1. Introduction

Democracy is one of the most respected notions in the political vocabulary. Yet, there are so many different definitions of democracy. In fact, as the UN Resolution on Support by the UN system of the efforts of Government to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies, puts it, while democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy. People often talk about countries “becoming” democracies, once they start to have relatively free and open elections. But democracy includes far more than just elections, and it really makes more sense to think about the will of the people idea, rather than about institutional or voting structures. Participation in elections every four years even if these are free and fair, cannot be counted as a proper democratic system. Democracy requires much more, including being informed on the decisions and actions of the government and airing the opinions through all the possible means, such as media, civil society groups, etc.

In this respect, the good local governance is one of the core elements of a democratic system. Local policymaking and service-delivery are formulated, planned and implemented closer to the citizens. This characteristic promotes effectiveness by allowing services to be aligned to a better degree with the local preferences and enables direct involvement of citizens in influencing local political decisions and in initiating community action.

In this case study, the most important principles of democracy are taken into consideration, such as: transparency and rule of law, accountability and participation, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability and participation and citizen engagement. It is clearly understandable that improved access to information fosters transparency and accountability, but also citizens’ collective action and engagement. Collective action and public engagement influence decision-making in line with the interests of citizens and increase social capital, consensus as well as the legitimacy of decision-making. Accountability strengthens the rule of law and thus the governance equity. Involving citizens, the private sector and non-governmental community organisations in local decision-making processes and ownership of accountability mechanisms is a prerequisite for a functioning local democracy.

The enabling civic environment conditions the collective action of citizens through civil society organisations. As noted by the Council of the European Union on its conclusions of December 2022 on enlargement and stabilisation and association process, the provisions enabling civil society organisations to operate freely and participate in policymaking in inclusive and meaningful ways are very important. Progress in this area is linked as well to effective reform progress in other fundamental areas, notably the rule of law. Therefore, this enabling environment has increasingly come to be viewed as key to assessing civil society’s health and possibilities. This case study will shed light on the efficiency of LA interventions to create, support and maintain an enabling civic environment for local democracy by examples such as facilitated public participation, improved service delivery, strengthened communities, and improved development outcomes.

2. LevizAlbania’s project context

The LA project is based on a vision (definition) of democracy which goes beyond the electoral or representative democracy. The LA seems to move decisively in its approach towards a more deliberative form of democracy which requires constant participation by the citizens through requiring information, providing ideas, generating debate and calling for more accountability from the elected representatives.

Further, the LA approach took into consideration the results of the decentralisation reform and the new powers of the local government units. After the decentralisation reform, the number of local government units was significantly reduced. The powers/competences of the new local government units and their services to citizens were expanded. Their funding and capabilities were enhanced as well in order fulfil their tasks and meet the demands coming from the citizens. Therefore, their importance to the citizens increased substantially.

To this purpose, the LA worked to enhance local democracy by cultivating a locally rooted, demand-driven and influential civil society at the sub-national level across the country. At the same time, it has undertaken strategic projects and national-level advocacy to enable a civic environment for improved and sustained local democracy.

While most of other projects were focused on strengthening the local government capacities, the LA focused on strengthening the civil society actors at the grassroot level and providing them with the necessary toolkit, to influence the local democracy through a bottom-up approach. In the vision of the LA, these civil actors were to be independent of political parties and provide an additional channel of participation and influence in the political processes and decision-making.

The implemented projects represented a combination of collective actions at the local level focusing on important interests and concerns: from increased public participation in local decision-making to enhanced youth participation; from advocacy to increased transparency; from monitoring of electoral promises to petitions and interventions related to environment. The LA participated and contributed to discussions on the new legal framework by emphasising the importance of consultations with the interest groups in the preparation of main legal acts, to enhance the rights of citizens to influence local decision-making processes. LA enhanced an enabling civic environment to address the structural issues inhibiting local democracy.

LA contributed to the empowerment of citizens for collective action to demand and enhance transparency and accountability of local government in compliance with the program of transparency and the Law on the Right to Information, to the establishment of functional participatory mechanisms, improved public services to communities, social inclusion of vulnerable groups, increased voluntarism and activism among the youth as well as generation of public debates and protests on issues of concern for public at large.

The case study focuses on two policy clusters:

Cluster A: Improvement of implementation of two legal areas that are closely intertwined:

• The Local Governance legal framework;
• Information and Public Consultation.

Cluster B: Influencing the dialogue around the legislative processes for systemic/structural changes favoring local democracy and civic engagement.  

Both clusters are summarized in the form of case studies by analyzing them in terms of advocacy approaches and impact.

3. Cluster A: Process of a better implementation of local legal framework and the role of LA

3.1 Projects’ snapshot and Policy impact and achievements

The analysis will include topics like what happened when, who was involved, who partnered with whom, and how. It will be possible to clearly visualize the interventions that created an appropriate and enabling environment for civil society.

3.1.1 “The Metamorphosis of the Ishëm River” was a project implemented by the ENFORCE Albania that brought together 25 young people from Kamza with clