. There is no information management system, and there is a tendency to over-rely on surveys rather than on regularly monitoring data. 3. M&E is perceived an additional task that takes away resources and energies from other duties. 4. There is a lack of disaggregation of data by age groups and by gender, existing data is often contradictory, and there are significant differences in data coming from different institutions.
Chapter 3 - Conclusion Based on the analysis of the elements that were presented in the previous chapter, it is not possible to assert that a CP system is in place and well-functioning in Albania. This is not surprising when considering the following summarising points.
74 Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2015). National Social Protection Strategy – DRAFT document
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Child protection is a new area in the development agenda. CP has been present as a concern for more than a decade, but it was never structured as a system, nor as a multi-sectoral programmatic area, at least. Historically, CP concerns shaped along three areas: trafficking in persons, gender equality and domestic violence, and justice. Child labour has also been the object of some interventions. This led to an issue-oriented response that did not form the object of an organic system. The main evidence of this is given by the fact that CP was never identified as a priority in the process of developing the MTBP. Children were not the primary focus of such interventions, which is not necessarily a bad approach in itself, since it showed how CP was seen and understood in a broader context of family welfare. . The level of analysis and understanding of the CP episodes, and of their positive and negative drivers, is limited to the visible parts of the problem. Unfortunately, such a vision and understanding did not manage to go very deep in the understanding of the determinants that lead to the insurgence of CP episodes. For example, the poor integration in the design of the above-mentioned areas (trafficking in persons, gender equality and domestic violence, justice) indicates that multiple and simultaneous exposure to different CP risks is not fully considered and thus addressed. The documents that were reviewed for the analysis do not present clear and thorough assessment of the risks that threaten children’s lives, and those of their families. Similarly for the environmental factors that might reduce the impact of the risks on children and families, such as the presence of social assets; the presence of social safety nets is often referenced with regards to the two main cash assistance programmes Ndihma Ekonomike (NE) programme, which is the main poverty-targeted social assistance benefit75 and the disability assistance benefits. Also the individual factors, tied to vulnerabilities and resilience, do not form the object of investigation to try to understand what positive and negative drivers of CP episodes are present amongst children. There is also a widespread use of terms such as “children at risks” or “vulnerable children”, without any specification of what risks or vulnerable to what the document is referring to. This has increased the frequency of using such terms without sound reasons or evidence, and mostly due to subjective perspectives76. The same law 10347 on the protection of children’s rights does not state the right to protection, but it spreads it along eight sections77. . The design of the system, while rich in elements, is still fragmented and issue-based. This fragmented understanding of the dynamics behind the different CP episodes is reflected in the programmatic documents analysed and emerged and confirmed from the meetings that were held, both at the national and sub-national levels. The main gap is the absence of documents to describe the CP system structures, functioning, and capacities, and the fact that planning and guiding documents are not widely disseminated. The scanty monitoring of cases stocks and flows results in a lack of inform to shape programme design and plan services and interventions. Most of the planning documents include protective and preventive but are not based on causal or path or factor analysis. This results in preventive components that do not address the root causes of CP episodes. In some cases,
75 The Ndhima Ekonomike is currently under review to improve targeting and adjust the level of the allocations. 76 Which are not necessarily wrong, but largely insufficient for policy making. 77 From section 20 to 27, (social protection; protection from all forms of violence; protection from economic exploitation; protection from the illicit use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances; protection from trafficking and any form of sexual exploitation and abuse; protection from involvement in armed conflicts; protection of the child from torture, punishment, cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment; and protection of the child who has been arrested and indicted) and section 29 (alternative care). Some may argue that it would be similar to state the right to education in mathematics, education in literature, and so on.
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duplications in guiding documents are noted: for example, four documents describe case management, but inconsistency in content and approach hinders any guidance for the workforce. . The investments on CP workforce and quality service has been residual at most. The fragmentation in the design had severe repercussions in the functioning of the system (or better, in the functioning of the programmatic areas), which was made evident by the poor funding of CP interventions. As already mentioned in the section of the chapter 2 dedicated to public finance management (PFM), there is no evidence of how much was allocated and spent in CP, essentially because there are no CP programmes as such in the MTBP. The decentralisation of the provision of CP services, of which the CP Unit and the municipal level is a pivot, was not accompanied by appropriate measures of fiscal decentralisation, nor was this compensated by an adequate and predictable transfer of funds from the central government to regions and municipalities. All of this negatively impacted the availability and quality of CP services, leaving too many children underserved. Available services tend to focus on residual protection, with little investment in prevention, promotion and transformation services.
The main reason for all is poor governance of CP. Governance is the engine that underpins the cycle of programme management: including decision making, allocation of resources, implementation, monitoring and review.
Determinant of poor functioning: CP system Governance Definition Governance should be at the core of Governance can be defined as "the process of Government action and its policy decision-making and the process by which decisions management. Governance is about are implemented (or not implemented)". effective coordination and efficient public United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the finance management. It is not about Pacific (UNSCAP, 2009) making ‘correct’ decisions, but it is about the best possible process for making those decisions. “Good governance has eight major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimised, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society78.” Assessing governance in CP means looking at the following aspects:
1. Who makes the decision? 2. How the decision is made? 3. Who will implement the decision? 4. What will happen if and when the decision will and/or will not be implemented?
Decision makers
Looking at the decision makers implies taking into consideration the leadership roles in CP. While it is clear that the main feature of a leader is not limited by decision making, it is indeed true that some of the key
78 What is Good Governance?, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNSCAP, 2009)
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania characteristics of a leader is the ability to use emotional intelligence79 to convey messages, mobilise partners, caring for collaborators and setting goals.
Interviews and documents demonstrated that a clear leadership role on CP is assigned and recognised to the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth (MoSWY). Within the MoSWY, there are several actors that are assigned with a CP mandate: the Department of Social Inclusion, the Department of State Social Services, the Department of Labour Inspection, and the State Agency. Aside from the MoWSY, other MDAs do have (or should have) CP leading responsibilities; this is the case of the Ministry of Interior for combating trafficking in persons and public security, the Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary for adjudication of minors, the Ministry of Education and Sports for violence in school settings, the Ministry of Health for identifying and treating violence and abuse, the Ministry of Local Government for decentralising service provision, and the Ministry of Finance for adequate resource allocation, just to quote the main ones.
This variety in leadership, while not necessarily negative, face some constraints due to the ineffective coordination, as presented in the previous chapter. While individual leadership roles are well defined, it is less clear how all the leaders come together: there is not much leadership unity80, nor shared leadership81 is implemented. This is a consequence of different factors, amongst others: a persisting culture of “control and command”, and an unclear division of labour that focuses more on defining tasks for each MDAs rather than establishing modalities of collaboration82.
Most of these leadership roles are intuitive and easily associated to the MDAs because of their respective missions. In many cases, the leadership role is defined in normative document, as in the case of the State Agency in the Law 10347, 2010 on the protection of children’s rights, and for the Ministry of Interior with its anti-trafficking unit established with the order203, 2005. In a couple cases, the body in charge of leading a specific area might not be provided with the adequate position to mobilise stakeholders, convey meetings or dictate policy guidelines. This might look a case of isomorphic mimicry83, a well-known capability trap in governance that occur when, in designing a system or programme, the establishment of structures is taken as a starting point, and only then assigned with functions (which are more a list of tasks rather than functions
79 See What makes a leader, Daniel Goleman, Harvard Business Review, 2004 80 Leadership unity means “Making taugh collective decisions that stick and are implemented. Drivers of leadership unity include cabinet responsibility, top team collaboration, and the leadership style and capabilities of people in positions of influence.” in L. Joshua and E. Jorgoni, Strategic Agility: Road Map for the Integrated Policy Management Group and Development of a National Sector Programme in the Employment, Skills and Social Policy (ESSP) Sector, PFF, 2014 81 See Sharing Leadership to Maximize Talent, Marshall Goldsmith, Harvard Business Review, 2010 82 It is the case, for example, of the Cooperation Agreement On Implementation of the Law No. 9669, date 18.12.2006 “On measures against domestic violence”, which defines duties for major actors on anti-trafficking at the national level, but does not clarify how those actors are supposed to work together. 83 Isomorphic Mimicry happens when domestic actors end up reproducing the formal structures of governance found in developed countries, but with little of the function. This is the outcome of donor efforts not being in conjunction with the actions of domestic actors, which fails in leading to substantive improvements in quality of governance. For more information on capability traps, please see L. Pritchett, M. Woolcock, and M. Andrews, Capability traps?, The Mechanisms of Persistent Implementation Failure, Center for Global Development, 2010
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania to reach a certain results). At the same time, inadequate resource allocation negatively affects the effectiveness of such bodies84.
Decision making process
Decision making is a critical moment in the governance of every system or programme. In Albania, this is seldom a collective process. It is very often participatory, but quite in a number of times, it is limited to sharing information and looking for feedback from other partners85. Decision-making is normally delegated to the officially mandated MDA, making the process too unbalanced towards a top-down approach. The limited involvement of decentralised bodies, increases the risk of being stuck in a case of “premature load bearing”, one of the capability traps that very often hinder the functioning of a system86.
Sound evidence base is not immediately available to support informed decision-making. This aspect, considered in conjunction with the failure in taking into consideration the available resources and capacities, increases the risk of fixing the standard bar too high and aggravating, thus, the capability traps.
Coordination is seen as a central aspect by almost all the stakeholders involved in the analysis, but it is often limited in understanding and in scope. Coordination seems to be partially understood as information sharing and ad-hoc collaboration, but it is not shaped along a clear division of labour with a common goal amongst the stakeholders. According to the law 10347 on the protection of children’s rights, horizontal coordination at the national level is assigned to the National Council for the Protection of Child Rights. Since the law was adopted, the Council has met only twice87. At the decentralised level, CRUs and CPUs are not empowered to perform appropriate vertical and horizontal coordination.
The main outputs of the decision making process, plans and strategies, always make reference to other plans and strategies, establishing a good foundation, and reinforcing, the cross-sectional nature of CP. Unfortunately, these documents are often stand-alone documents that are not included in the normal functioning of the Government (i.e. are not shaped as programmes included in the MTBP), which limits the sustainability of the interventions over time.
From decision making to implementation
The first obstacle to the implementation of CP interventions, i.e. to the provision of services to children and families to prevent or respond to CP risks, is funding. Far from asserting that CP does not benefit from any financial resource, the analysis showed that funds are not clearly allocated, nor its use is tracked: this prevents any association between the funding and the policy priority (which, on top, are not clearly stipulated during the negotiations with the Ministry of Finance to develop the MTBP). At the decentralised level, the
84 This is the case of the State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights and the Anti-trafficking Unit within the Ministry of Interior. 85 This is particularly true for the development of documents that require input from multiple stakeholders, and where track changes function is used. 86 Premature load bearing happens when “asking too much of too little too soon too often”. For more information on capability traps, please see L. Pritchett, M. Woolcock, and M. Andrews, Capability traps?, The Mechanisms of Persistent Implementation Failure, Center for Global Development, 2010 87 The Council met a third time after data collection was completed, on July 8th, 2015.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania ability to raise money through local taxes is hampered, amongst others, by a decreasing GDP growth rate and increase in the informal sector of economy88.
The second challenge is given by the level of capacities that are available amongst CP workforce. Capacities (to be understood as the know-how that is necessary to perform their duties) are not much available especially amongst front line workers such as CPW, health workers and police officers. Regional and Municipal consultations showed that many CPW perform their CP duties on top of many other duties, and often with insufficient training due to scare training opportunities; their background is frequently in subjects that do not have much to do with CP of child welfare. Health workers repeatedly reported a lack of full understanding in what their CP duties are (or should be). Interviews with police officers revealed that violence against children, and domestic violence in general, is habitually understood as a private matter.
Coordination between decision makers and implementers is an area that has been overlooked. This dimension of coordination, which is labelled as vertical since it is binding the national and the sub-national levels, is working to some extent when looking at internal line ministries coordination, but fails to catch the multidimensionality that CP demands. In some cases, it seems that implementers at the sub-national level, mainly at the municipal level, suffered from ineffective technical guidance89. This might is exacerbated by a tendency of scarce delegating some aspects of decision-making: there is a culture of control and command, which is partially justifiable by the limited available capacities, but which limits the reactivity of the system to functional adjustments.
Performance-based management, a key aspect of the performance base budgeting that is required by the MTBP, is not widely implemented. The programmatic documents analysed, and the interviewed managers showed that human resources management is, at most, task based. Limited supervision, coaching and absence of mentoring aggravate the low level of capacities available, and leave too much to the initiative of single individuals.
From implementation back to decision making
The main aspect that hinders the good governance of the system is the poor monitoring that characterises CP. Few statistics are available on stock and flows of cases; on quality, availability and accessibility of services; on usage of funding and information on the workforce; and on compliance with national standards and norms.
This is the consequence of the absence of a functioning management information system. Information needs are not clarified for each of the actors involved in CP. Monitoring mechanisms are limited to quarterly reporting, which is not clearly defined and widely implemented. The strategic and planning documents have too many indicators, most of which are difficult to measure. Monitoring is often understood as a task in addition to programme or project management; in other cases, as a task to be delegated to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) officers of units.
88 Other challenges refer to rising levels of poverty, rising unemployment, emigration, regional inequalities, the sustainability of public finance and industrial renewal. 89 Recently, the State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights has started a process of developing guiding documents for implementers at the decentralised level, are provided by section 37.1.c of the law 10347 on the protection of children’s rights.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Administrative reporting is a poorly practiced. The collection of statistics and information rely too much on costly and time-consuming studies and researches. The available statistics and information are not used to push further the understanding of CP episodes, to identify and analyse their drivers, be them positive (resilience and Definition social assets factors) or negative A programme is a set of outputs that group together a (vulnerability or risks factors). This limits range of different types of services provided to the scope of the CP system making it external clients, which have a common intended focusing to response only. outcome. Accountability measures are not in place to Robinson, Marc. 2013. Program Classification for Performance- intervene in cases of either compliance or Based Budgeting: How to Structure Budgets to Enable the Use of Evidence. IEG Evaluation Capacity Development Series. non-compliance. The absence of Washington, DC: World Bank. License: Creative Commons performance based management means Attribution CC BY 3.0 the absence of merit-based appointments, and of standard procedures in promotions and dismissals. There are no learning mechanisms such as the collection of client satisfaction, or functional reviews of services and coordination mechanisms, to adjust the design and the functioning of the CP. The lack of a proper design of the CP system, together with the elements presented in this chapter, have led to the inability of the system to adapt and adjust itself to respond to changed context, resources and expectations.
Recommendations Based on the analysis presented in this report, Maestral International suggests one overarching recommendation:
The aim of strengthening the CP response should not be establishing a sector-bound system, but developing a CP programme that will respond to the needs of children in the way that only a cross-sectorial approach can. Rather than adopting a CP system, the Government of Albania should invest in adopting a systems- approach to CP, mainstreaming CP in all the MDAs and organisations that are mandated with such responsibility and ensuring the care and protection of all children according to their specific needs.
The CP programme should be nested in the Employment, Skills and Social Policy Sector (ESSP), under the policy responsibility of the Integrated Policy Management Group (IPMG). This will respond to the requirement of adaptability to evolving context so necessary in social protection by adopting an approach marked more by “communication and collaboration” rather than “control and command”, and in line with the principles of strategic agility and effective policy governance outlined for the ESSP90.
The CP programme has to be included in the MTBP and should benefit from predictable, adequate and responsive funding. The CP programme can be split into sub-programmes that might address specific issues, each developed using Performance Based Budgeting, a planning process that takes into consideration real needs (and data reflecting those needs), available and forecasted resources, caseload stocks and flows, macro-economic forecasts and a clear definition of the results to be achieved.
90 See Laurie Joshua, Integrated Policy Management Groups Draft Operational Guidelines for the Employment, Skills And Social Policy Sector, Project Preparation Facility, December 2014
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Figure 6: Sample of child protection programme and its sub-programmes
The most basic principle underpinning PBB is that, to serve their intended purpose, programmes should be results based, to the maximum possible extent. Programme budgeting does not mean that allocations of resources to programmes replace allocations to MDAs, but rather that resources are allocated to both programmes and organizational units. Figure 6 shows a child protection programme as being made of sub- programmes that are developed and implemented in a coordinated manner by all child protection actors to: a) prevent the identified risks, b) to protect people hit by them, to promote resilience and capacity to cope with the risks and to transform the environment that could exacerbate the impact of such risks.
To achieve this, Maestral International further suggests that the following would enable the application of the overarching recommendation:
1. Adopt a Social Risk Management (SRM) approach to CP to make sure that risks and vulnerabilities of children and of their families are assessed to identify and understand which protection risks children are exposed to, where and why. The risks and vulnerabilities will have to be taken into account through strategies that prevent the insurgence of risks, mitigate their impacts and provide children and families with the coping mechanisms, resources and skills to face them. The analysis of risks and vulnerabilities will facilitate the identification of children and families that require significant assistance, informing thus a more effective targeting of beneficiaries and the budget, strategy and service planning process. 2. Design and implement the CP sub-programmes that include a combination of social transfers and services to cover all the needs of identified children and families. Service provision needs to be structured along the decentralised levels and be informed by the principle of subsidiarity (that implementation and decision-making should happen as closely to the community as possible).
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
According to this principle, actors at one level should only intervene if they are able to act more effectively than actors at other levels91. The programme components will consist of services that: a. Protect children at risk of, or already suffering from the impact of the risks of CP episodes; b. Prevent the insurgence of risks that will expose children to abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation; c. Promote the ability of children and family to face and combat those risks; and d. Transform the environment in which children and their families live by introducing positive changes in the legal and policy framework, as well as in the cultural and social norms. 3. Establish governance mechanisms to design, oversee and adjust the CP programme and its sub- programmes based on lessons learnt and feedback mechanisms. Each sub-programme necessitates: a. A MDA providing the leadership and coordination required to ensure effective decision making, resourcing and participation of all involved stakeholders; b. Coordination mechanisms, not necessarily dedicated bodies, with clear roles, responsibilities and divisions of labour. Coordination should encompass both vertical (from national to subnational, and vice-versa) and horizontal (across the same levels) dimensions and should cover both programmatic and case management aspects, and their interactions; c. An information management system (IMS) that provides timely and accurate information and constitutes the sound base of evidence necessary for assessment, decision making, planning, evaluating and adjusting; and d. Managerial accountability within the framework of a performance based budgeting and management, which will make the CP programme more results oriented. 4. Strengthen CP workforce to enhance the provision of quality CP services that respond to the needs of children and their families where those children and families are located. This can be obtained through: a. The review or development of job descriptions around the principles of accountability and performance; b. The development and implementation of institutionalised training programmes, both pre-service and in-service, for workforce with CP responsibilities; c. The review, development and dissemination of guidance documents on providing CP services and managing CP cases; and d. The promotion of ethical standards in CP and strengthening meritocracy in appointments, promotions and dismissals of workforce.
Finally, Maestral International makes a few methodological suggestions. First, and foremost, whatever decision the Albanian stakeholders make when designing the CP programme and its programme components, they must be mindful that any and all aspects must relate to positive changes for children. This means that, in order to be truly child-centred, the programme design has to start from the results to be achieved for children and the overall functioning of the programme.
Second, the approach in designing the CP programme has to be sequential and incremental. It would be better to start small, with the available resources that can be reasonably mobilised, and gradually generate the evidence needed to adjust the programme over time. This requires the identification of the best opportunities presented by the processes of reforms currently underway (Territorial and Administrative Reform and the Social Care Reform). This will reduce the risk of CP being side-lined from the overall efforts of improving government functioning, especially at the decentralised level.
91 See, for example, the principle of subsidiarity in the European Union.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Last but not least, participation from all relevant stakeholders, at the national, sub-national and very local community levels must be sought from the very early stages, including the participation of children as is foreseen in the UNCRC. This will reduce the risk that the CP programme be confined to relevance for a few actors, but rather engages the whole range of stakeholders with potential for action in CP, whether in the management of risks, the identification of children and families with needs, or in the provision of services for the benefit of children. This is also a call to ensure that representatives of children and their families are actively involved in the design and oversight of the programme, and are not just passive recipients of CP services.
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Annexes
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Annex 1: Analytical framework Introduction
This document presents the theoretical background to the analysis of the child protection system in Albania through the planned mapping and assessment exercise. The analytical framework consists of five sections:
Section 1. Background Section 2: Research principles Section 3. Key definitions and concepts Section 4. Overall research questions and assumptions Section 5. Analytical matrix
Section 1. Background
The Government of Albania through the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth has started to reform the planning and provision of social care services, which, together with the cash assistance programme Ndihma Ekonomike and the disability Allowance KEMP, are the three components of the social protection system92.
The reform of social protection system, supported by a grant from the Swiss Development Cooperation provided through UNICEF, is meant to improve the efficiency of the social protection system and the quality of social services for vulnerable groups, including children. In brief, the actions of the reform can be condensed into five Principal Action headings:
i. Clarification of central - local government financial relationships ii. Enabling local government to plan and deliver social care services iii. Central & local government responsibilities to plan social care services iv. Development of human resource capacity to provide social care services v. The role and function of State Social Services.93
The reform of the social protection system, and notably of the social care services which include child protection, requires the analysis of the child protection system, in order to make the social protection system child-sensitive in Albania and demonstrate how social protection is a cross-cutting tool with the potential to complement investments across sectors, resulting in more equitable outcomes.
Since the Terms of Reference (ToR) for the assignment specify that the analysis of the Albanian child protection systems should be carried out in the wider context of the social protection system, a specific analytical framework that aligns child protection and social protection has been developed and is presented herewithin.
Section 2: Research principles
The following principles will guide the research:
92 In this document, and throughout the mapping and assessment, the term social protection does not include issues concerning employment, pensions, social insurances. 93 From the terms of reference for the Analysis of the child protection system in the wider context of social protection, UNICEF Albania and Terre des Hommes, Tirana, 2014
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Rights-based: Maestral International conforms its approach to the standards set in the international treaties, covenants, and protocols, and intended to promote and protect human rights. Participatory: Maestral International encourages and enable children, their parents, service providers and all child protection stakeholders to make their views known on the issues that affect them. No harm: Maestral International will avoid discrimination between consulted people, will avoid creating or exacerbating degradation, conflicts and insecurity and will take into account the special needs of the most vulnerable groups of children and women. Child centred: Maestral International recognises that children’s rights and needs are the primary focus for development, and are compounded by their family, community, culture and country. Transparency: Maestral International commits to have an open and constant dialogue and to give access to all information on all the matters involved in the analysis that are not open for disclosure for privacy and security reasons.
Section 3. Key definitions and concepts
NOTE: These working definitions have been put together for the purposes of analysing the CPS in Albania. Where the source of the definition is not cited in the footnotes, the definition has been developed by the Maestral International team to facilitate common understanding. The definitions do not substitute in any way those of the Government of Albania, UNICEF, Terre des Hommes, or any other Albanian actor. The following definitions aim to be a first common ground upon which the methodology of the mapping and assessment of the CPS is built. They are as such, a work in progress.
Social exclusion is a process whereby certain individuals are isolated from society and unable to participate fully in social relations because of poverty or lack of basic competencies and lifelong learning opportunities, or as a result of discrimination. This distances them from work, access to income, education and training opportunities, as well as social community networks and activities. They have little access to power and decision-making bodies and thus often feel powerless and unable to take control over their daily lives. 94
Social inclusion is a process that ensures that those at risk of poverty and social exclusion gain the opportunities and resources necessary to participate fully in the economic, social and cultural life and to enjoy a standard of living and welfare considered normal in the society in which they live. In this way it is made sure that they participate more fully in the decision-making that affects their lives and the extent to which they have access to their basic rights.95
Social care: In Albania, social care can be intended in two meanings: as a synonym of social service and as a synonym of institutional care. For the purposes of the research, we will use social care meaning social services96.
94 Albania’s National Inter-Sectorial Strategy On Social Inclusion, 2007–2013 Evaluation Report, Albanian Center For Economic Research Tirana, September 2012 (APPENDIX B: Terminology of the Cross-Sectorial Social Inclusion Strategy) 95 Albania’s National Inter-Sectorial Strategy On Social Inclusion, 2007–2013 Evaluation Report, Albanian Center For Economic Research Tirana, September 2012 (APPENDIX B: Terminology of the Cross-Sectorial Social Inclusion Strategy) 96 Albania is in the process of reforming social care, where the concept of social services are much more clore to social care than the one of institutional care.
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Social protection refers to the public actions taken in response to levels of vulnerability, risk and deprivation which are deemed socially unacceptable within a given polity or society.97
Social protection can:
i. protect from economic and social vulnerabilities by helping relieve poverty, ii. prevent the impact of external shocks by averting economic deprivation, iii. promote self-reliance and resilience by enhancing real incomes and capabilities, and iv. transform by supporting equity, social justice and empowerment98.
Social protection floors are nationally defined sets of basic social security guarantees which secure protection aimed at preventing or alleviating poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion99. A social protection floor consists of two main elements that help to realize respective human rights:
i. Essential services: geographical and financial access to essential services (such as water and sanitation, adequate nutrition, health, education and protection). ii. Social Transfers: a basic set of essential social transfers, in cash and in kind, paid to the poor and vulnerable to provide a minimum income security and access to essential services.100
Similarly to social protection, child protection refers to the public actions taken in response to levels of vulnerability, risk and deprivation that affect and impact children and which are deemed socially unacceptable within a given polity or society.
Child protection (programmes) can (and must):
i. protect children from risks and vulnerabilities by helping them and their families relieve the shocks, ii. prevent the impact of external shocks by averting deprivations that increase vulnerabilities and risks likelihood, iii. promote self-reliance and resilience by enhancing life skills, capabilities, and supporting parenting, and iv. transform the environment in children live by supporting equity, social justice and empowerment.
Child protection consist of two main elements that help to realize respective human rights:
i. Essential services: geographical and financial access to essential quality services (such as, family support, mediation, counselling, family tracing and reunification, alternative care, psycho-social support, diversion from the detention, behavioural change, etc.), and ii. Social Transfers: a basic set of essential social transfers, in cash and in kind, paid to the poor and provided to vulnerable children and/or their families to provide a minimum income security and access to essential services.
97 A. Norton, T. Conway, and M. Foster, Social protection concepts and approaches: implications for policy and practice in international development, Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure, Overseas Development Institute, February 2001 98 Adapted from R. Sabates-Wheeler and S. Devereux, Transformative social protection, IDS Working Paper 232 99 Recommendation 202 on National Floors of Social Protection, ILO, Geneva, 2012 100 The Social Protection Floor, A joint Crisis Initiative of the UN Chief Executives Board for Co-ordination on the Social Protection Floor, International Labour Office (ILO), World Health Organisation (WHO), Geneva, October 2009
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Risks are all factors external to the child and his/her family that can hamper the good and sound growth and development of the child. Key factors identified as contributing to risks for children and households can refer to:
i. economic shocks and stresses; ii. environmental fragility; iii. heightened vulnerability to disease and ill health; iv. discriminatory social norms and belief systems;
These four can be exacerbated by two additional factors:
v. weaknesses in governance and government capacity; and vi. situations of political instability and armed conflict and their aftermath.
Characteristics of risks are their sources (natural or man-made), correlation (idiosyncratic or covariant), frequency (low frequency or high frequency) and intensity (low social welfare effects or severe social welfare effects).
Social risk management is the set of instruments that:
i. Reducing the probability of an adverse risk increases people’s expected income and reduces income variance, and both of these effects increase welfare (prevention strategies) ii. Help individuals to reduce the impact of a future risk event through pooling over assets, individuals, and over time (mitigation strategies), and iii. Relieve the impact of the risk once it has occurred (coping strategies).101
Risks are different from shocks not in their nature but in their unpredictability and/or unexpectedness.
Vulnerability is understood as the condition of the individual with lack of or reduced coping mechanisms and low resilience to face risks. Vulnerability is not conceived as an absolute concept (e.g. a vulnerable child) but as a relative concept (e.g. a child vulnerable to one or more risks). In this sense, being vulnerable amplifies the impact that one or more risks can have on an individual. Vulnerability means insecurity, defencelessness, and exposure to risk and shocks.102
Deprivation is defined as “The damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic necessities in a society”103. There are two central elements of deprivation: its multidimensionality, and the processes and social relations that underlie deprivation. Multidimensionality implies the fact that people are often deprived of different things at the same time. It refers to exclusion (deprivation) in the economic, social and political sphere. This reference to exclusion links directly with the concept of social exclusion, which implies a focus on the relations and processes that cause deprivation.104
101 R. Holzmann, L. Sherburne-Benz, and E. Tesliuc, Social Risk Management: The World Bank’s Approach To Social Protection In A Globalizing World, Social Protection Department, The World Bank, Washington, D.C., May 2003 102 Chambers, R. (1989), ‘Vulnerability: How the Poor Cope’, editorial IDS Bulletin, April 1989 103 http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/deprivation 104 Arjan de Haan, Social exclusion: Towards an holistic understanding of deprivation, DfID, April 1999
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
A child protection episode is the result of one or more risks and/or shocks to a vulnerable child. The way children experience risks, shocks, vulnerabilities and deprivations is shaped by five characteristics:
i. multidimensionality, meaning that often children experience multiple risks, shocks, vulnerabilities and deprivations at the same time; ii. changes over the course of the lifecycle, exposing children to different risks, shocks, vulnerabilities and deprivations depending on their age; iii. the gender of the child, impacting the degree of exposure to specific risks and shocks; iv. the relational nature of childhood, which derives from the situation of material and emotional dependence on adults; and v. the particular voicelessness that tends to characterise children’s status in society.105
Child protection episodes can take the forms of:
i. abuse, constitutes all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power,106 ii. neglect is the failure of parents or carers to meet a child’s physical and emotional needs when they have the means, knowledge and access to services to do so; or failure to protect him or her from exposure to danger107. iii. violence, is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation,108 and iv. exploitation is the action or fact of treating someone unfairly in order to benefit from their work109. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs110.
A the impact of a child protection episode can be reduced by the existence of social assets, social safety nets and by the resilience of the child, his/her family and community. Social assets are the set of skills, strengths, capacity and knowledge of individuals and the social capital of communities111. Social safety nets are non-contributory transfers designed to provide regular and predictable support to targeted poor and vulnerable people112. Resilience is the ability of countries, communities, households and individuals to
105 Adapted from “Strengthening Social Protection For Children in West And Central Africa”, UNICEF and ODI, 2009 106 WHO Consultation on Child Abuse Prevention, 1999 107 United Nations World Report on Violence against Children, 2006 108 World Report of Violence and Health, WHO, 2002 109 Oxford Dictionary, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/exploitation 110 Article 3 of the United Nations Protocol on Transnational Organised Crime, Palermo, 2000 111 http://www.iriss.org.uk/project/social-assets-action 112 The State of Social Sefaty Nets, The World Bank, 2014.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania manage change, by maintaining or transforming living standards in the face of shocks or risks without compromising their long-term prospects.113
A child protection system is the set of all organised actors that work together towards the common goal of preventing and responding to exploitation, violence, neglect and abuse against children in order to create or (re)establish all conditions propitious to good and sound child growth and development114.
Section 4. Overall research questions and assumptions
The analysis of the child protection system (CPS) will have three foci:
i. identification and assessment of the key risk, vulnerability and deprivation factors that impact the level of protection of children, ii. the way in which the CPS is designed to perform its duties and achieve its goals, and iii. the way in which the CP interventions are implemented for the benefit of children and their families
The findings from analysis of these three aspects will be then used to identify strategic recommendations for territorial and social care services reform in Albania, with particular focus on the protection of children in health, education, justice, law enforcement and social welfare sectors. The visual that follows shows the flow of these key aspects.
Analysis of risk, Analysis of the shock, vulnerability Analysis of the CPS Recommendations implementation of and deprivation design and way forward CP interventions factors
Figure1: Steps of the analysis of the child protection system
The first focus is on the elements that lead to the emergence of one or more child protection episodes (CPE). A CPE is the result of the combination of several elements, but generally speaking it can occur any time that risks or shocks hit a child who is made vulnerable to them because of his/her deprivations and deriving from his/her social exclusion. This focus has two facetes: 1) it will look at which risks, deprivations and vulnerablites, assets and resilience are identified and how they are assessed by the service providers (supply side); and 2) it will look at which risks, deprivations and vulnerablites, assets and resilience are identified and how they are assessed by the children and their families (demand side).
113 Adapted from the DfID working definition of ‘disaster resilience’, in “Defining Disaster Resilience: A DFID Approach Paper”, November 2011 114 This definition is developed for the prurpose of the analysis only. It bases its focus on actors, rather than input and output, such as the definition of a health system.
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Social Exclusion
Deprivations
Shocks Vulnerabilities Risks
Child protection episodes
Social safety Resilience nets Social assets
Figure2: Determinants of child protection episodes
The second focus will be to look at how the CPS is designed to respond to the CPE. More specifically, the design of the system should include all institutional arrangements at both the national and decentralized levels (laws, regulations, policies, procedures, institutions, workforce and capacities, services and service providers, and accountability mechanisms) that translate the social risk management strategies into the practice of the CP programmes. The analysis of the design of the system will take in due account the extent to which children are encouraged and allowed to participate and involved in any decision making opportunity that affect them.
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Social Social Programmes Protection Risk
System Management Child
Episode
Protection Protection
Prevention
strategies Prevention
interventions
Child
Episode
Mitigation Protection
Child strategies
System Promotion Protection
interventions Coping
Protection Child Transformation interventions Transformation
strategies Episode interventions Protection
Figure3: Design of the child protection system
The third focus of the analysis will look at how the system operates. Child protection is an overall responsibility that encompasses a variety of actors and is implemented in different sectors and settings. For this reason, the analysis will look at how and to what extent child protection is mainstreamed in other sectors such as education, health, justice and law enforcement, and how far these sectors and settings115 managed to effectively enhance the level of protection of children in Albania.
Child Protection System Social protection CP in Education sector Community-based Social care CP
CP in Health sector Child protection CP in families
CP in Justice sector
Figure4: Functioning of the child protection system
115 Settings are the different place and moments lived by a child: home, school, playground, etc.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Section 5. Analytical matrix
Aspect Information Details
1. Economic shocks and stresses; CP risks Identification of major risks and shocks that affect the 2. Environmental fragility; protection of children 3. Heightened vulnerability to disease and ill health; 4. Discriminatory social norms and belief systems; 5. Weaknesses in governance and government capacity; and 6. Situations of political instability and armed conflict and their aftermath
Factors of vulnerability and resilience 1. Social exclusion/inclusion and deprivations 2. Age 3. Gender relations 4. Ethnic belonging 5. Economic poverty 6. Health, illness, disability 7. Presence/absence of an adult caregiver 8. Parent’s/caregiver’s education 9. Social assets and social capital 10. Urban/rural disparities
System design Normative framework (laws, subsidiary legislation, 1. National development agenda policies, strategies, regulations, guidelines and 2. Social inclusion customary laws) 3. Social protection 4. Child protection a. In social welfare b. In education c. In health d. In justice
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Aspect Information Details
5. Criminal matters a. Child offenders (arrest, investigation, pre-trial detention, investigation, assessment, trial, sentencing, detention, diversion) b. Child victims (abandonment, sexual abuse, commercial sexual exploitation, worst forms of child labour, trafficking, gender based violence, domestic violence, child discipline, child marriage, prosecution of perpetrators, protective measures) c. Child witness (testify, protective measures) 6. Civil matters: a. Inheritance, birth registration, property rights, age of consent, age of marriage, age of army enrolment, alternative care 7. Emergency preparedness 8. Public Administration 9. Public Finance Management
Structures of key institutions (government and civil 1. Mandates society) 2. Roles and responsibilities 3. Workforce 4. Capacities a. Requirements (job descriptions, scheme of service) b. Capacity needs assessment and strengthening c. Trainings (pre-service and in-service) 5. Performance appraisal mechanisms 6. Accountability 7. Decentralisation and deconcentration
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Aspect Information Details
Services for children and families 1. Programmes a. Prevention b. Protection c. Promotion d. Transformation 2. Targeting mechanisms 3. Coverage 4. Standards 5. Registration and licensing 6. Piloting and replication 7. Implementation mechanisms a. Government b. Civil society (NGOs) c. Community based d. Outsourcing mechanisms (if available) 8. Feedback and learning mechanisms 9. Client satisfaction/Complaint mechanisms
Case management framework 1. Identification 2. Assessment 3. Decision making and gatekeeping 4. Reporting 5. Monitoring 6. Referral and coordination mechanisms 7. Case closure and Follow up / supervision
Monitoring and evaluation 1. Information Management System a. Data collection
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Aspect Information Details
b. Processing/manipulation c. Storage d. Distribution e. Utilisation 2. Objects of monitoring a. Risk factors b. Targeted population (beneficiaries) c. Services d. Service providers 3. Research agenda (ex-ante, on-going and ex-post evaluation)
Coordination 1. Ministerial coordination body a. Composition b. Mandate c. Operating mechanisms 2. Technical coordination body a. Composition b. Mandate c. Operating mechanisms 3. Sector Wide Approaches 4. Inter-agency collaborations/Memoranda of Understanding 5. Donor coordination (bi- and multi-lateral) 6. Vertical coordination and horizontal coordination 7. Programme coordination and case management coordination
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Aspect Information Details
Budget 1. Budget cycle 2. Budget classification 3. Medium Term Expenditure Framework a. Programme Based Budgeting b. Prioritisation 4. Public Expenditure Tracking a. Budget allocation i. Running costs ii. Development costs b. Budget outturns i. Running costs ii. Development costs 5. Aid coordination 6. Accounting, reporting and auditing 7. Fiscal space
System functioning Supply side Normative framework (laws, 1. Knowledge and understanding subsidiary legislation, policies, 2. Availability strategies, regulations, guidelines 3. Adequacy 4. Coherence and customary laws) 5. Compliance
Structures of key institutions 1. Adequacy (government and civil society)
Services for children 1. Impact 2. Adequacy
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Aspect Information Details
3. Coherence 4. Coverage 5. Accessibility 6. Compliance
Case management 1. Knowledge and understanding 2. Adequacy 3. Compliance
CP monitoring and evaluation 1. Adequacy 2. Data quality 3. Data coverage/gaps
Coordination 1. Functioning 2. Impact 3. Adequacy
Budget 1. Adequacy 2. Efficiency 3. Compliance
Demand Experience and perceptions on service 1. Commitment side providers 2. Trust 3. Professionalism 4. Child-sensitiveness 5. Integration 6. Discriminatory practices
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Aspect Information Details
Experience and perceptions on services 1. Knowledge and understanding 2. Coverage 3. Availability 4. Accessibility 5. Satisfaction 6. Adequacy 7. Child-centeredness 8. Empowerment
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ANNEX: DEFINITIONS OF MATRIX DETAILS FOR THE FUNCTIONING ANALYSIS
Adequacy
The CP service is designed to respond to the CP risks, needs and shocks with quality impact
Accessibility
Feature of CP services that are available when needed
Availability
Presence of a service
Professionalism
Preparedness, knowledge, skills and ability in performing work according to standards set and defined level of quality
Child-sensitiveness
Ways of functioning of the service that takes into account children’s peculiar needs, characteristics, best interests and evolving capacities
Child-centeredness
Is the approach that recognises that children’s rights and needs are the primary focus at the centre of their development, and are compounded, supported and critically linked to their parents, family, community, culture and country
Coherence
Services are aligned with values/social norms
Commitment
Service providers are dedicated to their work
Compliance
The alignment between what is outlined in normative frameworks, standards and guidelines and what happens on the ground in practice
Coverage
The distribution of available services with regards to potential cases, geographic considerations and population distribution
Data quality
The reliability of available information such as,
Data coverage/gaps
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
The match between information needs and available information
Discriminatory practices
Attitudes, behaviours, policies or practices that exclude people based on prejudices
Empowerment
Action aimed to promote self-reliance by equipping a person to make their own decisions.
Functioning
Working in a proper manner, as intended
Knowledge and understanding
Awareness of the existence of something and comprehension of its purpose
Impact
When an action produces a change or has an effect on the beneficiaries
Integration
When the system or its components operate towards common goals and according to the same founding principles and procedures.
Satisfaction
The personal feeling of an achievement or a result
Trust
The perception that you can rely on someone or something
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Annex 2: Research protocol and methodological tools About the protocol
This protocol presents the rational, objectives and methodology of the research implementation process. It provides, in annex, the project-related documents for reference and a set of methodological tools to be used for the collection and sharing of primary data. The research work plan includes a description of the design and methodology, how the research team and participants will be chosen, a description of what will happen during the study and what data analysis methods will be used on the data collected and in this way acts also as a narrative work plan. (see the research work plan in the annexes). It is crucial to ensure that the research team, in its entirety, share a good understanding of the analytical framework and of the research principles as well as the targeted outcomes of the assessment (see Analytical Framework in the annexes) Every researcher must strive for agreed upon goals in providing answers to the same research questions in order for the information to lend to the reliability and utility of the overall analysis. In this way, a primary outcome is a product that is accessible and useful for partners (Government, UNICEF and non-government). Each researcher must use the same principles, methodological strategies and tools to generate information that is comparable and therefore valid for the analysis and useful to end-users. The protocol is meant to help ensure sound foundational, methodological and ethical alignment among the actors responsible for and implementing the different components of the project. The ultimate goal of the analysis is to strengthen the child protection system in Albania through the identification of specific recommendations coming from the mapping and systems analysis of the child protection system, and aimed to develop a national strategy on child protection and inform ongoing reforms and vice versa (territorial reform and social care services reform)116. In order to do so information will be gathered, analysed and strategically organized using the analytical framework proposed by Maestral and agreed upon by key partners. The purpose of the document is multiple: (i) Coordinate the different actors, responsibilities and accountabilities before, during and after the actual research; (ii) Facilitate the data collection and analysis through common understanding and approaches; (iii) Support on-going monitoring of the research activities; and (iv) Facilitate a useful and comprehensive final product that is accessible to end-users. The protocol has been drafted and designed by Maestral and submitted for approval to key partners before being proposed for its final validation to the field researchers. It is intended to be a “living” document that can be adapted and modified as the assessment progresses and improvements are identified. The protocol will be translated, copied and reviewed with every researcher involved. A primary responsibility of researchers is to understand the protocol and refer to it as the research is being undertaken, as well as to ask clarifying questions or propose deviations as needs arise. Researchers are encouraged to have a copy of the protocol with them for reference when in field. The research background and rationale
116 From the terms of reference for the Analysis of the child protection system in the wider context of social protection, UNICEF Albania and Terre des hommes, Tirana, 2014
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
The Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth (here after referred to as “The Ministry”) continues to reform the planning and provision of social care services. The reform is supported by a grant from the Swiss Development Cooperation provided through United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The initiative, which is being conducted over the next four years, is part of the on-going reform of the social protection system managed by the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. It is meant to improve the efficiency of the social protection system, the quality of social services for vulnerable groups, including children and their families, and to ensure that social protection works for the most vulnerable members of society. An effective social care system consists of an integrated and inter-connected system of laws, regulations, policies, procedures, institutions, capacities and workforce, and services and service providers. Much of the primary legislation to support implementation of the reform is in place. In brief, the actions of the reform can be condensed into five Principal Action headings117:
Clarification of central - local government financial relationships Enabling local government to plan and deliver social care services Central & local government responsibilities to plan social care services Development of human resource capacity to provide social care services The role and function of State Social Services. The exact architecture of the reformed social care service delivery system will be affected by the on-going administrative/territorial reform which is also underway, but the main point remains the same: there must be a profession "on the ground", close to where people live, to assist those in difficult life circumstances to find effective ways out of their troubles. If such professionals are available, chances that difficult situations would spiral into conflicts and/or crises become much less. Among the many streams of work undertaken by the Ministry in support of the reform of social services a systems analysis of child protection is needed in order to make the social protection system child-sensitive in Albania and demonstrate how social protection is a cross-cutting tool with the potential to complement investments across sectors, resulting in more equitable outcomes.118 UNICEF and Terre des hommes (Tdh), in coordination with the Ministry has commissioned Maestral International with the systems analysis to be developed through a mapping and assessment exercise. The mapping and assessment will look at how the child protection and social protection programmes (both prevention and intervention) have made use of the available resources, to what extent and with what results or impacts. The mapping and assessment of the child protection system will start from the findings of the National Strategy for Social Inclusion (NSSI) evaluation119 and its recommendations, as well as other key resources such as the Analysis of Child Protection system by the BKTF coalition and the Report on monitoring the Plan of Action on Children’s rights. The mapping and assessment will begin with a look at how the Albanian social protection system is identifying and addressing protection risks of children and it will analyse the child protection system under the lens of broad social protection and within the child rights framework of the
117 From the terms of reference of child protection system analysis, UNICEF Albania, 2014 118 From the terms of reference for the Analysis of the child protection system in the wider context of social protection, UNICEF Albania and Terre des Hommes, Tirana, 2014 119 Albanian Centre for Economic Research, Evaluation of Albania's National Social Inclusion Strategy (2007-2013), Tirana 2013
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), its optional protocols and all international child rights instrument . In this sense, information will be sought to demonstrate how (and if) the system: identifies and prevents child care and protection risks; protects children from those risks; intervenes in situations of violation or protection concerns; promotes family-based care, community responses and the fulfilment of child’s rights; and operates a transformation in the national and local context for improved results for children and their families. The mapping and assessment will consider to what extent the provision of social transfers and the concurrent extension of access to quality services has led to improved child protection risk management and intervention outcomes for children. The exercise will lead to the identification of the drivers of change (DoC) that impact the different levels and forms of care and protection of children, lending to the formulation of a theory of change (ToC) against which the functioning of the child protection system can then be assessed within the overall social protection environment. As a crucial component, the analysis will focus on the cross- sectoral functioning of the system, in particular between the health, law enforcement, justice and education sectors. Teams, roles and responsibilities
Maestral International’s team will be composed by three consultants:
Manolo Cabran will be the team leader. He will be in charge of coordinating all aspects of the consultancy. He will supervise and lead the mapping and assessment under the aspects of social protection, child justice, and visual mapping, budget and statistical analysis. Beth Bradford will be in charge of the aspects of social welfare and social work, and service provision, with a special focus on alternative care and reform planning and case management systems. Manuel Finelli will be in charge of all the consultative and participatory aspects of the research. He will design the tools for primary data collection, and support the National Research Team. Terre des hommes’ team will be composed by:
One team leader, Three social workers, One education specialist, One public finance management, and One lawyer. The organisations Terre des hommes and Maestral International will be responsible for the conception, implementation and analysis of primary data collection activities as described in this protocol and with reference to the agreements initiated, contracted and managed by the UNICEF Albania Country Office (in the annexes). Maestral International will be responsible and held accountable for the following overall tasks:
Development of the analytical framework, research protocol, methodologies and tools Training of local researchers Provision of technical oversight to Terre des hommes concerning data collection and analysis Analysis of the data collection outputs received with input from Terre des hommes Inclusion of the analysis results into the comprehensive assignment deliverables to UNICEF and the Ministry -Liaison and regular communication with UNICEF, the Ministry and Terre des hommes -Overall supervision of the assessment process
TERRE DES HOMMES will be responsible and held accountable for the following overall tasks:
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
- Recruitment of local researchers - Coordination and organisation of local research activities - Supervision of local researchers - Liaison and regular communication with Maestral International on research protocol, methodologies and tools - Provision to Maestral International of data collection outputs based on the agreed work plan The tables that follow in each section detail the responsibilities and expected implementation timing for each of the foreseen strategies and activities. In case any of the agencies will not be able, for any reason, to comply with the agreed tasks and timeline, immediate communication will be given to the other partners to seek alternatives or possible solutions. The analytical framework and overall research questions
The Albanian child protection system is a part of the broader context of social protection and it links with all the other social sectors, such as education, health, law enforcement, justice, that carry child protection responsibilities and mandates. The Ministry is in charge of implementing three aspects of social protection programmes120, namely: a) the cash assistance programme Ndhima Ekonomike b) the disability Allowance KEMP, and c) the provision of Social Care Services. The research will look at these three key aspects specifically related to care and protection of children and within the national child protection system and their mutual interrelations (see the annex Analytical Framework for more details).
CP risks, vulnerabilities, assets, resiliences
CPS CPS design implementation
The implementation of the assessment will be based on the general questions the research intends to answer:
Are child protection risks, deprivations, vulnerabilities, opportunities and resiliencies adequately identified and assessed?? Is the child protection system designed properly and adequately to address them? Is the child protection system implemented effectively to tackle the risks and safeguard children’s protection? Based on the different stakeholder groups relevant informants will be engaged through interviews and focus group discussions using a series of more specific questions designed for each group but based on inputting to the overall research questions. The analytical matrix annexed in the analytical framework details the
120 In this context, social protection does not cover employment, pensions and social insurances.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania specific aspects under each overall research question. Answers will be sought from both the demand and supply side of the system. The analysis will consist of the following steps: Preparation Data collection Data analysis Data validation Preparation
ACTIVITY RESPONSIBILITY DEADLINE
Development of the analytical framework Maestral International February (4th week)
Development of the research protocol Maestral International February (4th week)
Recruitment of the local researchers Terre des hommes February (4th week)
Development of the methodological tools Maestral International March (1st week)
Development of the training package Maestral International March (1st week)
Organization of local researcher training Terre des hommes March (3rd week)
Design and implementation of local Maestral International March (3rd week) researcher training
Organization of the World Cafè event UNICEF March (3rd week)
Implementation of the World Café event Maestral International March (3rd week)
Report of training and World Cafè event Maestral International April (1st week)
Finalisation of analytical framework and Maestral International April (1st week) methodology – if neede
Development of the methodology
In order to generate the adequate answers to the research questions above, the methodological approach Maestral will be adopting has been tested and sharpened through the work in several countries and can be meaningfully adapted to the Albanian context121. It builds on participation through the active involvement of all child protection stakeholders, from government to civil society, community leaders to families and children, and has proven, among other things, to ensure: ownership and transparency of the process, relevant and up-to-date data collection, and capacity building through knowledge transfer and discussions
121 Maestral International developed for UNICEF the Global Toolkit to map and assess child protection system, available here.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania around the findings. The data collection methods that will be used are listed here and will be presented more in details in the following sections: 1. Desk review: the most relevant and recent literature on child protection and social protection will be collected, read and analysed to gather information for the mapping and assessment. This method will provide information to answer the questions under all the three key aspects above mentioned. The review will include published and grey literature related to the situation, care and protection of children in Albania and including regional documents. 2. World Café: a participatory method through which a significant gathering of people discusses, connects and develops ideas, knowledge and experiences about themes and issues proposed by the facilitation team. It is a very useful and powerful method to explore the research domains narrowing them down into thematic areas and prioritising issues. This method will be mostly used for analysis of two sets, risk and system functioning. 3. On-line survey: administered through a web-based platform. The purpose of the survey is to collect quantitative data on the child protection workforce. It could be limited at the social workers, or it could be extended to CP actors in other sectors (namely education, health, police, judiciary). Questions will look at profile, experience, training, and background. The advantages of using an on- line survey are its capacity to reach a great amount of recipients, as well as the usability of the information collected for visual graphics and representations. 4. Key informant interviews: qualitative in-depth interviews with key stakeholders familiar with the community or topic. The purpose of key informant interviews is to collect information from a wide range of people—including community leaders, professionals, and beneficiaries. This method will be mostly used for the key aspect of system design (see Information sheet: About the key informant semi-structured interviews in in the annexes). 5. Focus group discussions (FGD): the meeting of a small group of individuals who are guided through a discussion by a trained moderator used to gather rich qualitative information. The goal of the focus group is to uncover insights on attitudes and behaviour. Both thematic and inter-sectorial FGD will be held. This method will be mostly used for analysis of system functioning (see Information sheet: About the focus group discussions in the annexes). Sampling
The field research primary data collection activities will be held in the selected counties, districts and municipalities. Based on the available human and financial resources for the mapping and assessment exercise, during the consolidation of this research protocol, The Maestral team, in coordination with UNICEF and Terre des hommes, will identify the which of the 12 counties, 36 districts, and 66 municipalities (hereafter “sampled units”) of Albania will be involved in the analysis. Maestral International suggest the adoption of three possible criteria for the identification of the districts, counties and municipalities to be visited during the data collection phase. The first criterion is to differentiate urban/rural areas; the second is to consider their distance from the capital Tirana122; and the third is random sampling. The figure below123 presents an example of how 10 random districts could be identified.124
122 The assumption behind this criterion is that the closer to the capital, the higher the chances to have “good” child protection services being available. 123 Map from http://www.lonelyplanet.com/maps/europe/albania/map_of_albania.jpg 124 A grid will be overlapped to the map. The choice of the map will depend on the level (national map to select districts, district maps to select counties and county maps to select municipalities). Each cell of the grid will be numbered. Number will be randomly drawn lots.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
X X
X
X X
X
X
X X
X
Selection of the Local Research Team
The required local researchers will be recruited, identified and hired by Terre des hommes, according to its procurement procedures and based on the agreed Terms of References. (See the local researchers TOR in the annexes). Terre des hommes will provide one of its staff member to act as Local Research Team Leader, and will recruit: 3 social workers and 1 education specialist and 1 public finance management specialist and 1 Lawyer based on the specific needs. The recruitment of the consultants will have to happen before the launch of the research. Launch and induction
During the first field mission, the Maestral team will conduct a half day initial stakeholder’s consultation using a methodology called “World Café” to support the participatory research process by bringing together relevant actors. It is suggested that participants belong to any coordination committee/mechanism existing at the national level on social inclusion, social protection and child protection systems in Albania such as representatives or members of National level coordination committees and/or mechanisms on social inclusion, social protection and child protection, IGOs and NGOs with relevance with children’s rights, Civil society organisations with relevance with human rights, including all the UNICEF and TDH staff involved by the mapping and assessment. The event focuses on defining the boundaries of the child protection system within the broader social protection environment, and thus, develops consensus and detail needed for the mapping and assessment. For this reason, the event will see the participation of representatives from police, health, education, justice, and NGOs, State social services, representative of local government, MSWY, domestic violence NGO s, and
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania any other actor that is currently involved in child protection interventions125. The event will provide forum for exchange of views, information sharing and emphasise discussion on: (i) Which elements constitute the CP System; (ii) Who is served by CP Services; and (iii) Who lacks access to CP Services and why. The World Café will be conducive for the subsequent research phases such as organising more effective formats for focus group discussions and ensuring a more consistent development of interview grid templates, as well as informing key stakeholders on the analysis and gaining consensus in preparation of eventual recommendations. During the first field mission, the Maestral team will provide the Local Research Team with a four-day training on conducting the data collection. The training event will involve two Maestral team members, the Local Research Team Leader and the 4 local researchers. Maestral international will be responsible for the design and conduction of the training modules and Terre des hommes will be responsible for the logistics. It will pursue a threefold purpose: 1) To acquaint the Local Research Team with the goal and objectives of the analysis; 2) To ensure alignment of the Local Research Team with the analytical framework, research principles, codes of conduct, and the chosen methodologies; and 3) To consolidate capacities needed for the selected data collection tools (Focus Group Discussion and Key Informant Semi-Structured Interviews). The training agenda will have the following structure (see the Local Research Team training agenda in the annexes for further details):
DAY 1: Research overview and alignment on key concepts, conceptual foundation and primary principles
DAY 2: Familiarization with the chosen methodology
DAY 3: Testing of the tools
DAY 4: Finalisation and launch
Data collection
Desk review
ACTIVITY RESPONSIBILITY DEADLINE
Sharing of resources for the desk review UNICEF and Terre des hommes February (4th week)
Gathering of additional resources through call Maestral International End of February for documents
Finalisation of the literature review reference Maestral International May (4th week) list
125 The list of participants will be finalised in partnership with MoSWY and UNICEF.
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Maestral International will be conducting a desk review considering the sources that UNICEF and Terre des hommes will be providing and cross referenced with the documents already accessed by the Maestral team. Additional resources will be identified using a snow-ball method using documents references in already available documents, as well as reaching out to colleague networks for relevant country or regional documents. The review will look at both published and grey literature. On-line survey
To integrate and complement the information gathered from the literature review, the research team will conduct an on-line survey and a qualitative data collection to be implemented in the selected contexts, through key informant semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions.
ACTIVITY RESPONSIBILITY DEADLINE
Identification of recipients Maestral International 1st week of April
Design of the survey Maestral International 2nd week of April
Administration of the survey Maestral International On-going
Analysis of results Maestral International 1st week of June
The on-line survey will be administered through Survey Monkey, a web-based platform126. The purpose of the survey is to collect quantitative data on the child protection workforce. It may be limited to the social workers, or it could be extended to allied CP actors (such as those from education, health, police and legal structures). The survey can be administered to CP actors at the district and county levels only. Final recipients will be agreed with the Ministry, UNICEF and Tdh. The questions will look at profile, experience, training, and background of those selected from the CP workforce. The advantages of using an on-line survey are its capacity to reach a great amount of recipients, as well as the usability of the information collected for quantitative statistics, visual graphics and representations. Focus group discussions
The analysis will be complemented with rich qualitative data gathered from focus group discussions with a variety of stakeholder groups. This methodology will be particularly useful in understanding the perceptions of end-line beneficiaries such as children, youth and families. All focus group discussions will follow international best practices; in particular the FGD with children will pay attention to children’s rights to participate, express opinions and also to safety. An ethical code of conduct for work with children and vulnerable populations will be arranged and understood by all researchers127 and partners. Other stakeholders to be considered for FGD are: families and caregivers, service providers, local leaders, community social workers.
126 This could be complemented by making us of the Child Protection Hub, a south eastern Europe platform for Child Protection workers, a regional initiative taken and coordinated by Tdh, but involving several partners from Albania and Europe. 127 Tdh has in place the Child Protection Policy which is mandatory to be signed and definitely followed by every employee, consultant working with and visitors. In this case, since all the Local Research Team is recruited by Tdh and managed by us, the Tdh Child Protection Policy will be signed.
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For the data collection at the decentralised level, in each targeted district, county and municipality, the standard developed by the Maestral team foresees the following activities to be carried-out:
2 Focus Group Discussions with CP service-providers (social workers, police officers, health workers and teachers); 2 Focus Group Discussion with parents; 2 Focus Group Discussion with children/young people128; The 4 local researchers will work in pairs, visiting two sampled units at the same time. Each FGD will take approximately 1.5 hours both with the CP service-providers and the parents/teachers; 1 hour with children/young people; each FGD will be documented by note-taking and integral recording129. The FGD will be conducted following the methodology and tools to be developed by the Maestral International team and finalised/validated by the whole of the research team during the induction training event right before the launch of the qualitative data collection activities. (See the conduction guidelines in the annexes).
ACTIVITY RESPONSIBILITY DEADLINE
Maestral International Identification of key stakeholder groups for focus group with key partners discussion data collection (FGD)
Maestral International Development of FGD protocols for each group
Terre des hommes Translation of tool and testing
Maestral International Training on FGD methodology
Terre des hommes April (2nd week) FGD reporting
Maestral International (April – May) Provision of technical oversight Key informant interviews
Semi-structured key informant interviews (KII) will be used to gather information on the attitudes, behaviours and perceptions of key CP stakeholders. Maestral International will work with partners to identify informants. They might include national, district and local government authorities, national non-governmental organizations (NGOs), key service providers and others at the community level. KII will provide critical information about how the CP system is working in practices and help to identify gaps, challenges and opportunities. In each sampled unit, at least 4 KII with including community leaders, professionals, or residents with a first-hand knowledge about the community and/or a specific topics will be carried out. The 4 local researchers will work in pairs, visiting two sampled units at the same time. The Interviews will take from 45 to 90 minutes will be documented by integral recording.
ACTIVITY RESPONSIBILITY DEADLINE
128 For all FGds with children, a prior written permission from parents is required. 129 At the beginning of each FGD, permission will be sought from participants to record the session.
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Maestral International Identification of key stakeholders for Key Informant with key partners Interviews (KII)
Maestral International Development of KII protocols
Terre des hommes Translation of tool and testing
Maestral International Training on KII KII Reporting Terre des hommes May (4th week)
Maestral International (April – May) Provision of technical oversight The identification of participants to in FGDs and of key informants will be completed during the training of the Local Research Team jointly by the Ministry, UNICEF, Terre des hommes and Maestral International and will be checked before visiting each sampled unit. The following generic itinerary is the suggested: A two-researchers team can be deployed in the context of a 5-day mission: Day 1 (half): Travel Day 2 (full): 1 FGD in the morning, 1 FGD in the afternoon/evening (1 researcher conducting, 1 researcher documenting) Day 3 (full): 1 FGD in the morning, 1 FGD in the afternoon/evening (1 researcher conducting, 1 researcher documenting) Day 4 (full): 1 FGD in the morning, 1 FGD in the afternoon/evening (1 researcher conducting, 1 researcher documenting) Day 5 (full): 2 Interviews in the morning, 2 Interview in the afternoon/evening (to be conducted individually by each researcher with recording and note taking) Day 6 (half): Travel The mission format will require that the national team will spend 4 full working days (not including trips) for the conduction of FGD and Interviews and 4 full working days for the elaboration of FGD and Interviews, making the estimated timing for each sampled unit approximately up to two weeks. Altogether, over a 2-month qualitative data collection workplan a 4 persons research team will be able to cover 8 sampled units in terms of both conducting and documenting the qualitative data collection activities, for a comprehensive output of 68 FGD reports and 171 Interviews reports. Technical oversight
During the qualitative data collection, Manuel Finelli will conduct at least three web-based meetings to be attended by the LRTM and all the local researchers according to the following plan: Meeting I right after the completion of the data collection activities in the first sampled unit, in order to get a first feedback on the field activities implementation, as well as challenges eventually encountered and, if needed, decide methodological adjustments, and generally to ensure quality and relevance of the information collected. Meeting II half-way in the data collection activities of the sampled units to get the sense of the overall implementation status. Meeting III two weeks before right the expected date of completion of the data collection activities for an overall activity debriefing.
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Additional meetings: throughout the process the Maestral International will be available for web-based bilateral or collective discussions whether methodological or ethical issues may arise. Communication, coordination and reporting
The Maestral International team leader, Manolo Cabran will report to the UNICEF Albania CP system analysis focal point, Floriana Hima. While Maestral will have a contractual obligation to report directly to UNICEF, the team is also accountable to the Ministry and Terre des homes. The LRU and the PFM specialist will report to the (LRTL), who will liaise with Maestral team leader. The PFM specialist and the lawyer will report also to the Maestral International team leader and the LRTL on progresses and challenges. Maestral International team leader will give feedback to the UNICEF focal point on bi- weekly basis regarding the progress of each step. Other communication will be arranged as needed. Maestral team members will also have regular team meetings to facilitate coordinated work. Communication will be by Skype or Web Ex platforms when not face-to-face. The Local Research Team (LRT) will then be composed of two Local Research Units (LRU), each made of two researchers, by a Public Finance Management (PFM) specialist, the lawyer and the a Local Research Team Leader (LRTL). The Manuel Finelli from Maestral International will provide the necessary support in terms of supervision and guidance as per the modalities below. The local researchers will be directly accountable to Terre des hommes and indirectly to the Ministry, UNICEF and Maestral International for the organisation and realisation of the Focus Group Discussions and the Key Informant Interviews as well as for the adequate documentation of those according to the agreed reporting guidelines in the annexes. The 4 local researchers will be coordinated by and reporting to the Local Research Team Leader, namely Blerta Spahiu, child protection specialist at Terre des hommes. The Local Research Team Leader will be responsible for the coordination and supervision of the local researchers and will be in charge of the liaison with the Maestral International team concerning the data collection related information flow. The FGD reports and the KII reports to be shared by the Local Research Team will be based on the narrative notes for each of the interviews and focus group discussions, as well as on their debriefings at the end of each meeting. Both data collection activities will be conducted in the Albanian language, therefore full transcripts will not be required, but rather narrative notes and observation of each activity written in English will be prepared in following the reporting guidelines in the annexes). Communication between Maestral International, Terre des hommes and UNICEF will happen according to the flow chart following:
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Team leader Consultant UNICEF
CPS analysis Maestral
International focal point
PFM specialist Local Research National Law expert Team Leader Research
Team
Local Research Unit 1 Local Research Unit 2
- Researcher I - Researcher III - Researcher II - Researcher IV
Ethical principles and child protection procedures
Based on the relevant literature130131132133, the team has identified key principles for involving children in the study which include the following:
Voluntary and informed participation. Children and their families will be informed fully about: 1) the aims of the study, 2) what the outcomes will be, 3) what the findings of the study will be used for, and 4) why they are invited to participate in the study. It should be their decision upon receiving as full information as possible whether or not to participate in the study. They will also be informed how they can get familiarised with the final report. Confidentiality. Children and families will be informed that their names will be anonymised in the report and their responses to interview questions will be kept confidential. For this reason, the report will not have any names in order to avoid any potential harm to participants. If direct quotes are used, pseudonyms will be used instead of real names. If the interview and focus group is recorded, firstly, it will be explained why recording is important and secondly, they will be ensured that the recording will remain with the interviewer for the purpose of data analysis and will not be handed to anyone else. Consent. If children and their families decide after receiving full information to take part in the mapping and assessment, permission of caregivers for children under 18 years old and permission of children above 18 years old will be asked (in writing if possible). Consequently, they will be asked to sign the consent form included in the annexes. Nonetheless, they will be ensured that they can refuse
130 Kyronlampi-Kylmanen, T. and Maatta, K., ‘Using children as research subjects: How to interview a child aged 5 to 7 years’. Faculty of Education, University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland (2010). 131 ESOMAR World Research Codes and Guidelines, ‘Interviewing Children and Young People’. (2009). 132 Inter-Agency Working Group on Children’s Participation, ‘Minimum Standards for Consulting with Children’. ECPAT International, Knowing Children, Plan International, Save the Children Alliance, UNICEF EAPRO and World Vision, (2007). 133 ‘So You Want to Involve Children in Research? A Toolkit Supporting Children’s Meaningful and Ethical Participation in Research Relating to Violence against Children’. (Gillian Mann with S. Laws). SC Sweden. 2004.
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to participate in the research at any point. Furthermore, if there is any institution in Albania responsible for ensuring implementation of ethical research standards in the studies concerning children, permission to involve children in the mapping and assessment from this institution should be obtained. Questions. Interview questions will be formulated with the use of simple words and in local languages so that they are easily understood by children. Any questions, which can potentially be judgmental and insensitive to the child’s issue and local culture, will be avoided. The wording of questions should be sensitive to establish a positive and trusted relation with the interviewers and not evoke any traumatic memories, pain, and grief. Neither they should be difficult, problematic, or stressful for children to answer. Therefore, a considerable attention to the wording of questions will be given. Interview environment and setting. Setting of interviews will be made child-friendly. There are a number of practical techniques, such as a room layout, seat arrangements, which will be taken into account to make the environment conducive to interviewing children, to avoid the “question and answer” format and to make it more interactive and informal. The setting for interview should be chosen by the child: home or other location. Reporting cases of harm. If the research team comes across a case when the interviewee or anyone they know are at risk of harm (e.g. exploitation or abuse), the researchers will report this to a social worker representing DSW at the regional level, who will take over a responsibility for provision of support to the child and dealing with his/her case, as discussed in the meeting with the head of DSW in Tirana. Furthermore, it should be emphasised that, in the absence of a national body overseeing the ethical procedures of children’s participation in the research in Albania, the head of DSW, who is in charge of verifying the ethical standards in involving children in social research, has assessed the methodology and confirmed it meets the required standards for involving children in the analysis of the child protection system. Training on research involving children. Focus groups with children will be held by the local community activists. Two day training will be run for focus group facilitators by the consultant where the facilitators will be provided with instructions and guidance for holding activity-based focus group discussions with children. Data analysis
ACTIVITY RESPONSIBILITY PERIOD
Preparation of notes and observations from Local researchers overseen by KII & FGD Terre des hommes
Analysis of KII & FGD into data finding Maestral International themes
Analysis of the online survey Maestral International
Identification of key findings Maestral International
Maestral International will carry out the analysis of the child protection system based on the analytical framework, and with the sources of information available (e.g. from the documents analysed in the desk review, the information generated through the on-line survey, and from the FGD and KII reports). During the data analysis phase Maestral International team will request clarifications as needed from the local researchers on specific points.
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The collected information will be analysed by Maestral international, with the support of the Local Research Team, given their insight of the child protection system. The analytical framework developed by Maestral International will guide the systematic collection and presentation of the information generated through the desk review, on-line survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. For the sake of timing and to avoid mixing one meeting’s findings with another, the FGD and KII reports should be completed right after each of them; for this reason, Maestral International recommends that each FGD and KII report will be transmitted by the LRTL to Manuel Finelli before a new sampled unit will be visited. The Maestral International team and the local research team will work together (using remote communication) in order to identify the key preliminary findings. Data consolidation, validation and report
ACTIVITY RESPONSIBILITY PERIOD
Drafting of the final report Maestral International July (2nd week)
Organisation of the consolidation workshop Terre des hommes July (4th week)
Design/implementation of the consolidation Maestral International July (4th week) workshop
Organisation of the validation workshop UNICEF July (4th week)
Design/conduction of the validation workshop Maestral International July (4th week)
Final report Maestral International August (2nd week)
After the key preliminary findings are identified, Maestral team members will conduct a meeting with the Local Research Team aimed to consolidate the preliminary findings. The preliminary findings will be presented in form of briefings. Upon internal consolidation of the preliminary findings, Maestral will conduct a final workshop to present the preliminary findings to the child protection stakeholders, including those involved in the initial World Café event. Using plenary discussions and working groups, participants will validate the findings and will have an additional chance to suggest improvements. The workshop will also be the occasion to discuss and validate the recommendations and to prioritize them to inform an eventual strategy or plan of action to strengthen the national child protection system. Based on the validated findings, Maestral International will draft a Child Protection System Analysis Report. The outline of the full analysis report will be agreed with UNICEF, the Ministry and Terre des hommes to ensure its alignment of expectations and ToR criteria. The draft will be circulated among all relevant stakeholders, who, with a reasonable deadline, will be asked to provide their feedback. Their relevant inputs, comments and suggestions will be incorporated in the final draft. Annexes
1. Workplan 2. Information sheet: Key terminology for the research 3. Information sheet: Focus group discussions 4. Information sheet: Key informant semi-structured interviews 5. Information sheet: Research ethical procedures
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6. Information sheet: Ethical and practical concerns in consulting with children 7. Conduction guidelines for the focus group discussions 8. Conduction guidelines for the key Informant semi-structured interviews 9. FDG and KII Reporting guidelines 10. Terre des hommes informed consent form 11. Terre des hommes child protection policy 12. Local researcher training agenda 13. Project document: Analysis overall workplan 14. Project document: Analytical matrix 15. Project document: Contact details list 16. Project document: Local researcher TOR 17. Project document: International team TOR
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Annex 3: List of documents reviewed Albania Centre for Economic Research. (2012). Albania’s National Inter-Sectorial Strategy on Social Inclusion, 2007-2013 – Evaluation Report. Albanian Center for Social Studies. (2005). Assessment of the Child Care Services and the Institutions for Children Without Parental Care. Amnesty International. (2010). In search of shelter: Leaving social care in Albania. Amnesty International. (2010). Memorandum to the Albanian Government: Orphans and other children deprived of parental care. Better Care Network. (2013). Country Care Review: Albania. BKTF. (2012). Situation Analysis on Child Protection System in Albania 2011. Boeckhout, S. and McClements, C. (2010). Regional disparities in Albania. Report for UNDP. Bryne, K. (2014). Analysis of policies and reforms affecting the situation of children in Albania. Bushat, B., Karakaci, V. and Pfaeffli, S. (2014). Study on the functional areas in Albania. Program for Local Development and Decentralization. Center for Economic and Social Studies. (2011). Mapping Roma children in Albania. Child Protection Toolkit for Schools. (No date – no author) Child Rights Observatory. (2013). Child poverty in Albania. Children Today Center. (2013). Institutional Analysis of State Social Services: Roles, duties and responsibilities in the framework of the Social Care Services Reform. Children’s Alliance. (2009). Alternative report for the situation of children’s rights and on the implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Coalition for Free and Fair Elections and Sustainable Democracy. (2014). Monitoring of the primary health care system in Albania: Research paper. Committee on the Rights of the Child. (2011). Consideration of the reports submitted by the parties under article 44 of the Convention: Combined second, third and fourth periodic reports due in 2009 Albania. Committee on the Rights of the Child. (2012). List of issues concerning additional and updated information related to the consideration of the combined second, third and fourth periodic reports of Albania, Addendum, Written replies of Albania. Compass. (2001). The organization and structure of local government in Albania. Council of Europe. (2009). Integrated strategy against violence: Council of Europe policy guidelines on integrated national strategies for the protection of children from violence. CRCA, DCI and UNICEF. (2009). Hearing session in the Albanian assembly on the situation of juveniles in conflict with the law. Davis, R. (2008). Social work education and the practice environment in Europe and Eurasia. For United States Agency for International Development. Delaney, S. (2013). Evaluation Study of Child Protection Units for World Vision International.
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Dottridge, M. (2015-draft). Albanian business code of conduct concerning the employment of workers aged less than 18. Draft Operational Guidelines: EMPLOYMENT, SKILLS AND SOCIAL POLICY SECTOR. Dragoti, E. and Kusi, S. (2007). Violence against children in Albania: The capacity of service providers to identify, register, report and refer cases of violence against children. European Commission. (2008). Social inclusion and social protection in Albania. European Commission. (2013). Albania 2013 progress report. European Council. (2014). Albanian progress report to join the EU. Evans, P. (2014). A survey of children resident in public and non-public institutions. UNICEF. Gedeshi, I. and Jorgoni, E. (2012) Social Impact of Emigration and Rural-Urban Migration: Final country report Albania. For European Commission. Gheorghe, D. and Yordanova, D. (2015). Round table on combating violence against children in Albania: Summary report for Council of Europe. Government of Albania. (2013). STAR Support to Territorial and Administrative Reform Project document to UNDP. Government of Albania. (2013). STAR Support to Territorial and Administrative Reform Project document to UNDP: Revision. Government of Albania. (2014). Implementation Progress Report December 2013 –April 2014 Support to Territorial and Administrative Reform: Report to UNDP. Government of Albania. (2014). Implementation Progress Report May –August 2014 Support to Territorial and Administrative Reform: Report to UNDP. Guma, A. and Jones, I. (2012). Rights of Children in Alternative Care: Filling the Gap through Peer Research, Albania’s National Report 2011–2012. Report for SOS Children’s Villages. Hamilton, Carolyn, Steven Malby and Gwen Ross. (2007). Analysis of the Child Protection System in Albania. UNICEF & The Children’s Legal Centre. Hoxhaj, E. (2014). Decentralization process and financial autonomy of local government units in Albania. European Scientific Journal. INSTAT. (2012). Population And Housing Census 2011. INSTAT. (2013). Albania: Trends in poverty. Institute of Statistics of Albania. (2014). Albania living standards measurement survey 2012. Institute for Contemporary Studies. (2013). Social care services at the regional scale: Analysis and recommendations – Draft document. IOM. (2015). United Nations support to social inclusion in Albania Programme: Profile of the situation of unaccompanied minors and efforts for social inclusion. Jorgoni, E. and Ymeri, S. (2014). Supporting planning of social care services: Note on roles and functions. Report for UNICEF. Jorgoni, E., Stubbs, P. and Ymeri, S. (2014). Policy Paper Rescaling social care services: Reform scenarios for a regional tier. Prepared for UNICEF.
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Joshua, L. (2014). Integrated Policy Management Groups Joshua, L. (2014). Outline of national sector programme for employment, skills and social policy: A results based approach. Joshua, L. (2015). Support to sustainable reform processes in the employment, skills and social policy sector: Final report. Joshua, L. and Jorgoni, E. (2014). Strategic Agility: Road Map for the Integrated Policy Management Group and Development of a National Sector Programme in the Employment, Skills and Social Policy (ESSP) Sector. Joshua, L., Jorgoni, E. and Ymeri, S. (2015). Governance and Public Financial Management in the Employment, Skills and Social Policy Sector: An Assessment of Structures for Policy and Programme Coordination. Matković, G. (2015). Supporting planning of social care services: Concept paper on establishing a package of services in Albania and financing mechanisms. Report for UNICEF. Minister of State for Local Government. (2014). Administrative and Territorial Reform: Analysis of the local government situation in Albania. Ministry of Health of Albania and World Health Organization. (2006). Mental health system in Albania. Ministry of Internal Affairs. (2015). Round table discussion paper: Planning actions for the treatment of unaccompanied and separated minors. Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2014). Challenges and recommendations for improving child protection services on a local level. Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2014). National report on the situation of children’s rights in Albania 2013-2014. Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2010). National conference on social services reform. Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, UNICEF and Swiss Development Agency. (2015). The first convention in Albania to reform social care services for those most at risk. National Centre for Social Studies. (2013). Social care services in Albania: An updated map, characteristics and trends. National Committee of Women and Family and UNICEF. (2000). Mapping of existing information on domestic violence in Albania. National Institute of Public Health. (2014). Health status of the Albania population. No author. (2003). Albania’s fiscal decentralization study. Optima. (2015). Draft report of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Albanian social care services and legal framework. Optima. (2015). Inception report: Background research, analysis and preparation of a draft law on social care services. Overseas Development Institute. (2003). A review of experience in implementing medium term expenditure frameworks in a PRSP context. People’s Advocate. (no date). Recommendations on the administrative territorial reform.
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Qirjako, G., Burazeri, G. and Amursi, E. (2014). Prevalence of childhood physical abuse in Albania. Journal of Educational and Social Research Vol. 4, No 4. Save the Children. (2011). Legislation and public services for children in street situation. Save the Children. (2012). Child rights situation analysis: Albania. Save the Children. (2012). Child rights situation analysis: Albania. Social Research Centre. (2007). Women and children in Albania: Double dividend of gender equality. SOS Children’s Villages Albania. (2012). When care ends: Insights from young people on leaving care in Albania, the Czech Republic, Finland and Poland. State Agency for Child Protection. (2014). Challenges And Recommendations For The Improvement Of Child Protection Service At The Local Level. Stevens, I., Connelly, G. and Milligan, I. (2013). Moving forward on alternative care: Assessment of foster care pilot project in Albania. Stevens, I., Graham, C. and Milligan, I. (2013) Moving forward on alternative care: Assessment of the foster care pilot project in Albania. Report for UNICEF. Tamo, A. and Karaj, T. (2006). Violence against children in Albania For Human Development Centre. Tamo, A. and Karaj, T. (2007). Practices of child rearing in the remote north and suburban regions of Albania. Terre des hommes. (2003). Trafficking of Albanian children in Greece. Terre des hommes. (2013). Child Protection Safety Net Project: learning from experience Terre des hommes. (no date). Promoting child welfare and protection in Albania: In-Service training program for child protection/child welfare workers. Terre des hommes. (2014). Guidelines on procedures related to working with children in street situation. Draft document. UN Economic Commission for Europe. (2013). National report on the implementation of the Beijing +20 platform for action. UNDP and Ministry of Local Affairs. (2014). Report on consultation tour on administrative and territorial reform in Albania. UNDP. (no date). Feedback on PAR. UNDP. (2014). Human development index report for 2014. UNICEF & Terre des hommes. (2013). Reform of Social Care Services in Albania: Assessment of capacities of social service provider’s on case management model in the field of social services. UNICEF and European Commission. (2013). Keeping children safe from violence: Strengthening child protection systems in their accountability to identify, refer and respond to cases of violence against children, Results from a study in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Turkey. UNICEF and Save the Children. (2014). National study on children in street situation in Albania: From begging in the street toward protection and care. UNICEF. (2000). Towards a comprehensive juvenile justice system.
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UNICEF. (2007). National Conference Report: Strengthening the child, youth and family protection system. UNICEF. (2009). Assessment of juvenile justice reforms achievements in Albania. UNICEF. (2010). At Home or in a Home? Formal Care and Adoption of Children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. UNICEF. (2010). Good practices and promising initiatives in juvenile justice in CEE/CIS region. UNICEF. (2011). Follow on the conference on social services reform in Albania: UN guidelines on the alternative care for children. UNICEF. (2012). How to improve responsiveness of service providers in identifying, reporting and referring case of violence against children. UNICEF. (2012). Integrated Social Protection Systems. UNICEF. (2012). Workshop report: Strengthening child protection systems in their response to violence against children, turning evidence into policy and results. UNICEF. (2013). Assessment of feasibility for the electronic registration of child births. UNICEF. (2013). Keeping children safe from violence: Making systems more supportive of families and accountable to child rights. UNICEF. (2013). Keeping children safe from violence: Making systems more supportive of families and accountable to child rights. From Insights: Child Rights in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. UNICEF. (2013). Review of financial regulations and financial info systems for Social Protection budgets. UNICEF. (2013). Review of financial regulations and financial information systems of the Government of Albania for the management of social protection budgets. UNICEF. (2013). UNICEF annual report 2013. UNICEF. (2014). Convention on Social Services: Executive Report. UNICEF. (2014). Situational Analysis of Children with Disabilities in Albania. UNICEF. (2014). Social welfare for children in Albania: Public expenditure review. UNICEF. (2014). Supporting Planning of Social Care Services: Note on roles and functions. UNICEF. (2015). Supporting Planning of Social Care Services: Concept paper on establishing a package of services in Albania and financing mechanisms. UNICEF. (2015). A system approach to child protection: Focus on accountabilities of governments and societies. PowerPoint presentation. United States Department of State. (2014). Albania human rights report 2014. United States State Department. (2014). Trafficking in Persons Report 2014. UNU. (2014). World Risk Index. USAID. (2012). Planning and local governance project in Albania: White paper on fiscal decentralization in Albania – draft. Voko, K. and Tahsini, I. (2014). Children on the move in Albania: Response of child protection systems to
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their needs, Situation analysis. Report for Terre des Hommes and Save the Children. Westwater G & Jovanovi V. (2009). Evaluation of Child Protection Unit intervention within the framework of social welfare. World Bank. (2001). Public Expenditure And Institutional Review: A Briefing Note. World Bank. (2014). The state of social safety nets. World Economic Forum. (2012). Global gender gap report. World Economic Forum. (2015). Global risks 2015: 10th edition.
GOVERNMENT OF ALBANIA DOCUMENTS (73 documents)
Action Plan And Indicators For The National Social Protection Strategy 2015-2020 Administrative Territorial Units Bill 2014 Against Violence On Family Relations Agreement between Government of the Hellenic Republic (Greece) and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Albania for the Protection and Assistance of Children Victims of Trafficking, 2006 Albanian National Strategy for Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings – Strategic Framework and National Action Place 2005-2007 Cooperation Agreement for the Functioning of the National Referral Mechanism for Victims and Potential Victims of Trafficking in Persons (no date) Cooperation Agreement on Implementation of Law 9669, 18.12.2006 on Measures against Domestic Violence Criteria for the administrative territorial reform division of local government units Criteria on Selecting of Foster Families, Documentations and Procedures Involved in Foster Care Service, 2007, Related to Law No. 9335, 10.03.2005 Crosscutting Public Administration Reform Strategy 2015 - 2020 Decision No. 266 date 12.04.2012. Coordination of mechanisms activity at central and local level for the protection of the rights of child Decision No. 218, 02.08.2008 on Approval of the Common Strategy of Social Inclusion 2008-2013 Decision No. 264, 12.04.2012 on Procedures for the Commission of Control and Placement of State Agency sanction under Protection of Rights of the Child Decision No. 265, 12.04.2012 For The Creation And Functioning Of Coordination Mechanisms Of Work Among Governmental Authorities, Responsible For Referring Cases Of Children At Risk, And The Way Of Proceeding In These Cases Decision No. 267, 12.04.2012 on Types And Manners For Exchange Of Information Processing Of Statistical Data Required By The Ashmdf-State Structures, Responsible In Central And Local Level Decision No. 334, 17.2.2011 on Work Coordination Mechanisms for Referral of Domestic Violence Cases and Procedure Thereof
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Decision No. 505, 13.07.2011 on Standards of Social Care Services to the Domestic Violence Victims Provided in the Public and Non-Public Residential Centres Decision No. 30, 05.02.2010. The joint action of the structures implementing the National Strategy for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings Decision No. 913, 19.12.2007. Approval of the national strategy on gender equality and domestic violence 2007 – 2010 and its action plan Draft-decision No. 263, 12.04. 2012. Establishing the detailed rules for the cooperation between institutional mechanisms and non-profit organizations to accomplish the local polices for the protection of the rights of child Guidelines for Child Protection 2013: Annex 1 - Technical guidance for the case management process Government of Albania. (2011). The decade of Roma inclusion: National action plan 2010-2015. Law No. 10221/2010 on Protection from Discrimination Law No. 10329/2010 on Some Changes And Amendments To The Law No. 9669/2006 On Measures of Violence in Family Relations Law No. 10347/2010 Concerning the Protection of the Rights of the Child Law No. 10399/2011 on Some Amendments and Additions to Law No. 9355/2005 on Social Assistance and Services Law No. 163/2014 on Order of Social Worker in the Republic of Albania Law No. 7905/1995 Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Albania (consolidated version 2004) Law No. 7952 on Child Labour, 1995 Law No. 8153/1996 on the Status of Orphans Law No. 8224/1997 on the Organization and Functioning of the Police of the Municipality and Commune Law No. 8436/1998 for the Organization of the Judicial Power in the Republic of Albania Law No. 8652/2000 on Organization and Functioning of Local Governments Law No. 9030/2003 an Amendment of Law No. 8240/1997 Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania, amended with Law No. 8279/1998 and Law No. 8733/2001 Law No. 9062/2003 The Family Code Law No. 9110/2003 on the Organization and Functioning of the Courts for Serious Crimes Law No. 9131/2003 on the Rules of Ethics in the Public Administration Law No. 9188/2004 on Certain Amendments to Law No. 7895/1995 Code of the Republic of Albania Law No. 9355/2005 on Social Assistance and Services Law No. 9695/2007 on the Adoption Procedures and Albanian Adoption Committee Law No. 9749/2007 on State Police Law No. 9936/2008 on Management of Budgetary System in the Republic of Albania Manners and Forms of Cooperation and Intervention Procedures in Help of Children in Risk for Main
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Responsible Institutions and Structures for Children’s Protection, 2015, DRAFT Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Entrepreneurship, Albanian National Economic Reform Program 2015-2017 Ministry of Education and Science, National Education Strategy 2004-2015 Ministry of Education and Science, National Strategy of Pre-University Education 2009-2013 Ministry of Finance, Public Finance Management Strategy 2014-2020 Ministry of Health, Basic Package of Services in Primary Health Care Ministry of Health, Let’s Keep Albania a Low HIV Prevalence Country: National Strategy of Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS in Albania 2004-2010 Ministry of Health, Organogram, 2014 Ministry of Interior, 2011, Standard Operating Procedures for the Identification and Referral of Victims of Trafficking and Potential Victims of Trafficking Ministry of Interior, Local Government and Decentralization Strategy, 2006 Ministry of Interior, National Action Plan for the Fight Against Trafficking in Human Beings, and the National Action Plan for the Fight Against Trafficking in Children and Protection of Children Victims of Trafficking 2011-2013 Ministry of Interior, National Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Persons 2008-2010 Ministry of Justice, Juvenile Justice Strategy, 2012-2020 Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Action Plan for Children 2012-2015 Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, National Strategy on People with Disabilities 2006 Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, National Strategy on Gender Equality and Domestic Violence 2007-2010 Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Social Inclusion Crosscutting Strategy 2007- 2013 Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, 2010, Working Protocol for Child Protection Workers Ministry of Local Issues, 2014, Administrative and Territorial Reform: Technical Criteria for the New Administrative and Territorial Division Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, National Social Protection Strategy 2015-2020 (FINAL DRAFT) Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2014). Social inclusion policy paper – Draft Document. Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth. (2015). National Social Protection Strategy – draft document. National Strategy On Gender Equality And Domestic Violence – Action Plan Order No. 203 on Anti-Trafficking Unit Parliament of the Republic of Albania, 2013, Resolution on Protection and Respect of Rights of the Child in Albania
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Resolution On Protection And Respect Of Rights Of The Child In Albania 2013 Social Inclusion Policy Document 2015-2020 Strategic Objective No. 5 of the YNAP 2015-2020 System of social care institutions (no author, no date) Youth National Action Plan 2015-2020 Youth National Action Plan 2015-2020: Strategic objective 5 – Social protection
MAPS
Map of Old Communes
Map of Old Districts
Map of 61 Municipalities
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Annex 4: List of organizations involved in data collection National level
Organisation Department Contact person MoSWY State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights Ina Verzivolli MoSWY Labor and Social Care Inspectorate Arjana Pellumbi MoSWY State Social Services Etleva Bisha MoSWY Directore of Social Inclusion Ilda Bozo MoSWY Integrated Services and Cash Assistance Denada Dibra MoSWY Advisor to the Minister Enkelejda Lopari MoI Office of Anti-trafficking Coordinator Elona Gjebrea MoI Directorate of Border and Immigration Enkeleda Toska MoI National Civil Registration Office Bledar Doracaj MoI Domestic violence sections (police directory) Ilir Zhurka MoI Probation service Ilir Qafa MoJ Attorney General Adriatik Llalla MoJ Prison service Ersejla Murati MoE Directorate of Pre-University Education Zamira Gjini MoE Advisor to the Minister Nora Malaj MoH Directorate of Primary Health Care Gazmend Bejtja MoF On Hold (to verify with Artemida) Mimoza Dhembi OPM Advisor to the PM Eralda Cani Judiciary Judge (to verify with Arta) Irena Hoxha University Head of Department of Social Work Edmond Dragoti People's Advocate People's Advocate Igli Totozani Dev. Partn. EU delegation Erol Akdag Dev. Partn. UNDP Ermira Papavangjeli Dev. Partn. IOM Alketa Gaxha Dev. Partn. OSCE Juliana Rexha Dev. Partn. USAID Zhani Shatri Dev. Partn. BKTF Rajmonda Bozo Dev. Partn. ARSIS Zini Kore Dev. Partn. World Vision Ridiona Stana Dev. Partn. CRCA Altin Hazizaj Dev. Partn. Child helpline Mirgit Vataj Dev. Partn. Medpak Zela Koka Dev. Partn. TdH Jezerca Tigani Dev. Partn. Children today Klodiana Thartori Dev. Partn. Diffrent and equal Marjana Meshi Dev. Partn. Partners for children Ingrid Jones Dev. Partn. Legal aid initiative Aurela Anastasi
Sub-national level
Dibra
Regional level
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State Social Services Education Health Police Magistrate o Bulqiza municipality . Social service . Education . Health . Police o Dibra municipality . Health . Police . Police (2) . Social Administrator . Social Services
Shkodra
Regional level Counsellor State Social Services Education Health Police Prosecution Probation o Fushe Arrez municipality . Education . Health . Police o Shkodra municipality . Social Services . Education . Police
Tirana
Regional level Counsellor State Social Services Education Health Police Education (2) o Tirana municipality . Social Services . Police
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. Child protection worker o Rrogozhina municipality . Social Services . Education . Health . Police
Elbasan
Regional level Counsellor State Social Services Education Health Police Magistrate Probation Prosecution o Elbasan municipality . Mayor . Social Services . Police . Cash assistance . Child protection worker o Perrenjas municipality . Child protection worker . Education . Health . Police
Gjirokastra
Regional level Counsellor State Social Services Health Magistrate Education Police o Gjirokastra municipality . Social Services . Social Services (2) o Permet municipality . Child protection worker . Education . Health . Police . Social aid worker
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Vlora
Regional level Counsellor State Social Services Health Education Police o Vlora municipality . Child protection worker . Health . Health (2) . Police . Domestic violence o Konispol municipality . Social administrator . Education . Health . Police
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Annex 5: Regional and municipal sampling SAMPLING RESULTS
Area Region Municipality
North Dibër Bulqizë
Dibër
Shkodër Fushë-Arrëz
Shkodër
Center Tirana Tirana
Rrogozhinë
Elbasan Elbasan
Prrenjas
South Gjirokastër Gjirokastër
Përmet
Vlorë Konispol
Vlorë
List of indicators used
For Regions For Municipality
Best and worst performers on: Regional capital Furthest municipality from the regional capital Percentage of inhabited dwellings without water system Percentage of inhabited dwellings without toilet Percentage of inhabited dwellings without heating Percentage of overcrowded dwellings (3 or more occupants per room ) Poverty headcount Poverty depth Poverty severity % Tot (SWE)
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CPU% coverage CPW per 10,000 population under 20 No of SA over 100,000 population No of Hc over 1,000 population No of police posts over 100,000 population No of primary schools over 1,000 children under 10 yo
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Map of selected regions
Berat 1 Dibër 2 Durrës 3 Elbasan 4 Fier 5 Gjirokastër 6 Korçë 7 Kukës 8 Lezhë 9 Shkodër 10 Tirana 11 Vlorë 12
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Red
-
Green
# of red cells red # of
# of green cells green # of
inhabited inhabited
der 20der
Area Region of inhabited Percentage water without dwellings system of Percentage toilet without dwellings of inhabited Percentage heating without dwellings overcrowded of Percentage more or (3 dwellings ) room occupants per headcount Poverty depth Poverty severity Poverty % (SWE) Tot coverage CPU% population 10,000 CPW per un 100,000 over SA No of population 1,000 over Hc No of population over posts police No of population 100,000 over schools primary No of yo 10 under children 1,000 Centre Durrës 3,56% 0,62% 4,85% 3,13% 16,20% 3,30% 1,10% 53,8% 100,0% 2,6 9 0,5 0,8 2,6 2 2 0 Centre Elbasan 2,59% 0,49% 3,12% 4,27% 10,70% 2,30% 0,80% 69,5% 70,0% 3,9 24 1,1 1,0 5,3 10 1 9 Centre Fier 2,26% 0,67% 11,55% 3,63% 17,50% 3,50% 1,10% 53,4% 31,0% 1,4 16 0,8 1,0 4,3 0 6 -6 Centre Tirana 1,92% 0,40% 7,06% 3,54% 14,20% 2,80% 0,80% 46,7% 70,0% 1,4 8 0,1 0,7 2,2 3 6 -3 North Dibër 6,70% 1,37% 0,51% 8,06% 13,00% 2,30% 0,70% 66,6% 46,0% 3,6 50 0,8 2,9 4,9 7 1 6 North Kukës 7,19% 1,20% 0,88% 9,32% 21,80% 3,70% 0,90% 47,5% 44,0% 4,2 45 1,9 1,2 6,0 4 4 0 North Lezhë 4,57% 1,35% 2,84% 4,18% 17,50% 4,30% 1,60% 59,9% 43,0% 2,5 29 1,2 3,0 4,9 1 4 -3 North Shkodër 3,88% 2,18% 1,94% 4,10% 15,70% 3,70% 1,60% 46,4% 15,0% 0,7 29 0,8 1,4 4,4 2 6 -4 South Berat 1,64% 0,28% 6,55% 3,73% 12,70% 2,40% 0,70% 75,0% 64,0% 4,7 27 1,1 1,4 5,5 2 2 0 South Gjirokastër 1,92% 0,43% 3,40% 1,37% 10,70% 2,20% 0,90% 41,1% 3,0% 0,6 47 2,8 4,2 6,7 7 5 2 South Korçë 1,19% 0,19% 0,58% 3,23% 12,20% 2,50% 0,70% 69,6% 57,0% 4,0 23 1,0 0,5 5,0 4 3 1 South Vlorë 1,95% 0,36% 16,28% 2,26% 11,70% 2,40% 0,80% 45,9% 92,0% 6,6 17 1,1 1,7 4,6 2 4 -2
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Map of selected municipalities
(Yellow highlighted)
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Annex 6: Analysis of public finance management and public administration in CP
Dr. A. Bardhi
State policy commitments to children are implemented through government’s budgets. According to the UNCRC the children’s rights should be part of the political and government’s agenda in order that state parties align their legal framework and take all the necessary measures to ensure full application of children’s rights, which in the end should be translated into better outcomes for children’s lives. This requires from the government to systematically analyze the situation of children, identify where their rights are not fulfilled and why, and to commit all the necessary resources to meet children’s rights.
The budget allocations for children protection should be harmonised with National Action Plan for Protection of Children Rights (NAPCR) and should refer also to the Albanian legislation on CP area, in order to translate any relevant commitment into financial resources to support implementation of planned activities.
A good coordination and close collaboration with child-focused stakeholders (i.e. national and local institutions, CSOs etc) is crucial during the phases of MTB preparation.
Children and their representatives have the right to know how much and on what are national resources spent. Their voice should be considered during preparation, approval and implementation of both local and national budgets. At the same time, other public institutions such as schools and civil society organizations should be open to children and communities on how they spend resources they mobilize on their behalf.
This briefing note provides an overview of Public Finance, Public Administration, Fiscal reform in local government, which cross-cut with the CP in Albania. In addition, some information and data are shared regarding midterm budget program process and public spending on children.
The following means are used to get the information and data.
- Interviews with budget responsible officials in some state institutions. Relevant interview reports prepared; - Desk review (internet research, reports analyzing, studies consulted, data and info collection, selection, verification, cross-checked and elaboration, translation etc); Interviews
After defining the institutions to be involved in the study (from which children benefit directly or indirectly) the budget/finance responsible officials are invited (with official letter signed by the Vice Minister of SWY and with direct contact through e-mail or mobile) to participate and provide their contribution. Ms. Elisa Dizdari from the State Agency for Children Protection Rights (SAfPCR) has been also a great support in facilitating the interviews.
A total number of 10 interviews are conducted, out of 12 planned. For each interview a report is prepared, using the template provided by Maestral.
Main points discussed during the interviews refer to:
- Current budget legal framework - Budget - Monitoring and reporting - Coordination
For each point a few questions were raised. For part of them, there were no direct answers, so I had to make personal judgments on the approach considering the whole interview. The discussions were focused on children 117
Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania (0-18 years old). Other target groups beyond the defined group were excluded. A summary of the feedback received from the interviews is reported below:
Current budget legal framework
The Budget Legal Framework in Albania includes the organic budget law no. 9936, date 26.6.2008 “For the managing of the budgetary system in the Republic of Albania” and other laws/by-laws -acts based on which the MTB is prepared, approved, implemented and monitored.
The existing organic budget law normally regulates the budgeting process and procedures. It provides the needed space for the inclusion of issues and policies pertaining to children. This is achieved through the Medium Term Budget Program where every Line Ministry (LM) or Budget Institution (BI) is requested to submit its policy goals & objectives, outputs, activities and related budget costs for a 3 year period. As such, each LM or IB that has focus on children protection related issues (directly or indirectly) or is involved in developing children oriented policies) can easily specify it in the above-mentioned MTBP.
The budget is monitored on outcomes, outputs and related budget costs. However, it could be useful to spell out in the OBL the obligation for LM and BI to budget, monitor, evaluate and account for children related policies.
There is no budgeting provision specifically for the financing reporting, accounting, auditing and monitoring of expenditure linked directly with child protection activities. As the OBL will be revised, a provision might be included in the new law to oblige institutions to include in the MTBP goals related to social issues such as children protection.
No one of the interviewed persons answered to the question: Do you think the CP actors at the LGA level are able to follow what is foreseen in the laws, policies and supplementary legislation?
Budget
The budget ceilings for each institution are defined based on the government program, priorities, needs and mostly forecasted revenues and fiscal projections. The line ministries and budget institutions divide the total budget to the programs under their responsibility according to their priorities, objectives, expected results and foreseen activities.
During budget preparation process, children are taken into account only by the institutions responsible for their right implementation and their protection. Actually, there is no policy to define the % of financing children activities toward the whole budget. It is done depending on the priority CP represents to the specific institution.
In the MoF there are no specific data on the allocations and expenditure only for the children protection. These statistics are kept and updated from the institutions that are responsible for children’s rights implementation. It should be mentioned that the state institution’s budgets do not allow disaggregating immediately the allocations and expenditures for child protection, unless there are programs operating specifically only for children, where the budget is allocated only for children activities. In cases when a certain program included mixed activities, for different groups the disaggregating of costs only for CP cannot me done automatically.
Except from funds received by the state budget, some institutions are implementing projects funded by different donors (i.e. EUD, UNICEF, Save the Children, Embassy of Switzerland, different international agencies etc.). The donations are considered as revenue for the budget of the institution. Funds received from donors sometimes are used through the treasury system and sometimes directly from dedicated bank accounts of the beneficiaries. Channeling of external funds through the treasury system is one of the objectives of PFM strategy. This will provide clear information of how much development partners support activities for children.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania The MF provides technical support to line ministries and other budget institutions dealing with children’s rights by publishing instructions (guidance) on the budget preparation and implementation. In addition, several meetings and hearings are organized from the MoF during the MTB preparation phases with participant from LM or BI.
Monitoring and reporting
The monitoring of the budget implementation is done in a quarterly basis (at least 4 times during the year). All expenditure units' (line ministries and budget institutions) report on the progress of budget executions and objectives achieved. All the monitoring reports (tables and narrative) can be found in the website of the Ministry of Finance or websites of the respective expenditure units (if any).
Normally, the automatic identification of expenditure incurred specifically for children from the total costs, is actually not possible. This is because the expenditure incurred for each institution is recorded based on the articles (current expenses / capital expenses) and within the overall expenditure of the institution. Currently, there is no interface / connection between the budget software (where budgets are recorded based on the objectives/outputs/activities) and the treasury software (where expenditure is recorded based on the current and capital expenditure). This is an issue in the electronic government system that needs to be addressed and in the same time one of the PFM Strategy objectives. In addition, it is worth mentioning that the budget software in the MoF can technically tackle the allocations for any specific target group. BUT, to enable this, the target group (in this case the “children”) should be handled as a priority itself when the midterm budget (MTB) is prepared. Furthermore, budgets associated to the activities for children should be recorded in the software and linked directly with this priority. The line ministries should also be aware to prepare their budgets considering this approach. That is the way to identify on the spot the budgets allocated specifically for children. The MoF had a similar experience with the gender equality issue which is already addressed with DCM 465 dated 18.07.2012 and the Guidance no. 21, date 21.06.2013 specify the procedures of integrating the gender issues in the MTBP.
The local government budget includes the revenues, expenditure and funding of LGUs. It also includes a reserve fund and the contingency fund, approved together with approval of the annual budget from the LGU Council. The budget implementation is monitored in a regular basis. As all general government units, the LGUs prepare and submit to the Council in a quarterly basis the monitoring reports. These reports include information on budget implementation progress, finance performance, outputs and objectives achievements etc. In addition, the LGUs has their internal audit and have set up an internal financial control system. Inspections and external audits from the High state control take place every 2 years or often.
Coordination
Based on the new territorial division, the administrative units will be re-organized. The new responsibilities and duties will be defined for each expense unit. The reporting mechanisms will be almost the same. The coordination will follow normally, considering also the new tasks for each authorizing and executing officer. A new law on local government financing is foreseen, which will clarify the fiscal relations between the central and local government.
The coordination of the MoF with LM and BI is done during the phases of MTB preparation and budget implementation. Several meetings are organized based on the agenda approved to discuss budget ceilings and budget allocations. This is done in a general framework, not specifically for children.
Desk review
Except from the interviews, the information provided in this overview is based also on desk review and research.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Estimating the children’s share of public expenditure was really difficult because only a few institutions provided clear data and information on cases managed for children and/or respective budget associated. The results required data collection from multiple sources and making many assumptions and judgments. A cross-check of different documents is done in order to reach the sound logic on the most relevant share for children.
Firstly, were selected the programs mainly focusing on CP (directly or indirectly). For each program, a thorough check is performed in the budget and expenditure data available.
Main sources of information:
- Ministry of Finance website. It should be highlighted that are identified variations and discrepancies between budgets published from the MoF and those reported from the institutions in the monitoring reports. In these cases, the data considered are the ones reported in the monitoring reports, except from when no monitoring tables were available. (Note: No official information/budget data received from the MoF despite many attempts in the Budget Department). - Annual monitoring reports for the period 2012 – 2014 for each program. The tables are accessed either directly from the budget responsible officials or in the respective websites. (Note: Almost part of the reports is accessible through internet but for some institutions data are not available). - Data and information on budget/expenditure, received directly from the persons interviewed. - Cross – check of reports, analyzes and studies accessible in the internet, to retrieve additional information on the cases managed and their associated costs.
The costs of programs dealing only with children have been considered entirely in the calculations. For the programs spending not only on children, but in other target groups as well, it is calculated the share for children (i.e. using % of the number of children toward the total number, or using other methods and assumptions as explained below in the section “Budget classification”)
Budgeting process (national and decentralized)
Albania introduced a medium-term budget framework in the year 2000 based on three-year fiscal projections and expenditure plans on a ministry and program basis. The plans are set out in the MTBP, which provides three- year projections of revenues and expenditures. Annual data on outturns for individual ministries and programs are provided separately in budget-monitoring reports. The MTBP is approved by a Strategic Planning Committee chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister before being submitted to the Council of Ministers. Subsequently the MTBP is submitted to Parliament alongside the main budget. In 2014, the MTBP was for the first time approved by Parliament alongside the Budget Law. This is intended to strengthen the role of the outer-year ceilings in budget policy-making and planning. Previously the outer-year ceilings were seen as indicative and were often adjusted significantly between successive MTBPs.
The MTBP includes the objectives and expected outputs of each investment project and the estimated expenditure over the three-year planning horizon. Analyzing state budget requires a proper understanding of the budget preparation processes. It provides the means to create effective advocacy strategies for seeking more commitment from the state, holding it accountable, and ensuring more effectiveness and transparency in the expenditures.
A budget is developed within a fixed time and structured process. Main steps of the MTBP:
- The macroeconomic and budgetary assessment and forecast, including proposals for preparatory expenditure ceilings for the following years - The budget preparation instruction, including preparatory ceilings for the MTBP - The submission of MTBP requests by the authorizing officers of general government units
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania - Review by MoF and consultations on the requests by the government units - Preparation of the draft MTBP - Approval by Council of Ministers of the MTBP - Submission of the MTBP for information to the Parliament - Implementation of the budget - Control and approval of the national financial statements Each phase of the MTB process gives an opportunity for interested stakeholders implementing children’s rights to voice their needs, influence decision making and monitor execution and outcomes.
The budget cycle in Albania is balanced. The Government is responsible for the preparation of the budget, which is then approved by the Parliament. The approved budget is implemented by the local and central government, and is the Parliament that controls the implementation of the budget through the High State Control, which is an institution independent from the Government.
1. Approves budget 2. Controls budget 1. Prepares the draft implementation budget 2. Implements the budget
Parliament Government
The balance of the High State Control budget cycle
The central and local governments units are obliged to follow the event calendar for the MTBP preparation. The interested stakeholders, SCO-s and Children representatives might participate in the hearing sessions. The exact dates of these sessions are normally published in the web site of the Ministry of Finance, or in the instructions prepared by the MoF regarding budget preparation.
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Events calendar of the budget process for the Central Government Units (CGU)
Activity Deadline Evaluation and forecast of the macro economic January (previous year) and fiscal parameters Instruction for the next year budget preparation February (previous year) Draft the mid term budget program June (previous year) (for the consecutive 3 years) Complementary instruction for the budget Within 10th of July (previous year) preparation Revise mid term budget and next year Within 1st of September (previous year) expenditure requests Approval of Yearly Budget Law (for the next year) Within 31st of December (previous year)
Budget implementation instruction Within January (current year)
Closure of the budget implementation 31st of December (current year) Approval of the yearly consolidated report on the June (next year) budget implementation Anytime is needed, but not less that 4 times with Budget implementation monitoring the implementing year
Events calendar of the budget process for the Local Government Units (LGU)
This calendar is approved by the Chairman of the Management Strategic Group of the LGU
Activity Deadline Set of budgetary ceilings to be approved by Within March (previous year) the Council of LGU Chairman of the management team presents the budgetary requests to the Within 15 May (previous year) Authorising Officer of the LGU Authorising Officer of the LGU presents to the Council of LGU the Mid Term Draft Within 15 June (previous year) Budget document, approved already by the Strategy Management Group Each LGU should submit to the Ministry of Finance for the consecutive 3 years the Within 1 July (previous year) following forms “Revenues Forecast”, and “Forecast of the financial resources distribution” accompained by a detailed report.
Budget classification
The budget in Albania is classified in the following ways:
a) Administrative classification, which includes the classification of the general government units until the lowest level of expense units;
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania b) Economic classification, which represents the transactions classification based on the nature and/or economic sector; c) Functional classification, which represents a detailed classification based on the functions or social- economic objectives of the general government; d) Classification according to the programs, which represents the programs, sub-programs and projects in compliance with objectives of the general government; e) Classification according to the source of Financing;
Considering that automatic disaggregation of budgets/expenditure is not enabled if economic classification is used, for purposes of this research and analyse is used also the classification according to the programs focused in children protection, including sub-programs and projects. It should be emphasised that the selected programs/sub-programs provides services for CP directly or indirectly. Some of them clearly disclose budget information about children, while others includes mixed services for different target groups and in the majority of cases it is very difficult to identify the budgets/expenditure directly linked with children.
Programs clearly not focused on CP are excluded from the list. State Police costs are not included in the calculations because no data were available.
The following state institutions / programs are selected:
Budget Institution / program Comments
Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth The Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth is the main Ministry responsible for coordinating the implementation of the government’s social development objectives
The social care and protection program includes the cash benefit sub-program on poverty alleviation (Social Assistance) and the disability benefit sub – program. Social care services are part of the social protection program, including residential and day-care services for different categories of beneficiaries.
P 1: Social care and protection Information on budget and costs spent only for children under this program are provided from Ms. Aida Cavo, Head of Finance Department, SSS. The economic aid costs for families with children are included as well, considering the % they represent toward the total number of families A cross check is done with the monitoring reports published in the website of MoSWY.
The social inclusion program includes the activity of the State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights (SAfCPR) that is the coordinating institution in charge of monitoring and ensuring P 2: Social inclusion implementation of children’s rights. (previous program name ”Equal Chances”) Information on budget and costs spent only for children under this program are provided from Ms. Rabushe Kalemasi, Finance Officer of SAfCPR, In addition, some data and information is extracted from the monitoring reports
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania The secondary vocational education program has been under management of Ministry of Education and Sports during 2012 – P 3: Vocational education 2014 and is transferred under the responsibility of the MSWY starting from 2015
Ministry of Education and Sports The Ministry of Education and Sports (MES) is responsible for education policies and delivery of education services in the country. Local government units have the responsibility of school facility maintenance and capital improvements in the pre-university schooling system, while the Ministry of Education is responsible for the management of the content of the education process, including curricula and teachers.
The primary (basic) education program is totally providing services for children. P 1: Basic education Information on budget and costs spent under this program are extracted from the monitoring reports and considered 100%
The secondary education program is totally providing services for children. P 2: Secondary education Information on budget and costs spent under this program are extracted from the monitoring reports and considered 100%
The secondary vocational education program is analyzed as part of the education sector in this program, including only children. P 3: Vocational education Information on budget and costs spent under this program are extracted from the monitoring reports and considered 100%
Ministry of Health The Ministry of Health (MoH) is responsible for health policies and finances a large share of public expenditures in the health sector. Costs are co-financed by the Health Insurance Institute (part of the general government), a compulsory health insurance scheme for the active population.
In many developed countries, the full list of health expenditures is taken from National Health (National Health Accounts). In Albania, there is no national account health.
A relevant program in the health sector is the primary healthcare, which affect a large share of young population.
Considering that no data are available specifically for the children, but the service is largely used by them, for purposes of this P 1: Primary healthcare services analyses the share (%) of number of children vs total population is used (source INSTAT).
Information on budget and costs spent under this program are extracted from the monitoring reports published in the website of 124
Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania MoH. For the years 2012, 2013, 2014 are considered respectively 30%, 29%, 28% of the total costs of the program.
Secondary healthcare services are also used by children (hospitalized or treated in the hospitals)
P 2: Secondary healthcare services The same logic as for the primary healthcare service is used for the share of costs spent in children in this program, given the difficulty to obtain data on the number of children and respective costs receiving these services.
The public healthcare service also affects a large share of young population. Actually, the only data available for the children is the number of vaccinations per year and associated budget/costs.
Considering that public health services are provided to all the population, to the cost for vaccinations is added the respective amount calculated as % applied to the difference deriving from P 3: Public Healthcare total costs of the program minus the cost for vaccinations.
Example: Total cost of the program : 1,000 ALL Vaccination costs: 20 ALL Costs considered in the analyze: 20 ALL + [(1000 – 20) x 30%] = 20 + 294 = 314 ALL
Ministry of Justice The Ministry of Justice controls the juveniles in prisons and pre-detention centers and also the probation service for young offenders The Institute for Juveniles in Kavaja was designed with a modern concept for the treatment of juveniles in the penitentiary system, focusing on the reintegration and education programs. It is a correctional facility that hosts minors exclusively and was built with EU financial support a few years ago. Other penitentiary institutions that host minors are Korca, Jordan Misja 313 Tirane, Durres, Lezhe and Vlore (pre-trail detention centres).
Prison system Information on costs spent only for children under this program are provided from Ms. Avidana Pali, Finance Officer of GDP. In addition, some data and information is extracted from the monitoring reports. The % of number of juveniles vs. total number of imprisoned persons is applied in the calculation of costs for children in pre-detention centers for which costs are mixed for different target groups. The costs of the Institute for Juveniles in Kavaja are considered 100%
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania This program includes also minor’s offender in probation service. The probation service law establishes the mediation services through the mechanism of engagement of the NGO in implementation of alternatives and mediation, which have the potential to gradually be part of the system throughout the country.
Information on budget and costs spent only for the relevant target group (minors) could not be identified. There are no sufficient data Probation Service available on the number of children in probation service for the three years. In addition no monitoring reports are accessible for this program, except for the FY 2013. No data are provided by the institution.
In this case the share for children is calculated considering the % of number of specialists working in the “Minor’s Section” toward the total number employed in the Probation Service, which is 2.2% (3/134). Only running costs are taken into account.
The program “Adoption Service” is included also in this analyze, as the costs spent in this program are used totally for children. Adoption services
100% of the costs are considered Other institutions Other institutions involved in dealing with children in conflict with the law including prosecutor’s office, the Courts and Ombudsman.
“Planning, management, administration” is the only program under responsibility of GPO. “Minor’s sections” have been established in the courts and offices of prosecutors, in several districts. All the costs are included in this program and respective spending for children cannot be disaggregated. Costs linked with General Prosecutor Office children refer to the salaries, social charges, per diems received P 1: Planning, management, and other running costs from the responsible officials working in administration the “Minor’s Sections”.
The share for children is calculated considering the % of number of specialists in the “Minor’s Sections” toward the total number of employees in the Prosecution Office, which is 2.8% (24/848). Only running costs are taken into account.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania The judiciary system is providing services for children as for other target groups. There are no clear data on the number of civil or penal court cases for minors. In the statistic yearbook published by the MoJ the data are mixed and sometimes a lot of confusing information is provided (from the optic of an “outside sector” reader). Judiciary Budget Administration Office
P 1: Courts budget In the “Probation Service Employee Handbook” published in 2014, some statistics are provided on the number of young offenders sentenced toward the total number of sentenced persons. The % varies between 3.8% - 5% during last years. For this analyze, is a considered a share for children of 4.5% of the courts budget (only running costs)
Some activities of the Ombudsman and its commissioners are focused on children’s rights protection. Ombudsman P 1: Advocacy service The budget for this program and respective spending for children cannot be disaggregated. The data considered are provided from the Finance Officer, Mr. Ilirjan Lole.
Medium Term Expenditure Framework
Budget program Statistics / caseloads FY 2012: 342 children hosted in residential shelters FY 2013: 396 children hosted in residential shelters FY 2014: 338 children hosted in residential shelters
Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth FY 2012: 74,210 families with children benefit from economic aid P 1: Social care and protection (86.4% of total number of families) FY 2013: 77,172 families with children benefit from economic aid (72.6% of total number of families) FY 2014: 74,210 families with children benefit from economic aid (76.6% of total number of families)
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Street children management cases: Presence of children in the streets during the study: total 2527 children all over Albania, out of which 700 in Tirana. Results so far (2014): 93 children are not any more in the street 234 children are oriented to the daily centers 37 children are registered in the school, 10 in kindergarten Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth 11 children are hosted in residential social care shelters P 2: Social inclusion
(previous program name ”Equal Children protection units: 194 CPU in local government Chances”)
Situation of children: 5.5% of children left home due to violence 31.2% of children are afraid 42.8% of children have learning difficulties due to the violence 86.4% of children are testimony of domestic violence
FY 2012: 61.8% of the total costs goes to the basic education sector, 370 238 students in the 9-years schools 76,735 children in pre-school system
FY 2013: Ministry of Education and Sports 62.1 % of the total costs goes to the basic education sector, P 1: Basic education 356 347 students in the 9-years education 76 416 children in pre-school system
FY 2014: 61.5% of the total costs goes to the basic education sector, 356 347 students in the 9-years education 78 416 children in pre-school system
FY 2012: 14.3 % of the total costs goes to the secondary education sector, 114 224 students in middle schools
FY 2013: Ministry of Education and Sports 14.5 % of the total costs goes to the secondary education sector, P 2: Secondary education 111 086 students in middle schools
FY 2014: 15.1 % of the total costs goes to the secondary education sector, 104.308 students in middle schools
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FY 2012: 5.5 % of the total costs goes to the vocational education sector, 20.000 students
FY 2013: Ministry of Education and Sports 6 % of the total costs goes to the vocational education sector, P 3: Vocational education 25.846 students
FY 2014: 5.5 % of the total goes to the vocational education sector 25.846 students
FY 2012: Total number of medical visits 5,561,882
FY 2013: Total number of medical visits 7.016.014 Ministry of Health P 1: Primary healthcare services FY 2014: Total number of medical visits 6,271,728
FY 2015: Forecasted number of medical visits 6,350,000
FY 2012: Total patients hospitalized 239,024
FY 2013: Total patients hospitalized 248,408 Ministry of Health
P 2: Secondary healthcare services FY 2014: Total patients hospitalized 231,789
FY 2015: Forecasted total patients to be hospitalized 270,000
FY 2012: 205,150 children vaccinated 30% of population aging from 0-19 years old
FY 2013: 216,913 children vaccinated 29% of population aging from 0-19 years old
Ministry of Health FY 2014: 251,494 children vaccinated P 3: Public healthcare 28% of population aging from 0-19 years old
FY 2015: Forecast 230.000 children to be vaccinated 27% of population aging from 0-19 years old
Note: Coverage rate of children vaccinations is very high, 99%
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Dec 2012: Total number of detainees: 4,548 Total number of children: 97 (2.1 %)
Dec 2013: Total number of detainees: 5,567 Total number of children: 121 (2.2 %) Ministry of Justice
P 1: Prison system Dec 2014: Total number of detainees: 5,734 Total number of children: 101 (1.8 %)
May 2015: Total number of detainees: 5,577 Total number of children: 97 (1.7%)
Period 2009 – 2013 Total number of persons in probation service: 9,356 Total number of children: 1,481 (15.8 %) Ministry of Justice
P 2: Probation Service Employees: Total number of employees: 134 Total number of specialist in Minor’s Section: 3 (2.2 %)
FY 2012: Number of adoptions finalized 67
Ministry of Justice FY 2013: Number of adoptions finalized 47 P 3: Adoption services
FY 2014: Number of adoptions finalized 67
FY 2012 Total number of cases: 28,149 Total number of cases involving minors: 1,310 (5 %)
FY 2013 Total number of cases: 34,300 General Prosecutor Office Total number of cases involving minors: 911 (3 %) P 1: Planning, management, administration FY 2014 Total number of cases: not identified Total number of cases involving minors: 1,013
Employees: Total number of employees: 868 Total number of specialist in Minor’s Section: 24 (2.8 %)
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Minors offenders convicted Judiciary Budget Administration Office FY 2012: 883 P 1: Courts budget FY 2013: 680 FY 2014: 860
Ombudsman
P 1: Advocacy service
Break down of CP departments and agencies of the MoSWY
The Directorate of Social Inclusion and the Directorate of Social Care and Integrated Services are under direct responsibility of the General Directorate of Social Policies in the MoSWY. The budget of the Directorate of Social Inclusion is spread out between the programs “Social inclusion” and “Planning, Management and Administration”, while the budget of the Directorate of Social Care and Integrated Services is spread out between the programs “Social care and protection” and “Planning, Management and Administration”.
The State Agency for the Protection of Children’s Rights (SAfCPR) is the coordinating institution in charge of monitoring and ensuring implementation of children’s rights. Its budget is included under the program “Social inclusion” and “Planning, Management and Administration”.
The Directorate of Labor Inspection is under direct responsibility of the General Directorate of labor and Professional Vocational Education. Its budget is spread out between the programs “Labor Inspection” and “Planning, Management and Administration”.
The program “Planning, Management and Administration” includes activities and outputs such as:
- Management staff running costs - Improvement of working infrastructure - Other management and administration activities
The program “Social inclusion” includes activities and outputs such as:
- Strategy monitoring for gender equality and home violence - Awareness campaigns on social inclusion - Trainings and publications - Monitoring of the action plan and strategy for children - Institutional and legal mechanisms - Monitoring reports of ROMA inclusion - Different monitoring reports on social inclusion - Etc
The program “Social care and protection” includes activities and outputs such as:
- Economic aid for benefiting families - Blind people, labor invalids, demented people and other persons with limited ability benefiting from the program “People with Disability” - Trafficked or risked girls and women that benefit from public residential services - ROMA centre maintenance - Social assistance modernization - etc 131
Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania The program “Labor inspection” includes activities and outputs such as:
- Labor inspections - Awareness campaigns - Legislation improvement - Training of inspectors
The budgets for each directory are included in different programs under the MoSWY, therefore it is difficult to quantify and disaggregate the relevant amounts of budgets/costs pertaining to each directory. For example, the staff and administrative costs of all directorates are included as a whole under the program “Planning, Management and Administration”, while for specific activities the costs are budgeted under specific programs, as explained above.
Here below is presented the budget of the SAfCPR for the FY 2012 – 2014, together with the “Social Inclusion” program budget. The SAfCPR budget was the only one that could be disaggregated because of the special institutional status it has. The data are provided from the Finance officer of the SAfCPR.
FY 2012 (in 000 ALL) MSWY budget: 55,942,726 Social Inclusion (SI) program budget: 21,342 SAfCPR budget: 7,091 % SAfCPR vs MoSWY 0.01 % % SAfCPR vs SI program 33.23 % % SI program vs MoSWY 0.04 %
FY 2013 (in 000 ALL) MSWY budget: 62.686.030 Social Inclusion (SI) program budget: 19.075 SAfCPR budget: 6,378 % SAfCPR vs MoSWY 0.01 % % SAfCPR vs SI program 33.44 % % SI program vs MoSWY 0.03 %
FY 2014 (in 000 ALL) MSWY budget: 76,700,465 Social Inclusion (SI) program budget: 34,139 SAfCPR budget: 8,038 % SAfCPR vs MoSWY 0.01 % % SAfCPR vs SI program 23.54 % % SI program vs MoSWY 0.04 %
The following table provides information about the costs incurred from the above mentioned programs under MoSWY .
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FY 2012 000 ALL
Running costs Developing costs Total costs % Descripition of the program under Program Progra MSWY MSWY Program MSWY MSWY Program vs m MSWY Planning, Management and 132,148 23,963 156,111 0.28% Adminstration
Labor Inspection 55,821,37 150,431 121,34 2,252 55,942,72 152,683 0.27% 9 7 6 Social care and 20,628,58 20,688,32 59,735 36.98% protection 7 2
Equal Chances 20,462 880 21,342 0.04%
FY 2013 000 ALL Running costs Developing costs Total costs % Descripition of the program under Program Progra MSWY MSWY Program MSWY MSWY Program vs m MSWY Planning, Management and 137,818 11,971 149,789 0.24% Adminstration
Labor Inspection 62,513,89 152,680 172,13 0 62,686,03 152,680 0.24% 3 7 0 Social care and 23,157,13 23,284,83 127,704 37.15% protection 0 4
Equal Chances 13,075 6,000 19,075 0.03%
FY 2014 000 ALL Running costs Developing costs Total costs % Descripition of the program under Program Progra MSWY MSWY Program MSWY MSWY Program vs m MSWY Planning, Management and 207,260 4,704 211,964 0.28% Adminstration 76,456,20 76,700,46 1 5 Labor Inspection 177,764 1,982 179,746 0.23%
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Social care and 26,507,20 26,532,92 25,715 34.59% protection 8 244,26 3 Social Inculsion 4 21,839 12,300 34,139 0.04% (SAfCPR)
Public ExpenditureTracking
The budget in Albania is drawn up within the framework of some key economic parameters and their projected levels, such as economic growth, inflation, public debt, etc, as well as some overarching policy goals, such as maintaining the deficit or debt at a certain level, simplifying taxes, or increasing expenditures in certain priority areas.
The MTBP provides very detailed targets for the outcomes and outputs to be achieved under each policy program. Objectives are set at three levels: a) ministry, b) program, and c) output. The MTBP sets out the overall policy objective of each ministry, outcome and output targets, and the programs that will contribute to meeting those targets. Each program has a number of specific targets specified for each year. Each program is further divided into outputs, which each have specified objectives, output targets, and expenditure allocations for the medium term.
Implementation of budgeted expenditure and discussion of performance against these targets is reported in quarterly monitoring reports published by the Ministry of Finance for each ministry (actually not all reports are published, only part of them), and on an annual basis in the Report on the Implementation of the Budget.
Spending on children is scattered across a diverse array of government programs, and many of the programs serving different target groups required estimations of the share for children.
Except from the difficulty to share the budget and costs related to children because of the system design, another issue identified is the discrepancy between figures published from the MoF (i.e. total budget of running costs) with those of the Ministries in their monitoring reports. For this reason, are considered the figures in the monitoring reports for the FY 2012-2014. The FY 2015 (current year) is not included in the analyze because there are no sufficient data available to provide reliable information budget . The following is analyzed:
Budget allocation a. Running costs b. Development costs
Budget outturns a. Running costs b. Development costs
First, the total running and development costs (allocations and outturns) for each program are identified and registered.
Then, the costs related to children are calculated for each program, using the logic already explained above (selection of programs):
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Budget Institution / program Calculation of costs related to CP
Data provided from Social State Service Social care and protection % of families with children receiving economic aid Monitoring reports data Social inclusion Data provided from SAfCPR (previous program name ”Equal Monitoring reports data Chances”)
Basic education Monitoring reports data considered 100%
Secondary education Monitoring reports data considered 100%
Vocational education Monitoring reports data considered 100%
Monitoring reports data considered 30%, 29%, 28% Primary healthcare services respectively for the FY 2012, 2013, 2014 Monitoring reports data considered 30%, 29%, 28% Secondary healthcare services respectively for the FY 2012, 2013, 2014 Vaccination costs P 3: Public Healthcare Monitoring reports data considered 30%, 29%, 28% respectively for the FY 2012, 2013, 2014
Prison system Data provided from General Directorate of Prisons
MoF data, considered 2.2% of running costs Probation Service Monitoring data (when available) considered 2.2%
Adoption services Monitoring reports data considered 100%
General Prosecutor Office Monitoring reports data considered 2.8% of running costs
Judiciary Budget Administration Office Monitoring reports data considered 4.5% of running costs Courts budget
Ombudsman Data provided from the Finance Department of Advocacy service Ombudsman
All data are elaborated and the following consolidated tables are produced, providing the required information, for purposes of this overview.
000 ALL
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Descriprion running development running development running development
Total costs state A 178,044,706 63,889,345 189,765,895 76,483,408 201,302,660 66,503,430 budget Total costs selected B 81,295,768 6,969,418 86,366,038 3,807,893 95,402,504 7,515,207 programs
C Total costs CP 41,042,074 3,985,019 40,664,167 2,304,397 43,338,369 4,310,640
in % CP vs total state C/A 23.05% 6.24% 21.43% 3.01% 21.53% 6.48% budget in % CP vs total C/B 50.48% 57.18% 47.08% 60.52% 45.43% 57.36% programs
The data are consolidated also enabling comparison between running and development costs for the three years.
Another table is produced providing information on the total of running and development costs for the three years.
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania Forecast vs Actual running and development costs for the FY 2012, 2013, 2014.
000 ALL FY 2012 FY 2013 FY 2014 Budget Institution / development development development running costs CP running costs CP running costs CP program costs CP costs CP costs CP FC Actual FC Actual FC Actual FC Actual FC Actual FC Actual Ministry of Social
Welfare and Youth Social care and 4,469,76 4,469,76 3,050,22 3,044,65 3,970,60 3,969,60 25,000 25,000 0 0 0 0 protection 1 1 8 0 1 1 Social Inclusion 112,35 108,44 7,140 7,091 0 0 8,000 6,378 0 0 8,360 8,038 (SAfCPR) 0 2 Ministry of Education and Sports 22,743,0 21,857,7 2,075,3 1,976,6 22,638,7 22,341,4 1,295,2 1,247,4 23,696,1 23,033,5 2,440,5 2,102,2 Basic education 00 00 40 87 71 13 26 71 98 81 12 57 4,765,00 4,754,80 792,48 764,04 5,036,21 5,003,02 512,83 490,52 5,288,71 5,118,25 1,271,1 1,030,2 Secondary education 0 0 5 5 7 5 9 1 7 4 29 45 1,870,68 1,841,90 384,74 281,62 2,001,91 1,929,26 358,00 344,94 2,090,24 1,982,67 304,98 276,35 Vocational education 1 0 2 8 6 7 0 9 0 8 8 1 Ministry of Health Primary healthcare 2,736,89 2,735,25 257,15 211,56 2,741,33 2,735,96 2,423,07 2,419,28 71,537 60,211 29,726 29,750 services 6 0 7 1 9 2 1 8 Secondary healthcare 4,356,39 4,304,78 716,03 717,83 4,585,56 4,505,66 154,65 156,08 5,825,97 5,717,55 589,39 755,41 services 7 4 3 6 2 2 7 0 7 0 4 8 Public healthcare 895,219 879,849 10,074 7,762 935,328 901,224 8,874 5,091 914,704 874,445 22,698 8,077
Ministry of Justice
Prison system 74,941 74,927 0 0 79,652 79,636 0 0 84,100 82,563 0 0
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Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania
Probation Servise 1,375 1,375 0 0 2,214 1,746 0 0 2,336 2,336 0 0
Adoption services 11,455 11,455 500 500 12,218 11,349 100 74 11,000 11,000 200 100 General Prosecutor
Office Planning, 4,064,70 management, 34,149 34,149 0 0 35,175 34,392 0 0 38,625 0 0 7 administration Judicary Budget
Administration Office Courts budget 69,558 68,532 0 0 70,627 68,963 0 0 85,342 79,909 0 0
Ombudsman
Advocacy service 500 500 0 0 500 500 0 0 500 500 0 0 42,036,0 41,042,0 4,261,3 3,985,0 41,197,7 40,664,1 2,401,2 2,304,3 48,465,8 43,338,3 4,770,9 4,310,6 Total 72 74 31 19 46 67 33 97 51 69 96 40
Total running and development costs for the FY 2012, 2013, 2014
000 ALL running costs CP development costs CP Total CP costs Budget Institution / program 2012, 2013, 2104 2012, 2013, 2104 (000 ALL) FC Actual FC Actual FC Actual Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth Social care and protection 11,490,590 11,484,012 25,000 25,000 11,515,590 11,509,012
Social Inclusion (SAfCPR) 23,500 21,507 112,350 108,442 135,850 129,949 Ministry of Education and Sports Basic education 69,077,969 67,232,694 5,811,078 5,326,415 74,889,047 72,559,109 138
Child Protection System Mapping and Assessment in Albania running costs CP development costs CP Total CP costs Budget Institution / program 2012, 2013, 2104 2012, 2013, 2104 (000 ALL) FC Actual FC Actual FC Actual
Secondary education 15,089,934 14,876,079 2,576,453 2,284,811 17,666,387 17,160,890
Vocational education 5,962,837 5,753,846 1,047,730 902,928 7,010,567 6,656,774 Ministry of Health Primary healthcare services 7,901,305 7,890,501 358,421 301,523 8,259,726 8,192,023
Secondary healthcare services 14,767,935 14,527,995 1,460,083 1,629,335 16,228,019 16,157,330
Public healthcare 2,745,251 2,655,518 41,646 20,929 2,786,896 2,676,447 Ministry of Justice Prison system 238,693 237,126 0 0 238,693 237,126
Probation Servise 5,926 5,457 0 0 5,926 5,457
Adoption services 34,673 33,804 800 674 35,473 34,478 General Prosecutor Office Planning, management, administration 4,134,031 107,167 0 0 4,134,031 107,167 Judicary Budget Administration Office Courts budget 225,527 217,404 0 0 225,527 217,404 Ombudsman Advocacy service 1,500 1,500 0 0 1,500 1,500
Total 131,699,670 125,044,611 11,433,561 10,600,056 143,133,230 135,644,667
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Aid coordination
The bulk of external funds from foreign partners, agencies, embassies, national/international organizations that are put at the disposal of the Government of Albania (GOA) are not fully managed and controlled. They are not recorded in AGFIS (Albanian government financial information system), which limits the possibility of effectively coordinating and managing all these funds.
A lot of support is given to the Ministries and institutions to finance projects with focus to CP, but exact data and information can be accessed only in the specific institutions, because most donor support to Albania continues to be managed outside the Government’s PFM system. This is considered an issue to be addressed, as no clear and accurate information can be accessed, except from the funds channeled through the treasury system (TS), which mostly refer to capital investments. However, they are are reported in totals in the budget tables under “Foreign financing” and cannot be exactly identified if refer to CP or not.
The Government objective is to channel grant and loan funds from its external partners through the Treasury System rather than through separate bank accounts.
In addition, it is planned to establish External Assistance Management Information System (EAMIS) to effectively manage development finance & implementation and to promote accountable and transparent use of resources
Albania will ensure that external partner’s assistance is integrated in the national development plans and medium term budget framework and is well coordinated. Albania's development is supported by over 40 bilateral and multilateral donors. This overall donor coordination is under the responsibility of the Deputy Prime Minister with support from the Department of Development Programming, Financing and Foreign Aid (DDPFFA). The overall coordination within the Albanian government includes a Strategic Planning Committee as an inter-ministerial committee chaired by the Prime Minister that reviews and endorses the government’s policy and fiscal priorities. This involves:
(i) setting the policy priorities and strategic directions within a sound fiscal framework at the beginning of the annual planning process; (ii) deciding on the inter-sector resource allocation (MTBP preparation ceilings) over the medium term, i.e. 3 years; (iii) reviewing the draft MTBP prior to the preparation of the state budget; and (iv) receiving regular reports on progress against key commitments.
In order to ensure coordination and cooperation among line ministries within specific sectors, a number of inter-ministerial working groups (IMWG) are established. The coordination of activities by the DDPFFA include the maintenance of a project database, the coordination of the meetings of the international donor community, Sector Working Groups (SWGs) and issuing a monthly donor dialogue newsletter. A high-level donor-government dialogue is taking place once per year as 'round table' to focus on aid harmonization, followed by regular operational meetings. This work is supported by a Donor Technical Secretariat (DTS). The SWGs are supporting the coordination at sector level. The envisaged 33 groups exchange information focusing on policy coordination, prioritization of assistance and monitoring of implementation.
The following table provides information on capital investments - foreign financing channeled through the Treasury System. The data are approximate and refer to cost linked with CP (what could be identified from the monitoring reports).
000 ALL Institution 2012 2013 2014
Ministry of SWY - - 108,442
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System
Ministry of Education and Sports 1,431,372 224,390 91,062
Ministry of Health 466,964 38,480 280,520
Ministry of Justice - - -
Ombudsman - - -
General Prosecutor Office - - -
Accounting, reporting and auditing
The Budgetary System Law establishes, among other things, the system of budgeting, the roles and responsibilities of the main stakeholders, the process for budget preparation, analysis, and approval the budget implementation process, and accounting and auditing practices.
The public institutions involved with children protection should be all accountable for the use of public funds over a certain period of time, considering the child’s right protection.
The main function of the financial control in Albania has always been checking that the budget funds have been used only for the purposes provided. With the new developments in the PF sector more emphasis will be placed on managerial accountability within the framework of a performance based budgeting, which will make the system more output oriented.
Still there is low awareness starting from the top management on the benefits of a sound internal control system for the managerial accountability.
Regarding local governments, the municipality’s Councils conduct interior controls. Under the frame of the organization of LGUs in 61 municipalities, is foreseen a restoration and new empowerment of controlling functions, pursued by Municipality Council on the municipality administration, especially regarding financial management (budget, projects, tax collection, etc.)
The Ministry of Finance produces monthly fiscal statistics for general government that cover revenues, expenditures, and financing and are generally published on the Ministry’s website within 20 days of the end of the month.
The treasury monthly reports provide actual spending by economic and functional classification, but the latter has no comparison with budget and outturn information reported by administrative, economic, and program classification.
The budget institutions are obliged to prepare and submit in a quarterly basis the monitoring reports. These reports provide more detailed revenue and expenditure reported according to the program classification. They are composed by the narrative and financial part
The narrative part analyzes and reports on the performance and achievement of the objectives.
The financial part includes several tables, which provide progressive information and data on:
- The expenditure and allocations, reported according to the economic classifications (articles) - The expenditure incurred based on outputs and objectives.
Since the expenditure incurred is registered based on the articles, it is a bit difficult to identify and calculate costs pertaining to specific outturns/results of a certain. This is usually done manually from the finance
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System officers. For this reason, sometimes calculation of costs incurred for each result might not be correct and might not provide a real picture.
Actually, the monitoring reports are very important because they are supposed to provide clear information on the costs and progress for each activity/output foreseen in the budget of the institution.
From the interviews, was made clear that no audits are performed on the CP with reference to budget allocations and expenditure incurred specifically for children.
Monitoring and assessments done by the Ministry of SWY n collaboration interested stakeholders (i.e. Unicef, CSO etc) mostly refer to the progress of implementation of the National Action Plan for Children.
Fiscal reform
In the last ten years Albania has registered some progress in terms of increasing fiscal and financial autonomy of local government entities but full financial autonomy of local government is not yet secured. The LGU-s have responsibilities for pre-university education, local infrastructure, water provision, sewage and waste management, and other services. Their spending is about 8 percent of the spending of general government (2.4 percent of GDP), which is low compared to other European countries.
The revenues, expenditure, and financing of local government are presented in the state budget. LGUs are highly dependent on the financial support from the state (about 50% of their income). Unpredictability of transfers is at a very high level. There is a lack of capacity to collect revenues. Reduced vehicle tax and the abolition of tax on small business affected negatively the local government revenues. Albania is among the very few countries in Southeast Europe, in terms of fiscal decentralization, that do not have a national system of tax sharing with local government.
Since 2002, intra-governmental transfers have been based on a transparent formula and clear objectives and criteria. During this period, important regulatory measures have also been implemented to improve financial management at the local government level; for example by introducing a Medium Term Expenditure Framework for planning and budgeting.
Actually the LGU-s are financed from two sources - State budget (conditional and unconditional transfer) - Own source revenues
With the fiscal decentralization the sources will be the same but the approach, % of transfers etc will change essentially in order to enable to the LGU-s more financial means and more autonomy.
Fiscal decentralization is an important part of the territorial reform. The number of municipalities and communes will be reduced radically, which is expected to reduce the fixed administrative costs of the local government by about 35-40 per cent. The savings will be used to increase public investment by local government. The reform aims to increase revenues from taxes and tariffs, thus increasing efficiency and effectiveness of public funds and increasing the autonomy of local government units in decision-making as well.
The Parliament approved the new local government law in July 2014 and in April 2014 the Parliament approved amendments regarding local government organization and functioning. According to the Law, the number of local government units will decrease to 61 from the current number of 373. The number of regional councils will remain unchanged at 12 regions. The decentralization strategy aims to increase the number of functions and competencies of local government, while minimizing risks to fiscal sustainability.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System The inter-governmental fiscal relations have become more transparent since the introduction of formula- based allocations of the unconditional transfers. However much remains to be done to strengthen the management of the local government including fiscal risks.
Unconditional transfers The unconditional transfer together with local taxes and services tariffs, finances the functions and competences delegated to the local government.
For the FY 2015 the unconditional transfer is foreseen 1.4% higher than the one of FY 2014
For the FY 2017 the unconditional transfer is foreseen 2% higher than the one of FY 2016
The calculation of the unconditional transfer is done based on the “population number” criteria. The formulas are specified in the annual budget law together with amounts. Conditional transfer The conditional transfer serves for financing the delegated functions, such as civil registry service, land protection and administration, business registration centre. The amount of conditional transfers will refer to expenditure forecasted (salaries, social charges, operational costs) for the activities of the delegated of common functions.
The law on the territorial reform will be accompanied by a law specifying the functions and competencies of local government as well as by a special law on local finance and measures to increase tax and non-tax revenues, accruing to local government. The new law on local government financing (draft foreseen to be prepared by the end of this year) will clarify the fiscal relations between the central and local government, and strengthen coordination and the consolidated management of general government operations.
Description of budget preparation at the local level
The general government units are composed by:
- Central government units - Local government units - Special funds units The budgeting process is the main mission of the Ministry of Finance. The organic law sets out the roles and responsibilities of the actors involved, including the procedures and deadlines to be implemented during this process.
Any general government unit prepares budgetary requirements in the framework of the medium-term budget program, ensuring that budget allocations reflect policy objectives and initiatives set out in the Government program over the medium term (3 years), making a direct link between budget allocations and program policy objectives.
While preparation of central government budget is done through the electronic system of MTBP, administered by the Ministry of Finance, the preparation of budget requests for local government units is done through the excel formats approved by the Minister of Finance.
The LGU Council approves the annual budget for local government units through a special decision. The unconditional transfers from the state budget to local government units are being approved as part of the annual budget, to enable the LGU’s exercising their functions.
Local government exercises: i) Common functions performed by the contribution of local and central government
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System ii) Delegated functions, which are delegated from one power level to another or within the same power level. Local government units can use their financial resources with their own initiative to exercise delegated functions and responsibilities, to improve the level of services provided in the best interest of the community.
Responsibilities in the budgeting process: The Chairman (Mayor) of LGU is responsible to submit in the MoF the reports with budget requests and CASH flow plan. He also approves the calendar of preparing the budget, including
- Estimation of revenues and expenditure for three years - Preparation of budget requests in the 1st and 2nd phases - Submission for approval of the MTBP to the LGU council The LGU Council is responsible for approval of budget request and MTBP
Deadlines / calendar
The central and local governments units have to follow an “event calendar” during budget preparation process. The SCO-s and children / youth representatives might participate in the hearing sessions. The exact dates of these sessions are published in the web site of the Ministry of Finance.
Expenditure forecast is the most important stage during the MTBP preparation process. It starts directly after approval of political declaration of the program. The LGU budget ceilings are approved from the LGU council until March of each year.
The Chairman (Mayor) of LGU, within June submits to the LGU council the mid-term budget requests, already approved from the Strategic Management Group. The LGU, after approval of budget request from the LGU Council, submits them to the MoF within 15 August, each year.
The MoF organizes workshops with the LGUs budget working groups and prepares an evaluation report for the improvement of the budget preparation process. Draft document of MTBP, revised, together with the draft annual budget law will be submitted for approval to the Council of Ministers and will be approved within 25 October.
First Authorizing Officer (normally the secretary general of MoF), within 10 days after approval from the CoM of the budget law and MTBP, informs all LGUs on the transfers from the central government and also the national taxes rate.
Within November, the LGU chairman submits to the LGU Council the annual draft budget. The council should within 31 December approve the annual budget .
Public administration
Governance and the rule of law in Albania are key challenges. A key issue to be addressed concerns Albania's public administration, including Public Administration Reform (PAR) process and its coordination, policymaking, and civil service and public administration organization and functioning both at central and local level.
Organization and functioning of public administration in Albania is regulated by law "On the organization and functioning of the state administration". The public administration is organized and operates according to the principles of unity and hierarchy, accountability, decentralization, clarity in the definition and distribution of responsibilities, economy, efficiency and effectiveness, as well as cooperation between public administration institutions.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Further efforts are needed to depoliticize the public service, ensure continuity, promote ethical standards in the administration, strengthen meritocracy in appointments, promotions and dismissals, and increase its efficiency and financial sustainability.
A sound and functioning public administration both at central and local level is a prerequisite for progress in many other sectors, and essential for an increase in investments, both foreign and domestic.
The new strategy 2015-2020 aims at and focus not only on the civil service, but also on other important elements to address the need to improve the services provided to citizens and businesses, to increase transparency and accountability or issues such as governance innovation, priorities which have been set forth also in the Government’s political program of 2013-2017.
The new PAR is more extensive and is built on four fundamental elements:
1- Improvement of the delivery of services to citizens; 2- Enhancement of the accountability of public officials; 3- More delegation of decision-making; 4- Promotion of professionalism in the civil service and meritocracy in recruitment.
The Public Administration Reform generated some progress. In this context, some legislation was adopted laying down standards for the establishment, functioning and types of executive bodies, standards for institutional and organizational set-up, and standards governing the process of staff restructuring and resettlement. Functional and structural revision was carried out for all line ministries. Job descriptions and performance management system improved through standardized rules and procedures and legal framework, and the relevant manuals. Temporary employment contracts in civil service were kept at a controlled level, by disciplining the temporary employment and introducing conditions such as preliminary approvals.
Public administration is composed by 88 550 employees, working in the central government units and some independent institutions.
Total % no. Total employees employees Institution employees / / total of PA institution PA
Ministry of SWY 2,835 3.20%
Ministry of Education and Sports 38,291 43.24%
Ministry of Health 3,464 3.91%
88,550 Ministry of Justice 4,765 5.38%
Ombudsman 51 0.06%
General Prosecutor Office 848 0.96%
The number of employees working in programs linked with CP was not made available.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System The public sector includes about 1,500 separate entities. The precise number is unknown, but efforts are underway to compile a full list.
1. General government 1,279 1.1 Central government units 1.2 Local government units 1.3 Social security units
2. Public corporations 256
The institutional mechanisms responsible for the protection of child rights are defined in the Law Nr. 10347, date 04.11.2010. They are set at central and local level:
At central level: a) The National Council for the Protection of the Children’s Rights; b) The Minister who coordinates the issues of protection of Children’s Rights; c) The State Agency for the Protection of the Children’s Rights;
At local level: a) Units responsible for implementation of children's rights in the regional councils; b) Units responsible for protection of children's rights in the municipality;
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List of interviews
General No. Institution Department Interviewee Date Timing feedback General Ministry of Finance 14.00 - 1 Directorate of Mimoza Dhembi 12/5/2015 (MoF) 15.30 Budget General Directorate Finance 13.00 - 2 Avidana Pali 25/05/2015 of Prisons (GDP) department 14.30
Ministry of Justice Finance 13.00 - 3 Petrit Bakiu 26/05.2015 (MoJ) department 14.00 State Agency for Protection of Rabushe 09.30 - 4 Finance section 12/6/2105 Children’s Rights Kalemasi 11.00 (SAfPCR) Genral Prosecution Finance 09.00 - 5 Luan Abazi 15/06/2015 Office (GPO) department 10.30
Social State Service Finance 11.00 - 6 Aida Cavo 15/06/2015 (SSS) department 12.00 Ministry of Finance 12.30 - 7 Education and Sports Mirela Bimo 15/06/2015 department 13.30 (MoES) Ministry of Social Finance 13.00 - 8 Welfare and Jonida Halili 16/06/2015 department 14.30 Youth(MoSWY) Ministry of Health Finance 09.00 - 9 Saimir Kadiu 19/06/2015 (MoH) department 10.30
11.00 - 10 Ombudsman Finance section Ilirjana Lole 19/06/2015 12.30
List of documents analyzed
PFM strategy 2014 – 2020 (GoA) Public administration reform 2015 – 2020 (GoA) Draft – Strategy of decentralization Fiscal transparency evaluation (draft – June 2015, IMF) Budget 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 (MoF) MTBP 2015 – 2017 (MoF) Monitoring reports 2012 – 2014 (selected programs) Law for the protection of child rights no. 10347, date 04.11.2010.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Several reports published from the selected institutions Websites of selected institutions, included in the research Bulletin 3 Probation Service 2013 Healthy behaviors in children aging 11, 13 and 15 years old (Institute of Public Health) Report on criminality 2012 – 2013 (GPO)
List of websites consulted http://www.sociale.gov.al/ http://www.femijet.gov.al/ http://www.sherbimisocial.gov.al/ http://www.aresimi.gov.al/ http://www.financa.gov.al/ http://www.shendetesia.gov.al/ http://www.ishp.gov.al/ http://www.qsut.gov.al/ http://www.drejtesia.gov.al/ http://www.dbpsh.gov.al/ http://www.sherbimiproves.gov.al/ http://kshb.gov.al/ http://www.punetebrendshme.gov.al/ http://www.asp.gov.al/ http://www.avokatipopullit.gov.al/ http://www.pp.gov.al/ http://www.zabgj.gov.al/
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Annex 7: Analysis of legal framework on CP
by
Dr. Arta Vorpsi Legal Expert List of main legal documents
Laws
8153 1996 Law on the Status of Orphans
7952 1995 Law on Child Labor
9062 2003 The Family Code of Albania
9355 2005 Law on Social Assistance and Services
9335 2005 Law on Foster Care
9695 2007 Law on the Adoption Procedures and Albanian Adoption Committee
10347 2010 Law on the Protection of the Rights of the Child
10399 2011 Amendments and Additions to Law No. 9355/2005 on Social Assistance and Services
163 2014 Law on the Social Worker in the Republic of Albania
Decisions
30 2010 The joint action of the structures implementing the National Strategy for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings
263 2012 Establishing the detailed rules for the cooperation between institutional mechanisms and non-profit organizations to accomplish the local polices for the protection of the rights of child
264 2012 Procedures for the Commission of Control and Placement of State Agency sanction under Protection of Rights of the Child
265 2012 Creation and Functioning of Coordination Mechanisms of Work among Governmental Authorities Responsible For Referring Cases Of Children At Risk and Procedures
266 2012 Coordination of mechanisms activity at central and local level for the protection of the rights of child
2013 Resolution On Protection And Respect Of Rights Of The Child In Albania 2013
Draft 2015 Cooperation and Intervention Procedures to Help Children at-Risk for Main Responsible Institutions and Structures for Children’s Protection
Strategies
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2004-2015 National Education Strategy
2015-2020 National Social Protection Strategy
2012-2020 Juvenile Justice Strategy
2012-2015 Action Plan for Children
2015-2020 Youth National Action Plan
Child protection
Article 54 of Albanian Constitution addresses the issue of violence against children specifically and directly, assuring children of their fundamental rights. According to the article, children enjoy the right of special protection by the state; the right to be protected from violence and maltreatment; the right to be protected from exploitation and work that might harm their health or morals, or put their normal development at risk.
Other fundamental national legal instruments such as Criminal Code, Family Code and a number of laws and specific decisions also contain provisions that directly or indirectly affect the observance of children’s right and their protection from different forms of abuse.
In 2010 Albania approved a new law “On Children’s Rights”, which among many new dispositions requires public agencies across the social service sector at all levels of administrative organisation (Communes, Municipalities and District) to implement the law.
Several structures and institutions from different sectors are involved in the child protection system, including the state social services, the police, the judicial system, the education and the health sector.
a. In social welfare The Law on Economic Assistance and Social Services (Law 9355) still remains the basic law guaranteeing, in principle, economic assistance and social services for the protection of children coming from difficult life situations, be these related to the economic aspect or children’s need for specific services.
However, from a general overview, we can say that this law extends its implementation area in a number of directions that have to do with the organization and functioning of local and central government, service provision and assistance to people in difficult economic conditions, administrative sanctions, organization and distribution of service providers, their monitoring. The approach of the law towards service provision, although seemingly proactive, actually results to be the exact opposite. The role of public institutions (municipality/commune/district) which have the duty to provide economic assistance and social services is to “wait” for the citizens to go and ask them for help, while the approach should actually be two directional. Of course, every citizen in need or in a difficult situation needs to address to the state and to the society to overcome the situation he/she is into. But, on the other hand, social service institutions in municipalities must not turn into “reception offices”. They should be, together with public and private service-providers, the closest possible to the life of local communities, identifying all the families and children in need and children in difficult situations of risk, abuse or emergency.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System The “reception” role of local social service institutions becomes more evident especially when it comes to documentation completion. According to Article 20 of the Law, the documentation for a request of economic assistance and social services must be completed by the applicant. Briefly, this means that a person in an extreme economic situation, who does not have the financial possibility to use public transportation or to pay the notary services, - which in the meantime are not foreseen to be provided for free by any law and are quite expensive – must go to all the offices of the Albanian government one by one and then notarize the required documentation in several copies. Based on the experience of NPOs working with such cases, an extremely poor person does not have any possibility to meet all these requests, despite of how simple they might seem on paper. The cause of all this seems to be the lack of written procedures on the exchange of official documents containing personal data, which would help in the completion of the documentation required by the law.
Though it seems that the law does guarantee the nondiscrimination principle, it actually excludes part of the applicants from the benefits of its implementation. The fact that the child him/herself cannot apply for the service (according to Article 6 of the Law the child is only a service beneficiary) but only the head of the family can is an indicator of this statement and limits the provision of these service to those who need them the most. The law also states that families or persons who are beneficiaries of economic assistance cannot benefit from social service and vice versa while, from the experience, it is now known that many of the poor families need both economic assistance and free social services. In the same time, the law requires from each person who needs economic assistance and social services to submit a written request to the related structure in the Municipality (Article 20 of the law), while some of the persons who are in difficult situations may not have the necessary level of education or the necessary financial condition to write even a simple request and, especially, to complete the documentation of which often notarization is required.
The law does not foresee how illiterate people or people in extreme poverty can ask for help and how can the documentation be completed if a payment is required; moreover, it does not give any right to NPOs to address to municipalities in order to ask for free support on behalf of one or more poor persons in need of assistance and services.
Complaints for unfair decisions, according to Article 25 of the Law, are submitted to the Court. According to the law, social service provision by public or private service providers is only made with the authorization of the social Administrator in municipalities and not directly by the applicant (Article 31 of the Law). This constitutes another restriction of the right of all citizens to have access to public services at every moment they might need them.
Law 9355 as pointed out above is the only basic law that guarantees economic assistance and social services for child protection. Article 1 of the Law focuses on its general aims expressing in particular the following: - To determine the social assistance and services for individuals and social groups in need who are unable to provide for their basic life necessities, develop their personal skills and abilities, and preserve their integrity, due to limited economic, physical, psychological and social circumstances. - To mitigate poverty and social exclusion for individuals and families, as well as to create possibilities for their integration through the establishment of a system of interventions and services for the improvement of their living conditions.
In Articles 10, 12 and 13, the law provides that each person who cannot meet his/her basic needs of life can benefit from the following types of support: a) economic assistance; b) benefits in kind (material but not
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System monetary goods); c) social services divided into: social care services and social and health care services; d) placement in foster families. As it can be seen, the scope of services guaranteed by the law is wide contrary to the scope of services that are concretely provided at local and central level.
Article 17 defines the authorities responsible for the provision of economic assistance and social services as follows:
1. Public social services include the social care services provided to groups in need in residential institutions, day centres and people’s homes. These services are funded by the state budget and the independent budget of the local government units. a) State Social Service shall administer social services for individuals at national level. b) The municipalities/communes shall administer all social services provided to individuals who are inhabitants of that city or commune. c) The region shall administer the services when they are provided to individuals residing in several local units in that region. 2. Private social services include privately funded social care services delivered in residential centres, at day centres or at home.
Article 19 defines the eligibility criteria for economic assistance and social services as well as the procedures to be followed by the citizens in order to receive them. Full economic assistance is offered to persons who do not benefit from: a) an economic activity; b) programs of social assistance and services or some other system of social protection; c) own capital; ç) emigrant family members. Economic assistance will be partial when the family has insufficient income from: a) its land; b) livestock; c) pensions and other forms of income.
In the integrations made to the law on March 2011, a number of new categories of beneficiaries are foreseen for the first time, which can benefit from economic assistance and social services when: a) the head of family is missing due to the death of both parents who were in charge of the children; b) one of the parents who were in charge of the children is serving a prison sentence for an offence following a final and irrevocable court decision, and the other parent does not live anymore; c) one parent has been revoked parental custody by court decision and the other parent does not live, whose family status includes children; ç) the head of family is a person with physical and/or mental disabilities, a blind person, a paraplegic/quadriplegic person or an industrially disabled person and the rest of the family members are children or people beyond employment age who do not receive any pension; d) the head of the family is the mother and the other parent does not live as well as when the family members are children or people beyond employment age who do not receive any pension; dh) the head of the family is a family member beyond employment age and when family members are children and people employment age, regardless of their income, pension or land; e) the family is isolated at home due to blood feud; ë) the family belongs to the Roma community; f) the family is below poverty line, according to the list defined in the related sub legal acts;
According to Article 20, economic assistance is allocated once a month. The Council of the Municipality decides which will be the families that would benefit from economic assistance after an evaluation made by the social administrator of the institution. The application for receipt of economic assistance shall be submitted by the head of the family or by each of the spouses if they have started divorce procedures and shall be signed by all its adult members.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Law 9355 does not dwell upon specific groups of children and respective types of support as it considers all children in need of economic assistance and social services as one unique group. Perhaps, it would be appropriate for specific services offered to children, especially to those who have survived extreme situations of abuse and exploitation, to be addressed in a specific way as related to the organization and provision of economic assistance and social services, both at national and regional or municipality level.
The scheme of the law places almost all the burden of social services provision on municipalities and requires them to establish specific offices for this (Article 30). However, from 2005 to date, with the exception of the largest municipalities, almost none of the municipalities and communes in Albania have any specific office for the provision of social services; they only have one or several persons who, among other things, also cover the obligations arising from this law’s implementation.
According to Article 29 of the Law, the responsibility of the municipal or communal Council (local government) in relation to economic assistance and social service provision is:
1. to draft the plan for the development of social care services based on local resources, needs and priorities. 2. to approve and support the development of care services on the basis of local priority needs’ assessment 3. to take decisions on individuals, families and the types of services to be provided on the basis of: a) an assessment of the needs of individuals and families made by the Social Administrator; b) the financial possibilities for the provision of these services.
As it appears in these three paragraphs extracted from article 29, local government plays a decisive role in the definition of the type and level of services to be provided in its territory.
In most of the cases, children living in street situation practice the profession of beggars and, in less frequent cases, that of retailers. The phenomenon is widely diffused in Tirana and Durrës because both cities have a larger number of population and higher revenues compared to other cities. The wide diffusion of the phenomenon is also due to the fact that, generally, begging is not prohibited by the national law, neither for children nor for adults. Neither the penal law nor other laws in Albania do prohibit begging as a phenomenon, including child begging. In this regard, it could be one of the recommendations the criminalization of child exploitation for begging and other types of economic exploitation of children, as a possibility to punish all those who try to gain benefits or income from child labour. From a legal aspect, this would need to be accompanied by a request of the responsible authorities for the termination or limitation of parental custody, in case parents are children’s exploiters, as well as by a request for the placement of the child in a residential center or foster family baring in mind his/her best interest.
Law 9355 does not offer any specific provision on actions to be taken and procedures to be followed in relation to the termination/ limitation of parental custody. Furthermore, functional duties of the Social Administrator in municipalities do not include any right of this administrator to address to the court for the termination of parental custody of parents who are not able to guarantee the upbringing and wellbeing of their children despite the economic or social assistance they might have been receiving.
The Albanian state has the obligation to protect every child from abuse, ill-treatment, neglect and exploitation. In this regard, the right of the child to life and safety is a priority right. Having a child is not just a right; it is mainly a responsibility. The fact that often children who are in extreme situations of abuse and
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System exploitation due to living in the streets have been left under the custody of exploiting parents or families indicates that social services and law implementation bodies have been giving priority to parent’s rather than children’s rights, while it is their main obligation to guarantee that children’s life and wellbeing is constantly protected. This gap in the law has in many cases turned the social administrator into an administrator of documentation rather than of real social services. The reasons for this can be two:
The first reason is related to the budget. One important remark that can be made upon the law is the limitation of economic assistance and social services resulting from the insufficient budget allocated for these purposes in the state budget and in the municipality and commune ones. Although the civil society has strongly asked for the introduction in the law of a minimum floor and a maximum ceiling for the assistance a poor family can benefit from, this has actually never happened. Even with the amendments made and supplements added to the law on 2011, this issue remained unsolved making it easier for public institutions, especially at local level, not to comply with one of the obligations arising from the social objectives of the Albanian government defined in the Albanian Constitution. Articles 28 and 29 of the Law define the responsibilities of central and local institutions in relation to the budgeting and approval of economic assistance and social services, while Article 37 clearly explains the funding sources for these services: The funding sources for social care services provided by the public and non-public institutions at regional, municipal or communal level, in residential and daily centers, at home or in the community mobile services centres shall consist of:
a) funds delegated by the central State Budget; b) funds generated from local taxes and tariffs; c) revenues from properties and other activities of the municipality or commune; d) ç) contributions of the beneficiaries of social care services defined in Article 23 of this law; e) donations, sponsorships and funding from other organizations, natural or legal persons or other persons not included in paragraphs “a”, “b”, “c” and “ç” of this article.
The second reason, according to experts, could be the lack of a background in the provision of social services during the period of the communist regime and before. Albania never inherited a state of social welfare. Although the communist system seemed to provide a number of services, they were mainly infrastructural services aimed at improving people’s collective wellbeing, not their individual one. Poverty was as widespread as the relative wellbeing and the protection provided by the system (free kindergartens and schools, free health services, employment for all, guaranteed leave, and so on). This system was never able to create any centre of social work, community centers or other services to assist families and children in need. When people had to deal with individual problems, especially women and children, social exclusion could be as harsh as it is today. The “safety net” knitted by the communist system was so fine that, once this system fell down, the new political system established had no system or working pattern to continue assisting people. The lack of models of social welfare – where the state and the society assist families and persons in need – played inevitably a role in depriving hundreds of persons and families all over Albania, including children, of minimal support and wellbeing.
Article 32 of the Law is one of the best indicators of the fact that the Albanian government still does not recognize social services as an obligation arising from the Constitution and the international acts, but limits their provision to the possibilities of the state budget. Among other things, the law sets up the Economic Assistance, Disability Payment and Social Services Inspectorate (Article 27, paragraph 2), a structure responsible for the monitoring of the activity of the structures and institutions under its jurisdiction and the
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System sections of economic assistance in the municipalities and the implementation of legislation by them. It is still not clear if this inspectorate is already operative or not and what are the measures it has taken to make the law applicable.
As pointed out above, Law No. 9355 has a number of positive elements which must be taken into consideration. In this regard, the civil society and the organizations that provide services for children must take a firmer stand in requiring the implementation of all the obligations and responsibilities the law assigns to local and national institutions. One of the positive developments of the Law is the creation of a Social Fund. Article 39 does not give many details on how the fund will function, leaving this responsibility with the Council of Ministers. Until the moment this study was drafted, the fund was not activated yet and it still remains to be seen if it will be functional.
Law on economic assistance and social services must be reviewed in order to solve all the aspects related to the non-functioning of economic assistance and social services. The reviewing of this law is an emergency as, due to its poor implementation, many children cannot benefit neither from the economic assistance scheme nor from the social service one; Law 9355 needs to be improved, as soon as possible, as related to the procedures of the collection and administration of the documentation needed in order to benefit from economic assistance and social services. The collection and administration of this documentation must be made by institutions not by the person applying for assistance and services.
In Law 9355, the role of social administrators in Municipalities must be reinforced through their inclusion in the staff of new Child Protection Units (the assignment to them of the responsibility on case administration; the assignment to them of the status of social workers; the right to receive protection by the police when required by the case; the right to visit all houses where children live; the coordination of their work with that of teachers, regional employment offices, etc; the right to prepare requests for the termination or limitation of parental custody and to address to the court, etc)
There is need for further improvement of the law in order to respond to all new realities and to the need for a better coordination not only of social services but also of educational, employment and vocational training ones, at regional and municipal level, through the procurement and outsourcing of existing services and the expansion of the scope of new services, in particular of community ones and those addressed to the families. This would specifically require the increase of multidisciplinary staffs, the approval of new procedures of case referral, following and management and their coordination with other public and nonpublic services
Although Article 39 of the 2010 Law does recognize and create a legitimate mandate for the CPUs at municipality/commune level, significantly the law does not provide that municipalities must establish a CPU, nor are there any specific requirements or provisions regarding funding of the CPU. Unfortunately the law is silent as to how the CPU should be funded. At present they are funded through the municipality, but as was observed by several respondents, in many locations the priorities of the local government/council are more geared towards initiatives that benefit all of the community (such as new infrastructure) rather than protecting the most vulnerable ones.
It is worth mentioning that while in the main the costs for the CPUs are currently borne at individual municipality level, the long term benefits of a proactive approach to child protection (such as reduced costs of alternative care, economic viability in adulthood and reduced crime and other social problems) are more directly seen at national level. This means that, while of course, individual municipalities may be aware of their ‘’moral’’ and legal duties to protect children, the financial benefits of doing so may be less obvious.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Although Article 30 of the 2010 Law requires that each CPU should have a least one social worker, the definition of what constitutes a social worker is absent. At present while there is guidance given in the Protocol regarding the skills and qualities required for a CPW, this document is not mandatory and the appointment of CPWs is left to the discretion of Mayors. This means that appointments may not always be based upon the selection of a candidate that is most suited to the role and responsibilities.
b. In education Art. 57 of Albanian Constitution state that everyone has the right to education. The compulsory education in public schools is free of charge. Albania has approved the Law on Pre-University Education and the National Strategy on Pre-University Education, two important documents for the development of education in the country. Both these legal and policy documents constitute the basis on which the practice of the Albanian government in applying general and constitutional principles is built. Among other things, these documents state the aim to …increase the inclusion in compulsory education of children coming from poor families. The documents foresee the introduction of preparatory classes for children in need. But the law does not foresee any legal obligation to keep the child enrolled. The school, with all its structure, is not able to carry out the implementation of children’s right to education.
There is a legal framework guaranteeing education for all children, but mechanisms to control its implementation are missing. Children of parents in difficult situations, who have no revenues, have health problems and so on, are not able to attend school. The responsibility for frequenting the school falls upon parents. The law charges and penalizes parents but, if parents have no income, they are no effective mechanisms to oblige them. Local government units have no power and no abilities to enforce the law. Their structures are not able to identify school age children. They do not follow children’s enrollment and inclusion. When families are not registered, the situation becomes even worst because there is almost no possibility of intervention.
An important step in the strengthening of the child protection system is the introduction of school psychologists. Their role is to identify and respond to social problems in cooperation with teachers and the school director. The school psychologists often lack of proper education and qualification, making difficult to exercise their role towards the children.
There are no specific provisions on protecting the children during the time they are in school, not only from the teacher’s behavior but also from other children or persons who interact with them. Art.6 of the law on preuniversity education foresees that the human rights in general and especially of the children with special needs are protected. For this category of the children Art.19 of the law declares that a specific treatment should be regulated by a sublaw act of the Council of Ministers. It is to point out that the professionals working with childrens lack of proper qualification and have a poor understanding of the role of social services and other structures involved in the child protection system. This factors result in low levels of identification and referral of child abuse and neglect cases.134
c. In health One of the biggest problems encountered by public and private social service providers in the country as well as by children in need for protection (like children in the street situation or Roma children) is related to health services. Though, as it declares, the Albanian state has a universal coverage with basic health services, in
134 Albania Case based surveillance study on violence against children (CRCA) 2014.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System reality these are not provided for free, which contradicts with the general practice of neighboring countries and European countries in general. It also contradicts with constitutional principles of guaranteeing Albanian citizens social and health wellbeing.
There are some laws that regulate health services in Albania. Among the most important ones there is the Law on Health Care in Albania. Article 2 of this law, which speaks about healthcare principles in Albania, says in two of its paragraphs: a) the right to health care, is a fundamental right of the individual; b) guaranteeing of equal rights to health care, it should be based on nondiscrimination principle;’ while, in its article 3/3 it says: “Health care is the set of measures and activities undertaken by healthcare institutions, health workers and citizens, aiming at the improvement of general physical, mental and social wellbeing of the citizens.’ The law does not have any approach to rules and procedures to be followed by poor, unemployed, abandoned people or people leaving in the street in order to receive free health care.
The Law explains the ways of financing health care in Albania. Article 8 provides that health care is financed by: a) State Budget; b) compulsory or voluntary health insurance; c) private health insurance; d) direct payments.
Restricting practices of health service and care provision openly conflict also with Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by Albania. Article 24 of the CRC provides in its first paragraph that: ‘States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. States Parties shall strive to ensure that no child is deprived of his or her right of access to such health care services.’
When it comes to the children in need like children living in street situation who are children who live without any parental care and often are not equipped with any birth registration document, the provision of health care is almost impossible for this group of children. In this regard, it can be said that Albania does not comply with children’s rights to protection and health care as the state does not guarantee them unconditioned access to health service.
Directive No. 526 dated October 12th 2009 of the Minister of Health excludes families in need and in particular families belonging to Roma community from receiving free health services, since in most cases they are not registered in Tirana and are not equipped with health books. Public providers of health services in most cases are waiting until Roma population addresses them, although it is their legal obligation to guarantee the access to the service to all citizens, also providing the related solutions for displacing populations or those missing documentation. Currently, the only service they are provided for free and without the requirement to have health insurance is vaccination. The situation of the health service proves to be even worse if we take into consideration special services such as the deontological, ophthalmologic and psychiatric services which are in most cases provided only upon payment. Due to their families not being registered and able to meet law requirements to receive the needed services for free, children in street situation are completely unprotected by the system.
The health sector through primary health care services and hospitals is a key actor in the identification of and response to child protection cases encountered. According the law on measures against violence in family relations the Ministry of Health has the capacity to health practitioners to provide the adequate medical and psychological assistance to victims of violence, including children. But there is a lack of protocol with criteria to assist children in the case of violence. Health care practitioners also lack the appropriate training to identify
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System cases of violence against children. As Albania does not have a mandatory reporting system on violence against children, many agencies such as health do not report on non-accidental offences against children. 135
In justice - Criminal matters
Child offenders (arrest, investigation, pre-trial detention, investigation, assessment, trial, sentencing, detention, diversion)
The roles of the police and the judicial sector are of an essential importance for the child protection system, since these sectors are in charge with the implementation of the legislation on children protection. It is useful to highlight that within the law on rights of the child there are provisions which are designed to protect the rights of children from all forms of abuse and promote the wellbeing of children, and uphold their rights.
A number of children involved in criminal activities in Albania come from problematic families. Other children have had a permanent antisocial behaviour at school and in the family, but his/her parent was not able to understand it and getting some professional assistance.136 Children in conflict with the law generally commit their first criminal act between 10-14 years old. This is the age when the children drop off the school and as the alternative they involve themselves in street jobs (ambulant sellers or similar). The older they get, the more serious their offences tend to be. It begins with small criminal acts (theft, shoplifting) and it becomes more serious. It is clear that these children later on would try to involve themselves with serious criminal acts. They usually start by committing robberies, injuring people, getting involved in cases of extortion and by bearing arms and will then be driven towards acts such as murder but when they get older (this type of crime is not usual at this age, more it is an exception). Most of children in conflict with the law exhibit poor education137. It is a fact than as long as the children go to school, they have less possibility to get involved in criminal activity. But this is not absolute, sometime children delinquency can be found among good educated children for different reasons. In most cases extreme poverty is a dominant feature. Most of the children come from rural, suburban and undeveloped areas or from urban areas where living conditions are very difficult. Some of children are from problematic families, single parent, murdered parent, alcoholic and drug consumption problems, lack of communication families with a lot of children, abandoned or orphan children are some example of such a difficult social environment. Children who break the law are characterized by a problematic behavior which has been modeled in earlier age.
The Albanian justice system recognizes the following categories of children in conflict with law:
- Children in conflict with law, who at the time they committed the crime have not reached the age of fourteen years old (no penal responsibility). - Children in conflict with laws, who at the time they committed the crime have reached fourteen years old.
The categories of offences for which children can be detained are:
- Crimes against the persons (Article II I Criminal Code) in which are included: Crimes against the human life (exp. murder, injury); Sexual crimes (Rapes and attempts with minors aged 14 –17
135 Albania Case based surveillance study on violence against children (CRCA) 2014. 136 Juvenile delinquency in Albania, Study prepared by: Qendra për mbrojtjen e të drejtave të fëmijëve, Tiranë, 2007. 137 Ibid
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System years old.); Criminal offences against the individual autonomy (exp violation of domicile); Criminal offences against the moral and human dignity (exp. prostitution, pornography); - Penal acts against the property and in economic area. (Article III I Criminal offences) in which are included: Theft (specially in collaboration); Property devastation; - Crimes against the state authorities (article VIII I Criminal Code), where are included: Criminal offences acts against the state activities committed by the Albanian citizen exp. Rebellion against a policeman, non- obedience to a police order etc; - Criminal offences against the public order and public security: the production and possession without permission of a weapon, production and sells of narcotics, infraction of the rules of traffic; - Criminal offences against the system of justice: non–declaration of the crime, false declaration.138
Article 52 of the Albanian Criminal Code stipulates that the court, considering the lack of dangerousness of the criminal act, estimating the concrete circumstances under which it was committed, and the previous behaviour of the minor, may exclude him from the punishment. In these cases, the court may decide that the child/juvenile should be placed in an educational institution. Article 46 of the Criminal Code states that educations measures may be applied to the minors (under 14 years old) who are excluded from punishment or, because of their age, they do not bear criminal responsibility. It is foreseen by this provision that after the Prosecution’s office has brought a criminal case (charge) before the court and the author of the crime is a child under 14 years of age, the prosecutor may only propose an educational measure to be taken by the court. Educational measures imply placement of a minor in an institution for education. Upon the proposal of the prosecutor, the judge may decide that the child, who has committed a serious crime, should be placed in an institution. After the judgment to place these children in a closed institution has been delivered, the responsible institution to execute the court’s decision is the district prosecutor. Unfortunately, this provision of the Criminal Code is not applicable (can not be executed) because of absence of these educational institutions.
There is only one re-integration institution for the children in conflict with the law (in Kavaja). This re- education institution, serves as one of the most commonly adopted alternative to sentence juvenile up to age 18139. At the same time, it was considered as the only possibility for the treatment of juvenile under age 14, who do not bear criminal responsibility and who, according to the statistical records, are in considerably large numbers140. Although, this institution is more a “moderate” prison adopted for juveniles up to 18-20 years141 old which could become a problem if they are seated together with children under 14 years old. An alternative could be in cases when the court deals with children under 14 years who commit serious crimes (murder, serious injury etc) to place them in a separate section of this prison in Kavaja or building a new institution only for this category of children.
Actually, there is an absence of re-integration (rehabilitation) institutions for those children who commit crimes and could not be punished with imprisonment because of their ages. This kind of institution would be
138 Arta Vorpsi, Report on situation of children under 14 years who commit crimes in Albania (2010). 139 Ibid.
140 See the statistics published by the Directorate General of the Police above.
141 Juvenile Justice in Albania - An analysis of the juvenile justice system and the situation of juvenile in Albania. Published by the CRCA (2007).
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System an alternative for this category of children in cases when the court decides that they should be subject of a special treatment (when a child commits a serious crime: theft in large amount, serious injuries or even murder). Although the number of these children is low (according the statistics given by the Ministry of Interior), it is crucial to be foreseen by the legislator a specific treatment of these children. Because of the dangerousness and the psychological (not only) consequences that a child who commit murder, or serious injuries, could have, it is necessary to give that child a special treatment, which may include his/her continually supervision and care. Those re-integration institutions should have as an aim the socialization of the child in all related fields. The child should get social, psychological and pedagogic help during the time he will stay in.
The Albanian Criminal Code foresees the possibility for the alternative (education) measures applicable for the children under 14 years old who commit crimes. But unfortunately there is no other act nor specific program nor institution which elaborates this alternative further. These children should be considered as children in need for protection, because they are not only the authors of a criminal act but they are also victims. There is a law who may protect the children from violence in their families142, but it is not applicable in situation like this. The aim of the law against domestic violence is to help children in case of violence which is an emergency situation. In cases of committing criminal act by the children under 14 years old, it could take a long time till their full re-integration and also it requires a specific treatment and program for this category. That’s why I don’t think that the law against domestic violence could be helpful in cases when the children have committed crimes and need help to re-integrate in the community.
The Albanian legislation entirely, considering its provisions and the way they are applied turns out to be penalizing rather than preventive. I think that there is need of a legal framework which should foresee the specific measures applicable for those children. In respect of each measure (both preventive and re- integrative) further educational programs and the respective institutions responsible for the implementation should be developed. The concrete dispositions could be part of Criminal Procedural Code or a specific law (like juvenile justice act, or children/juvenile protection act) which may foresee provision regarding the obligatory implementation of the re-integration program.
Regarding the probation service, it was introduced for the first time as part of the reform of the justice system through the Law no.10024/2008 "On Amendments to the Law no.8331/1998 "On the execution of criminal judgments". The Parliament adopted the legal framework for the establishment and functioning of the Probation Service as a specialized state body which would supervise alternative sentences.
In the focus of intervention of the Probation Service are also minors who have committed a criminal offense or are under investigation. Since the founding of this Service there were treated about 1480 minors. The Probation Service’s specialists draft evaluation reports for every minor or juveniles during the investigation procedure and give an evaluation report to the prosecutor and the court during the trial and execution of the decision. The aim of the report is to help the prosecutor and the judge to make a fair and right decision regarding also the detention measures for the specific case. The Service’s opinion should have in focus the best interests of minors, of victims and of the community. In order to draft the evaluation report, the Probation Service specialist should contact: the minor; the family members; people from school or workplace; any other person who can provide relevant information for the evaluation report.
142 Law no.9669, dt.18.12.2006 “On the measures against domestic violence”.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System The Individual program designed takes into account the age, the best interest of the child, child's psycho- social needs, consulting with parents, guardian, defender or other persons relevant to the child. Juveniles in custody are also included in the program for criminal behavior "Stop-Think-Change". This program addresses a range of cognitive deficiencies that are common to convicted minors. This program aims not only to give juveniles the opportunity to understand their own criminal behavior and consequences, but also to develop the ability to solve problems and develop strategies to avoid future criminal behavior. Special attention is paid to minors who have had difficulty fulfilling certain obligations of a court decision. The work with these juveniles is focused in their awareness of the importance of carrying out the sentence as well as the recognition of the consequences of their failure. A very important factor in the successful completion of the alternative punishment is also establishing contacts with the families of minors, since they could be a big help in monitoring and raising awareness of the juveniles during the time when the child is in the family environment.
Services which are offered to the families of minors are as follows: Establishing contact and later on relationship with the families in new cases; Awareness of the importance of the parental care in the progress of certain obligations of a court decision; dealing with interaction difficulties with the parents in order to build a healthy relationships between them and services.
Psychological counseling is focused on: Their awareness of the children regarding the effects of carrying out the court’s sentence; Recognition of the consequences of the offense committed; Increasing the responsibility of their own actions in everyday life; building of healthy interpersonal relations and especially to the authority figures.
Professional courses are offered to provide assistance and advice to the minors in order to take a professional course which could be helpful in mastering the skills necessary to work in the future. The Service also has considered cases of minors who have been drug users and have commit a criminal offense. Working with juvenile drug users includes: assessment; effective methods of intervention; planning supervision; implementation plan; preventing regression and maintaining the positive change. One of the priorities during the work with minors has been the establishment of contact between the Probation Service and schools, which has resulted in effective intervention with young offenders, including minors in Juvenile probation or sentenced with work in the public interest. The aim of the work has consisted of: encouraging minors to attend school; monitor the academic performance and behavior of minors within those environments; encouraging minors to attend school, monitor academic performance and behavior of juvenile within these environments.
Probation Service cooperates with a number of organizations offering specialized services in accordance with the needs of juveniles. This collaboration is accomplished with NGOs, which provide the support necessary to minors, to perform work in the public interest, as the court decision rules. Attention is paid to give the minor the possibility to do his work closer to his home. Also, it is crucial that the work done by the minor is carried out in accordance with his age.
Regarding the predetention and detention Albania doesn’t, yet, have an entirely established and functional system of administration of the juvenile justice. In our country there are separate particles of the system that are not coordinated or properly oriented because their jurisdiction is not clearly stated, instead of a multi- disciplinary system that would promote selfesteem and respect of human rights for juveniles in conflict with the law. Children and juveniles’ situation in police stations, pre-trial detention centres and prisons is, still,
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System distant from required standards. Even though during the recent years there has been an increase of concern of the responsible public institutions and donors to alleviate infrastructure and management of these systems, there are still cases of violation of rights of the children.
Management of police stations, pre-trial detention centres and prisons in Albania are a responsibility of two governmental institutions the Ministry of Interior Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. While police stations are separated and established in every city, pre-trial detention centres are sometimes located inside of these stations, sometimes within their perimeter and rarely in completely separated quarters. Even though the Council of Ministers in 2003 decided that pre-trial detention centres in Albania are to pass from the authority of the Ministry of Interior to that of the Ministry of Justice, in late 2006 most of these centres were still under the authority of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However in mid-2007 all pre-trial detention centers went under the authority of the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for the management of all prisons of Albania, through the General Directorate of Prisons.
In our country there are some prisons that shelter and care for children. Vaqar Prison, a two story building 10 km away from Tirana, has a section for male juveniles. In years in this prison up to 30 juveniles were sheltered, but in time of this research there were only 14 juveniles in this institution. Prison number 325 is a mixed prison of minimum security located in “Ali Demi” street in Tirana. A special section of this institution cares for women and girls detainees. All difficulties encountered in the management of pre-trial detention centres and prisons have negative impacts in terms of respect of children’s rights in these institutions. Because of inappropriate conditions in pre-trial detention, a number of violations have been registered, for e.g.: sharing quarters with adults; un-attendance of education and creative activities for children; inappropriate sanitation; lack of psychologists and social workers and postponement of penal processes of children. All these details have left an irreparable scar to all children that entered the system of penal justice in Albania. ll juveniles in conflict with the law complain about the required time for the investigation and trial of their cases. In many cases work of judicial system is depended on the speed of the investigative work of prosecution and defence. Institution of Prosecution is in charge of investigation and penal pursue and according to juveniles their cases are not properly attended. In more than once we have encountered a juvenile that waits for three months to stand trial and almost never have met with the prosecutor of the case or agent of judicial police.
There are some problems regarding the court’s proceeding where a child is in conflict with the law:
1. Reduced number of juvenile section, only in 6 courts has led oo the fact that children who part of court proceedings are subjected to the same sections as those for the adults. 2. There is no juvenile court. The current judicial system in Albania seems not to be inclined towards fragmentation and establishment of special courts, and any change may lead to debates and decision-making to special courts for minors/juvenile courts. 3. Child/juvenile legislation is very fragmented. There is no integral code or law on children. 4. There is no unified document on guidelines on how the courts should address this basic principle related to the rights of the child.
The EU Progress Report on Albania has pointed out that there are problems with regard to treatment of children in the police stations. There have been cases of children being detained for more than 48 hours. In addition, even though the law provides that during the process of the interview of children should be present
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System an attorney and/or the child’s parents and the psychologist, but in many cases that has not happened, during the weekends and the official holidays. The infrastructure of the police stations’ facilities is not appropriate for children and due to “over-population” of these facilities, in some instances, children are kept in the same detention facilities with the adults, during their detention in the police stations. There is definite need for training the police officers regarding personal rights and dignity of the of the children, with due regard to the child’s age and maturity, and taking into account the child’s specific needs which could range from physical, mental or communication disabilities.
Another issue that has been identified is lack of cooperation between the police and the prosecution regarding social municipal services. This cooperation becomes particularly important in the treatment of cases, in order to determine the security measure, or the proposal for the due sentence. In Albania, the social service function is almost not there, or it is at its nascent phase. Child protection offices cooperate with the police and the prosecution, at the preventive phase and for cases identified by this office, when the child is the victim of a crime. But, currently, when the child commits an offence, the social services in the community are not involved in the treatment of the case.
Another problem is solving cases with no delays is essential in terms of restricting/limiting the negative psychological impact of legal proceedings on the child. When depriving the child from his/her freedom is not the option, as a rule, children should be kept at different/separate detention facilities from the adults. Under all circumstance, children should be detained at appropriate facilities, according to their needs. Considering the sensitivity of children of their freedom, the importance of family ties and the promotion of re-integration in the society, the competent authorities should ensure respect for the rights of the child, and actively ensure fulfillment of those rights.
CRC provides that proceedings may take longer than 6 months, which also affects pre-detention deadlines.143 In many cases, the judgment of the courts for children coincide with the period of their pre-trail detention. With reference to UNICEF evaluation,144 the average time for pre-trial detention in Albania is one of the longest compared to 10 other countries of East Europe, even significantly longer comparably. For instance compared to Montenegro the pre-trial detention time is 13 times longer145.
Article 324, point 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code establishes that investigation should be complete within three months from the date of the registration of the criminal case. But, despite that there is a possibility of extending this deadline up to two years. This runs against the principles and standards established in the CRC, which require that a child cannot stay in pre-detention facilities for more than 6 months. In the cases when the court proceedings involve minors, the courts and the prosecution should apply the principle of emergency in order to ensure expedited response and protection of the best interest of the child, in line with the standards of the rule of law. In 2012, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child146 raised its concern
143 Committe for the Rights of the Child explecitely asks for proceedings not to excced 6 months, thus reducing pre- trial detinetion time to 6 onths. 144 UNICEF “Assesmsent of the impact of the juveniel justice reforms in several countries (2006-2012)” draft (2015) the document is available at: http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/Equitable_access_to_justice_for_children_in_Central_and_Eastern_Europe_and_Centr al_Asia_-_v2_1.pdf. 145 See pg22 See tabel 3, Aneksi 1 146 Committe for the rights of teh child sesion 61 17 september – 5october 2012.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System regarding "continuous use of pre-trail detention of children, who may spend months in pre-detention, without access to education, psychological support and re-integration measures. It is of concern the fact that 70 percent of convicted minors have done their time in the pre-detention period.”
According to a UNICEF study147 there is a difference between the uses of alternative sanctions, in the case of juveniles who live in rural areas versus urban areas, in favor of the latter. This was pointed out by the Albanian Helsinki Committee that stipulates that alternative sanctions are not homogenously used by all courts in the country, with consideration of residence.
Another issue is the increasing number of recidivist juvenile crime offenders. For the period during 2011- 2013, based on the data of the General Directorate of Prisons, there were 24 recidivist juvenile offenders in 2011, 28 in 2012 and 35 in 2013. The increasing number by almost 40% of recidivist juvenile offenders is inter alia related to two phenomena. First, sentence measures have not been appropriate and consequently did not bring “correctional” effect on children. Second, it points to lack of cooperation among social protection institutions and the work that they should do with the children who have been in conflict with the law. In other words, there is need for a better connection between the system of justice, with that of education, and social protection, both in terms of prevention, as well as in terms of re-integration of children in conflict with the law. There are no social support programs for these children, which would ensure the necessary integration of these children in society, but also make an analyses of the progress of the child after he/she has done time in prison, leading to early prevention of the possibility to become recidivists.
Regarding the child as a witness, it is important to take measures for children witnesses in appropriate facilities, considering their age, their level of maturity and possible communication difficulties. Audiovisual statements from children victims or witnesses should be encouraged as much as possible. In case it is necessary that the child-victim is involved in more than one interview, they should possibly be performed by the same person, in order to ensure coherence for the best interest of the child. On the other hand, the number of child interviews should be as limited as possible, as well as the duration, which should be age- appropriate. Direct contact, confrontation or interaction between the child-victim or child witness with the offender should be avoided, to the extent possible. Children should have the possibility to provide their testimony, in criminal cases, without the presence of the suspect.
To conclude, some of the barriers and gaps in the current juvenile justice system, according to the European Commission Progress Report for Albania (2014) include:
1. Absence of special facilities for children under 14 in the police stations; 2. Tariffs for the judiciary remain an obstacle to the access to justice; 3. Delivery of the majority of legal services for vulnerable groups (including children) through NGOs via financial support of different donors. 4. Absence of psychologists during interview of juveniles in the week-ends or during official holidays; 5. Keeping juveniles in pre-detention facilities longer than provided for in the Criminal procedure Code for minor criminal offences; 6. Cases of maltreatment of children in detention facilities;
147 UNICEF”Children’s Equitable Access to Justice: Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia Albania Georgia Kyrgyzstan Montenegro”2015 see the document available at: http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/Equitable_access_to_justice_for_children_in_Central_and_Eastern_Europe_and_Centr al_Asia_-_v2_1.pdf.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System 7. Lack of coordination among institutions of justice and the child protection system for juveniles moving from the justice system, and who are in need for re-integration in society to reduce rates of recidivism.
Nevertheles, there is a political will expressed in a national strategy regarding the justice reform in general, which includes also some major changes in the procedural rules on juvenile justice. Actually there is only a political document (not published yet)148, we have to wait till the concrete criminal procedural articles are to be drafted.
Data on children detained, or in predention during the period of 2012- half of 2015.
Year Convicted children Children in prison Children in pre- dentetion
2012 826149 37150 221
- 45 with fine - 724 with up to 2 years - 51 with 2-5 years - 11 with 5-10 years - 1 with 10-25 years 2013 589151 52 124
- -33 with fine - - 525 with up to 2 years - -25 with 2-5 years - -6 with 5-10 years 2014 No statistics yet from Ministry of 44 338 Justice
2015 No statistics yet 12 84
Child victims (abandonment, sexual abuse, commercial sexual exploitation, worst forms of child labour, trafficking, gender based violence, domestic violence)
The domestic legislation of Albania addresses child rights through various instruments:
148 I am one of the legal experts working on justice reform in Albania, which among others has in focus also the juvenile justice reform. 149 Annual statistics prepared and published by Ministry of Justice at: http://www.drejtesia.gov.al/files/userfiles/statistika/VJETARI_STATISTIKOR_2012.pdf 150 Data given from General Department of Prison, Ministry of Interior. 151 Annual statistics prepared and published by Ministry of Justice at: http://www.drejtesia.gov.al/files/userfiles/statistika/VJETARI_STATISTIKOR_2013.pdf
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The Constitution (Art.54) sets out provisions for the protection of the children’s civil, political, economic and cultural rights and envisages provisions for the protection of children, particularly against violence. The Family Code focuses on the protection of children’s rights and incorporates international principles and standards.152 The Criminal Code criminalises offences committed against children.153 Three laws provide children with protection from specific violations and provide protection from violence and abuse: The Law “On Measures against Domestic Violence”, the Law “On the Adoption Procedures and Albanian Adoption Committee” and the Law “On Legal Aid”.
The continuous amendments to the Criminal Code have envisaged not only specific provisions to protect children and women against physical and sexual abuse, trafficking, prostitution, pornography, and indecent acts, but also increased punishment against the perpetrators of these criminal offences. Starting in 2001, the Criminal Code has specified the criminal offences of “Trafficking in persons”, “Trafficking in women”, “Trafficking in children”, “Pornography”, “Aid to the illicit border-crossing”, as well as “Ill-treatment of minors” which punishes the phenomenon of child exploitation to forced labour, begging and other services.
These laws are more supported with the adoption of the Law “On the prevention and fight against the organized crime” (2004), the Law “On the protection of witnesses and justice collaborators” (2004), and the Law “On the pronouncement of the moratorium on the sailing vessels in the Republic of Albania” (2006).
The Criminal Code criminalises illegal border crossing as well as assistance in illegal border crossing. When these acts are committed for profit, the sanctions provided are more severe. In addition, the legislation also criminalises prostitution related acts and prostitution (Article 113); exploitation of prostitution (Article 114); exploitation of prostitution in aggravated circumstances (Article 114(a)); the maintenance of premises for prostitution (Article 115); and, pornography (Article 117).
While the Albanian legislature has traditionally been strong in criminalising sexual exploitation of children, it has failed to criminalise child exploitation through forced labour trafficking and other manifestations outside of the trafficking context. The proper implementation of laws such as the Family Code, the Labour Code, the Law on Social Services, the Law on Witness Protection, etc. are indispensable in preventing child trafficking and guaranteeing the proper protection and reintegration of trafficked children.
The penalties for the commercial sexual exploitation of children are a maximum of 15 years’ imprisonment.154 The Albanian Criminal Code states the age of consensual sex is 14 years or the age of a female child who is not sexually matured (i.e. a child who maybe over the age of 14 but is not sexually developed).155 The penalty for statutory rape of a child under the age of 14 is a prison term of 7 to 15 years with additional aggravating factors. Additionally, within the Albanian Criminal Code there is a provision, Article 101, which criminalises ‘violent sexual intercourse’ with children between the ages of 14 - 18 years. Article 101 carries a punishment
152 Family Code of Albania, Law No. 9062, Adopted May 8, 2003, English language version of the law Available at http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/65148/89474/F1958881334/ALB65148%20(Englishpdf. 153 Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania Law No. 7895, dated 27 January 1995, consolidated 2004 Available at http://www.hidaa.gov.al/english/laws/penal%20code.pdf. 154 Art.109, 114(a),128(b) of Criminal Code of the Republic of Albania. 155 Art.100 of Criminal Code.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System of imprisonment from 5 to 15 years, and also has aggravating factors that can augment the sentence up to 20 years if applicable (the increases in punishment listed in Articles 100 and 101 are related to the nature of the crime committed and are in conformity with article 3.3 of the OPSC). Whilst Albania instituting a legal provision protecting against under age sexual intercourse is a sign of progress, the age of consent, 14, is contrary to both the CRC and the OPSC, which define a child as any individual below the age of 18.156
In addition, Article 101, which addresses adults having ‘violent sex with children’ who are 14-18 years old is vague and may imply a medical examination in order to determine whether a girl has attained sexual maturity. Furthermore, the definition does not criminalise sexual acts other than actual intercourse, for example making a child expose his or her genitalia or masturbating in the presence of a child are not included in this definition. Most disturbing about Article 101 is the requirement of “violent” sexual intercourse with a 14-18 year old child to have occurred in order to be charged under Article 101.
There are additional gaps in the Albanian Criminal Code related to children’s age and protection. For example, Article 108 punishes obscene acts committed in the presence of a child younger than 14 (but does not provide a definition of obscene acts). Furthermore, children older than 14 years are not protected under this article. With regard to the identification of children for the purpose of protecting against sexual epxloitation it is needed to harmonise the Criminal Code with the standards of the CRC and the OPSC and identify children as individuals up to 18 years old.
Under OPSC Article 2/b, child prostitution is defined as the use of a child in sexual activities for remuneration or any other form of consideration and includes offering, obtaining, procuring or providing a child for child prostitution. The Albanian Criminal Code criminalises prostitution-related acts and prostitution (Article 113), exploitation of prostitution (Article 114), exploitation of prostitution in aggravated circumstances (Article 114/a), and the maintenance of premises for prostitution (Article 115).
Prostitution is punishable with a fine or imprisonment for up to 3 years. A minor can be legally prosecuted for engaging in prostitution, even though in practice minors are not prosecuted. Exploiting prostitution is defined as “soliciting prostitution, mediating or gaining from it” and is punishable by a fine or up to 5 years of imprisonment.157 The Criminal Code falls short in that the definition does not comprise the act of recruiting individuals for prostitution work, as required by OPSC Article 3/b nor does it sanction attempt.
Article 129 of the Criminal Code sanctions those who induce minors into criminality but provides no information on what constitutes criminality or induction. Additionally, the engaging or soliciting of child prostitution is not penalised as a separate offence from adult prostitution and there is no definition of “child prostitution” in the Albanian Criminal Code. However, child prostitution is considered an aggravating element under Article 114/a. According to this article, when prostitution is committed with a minor, the sentence is between 7 and 15 years and all profit incurred from the illegality is confiscated. I think it is neccessary to include a child prostitution provision in the Criminal Code which complies with the OPSC.
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, (“Trafficking
156 There were some amendments regarding the punishmet but not the age of consent according the CRC. 157 Art. 113, 114, 114(a), 115 of Criminal Code.
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In 2004, the Albanian Parliament approved the Law No. 9188 on amendments to the Criminal Code, which introduced the criminal offence of trafficking in women and trafficking in minors. There are two provisions in the Criminal Code addressing trafficking of children: Article 110/1 Trafficking of People and Article 128/b Trafficking of Children. Albanian legislation punishes trafficking generally under Article 110/1. “Trafficking is the recruitment, transport, transfer, hiding or reception of persons through threat or the use of force or other forms of compulsion, kidnapping, fraud, abuse of office or taking advantage of social, physical or psychological condition or the giving or receipt of payments or benefits in order to get the consent of a person who controls another person, with the purpose of exploitation of prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation.” It is punished with imprisonment of 5 to 15 years and a fine. Aggravating factors include organised trafficking, trafficking resulting in death or government-sponsored trafficking.158
The Albanian Criminal Code also includes a specific child trafficking law, Article 128/b. The article states that “the recruitment, sale, transportation, transfer, concealment or reception of minors, for the purposes of exploitation of prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or putting to use or transplanting organs, as well as other forms of exploitation shall be punishable by between 7 and 15 years imprisonment and a fine.” The usage of the term “sale” is the result of a 2008 governmental reform to further solidify the protection of children from various forms of abuse. There are also other crimes that contribute to trafficking or are related to trafficking that are identified in the Criminal Code, such as article 124, which punishes parents and guardians who abandon children below the age of 16 who are entrusted in their care.
Articles 297 and 298 of the Criminal Code penalise assisting individuals in crossing borders illegally, removing passports and other identification documents, assisting traffickers, and harbouring persons. While these provisions do aid in the efforts to eradicate trafficking, these articles (particularly Articles 297 and 298), do not explicitly mention child trafficking. As such, they should be augmented to specifically include punishments related to child trafficking.
The meaning of “aggravating circumstances” includes the following: “(i) organising, running and financing trafficking; (ii) committing the offence in collaboration with other persons or repeatedly or accompanying the act with ill-treatment or the use of physical force or psychological pressure to coerce the victim into committing various acts, or resulting in serious consequences for the victim’ s health; (iii) committing the offence by means of exploiting a position occupied in a state structure or public authority”.159
The existing Albanian legal scheme does not adequately handle the phenomena of domestic trafficking, which is steadily on the rise in Albania. Many of the legislative measures made by the Albanian government in the past several years have chiefly targeted the transnational trafficking of Albanians to countries such as Greece, Italy, or elsewhere in Europe. As more prevention measures have been carried out by the local authority on transnational trafficking, traffickers are turning to domestic trafficking: trafficking in women for the purpose of sexual exploitation and children for the purpose of sexual exploitation and begging.
158 Article 128/b, pg.3, 4, 5. 159 Articles 297, 298 of the Criminal Code.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Under Article 122 of the Albanian Constitution, international treaties that have been ratified by the Albanian government form part of the country’s internal legal system and are directly applied, (except in cases where the treaties are not self-executing and require the Albanian government to implement a specific law in order for them to apply domestically). Albanian authorities have pointed out that the Council of Europe Anti- Trafficking Convention is part of the Albanian internal legal system; accordingly, under Article 122 it takes precedence over any law or administrative regulation, which would be incompatible with the Council of Europe Anti-Trafficking Convention.
PORNOGRAPHY
The Criminal Code of Albania was amended in January 2008 to include a specific provision on child pornography (under article 117). Child pornography is defined in Article 2/c of the OPSC as “any representation, by whatever means, of a child engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for sexual purposes”. Article 117 of the Albanian Criminal Code criminalises the production, delivery, advertising, importing, selling and publication of pornographic materials in minors’ premises with a fine of 1 to 5 million leks and a prison sentence of 1 to 5 years. The first Paragraph of Article 117/1 defines the premises for the production, distribution, advertisement, importation, sale and the publication of pornographic materials in minors; whereas the second paragraph 117/2 defines the engagement of minors in the production of pornographic materials and in the distribution or publication of these materials via internet or other forms of communication. While Albania has progressed in its efforts to comply with Article 2(c) of the OPSC definition, Article 117 the new Criminal Code does not comply with all elements of OPSC Section 2(c). Specifically, the definition of child pornography does not include representations of children in pornographic situations by whatever means, and does not penalise for depicting a child engaging in real or simulated sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a child for sexual purpose. The Albanian government needs to augment the statutes defining child pornography to include representations of children and children’s body parts. Additionally, Article 117 lacks a definition of child pornography itself and does not specify the criminalisation of all the possible forms of child pornography, for example audio, video or written pornography or possession of child pornography. Additionally, there is no mention of virtual child pornography. The lack of a clear definition leads to confusion. In particular, the crime could only be perceived as such if it involves exposure of children performing sexual activities. Lastly, the term ‘minor’s premises’ is undefined leaving the term ambiguous and difficult to prosecute.
Lastly, the relevant Albanian Criminal Code provisions do not criminalise grooming. Albania, having ratified the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Cyber crime, is bound to criminalise the phenomenon of grooming of children for pornography. As an increasing number of vulnerable youth are accessing the internet daily, it is imperative that the Albania introduces this concept into the Criminal Code. One of the main impediments to the full realisation of international legal standards on extraterritorial legislation is the existence in Albania of the provision for double criminality. Under Article 6 of the Criminal Code, the Albanian Criminal Code applies fully to Albanians who commit crimes within Albania; however, Albanians can be punished for crimes committed abroad only if the alleged crime is recognised by the jurisdictions of both states, (with the only exception to double criminality being if the foreign court has given a final sentence). The double criminality principle is also present in the Albanian extradition provisions of the Criminal Code, as under the Albanian Criminal Code, extradition of Albanian nationals is possible only when the offence is recognised by both states involved and there is a stipulated provision on that matter.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System The Ministry of Innovation responsible for ISP policies and legislation should foster collaboration with the ICT industry with the purpose of eradicating complex internet servers disseminating child pornography. Take the necessary legislative measures to require Internet service providers, mobile phone companies, search engines and other relevant actors to report and remove child pornography websites and child sexual abuse images, and develop indicators to monitor results and enhance efforts.
Albanian legislation should be amended to include a law against the grooming of children. The mere possession of child pornography for personal use should be made illegal. The legislation should develop a clear and consistent definition of ‘child’, ensuring that all children below the age of 18 are protected. CSEC victims should be consistently treated as victims and not offenders. The Albanian government must extend witness protection to victims of trafficking participating in trials. Albania should eradicate the principal of dual criminality when dealing with the extradition of offenders involved in CSEC. There should be a redefinition and criminalization in accordance with existing international human rights standards of all acts of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents in their jurisdiction, irrespective of any set age of consent or marriage or cultural practice, even when the adult is unaware of the child’s age.
Also problematic is Article 124/b of the Penal Code Ill-treatment of minors “Physical or psychological ill- treatment of minors by the person who has the obligation to take care of them is punished with 3-month to 2-year imprisonment. Forcing minors to work in order to ensure income, to beg or to perform activities that harm their development is punished with up to 4 years of imprisonment and with a fine of 50 thousand to 1 million lekë. When the act has caused severe health damage or death of the minor, it is punished with 10-20 years of imprisonment. Although this act is including in the Penal Code, there are serious problems and difficulties encountered in its implementation: • Legal documentation of this criminal act is difficult because, objectively speaking, the offence of “obligation” is consumed within the domestic environment; • Family tradition or way of living makes these minors easy to be manipulated by their parents about going out to beg without any need to force them because their parents have been gaining their living mainly through begging for years as well.
In addition, the police encounter other difficulties in relation to the identification of children in street situation because some of these children are not registered and others have come to Tirana from other districts, therefore the verification of their generalities is difficult. Even in the cases in which a penal proceeding is started against their parents, there are two problems to deal with in practice:
First, children together with their parents cannot easily be found in the cases they are processed because they travel from one city to another.
Second, in case proceeding is made and children are detained the problem of children’s sheltering arises, because there is no institution that takes over that responsibility.”
Another problem is when a child or his mother/father request for a protective order from the court it has to decide within 48 hours from the time of requesting. Until the court decides the child remains unprotected or only observed by the police which is not in accordance with the emergency protection of the victim.
According to Law No. 10/039 on Legal Assistance, victims of trafficking are entitled to receive free legal assistance during criminal proceedings provided by lawyers. However, in practice it appears that such legal assistance is not systematically available due to financial constraints from the government. NGOs reported that they cover financial costs for legal assistance for trafficking victims.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Law No. 10/192 of 3 December 2009 on the Prevention of and Fight against Organised Crime and Trafficking through Preventive Measures against Assets provides with compensation for non-material damages from offenders (e.g. damages to the physical and moral integrity of a child) can be claimed by child victims in Albanian civil courts. This requires that child victims engage in a civil court case in addition to the criminal case filed against the offenders. However, even though this case constitutes a very positive step with regard to the provision of compensation to child victims from the perpetrators, it appears that the case is isolated as no other court decision provided compensation to child victims of trafficking or sexual exploitation from the offenders.
Some conclusions: i. There is need of harmonization of Albanian national laws to comply with Article 8 of the OPSC. The government of Albania should prioritise the implementation of the ECOSOC Guidelines on Justice in Matters involving Child Victims and Witnesses of Crime. ii. The government of Albania should implement the Draft basic principles on the right to an effective remedy for trafficked persons. iii. The government of Albania should ensure that child victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation (child prostitution, child pornography and sexual exploitation through the use of the Internet) should systematically receive free legal assistance from the State during criminal proceedings. iv. The government of Albania should ensure that all child victims of trafficking and/or sexual exploitation should be given access to their right to compensation from the offenders and receive adequate legal support to do so.
Regarding the legal aid for children, the law on legal aid foresees that every child who is subject of a criminal proceeding can profit from this law (Art.13 of the law nr.10039/2008 on legal aid). In case of minors in need of legal aid, he has to be represented by his legal tutor or by another person who has the authority to represent the minor. In 2014 the parliament has amended the law giving the minors a priority on legal aid requests. So the new law of 2014 foresees that the legal aid should be given in any case when the minors are subject of criminal proceedings as perpetrators or as victims of an offence in all phases of procedures foreseen by the Criminal Procedure Code. People, who claim to be included in social protection programs for minors, are exempted from the obligation to present supporting documentation as defined in for other subjects of this law. In these cases, the State Commission on Legal Aid cooperates with the institutions responsible for providing the necessary documentation.
The number of cases approved by the State Commission for Legal Aid, until May 2013 is 36 (thirty six). Further, the number of cases approved for the provision of primary and secondary legal aid, is significantly increased, thus representing 39 cases approved in total until August 2013. This Commission has approved 33 cases submitted by the non-profit organization TLAS (Free Legal Aid Service in Tirana), of which the majority belongs to Roma and Egyptian community as follows:
Nature of cases: Number of cases Vulnerable groups Registration of birth 10 (ten) Roma Taking custody 10 (ten) Roma Registration of birth 3 (three) Egyptian Taking custody 2 (two) Egyptian
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Regarding the disabled persons, pursuant to the Decision of the State Commission for Legal Aid No. 3 dated 25.06.2008 "On approval of application form for benefitting legal aid and documents to be attached to the standard application form" clause 3, the applicant who benefits from special protection programs shall submit the document certifying the inclusive category. There are no statistics on how many children directly have profit free legal aid.160
Article 6 of decision No.2 of State Legal Aid Committee foresees that NGO could collaborate with State Legal Aid and offer free legal is to the vulnerable persons or group. There is also a set of criteria to be fulfilled by NGOs and the documentation that must be present before State Legal Aid Agency for this purpose. But there is a very low level of collaboration between the two subjects. Joint activities between NGOs and these institutions have been very few in number and were generally based on civil society initiative.161
Child witness (testify, protective measures)
There is no minimum age to be a witness. As far as an important fact or evidence from the testimony is possible a child may be questioned by the court. It is a prerequisite that the testimony should be clear and understandable. Under Art 155 of the CCP every person is capable of testifying, excluding those who because of mental or physical deficiencies are not able to give testimony. There is no age limitation. There is a special attention in questioning minor witnesses. When it ascertained that direct questioning by the parties may impair the minor’s psychological condition, he may be questioned through the presiding judge, who may be helped by an adult member of the minor’s family or by an expert in the area of child education. This arrangement has the purpose of avoiding any dangerous impact on the minor through the manner of asking questions. (Art 361/5 of CPC). When the statements of the witness during questioning are contradictory, not complete or contrary to the evidence that has been received, the court points this out to the witness, warning about it.
In the case of sexual criminal offences (for example rape), material evidence and traces related to the offence should be looked for in order to carry out medical expertise on blood, DNA, sperm and other liquids. This is to be done by an expert. According to Art 179 of CPC the decision of the proceeding body to appoint an expert is communicated to the person under investigation the defendant or his lawyer. It is made known to them that they can ask to exclude the expert to participate in the expertise when possible and to question the expert. If this requirement is not fulfilled by the proceeding body, the expertise is to be considered void.
Material evidence has great importance in the criminal proceeding in discovering the perpetrator of the criminal offence and in evaluating the innocence or guilt of the defendant. But the great importance it has in relation to other evidence, it is equivalent and has to be evaluated by the court for its importance and accuracy. This is called indirect testimony. When a witness does not have direct knowledge he should indicate the sources from which he received knowledge about the facts that he is testifying about. A witness may refer to other persons from whom he received knowledge about the criminal offence (indirect testimony Art 154 of CCP). In such cases on the request of the parties or on its own initiative, the court decides to call those persons to testify as to what they know about the criminal offence. Otherwise the statements of the witness
160 This information is delivered by the Ministry of Justice in response to the findings of Commissioner of Human Rights as for the year 2013. See further at: http://www.coe.int/es/web/commissioner/-/albania-should-make-its- legal-aid-system-more-accessible?inheritRedirect=true. 161 This observation was made by the Albanian Helsinky Committee in a report on functioning of Free Legal Aid Agency in 2013.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System become inadmissible, except when it is impossible to question those persons because they have died, are seriously ill or cannot be found despite all efforts taken. Testimony of a person who refuses or is not in the condition to tell the person or source from which he received knowledge of the fact he is questioned about may not be used (Art 154/4 of CCP).
According to Art 340 of CCP when it is thought necessary to question minors the court decides to hold the trial behind closed doors in presence of his legal guardian or psychologist. The Art 361/5 of CCP said that the questioning of minor witnesses may be performed by the presiding judge, upon the parties’ request and objections. The presiding judge may be assisted by a member of the child’s family or by an expert of child education.
When it is considered that the direct questioning of the child does not harm his psychological condition, the presiding judge orders the continuation of the questioning according to this provision. The order may be revoked during the questioning. During the questioning of the witness the presiding judge may ask questions and when appropriate intervene to insure orderly questioning the truthfulness of the answers, the accuracy of the interrogations and objections, as well as to guarantee respect for the person.
No, the only person who is allowed to be present is an adult member of family or a psychologist and the parties (if the testimony will be make in a court room or the prosecutor if there is a preliminary interrogation.)
In the phase of the criminal proceedings, the evidence is received on the request of the parties, being submitted to the courts as the sole organ that renders justice. At any time during the trial the court itself can revoke what it has done in receiving evidence. Evidence gathered in violation of the provisions of the law cannot be used. When necessary the court can order the gathering of additional evidence. The principle of availability of evidence is accompanied by the right of the court to exclude evidence that is clearly unnecessary or contradictory. This evaluation consists of asses all facts related to the guilt or innocence of the defendant.
Civil matters: Inheritance, birth registration, property rights, age of consent, age of marriage, age of army enrolment, alternative care
Birth registration
The main functions of the local Civil Status offices are: - Registration of Acts and basic documents of the service - Receiving and managing notifications (reports) on births, marriages and deaths - Issuance of certificate from the Fundamental Registers or Books of Acts - Declaration of marriage and issuance of the marriage certificate - Transfer of civil status data when citizens change dwelling residence - Managing change of name and surname - Correction of civil status components - Updating the Fundamental Registers - Archiving of the Books of Acts (births, marriages and deaths) - Providing information to other institutions.
Acts of civil status are the acts of births, marriages and deaths. Acts are unified authentic documents with equal legal power as those carried out in the court or before a notary. An act written by the CSS clerk and
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System certified by his signature at the end of the document cannot be challenged, except when claiming its invalidation as inaccurate or fake before the court. The most apparent problem with regard to the manual registration system was the procedures established for issuing certificates. As there was no official ID card in Albania (until 2009), certificates were needed for many purposes. This is particularly the case for the birth certificates, which are widely used as a basis for enrolling a child into school, applying for a passport, etc. A specific problem was that a certificate was valid for a period of three months only, even a birth certificate. The short life of these certificates meant that many residents needed new certificates over and over again. As a result, the total number of certificates issued per year amounted to around 8 million, a number considerably larger than the 3 million people living in Albania. Certificates were handwritten by a clerk after she or he had looked up the necessary information in one or more of the books. Afterwards the certificate was stamped and signed. One of the fundamental duties of the Civil Status Service (CSS) is to provide information to other institutions.
Today the CSS prepares information for the following institutions and purposes: - Preparation of the voters’ list. - Preparation of monthly evidences on demographic changes for INSTAT. - Monthly information for the Albanian Social Insurance Institute (ISSH). - Preparation, in September each year, of the list of males who have reached theage to be called to military service. - Co-operation with respective authorities for the verification of civil status data of citizens (police, prosecutor’s office, courts, embassies, etc.).
Article 40 of the law on civil status declares: 1. Childbirth declared to the registrar of the parents, adult family members, legal representatives or guardians, and, unable, or in their absence, the persons who have the right to verify the birth. The declaration can be done by representatives of the mother, with special power of attorney. 2. The declaration of an abandoned child, whose parents are not known, made by the local government unit, public order authority, in whose jurisdiction the place of finding, based on the record kept at the time of finding child.
Article 41 foresees that the registration of childbirth has to be done in the office of the registrar of the residence of the parents or the place where the birth occurred. For the found infant whose parents are not known, the registration is done in the office of the registrar of the country where it was found. For children born outside the territory of the Republic of Albania by Albanian nationals with permanent residence in Albania, the birth registration is done in diplomatic or consular missions in his native country. When this is impossible, registration takes place in the civil service of the country.
From the view of legislation and interview with the specialist of Civil Registration Office it is clear that at the sectorial institutional level, for example within the Ministry of Health, there are clear responsibilities for registration of birth-related information. The same is true at the sectorial level within the Ministry of Interior. However, there are no clear responsibilities for the coordination of activities and reporting among different institutions, for example between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Interior. This finding suggests that there is a need for the establishment of an effective coordinating mechanism. As a result, there is no integrated vision or inter-sectorial plan for the establishment of operational agreements for the necessary monitoring of the birth registration system. Community workers such as nurses, midwives, doctors and community leaders agree on the importance of inter-sectorial cooperation in order to improve the birth registration system. They confirm that at this time, it is a common occurrence that women give birth outside
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System health centres or related health structures. Such births are not regularly reported or are reported incorrectly and consequently there is a lack of accurate data in this regard. From a legal and political perspective, in the past few years, improvement of the children’s registration process has taken place in Albania
However, often, these institutional or structural improvements are not well known, particularly among staff of health centres or related health structures. Particularly, maternity unit and health centre staff do not have the necessary information and knowledge relating to legal changes. They also lack information regarding the needed flow of data from health structures to civil registration offices, which would help in preventing at a great extent unregistered births. From the analysis of data in the context of this feasibility study, we find that part of the Albanian legislation reform process related to the improvement of birth registrations should involve the upskilling and training of community workers who are directly involved in this process, from staff in maternity units and health centres to community leaders and social workers.
Another finding of the study regarding births that take place outside health centres is the important role that social workers can play, particularly where there is lack of appropriate staff (midwifes/nurses) in health centres or related health structures. In these cases, the lack of such staff in health centres could not be considered as an obstacle in birth registrations as such a role can instead be taken over by social workers. Social workers can take on responsibility for the identification, referral and provision of assistance in gathering the necessary data and evidence for the birth registration process as required pursuant to applicable civil status legislation.
That the vast majority of maternity units and birth delivery homes do not consider reporting of births to civil registration offices as part of their role, and there is a lack of clarity over what and to whom birth data should be reported. Also the reporting process is incomplete and is not used effectively to implment the law. Due to the lack of coordination by central structures, such reporting is not useful it is just an informal collection of data. In order to render such reporting process effective, it is necessary that this information is provided to central state structures, civil staus offices, which can follow up on the unregistred birth registraton cases with the public offcials who have the sresponsability to fulfill this duty. It is necessary that such information related to a child birth which is not yet being registered in the civil registration offices, should be provided to central governement structures as well as non-governmental bodies that are active in the field of providing support for children and ensuring that procedures for the registration of children in civil registration offices are correctly implemented. In order that this information reported by Ministry of Health System to be effective, the civil status offices have the opportunity not only to reflect and process data collected in the proper soft ware, but also to report the lack of registration to structures that are active in registering children. On the other side, the civil status offices as well should report back to health structurs, incuding them in the information exchange scheme of children’s birth registration and reporting system. Reporting of child registrations would be rendered most effective through cooperation between central bodies in issuing common regulatory guidance to ensure that information and data gathered by public officials with legal responsibilities relating to children’s registration is processed and shared appropriately with a view to achieving improvements in children’s registration.
In order to make the registration, some conditions need to be fulfilled, which sometimes are impossible to be fulfilled by family members. One is for example the requirement to submit a valid tenancy contract. In the everyday practice, there are up to three unregistered generations in a family for not having a tenancy contract, a permanent domicile, birth documents, etc. Although the Law on Civil Registry has been improved, there are still difficulties for Roma children or children in the street. It is impossible for Roma children to
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System register as individuals. When the family is not registered, they remain unregistered. In such conditions, they can only benefit from the free vaccination service.
‘Often, child’s birth registration depends on the payment of local taxes. Many of the poor (Roma or non- Roma) families have no possibility to pay local taxes. They have limited income, are unemployed or receive unemployment assistance (as part of the economic aid provided by local government). In these conditions, their income is much lower than the level of taxes to be paid. In front of these difficulties they chose not to register their child!’ ‘With the way the system works nowadays, the responsibility of registration is left with the family. Actually, the responsibility of starting the registration procedures should be left with institutions. This would enable for every family, in spite of their conditions, level and possibilities, to be obliged to register the child, thus providing him/her with the opportunity to have his/her rights and needs fulfilled. The law on civil situation has changed again and has somehow facilitated birth registration procedures for children in street situation who often come from families in need, families in difficult socialeconomic conditions, excluded and discriminated, with limited financial and educational resources. In spite of the improvements in the law, work practice with children in street situation has evidenced some problems that we are listing below as identified by outreach specialists: Many of the problems children in street situation as well as many other children have to deal with are originated since their birth with the papers produced to document it. The birth act issued by the birth house is not formalized. Data often do not coincide. At this point, problems with registration start. A child with problems and inaccuracies in documentation cannot be registered. At the moment the child is not registered a series of problems start. They cannot receive free health service, cannot benefit from social services, cannot enroll in schools, etc.’
The Albanian institutions have pursued with priority the registration process of the Albanian children in general and the Roma ones in particular, given the fact that a high number of unregistered children belong to this minority. Faced with this situation, the General Directorate of Civil Status analyzed the cases in which the Roma children could not register because of the inaccuracy or lack of documentation. From the analysis of these cases, it turned out that we had to do with different groups or different types of unregistered cases, which sought different solutions. From the analysis of their typology these cases are divided as follows:
i. Born abroad and without documents, or having them with inaccurate data; ii. Born outside of health facilities/maternity wards and therefore they are not equipped with the document of "assistance at birth"; iii. Born in health care facilities/maternity wards and the mother has submitted wrong data; iv. Born in health care facilities/maternity wards and abandoned by the relatives. In order to regulate this situation changes were made to the legislation. Additions were made to the bylaws, which had two purposes:
(a) To prevent the cases of failure to register due to the erroneous filling of the form "Assistance at birth". From the analysis of the cases, it was found that this form is often filled with wrong data of the mother, which inevitably leads to the impossibility of child registration. (b) To prevent this type of cases, it was proposed to the Ministry of Health to adopt a new form of "Assistance at birth". This form was approved by Order no. 508, dated 07.12.2011, of Minister of
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Health. By taking this step, it turns out that in the oncoming period, there are no unrecorded cases, due to the inaccuracy of the mother's data. (c) To register the unregistered cases, which generally are without documents or with inaccurate documents and where no additional documents could be provided. The found children are classified in this group. In order to find a solution regarding this category of unregistered children, Instruction No. 7, dated 10.01.2012 was approved "On approval of the minutes and proceedings, which will be completed by representatives of the state police and of municipalities/municipal units/communes in cases of unregistered children in the registry". The cases of children born outside the territory of the Republic of Albania are also included in this category. Even in these cases a solution was found with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so that through our diplomatic/consular service, in foreign countries, the document "Assistance at birth" could be ensured from the relevant health services of these countries, for all those families who could not ensure it themselves. As a result only during 2013 through this procedure about 70 Roma and non-Roma children were recorded. By taking these steps, it resulted that about 90% of the cases were recorded through the administrative procedure and 10% through litigation.
By analyzing this situation the General Directorate of Civil Status believes that the legal framework on this process is complete and currently it does not see the need for amendments or supplements. During the years 2012-2013 a significant number of cases have been registered and several others are in process. During 2013, 123 Roma children have been registered. During 2014, 12 cases have been registered as backward cases as well as a number of other cases. Actually, the available data show that a total of 150 cases have been identified as unregistered. They are in various stages of being solved. After being identified, these cases are classified and then the mode of solving them has been defined. The phenomenon of unregistered children is towards minimization aiming at making the figures of unregistered children go to zero. This moment requires: a) Primarily the self-awareness of the Roma minority; b) The awareness of all state authorities to denounce, when identifying such cases, to the bodies that have the obligation to effect registrations, starting from the relevant civil status office, the representatives of the local government, the state police authorities, etc., as set out in the Law "On civil status".
Registration of children remains one of the main priorities in the context of measures taken by the Government to improve the socio-economic situation of the Roma minority. From the implementation of bylaws drafted in collaboration with other institutions, concrete results have been attained regarding the identification of born children who have remained unregistered. The registration of the children has been done after identifying each case and according to the relevant issues. The Ministry of the Interior provides a weekly information to the Social Welfare Ministry on this issue. Regarding the problem of issuing identity documents, every individual of the Roma minority has the right and at the same time the obligation to be equipped with them. Such a right is provided to them by the national legislation, that makes no distinction for them, and consequently they are entitled to all the rights and obligations enjoyed by all Albanian citizens. There are proposals, through the financial package given as a welfare support, to alleviate the financial burden for this community, in view of its entire equipment with documents issued by the Civil Status Service.
Alternative care
Article 263 of Family Code foresees: Minor children are placed in foster care and enjoy the special protection of the state when their parents are unable to exercise parental responsibility, because both parents have
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System died or are unknown, are declared as missing, stripped parental responsibility or deprived of the ability to act, as well as for any other reason accepted by the court.
Other Laws on that issue are in place: Code of Civil Procedure; Law on Assistance and Social Care; Framework Law on the Protection of the Rights of the Child; DCM strategies for Children, Trusteeship, Social Protection, Social Services; DCM for Custody standards; Strategy custody service; Social Protection Strategy (2007-2013); The strategy for children; Social inclusion strategy.
Albanian legislation provides that custody service functions are separated and carried out in cooperation and coordination between power structures determine local and central executive (administrative procedures) and judicial powers or the courts (judicial proceedings).
The Family Code provides that evidence of foster families is the responsibility of the service sector and social assistance at the municipality or municipality where the minor resides, which is realized with the signing of a declaration of readiness by the family to children in foster care. Custody Service Standards are detailed in determining the steps to be taken to prepare a case in court. They anticipate making child assessment before stowed in foster homes and prepare a care plan and evaluation; as well as the evaluation and approval of parents and caregivers. In general, this part of the standards is in full compliance with the Guidelines.
Section 7.5 of the Standard provides for the drafting of agreements and signing them on stage before the court having taken the final decision between the Structure of Social Services in the municipality / commune / Service Providers Custodian and biological parents if any, as well as between Structure Social services in the municipality/ Service Providers Custodian and family caregivers, according to the plan of care. For the Court, at the stage before it has taken a decision, a declaration made by the willingness of custodians. The drafting of the above agreement can be made after the court has made a decision. Point 14.9 of the Standard provides that upon approval by the court as foster families, there should be drafted and signed an agreement between the structure of social services in the municipality and Service Providers Custodian and parent carer, which made clear all the rights, obligations and responsibilities the parties in the process of collating the child in foster care. At the same time it provides the other aspects related to monitoring, supervision, inspection and everything else in the child's interest and security.
The guidelines do not show any preference between the administrative or judicial procedure for determining the form of alternative care. Guidelines are limited to the inclusion of a set of legal guarantees in the decision making process as legal representation for the child; rigor of assessment, planning and review of placement; full consultation with the child according to maturity and the parents or legal guardians; inform all persons participating in the procedure particularly children of parents biolgjike, those exercising parental responsibility, the parents kudjestarë; short time to decision-making and careful assessment and the depth; parental participation in the process.
Family Code and the CPC are in accordance with the Directive in terms of the above guarantees except that not expressly mention the possibility for parents or other persons exercising parental responsibility to participate in the judicial process for appointment of guardianship. Family Code only mentions hearing of the persons elected as trustee. If deprivation of parental care has occurred for other reasons then the death or disappearance of parents, the court give them the opportunity to be heard on that issue.
Guidelines require that the child be guaranteed a legal representative in the process where appropriate. The Law on Free Legal Assistance provides that people who need legal assistance in civil or administrative
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Many national chains including NGOs are involved directly or not on issues related to the custody service like: Courts; municipalities through the Municipal Council; Social Services Sector at the Municipality; Social administrator; Multidisciplinary commissions for custody; Child protection units in the municipality; Minister of Social Welfair; Social State Service; Economic Assistance Services; State Agency for Child Protection; The National Council for Child Protection; Social workers. So many actors are acting directly on child protection issues as part of their children outside of parental care. This arise the necessity to define clearly the role and functions and coordinate all the work so that the process does not have the obstacle of the main objective of providing care for children outside of parental care. The legal framework shows that problems can arise about the question who does what to the local level, i.e the role of social administrator, Child Protection Units, etc. This could help avoiding any kind of work duplication and could ensure effective coordination.
Age of marriage
The minimum legal age of marriage in Albania is set at 18 years. Although, there are cases of early and forced marriages, especially in the Roma community. According to the UN CEDAW and CRC RECCOMMENDATIONS ON MINIMUM AGE OF MARRIAGE LAWS AROUND THE WORLD, the State party fully enforce the minimum legal age of marriage and take all the necessary measures to curb the harmful practice of early and forced marriage, including the development of sensitization programmes and campaigns involving community leaders, society at large and children themselves on the negative impact of early and forced marriages. (CRC Concluding Observations, Dec. 2013).
The Family Code of the Republic of Albania (approved by Law No. 9062, dated 8 May 2003), article 7, defines the lawful age of marriage: (1) Marriage may be concluded between a man and a woman who are 18 years or older. (2) The court having jurisdiction on the location where the marriage is to be concluded may, for sufficient reasons, allow marriage prior to this age. According to article 70 of the Family Code, when a minor marries pursuant to article 7, paragraph 2, the marital property regime of the legal community is applied until he/she reaches the age of 18, after which time he/she can request a change of the marital property regime. There are efforts of the State party to eliminate gender stereotypes in the family, the media and society at large, but still there is persistence of such stereotypes. Legally speaking, remains still a concern about the limited measures it has taken to challenge the harmful marriage traditions that violate the rights of women and girls under the Convention, including child marriages.
The approval of the new Family Code eliminated the discrimination for the minimal marriage age that existed in the previous code of 1982, which provided for different ages for marriage respectively for boys 18, and girls 16. The new Family Code provides for marriage to be concluded between a husband and a wife that have reached the age of 18. The court of the place in which marriage is concluded, for important reasons, may allow the marriage below this age. So, the new code does not contain discriminating clauses between genders. For important reasons (chiefly pregnancy), the court may authorize marriage before reaching the
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The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) states that, “[t]he betrothal and the marriage of a child have no legal effect …,” and requires governments “to specify a minimum age of marriage and to make the registration of marriages in an official registry compulsory.” The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) requires governments to abolish “traditional practices prejudicial to the health of children” as well as to protect children from “all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse”. The CRC Committee has consistently dealt with child marriage in its Concluding Observations to governments that have ratified the CRC even though the Convention itself does not have a specific article that mentions marriage.
In that regards, there is a need for legal measures to prohibit effectively a marriage between children under 18 years old.
Inheritance right of children
In our legislation the right of inheritance it is accepted the full equality between man and woman, between female and male children, as well as between the children born from the marriage andalso those born out of the wedlock.This comes, as said above, as result of fulfillment of the principle for full equality in frontof the law and the elimination of any kind of discrimination. A principle that has its source in thesection 18 of the Constitution of the Republic of Albania, according to which: All citizens are equal before the law and no one can be discriminated because of the gender, economic, social origin or social status”.
In the same spirit of the Constitution are the forecasts made when the Civil Code states thatspouses inherit each other equally and benefit equally from the other heirs, children, regardless of whether they are girls or boys, in order to inherit equally by their parents or other deviser andregardless of whether children are born from parents who are legally married or not. The same can be said for children who are adopted.
The Albanian Civil law has foreseen the equality between the heirs. So, people who legally benefit from inheritance, they benefit equally regardless of sex or relationship they had with the decedent. The testator is not completely free to dispose his wealth in favor of a person, but he is obliged to respect the legal reserve of minor children and/or other minor descendants without limitation, of disabled persons in case they are called in inheritance, as well as dispose his property within the three first rows of legal heirs when there are such.
The capacity to make a testament is the capacity of the physical person who willfully and in accordance with the law may dispose his entire or partial property, after death, in favor of one or some other persons. Such capacity is found in any person who has reached the age of 18 years old, as well as women under this age when they are married. A minor child ranging from 14-18 years old may make a testament only for the property he has gained through his work. However, there is a loophole in this law because it does not include the capacity of persons under 18 years old. Therefore, full capacity to make a testament should not only have divorced spouses or spouses dissolved by stating their marriage as invalid, but also those under 18 years old who have remained widowed due to the death of their spouse. Persons whose capacity to act is removed by court decision as well as persons who at the time of making a testament are not able to understand the importance of their action thereof, may not make a valid testament. In addition, persons under 14 years old do not have capacity to dispose at all, since they have no capacity to act in general. The following do not have
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System capacity to inherit: any heir who has died prior to the testator, any heir was has become indecent to inherit and has been expelled from inheritance or has waived. Children who enter by representation in this case should be alive at the time the testator dies or be conceived prior to his death and born alive. The Civil Code forbids the custodian to benefit property through testament by disposition of the person under his custody prior to the final approval of accounts even though the testator had died after the final approval of accounts.
Article 373 of the Civil Code envisages the capacity to dispose via testament that belongs to any person who has reached the age of 18 years old, as well as women under this age when married. The married woman under 18 years old does not lose such capacity even when the marriage may be declared invalid or dissolved. We suggest an improvement of such provision by including in it the capacity of widowed persons under 18 years old. Therefore, full capacity to make a testament should have not only spouses who are divorced or separated through declaration of their marriage as invalid, but also those less than 18 years old who have remained widows due to the death of their spouse.
Civil emergencies
Albania’s geographical position and the nature of its topography mean that the country is frequently affected by intense precipitation, making it most vulnerable to floods. In terms of number of events, from 1980 to 2010 floods accounted for 39 per cent of disasters, with earthquakes accounting for 17 per cent. The country is also vulnerable to natural hazards including landslides, droughts, extreme temperatures, wildfires, wind storms, epidemics and avalanches. The occurrence of different disasters in the country over the period shows that Albania was most vulnerable to meteorological hazards.162
The legislation covering disaster management in Albania reflects the processes which are transforming the centralized structures of the sector into an essentially decentralized scheme based on a network of local decision centres. The current efforts are focused on the inclusion of Albanian civil protection structures within a European perspective and represent a road map for achieving this.
The first move towards the establishment of a more modern civil protection system came with Law 8756, in March 2001. The law encompasses the planning, prevention and preparedness system and defines first coordination among the different actors in civil emergency response operations. The law considers both disasters caused by the impact of natural hazards, including earthquakes, floods, landslides, avalanches, strong winds, forest fires and epidemics; and disasters due to human causes, including transport accidents, urban fires, explosions, dam collapses, Nuclear, Biological, Chemical (NBC) releases, riots and war. The Department for Civil Emergencies, Planning and Response of the Ministry of Interior is responsible for disaster management. It is comprised of permanent and provisional structures on central, regional and local levels.
In December 2004 the Albanian Council of Ministers adopted the National Civil Emergency Plan, the development of which was supported by UNDP and the Department for International Development (DFID). The rationale of the plan was to stress the participation of civil society within the civil protection structures and define the strategy and the main targets of the Department for Civil Emergencies, Planning and Response - using EU good practice as a reference point and after consideration of wider regional developments in the Balkans. The plan defines the roles and duties of all relevant governmental institutions and civil organisations
162 Kapllani, B. (2006). Civil Emergency Services in Albania, South East Europe Disaster Preparedness, 21-23 March, 2006, Dubrovnik.
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Improving response capacities at local levels; strengthening planning, monitoring and operational structures at all levels; and building and enhancing institutional capacity at all levels remain the key challenges to developing an integrated, responsive and effectively-coordinated disaster management system in Albania. However, plans were under way for the renamed Department of Civil Emergency to be based on a more functional and versatile scheme that should simplify the cumbersome command and control chain of the previous, rigid and centralised, system. An integrated system of communication and early warning for civil emergencies is planned to be introduced as a unified 112 operational centre. Moreover, the new civil protection structure is to adopt a multi-level system, emphasizing the role of local levels whose competencies and responsibilities will be enhanced and enlarged to include preventative activities and planning, under the responsibility of prefects.
A network of five or six regional headquarters, each having authority over a set of three or four counties, is to be established to create a system of reliable, capable and autonomous bodies able to manage and coordinate operations during “ordinary” emergencies.
The following institutions and structures are involved in disaster management in Albania: line ministries, quarks, municipalities and communities; the Albanian Red Cross and other national NGOs; the Academy of Science and scientific research institutes; citizens and communities; United Nations agencies, the North- Atlantic Treaty Organization/ Civil-Emergency Planning/Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre (NATO/CEP/EADRCC) and other international organizations; and regional and European initiatives such as Civil Military Emergency Planning, the Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Initiative (DPPI), the Black Sea Agreement, and the European and Mediterranean Major Hazards Agreement (EUR-OPA).
The main operational forces deployed to cope with major emergencies are the armed forces, coordinated by the Ministry of Defence; state and other police; the fire-fighting and rescue service; the ambulance service; the Albanian Red Cross and other national NGOs; public service enterprises and private companies contracted at local or central level; and specialized international teams.
Other significant pieces of policy and legislation in the realm of disaster risk reduction include the Law on Civil Emergency Services, and the Policy on Civil Emergency Planning and Response. The Department of Civil Emergencies, Planning and Response, through its directorates and other structures is responsible for training and technical instruction of personnel within the civil protection structure. It has developed training curricula for the capacity-building of civil emergency system personnel. Training activities are carried out yearly on the basis of national civil protection technical manuals or those adapted from international literature produced on the subject. To date, such training activities are not yet formalized or structured according to a national standard, although the National Civil Emergency Plan is the reference point for launching the next stage in the development of training: the National Civil Emergency Training Strategy. The Strategy is designed to make possible the institutionalisation of disaster management initiatives.
One of the priorities is the establishment of a National Training Centre for Civil Protection, which will provide local civil protection managers with standardized training courses, leading to a strengthening of operational staff capacities.
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System The General Directorate of Civil Emergencies, Planning and Response has also prepared and disseminated three brochures, covering earthquakes, floods and home safety, which are used to raise awareness at the community level. Each county and district comprises within their permanent staff a set of technicians (five or six for a county and one for a district). Each prefecture has a Civil Emergency Officer who has been trained by a directorate using a standard two-stage Albanian civil emergency training manual. Each municipality and commune has a designated officer with responsibility for civil emergency matters who will have also benefited from instruction in the standard training curriculum and, quite possibly, through the frequent necessity of observing early warning, standby and response protocol.
The 2006 - 2010 country programme assisted Albania to meet its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The programme supports national priorities for education, health, protection and poverty reduction, including the National Strategy for Development and Integration. The goals of the National Strategy are to reduce poverty and income disparity; reduce infant and maternal mortality and disease rates; increase attendance in compulsory education and extend the average schooling period; and improve both governance and basic services.
The previous country programme centred on the promotion of child survival, youth development and participation, and child protection, with a focus on the development of a legislative framework and key social policies.
One of the most important partners of the Civil Emergency Department is UNICEF. Within the broad programme of children’s health and development, UNICEF has devoted special efforts to ensure equal learning opportunities for all children and that school discipline respects children’s rights, with special attention given to children from marginalized communities. In the context of the implementation of the HFA (Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015: Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters), Albania has nominated an official HFA Focal Point: the Director of the General Directorate for Civil Emergency. Since its nomination, the collaboration with UNISDR has seen Albania actively contributing to the disaster risk reduction agenda in the international and regional context. Albania has joined SEEDRMAP, which has been developed by the World Bank and UNISDR. The programme aims at reducing the vulnerability of SEE countries to disasters. In the context of this programme, Albania has contributed to knowledge-sharing on disaster risk reduction by providing information to a number of reviews undertaken in the region related to risk assessment data, hydromet issues, the role of civil protection in disaster risk reduction, and disaster risk financing options. Building on the international and regional agenda, Albania has prepared its HFA report highlighting challenges and areas of advancement on disaster risk reduction issues.
Furthermore, in the context of HFA implementation and SEEDRMAP development, Albania has collaborated with UNISDR, DPPI and the Capacity for Disaster Reduction Initiative (CADRI) to strengthen its national capacity development by joining and contributed to a number of workshops and information sessions dedicated to the topic of disaster resilience. Since 2009, the Albania Disaster Risk Mitigation and Adaptation Project (AL-DRMAP), funded by the World Bank and supported by UNISDR, has become effective and fully operational. The project is funded by the World Bank with a total of US$9.16 million, US$3 million of which is in the form of a loan to the Albanian Government and US$6.16 million is a credit from the World Bank. The project, which is being implemented from 2009 - 2012, aims to strengthen institutional capacities, reduce Albania’s vulnerability to disasters caused by natural and technological hazards, and mitigate the human,
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As noted above, disaster management structures and legislation in Albania are in place. However, for the most part they are focused towards rescue and relief rather than the more complex cross-cutting notion of disaster risk reduction. Efforts are still under way to fully establish the disaster risk reduction agenda across the country and this includes in the education sector. For this to succeed and the mechanics of disaster risk reduction to be set in place the approach must be both strategic and systematic. It will require the focusing of initiatives and will involve the dissemination of disaster risk reduction information to all sectors, levels, key institutions and other stakeholders. The general conclusion of this issue is that there is an overall need to increase the promotion of disaster risk reduction in the education sector in the country. National Platforms, through Ministries of Education, should embrace as part of their work plans the inclusion of disaster risk reduction knowledge in relevant sections of school curricula at all levels and the use of other formal and informal channels to reach youth and children with information. The implementation of sustainable programmes and activities in schools should be promoted to teach how to minimize the effects of hazards. This should be included with other ongoing activities.
There should be equal access to appropriate training and educational opportunities for children, women and other vulnerable constituencies; gender and cultural sensitivity training should be promoted as integral components of education and training for disaster risk reduction.
There should be an improvement of the safety of school buildings – including a risk assessment of areas where schools are located and by retrofitting schools in earthquake-prone areas – to contribute to the care and protection of learners, with schools as “protective environments”.
Risks associated with critical infrastructure could be reduced by strengthening education and health infrastructure in hazard-prone areas through community-based initiatives in pilot countries and further elaborated through the lessons learnt. The on-going life-skills and child-friendly programmes should be a standard targeted programme where disaster risk reduction knowledge should be systematically integrated.
29/06/2015 (revised 20/7/2015)
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International instrument ratified or signed
Convention on the Rights of the Child UN CEDAW and CRC Reccommendations on Minimum Age of Marriage Laws Around the World; Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules); United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (the Riyadh guidelines); United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (Havana Rules); Optional Protocol to the CRC on the sale of the Children ILO Convention on the Worst Form of Child Labour COE Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Secual Abuse; Convention on Cybercrime; COE Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights COE Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Rekomandimi nr.(87) 20 “Për reagimin social ndaj kriminalitetit të miturve”; Rekomandimi “Për ndërhyrjen e hershme psikosociale për parandalimin e krimit”.
Documents
All the laws and bylaws necessary on children protection Children Equitable Acces to Justice (UNICEF) 2015 at http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/Equitable_access_to_justice_for_children_in_Central_and_Eastern _Europe_and_Central_Asia_-_v2_1.pdf Report on Situation od Children under 14 in conflict with the Law (OSBE) 2012 Analyzes on legal Situation of Children Pornography (UNICEF) 2007. Case-based Surveillance Stydu on Violence Against Children (CRCA) 2013 Universal Periodic Review Albania (Albanian Coalition against Child Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation of Children – ACTSEC) 2014. UN CEDAW and CRC Reccommendations on Minimum Age of Marriage Laws Around the World (2013).
EU Progress Reports on Albania 2012, 2013, 2014
Websites http://www.crca.al http://www.unicef.org http://www.sherbimiproves.gov.al www.dpbsh.gov.al/ www.avokatipopullit.gov.al http://www.tlas.org.al/
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Meetings
General Directory of Police General Directory of Civil Status General Directory of Civil Emergenies General Directory of Prisons Prosecutor Judges (2) Ministry of Justice Primeminister’s Office Secretary of State on Local Government’Adviser Law Faculty Ombudsman CRCA Albania CLCI Albania
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Annex 8: Children and parents’ perceptions and experiences of the CP system Children and parents experiences of child protection services Awareness and knowledge The children and parents participating in the research, demonstrated familiarity with aspects of basic needs such as nutrition, clothing, access to water and school attendance. The understanding of child protection principles, issues and implications is more heterogeneous and varies from precise information to very vague and/or contradictory conceptualisations. In general, the parents know the services that they are most in need of mentioning: hospitals, health care services for vaccines, pre-school services, provision for basic needs (food/clothes), economic aid, microcredit and income generation services, information and referral at the Municipality level. In less urban areas the parents are aware that the following municipal service or service providers do or should exist: cash assistance, pensions for disability or orphans, civil statue, and housing and labour office. Concerning the knowledge and understanding of child protection services, the parents were aware that different problems require different responses (and expertise), although they mediate their awareness with the reality that services and social workers are often lacking. “They have asked us to go and register children in professional training schools, also in development centres in Kavaja but we cannot go, because it’s more than we take in cash assistance for travel expenses.” Parent in Rrogozhinë. Regardless the availability of child protection services the majority of families only have contact with the social administrator or the economic aid officers. Most of the parents and children consulted could not explain what a Child Protection Unit (CPU) is or should be. When a CPU exists in their area, the children do not know much about the office and its mandate. Even with awareness of the existence of CPU most refer to friends and relatives as their preferred help-providers, stating “is better to solve problems with known people rather than with foreigners.” The knowledge about child protection workers (CPW), if any, is superficial due to limited information coupled with the more common “mouth-to-mouth” modality based on personal interrelations and not always spreading exhaustive or correct information. As a consequence, when CPWs are available, the parents refer to him/her as a specific person instead of the professional position. The parents reported getting information about child protection services mostly from the media, from school meetings with teachers and other parents and from daily conversations with their friends. In many contexts, both in bigger and smaller cities, the existence of psychosocial support at school as a child protection service is barely known or understood. When it is known and available, it appeared to be the most relevant child protection actor according to both children and parents. The attitudes about this service differ, with children and parents in contact with social services more predisposed to talking with psychologists or sharing sensitive details for better case management, while a hostile mentality discourages all the others that were never in contact with any service. In all surveyed regions the difficulty of children trusting someone who is new enough to share aspects of their private lives was an emerging issue. The helpline ALO 116 is frequently mentioned by children from all regions as a service for the protection of children. Only those that come in contact with social services and supports know and understand the services and their functions. Most children already in contact with services showed a good level of knowledge about child protection and children’s rights, often being able to distinguish between different kinds of violence/abuse. In particular children from the bigger cities already in contact with services appeared to be very familiar with the main services and organisations which are available as well as with the general institutional environment relevant to them and their situations.
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Experiences with and access to services
According to the children and parents the level of accessibility, availability and adequacy of child protection services varies significantly in different contexts; some services are available and functioning in the major cities, yet limited (if any) are present in smaller towns, suburbs, and remote rural areas. In Konispol, for instance, parents and children reported a complete absence of child protection services and a very limited institutional presence altogether. However, they also reported a community actively engaged in providing support to children in need just the same. The impact of the community responses appears largely inadequate and insufficient. The participants from the surveyed regions share the opinion that institutions are the least accessible for those most in need. Informants agreed that children and families from Roma and Egyptian communities, children with disabilities and children from poor families are the most needy groups. The presence and support of public and (more often) non-governmental child protection workers appeared to make the difference in service access and delivery in the education, health and social welfare sectors. NGO-staff covering transportation costs and providing help in accessing services seem the most effective way of getting services delivered. As a child in Shkodra mentioned, “The police officers wouldn’t take us seriously if we go alone.” The distance between where people live and service offices is an impediment to access in all regions. Significant distances must be covered from smaller cities to regional capitals, as reported in Konispol, where parents and children with disabilities have to travel up to Saranda. The cost for transportation are prohibitive for people living under the poverty line and often lead to renouncement of services altogether. In Rrogozhina, many parents said they have to travel for twenty km with a cost of 200L per person to access important services such as the labour or housing office, professional training school, cash assistance and the development centre for children with disabilities. In Gjirokastra the issue of transportation was also associated with risks to safety on road and in transportation. In Permet the families with disabled children have to travel up to Gjrokastra or Tirana to get therapies and consultations. Not surprisingly, the distance was a factor of service accessibility for participants from more remote/rural areas such as in Perrenjas, where children must walk for 1 hour in order to reach school and 1.5 hours to get to the nearest health and police centres. As reported by the parents in Vlora, the same issue is applicable to bigger cities as well, because suburbs where most of the children in need reside are too far from where offices are located. Direct and indirect cost (often hidden) hamper access to social services. The request for unofficial payments to get public health care was reported as a significant challenge to accessibility, since, as reported by parents and children in Elbasan, most families in economic distress cannot pay. In Perrenjas the medical consultations can cost from 200 to 500L, a sum many families cannot afford. In Vlora, the issue of money for medicine was reported as a significant limitation to health service provision. Parents of children with disabilities lack access due to the costs of transportation to specialised treatment, daily care and consultations. Other access challenges include: excessively bureaucratic procedures, lack of birth registration, lack of social and play spaces, and physical inaccessibility for people with disabilities. The inadequacy of the services and the insufficient funds allocated to provide supports are perceived by the parents to be lacking child sensitiveness and centeredness. Children and parents are key informants on quality of services, but their voice is often unheard. Where services exist, serious concerns were expressed in regards to the functioning due to the limited presence of professionals and limited working hours. In Dibra the one expert in the CPU cannot cover all villages. Most parents indicated some categories of people who tend to be left behind by service delivery, such as single parents, parents with disabled children, people from Egyptian communities
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System and poor families in general. Participants reported the absence of institutions or services promoting employment for families in need, which was both directly and indirectly indicated as a reason to have children work and exposed to child protection risks and vulnerabilities. Children and parents reported a disconnection between service providers and clients. According to many of the children and parents consulted, the availability of child protection services is heavily affected by the fact that CPW do not do outreach to the people in need. As a consequence, in all regions, both in bigger and smaller cities, family and friends are the first option to refer to in seeking help.
When in contact with services, little appeared to be known by the parents about who is involved in supporting their children beyond the person(s) they usually deal with. In general, the parents do not see other actors coming together for children’s issues, nor any sign of cooperation and integration between the different institutions. For example, the parents in Dibra clearly identified the school psychologists, the police officers and the medical doctors as child protection actors, yet, to their knowledge, no sort of coordination exist among them. Children in contact with services have the perception that different services are collaborating in providing them with the support they need. According to them, mostly it is only one organisation providing for their specific case. Most of the collaboration around case management, according to the children and parents, occurs between social service and health sectors concerning vaccinations and illnesses. Some collaboration was reported as occurring also with the police for the most severe violations. The parents in Vlora stressed that service providers working with children and family members do not communicate with each other, creating unproductive situations with conflicting interventions. The lack of integration among the different actors was mentioned as a serious concern for cases of children with disabilities or the children who need emotional support during or after divorce court proceedings. All regions reported that the difference in integrated responses is due to the involvement of NGOs, who facilitated the relationships between the police, schools, health and social services. Not surprisingly, children and parents in NGO-run services were much more familiar with cases of integrated service-delivery involving actors from different sectors. Experiences with service providers
In Elbasan and Tirana Regions, children and parents in contact with services perceive a good level of commitment among the NGOs and municipal staff they deal with. They also mention a lack of capacity/opportunities in delivering the needed services with effectiveness and sustainability. According to many parents from other surveyed contexts, many service providers are not committed to helping people and, even when they are, they often lack of the necessary capacities for quality work. The parents in Dibra, linked lack of professionalism among social workers and impossibility of building meaningful services to the frequent staff rotation. Both in larger and smaller cities parents mentioned that the service delivery dynamics are often determined by the personal relationships the child protection workers have with the families in need of support instead of proper and impartial assessments. Concerning teachers, the level of commitment and professionalism perceived across the sampled regions is medium-low, with the exception of the educational personnel linked to NGO projects, which tends to be much more positive, as reported for example by the parents and children in Shkodra. Some children, like those in Bulquiza, reported that the teachers in school are much more committed to help them than the police and child protection workers. In general widespread corruption in the health sectors reported in all surveyed regions negatively affects the perceptions of professionalism and commitment of doctors and nurses. Parents and children also complained about the lack of confidentiality regarding medical records, for
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System example a child in Shkodra reported that in her area abortions on young girls are openly disclosed. Concerning the commitment of police officers the perceptions vary across different contexts. Where the police are not appreciated or are event feared it is mostly because of the lack of trust and the attitude they take in dealing with poor people and the lack of confidentially. Child- sensitiveness and child-centeredness Significantly, many of the positive perceptions concerning child sensitiveness and centeredness in the services were reported by parents from the most deprived situations. This may mean that the awareness about what these aspects mean and should look like may be weak among service users. The children from most discussion groups appeared to have a clear understanding of what is missing. They are aware of not being involved in the definition of policies and they often complained about the limited consideration parents give them, especially to girls. The involvement of children and parents in multidisciplinary meetings for case management occurs on a very sporadic basis and only when processes or activities are conducted by NGOs. In general children already in contact with services feel more heard and considered. At the same time, they reported weaker involvement in school and family environments. When participation occurs, the children appreciated being heard by CPWs. “Respected”, “Considered”, and “Listened” were some of the words the children used to describe the interaction. On the other hand, the parents, such as those from Bulquiza, Konispol and Vlora, shared a profound disappointment about never being invited to share their opinions about their childrens’ situation. In Shkodra, the parents organised as a group to establish contact with the public administration to discuss children’s issues, but they were refused. The focus groups were for many participants, the first occasion to express their opinions. In some of the discussions with parents, as those in Konispol and Gjirokastra, it was pointed out that it does not make sense to expect child centeredness and sensitiveness by state institutions who are not able to ensure even the survival of their children. The situation is quite different when looking at school settings. Children from several contexts appreciated the interest and consideration the teachers often demonstrate concerning children’s rights. In Shkodra region, children reported about several schools in which children can highlight situations using “complaint boxes”; yet, such tools may be misused as a child told us: “In my school there is a box for complaints, but once, someone wrote a complaint and the director came the classroom asking who wrote that…” Most parents identified the school as the place where children are asked for their opinions concerning child protection matters. Also for the adults the school was felt to be the most conducive setting for parent-to- parent discussions. Children already in contact with services were less reticent although preferably they themselves would like to tackle their problems within the family rather than with strangers. The reticence among children in sharing personal information and sensitive issues with CPW further undermines the possibility of having their opinions heard and considered. Discrimination in child protection
According to children and parents, the main discriminatory factors are ethnicity and socio-economic status. In all surveyed contexts, the children of poor families are discriminated against in health and social services. One reason being inability to make informal or indirect payments. In many of the discussion groups, prejudice attitudes were reported to impact children from Roma and Egyptian communities and their care. Roma children in Elbasan mentioned being called “arixhi” by teachers. Similarly, a child in Fushe-Arrez was told by his teacher, “You don’t have money, you are so poor! Where do you find the courage to talk to me?”
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System Children’s perceptions concerning ethnic-based discrimination were more prevalent among children who are not in contact with child protection services than those who were. Some reports about teachers’ positive inclusive attitudes were also mentioned. In addition to socioeconomic status and ethnicity, the children indicated many other reasons to be discriminated against: disabilities, divorce (Rrogozhina), dysfunctional families (Tirana), orphanhood (Bulquiza), coming from rural areas (Fushe-Arrez) as well as the suburbs of bigger cities (Vlora), political party (Shkodra), migration experiences (Shkodra and Permet) and being a girl (Bulquiza). In Dibra, the children reported feeling discriminated against by police officers who tend to communicate with them in a unfriendly manner and/or using language that children cannot understand. On empowerment potentials of child protection services
To various extents, parents feel very weak in the face of the situations their children and families face. Unanimously, the parents expressed the importance for parents and children to be able to solve or at least address child protection situations. In discussing empowerment-related concepts there was a generalised lack of understanding. The parents’ emphasis was mostly limited to the provision of economic aid to families so to ameliorate the effects of poverty on children. The parents from Tirana and Elbasan regions reported some level of involvement of their families, in particular their children, in activities aimed at providing information on prevention and response to child abuse and exploitation, how to interact with each other, how to avoid violence to solve problems, and to listen to the point of view of others. In other regions, an array of parenting skills activities were mentioned including hygiene, healthy food, HIV/AIDS and sexual transmitted disease, family planning, child abuse and domestic violence, child rights, etc. In all the surveyed regions these were NGO-run . In Bulqiza, the parents reported never having been invited in meetings or trainings about child protection or child rights. Children reported having participated more than their parents in different initiatives run by school psychologists and NGOs focusing on issues such as disability, prevention of trafficking, drug abuse and violence. Children reported that activities of this kind were very positive and worthwhile. In Elbasan some level of awareness about the usefulness of school-based participatory mechanisms was reported although children mostly described activities that are seldom actually implemented, such as in Konispol where the school senate existed but never met. In most of the regions, civil education classes in schools are held weekly and provided children with a general overview of child rights and rights violations. Unfortunately, based on the group discussions with children, the level of understanding presents frequent and significant weaknesses, especially when it comes to linking child rights theory and principles with the daily lives of children. Some isolated good practices were also identified during data collection. At different extents in some of the surveyed areas, like Vlora, children are involved in some decision making process in school settings; yet, in family situations, unanimously children’s participation in decisions was reported as completely lacking. During a group discussion in Tirana, a child shared a past experience when he went with other children to the Ombudsman to complain about their teachers’ violent attitudes. This was the only experience of the kind shared by the dozens of participants consulted. In Bulquiza, an Association of Children was engaged in organizing activities to prevent their peers from working in the chrome-collection. It was the only participatory structured child protection initiative to be mentioned.
Perceptions on adequacy and satisfaction with child protection services
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Mapping and Analysis Maestral International, 2015 of the Albanian CP System The generalised impression shared by parents in all the six surveyed regions is that social services for their families are largely inadequate. Most parents feel deeply unsatisfied and frustrated with services they receive or, for the most part, do not have access to. The public housing programmes were mentioned across all regions as one of the main and few supports children and families in need received; yet, in all instances, the participants made a negative assessment of such programmes. Specific services such as family support services for families in distress, divorced parents, etc. are lacking or, as indicated by parents in Permet, when available, they do not provide any successful support. The lack of infrastructures was reported from all the surveyed regions as among the most significant challenges in delivering adequate services. Numerous parents shared the perception that it is impossible to be satisfied with services that (i) do not exist for most issues affecting their children, (ii) are not available in most areas, (iii) are too far to be reached and accessed by most people, (iv) are operating with insufficient means and inadequate infrastructure. In terms of functioning, the limited service availability is delivered through highly bureaucratic procedures. In Perrenjas, the parents shared real-life examples of families spending considerable money to obtain the documents needed for an application without being included among the beneficiaries at the end. The economic assistance/aid provided for people with disabilities is often insufficient. Without reaching results on a large scale, cash transfer schemes seem to be creating dependency rather than positive changes. The police stations struggle with inadequate structures, limited resources and lack of expertise in dealing with children’s issues. A child in Shkodra had to spend a significant time in a police station to provide evidence for a case, but no psychologist or social worker ever showed up to provide him with support. When contacts with child protection services occur, both children and parents generally feel understood, particularly by NGO CPW. Unfortunately, understood for most of the reported experiences did not mean that improvements to their situation occurred. There is a growing perception that one of the reasons for the low quality of child protection services is that all skilled CPW leave for opportunities in the city. On the other hand, the not-so- skilled workers are described as young, un-specialized and selected/assigned based on political convenience or relationships. The parents in Dibra acknowledged that many service providers do not have the adequate education or experience for the position they hold. In general, the number of staff is insufficient to meet the needs. Children in Perrenjas, for instance, emphasised the importance of psychologists in schools; at the same stressing that this remains theoretical support, since the number of psychologists is insufficient to meet the actual needs and numbers of children. Many children still cannot attend school because of the distance from home and/or because of structural impediments, in particular for those with disabilities. The service that children receive in school is generally considered of poor quality (especially according to parents) because the teachers are politically selected. In Bulquiza parents said that they feel more satisfied with older teachers than with younger teachers who were often described as more careless and impolite. The lack of toilets, running water and other basic infrastructure in schools were issues reported by the groups in Vlora, Permet and other contexts. The parents in Perrenjas and the children in Shkodra shared also serious concerns about safety in their schools. According to those in discussion groups, physical and emotional violence is still present and widely experienced in school. On these matters, as a consequence of repeated reports to school directors, in Permet children experienced an improvement, yet beatings by teachers still occur. The children in Konispol reported frequent scolding and insults by some of the teachers. In most of the group discussions physical punishment was mentioned as a common practice in school. Moreover, the acceptance of family and school violence as an educational practice by parents and teachers discourages children from disclosing.
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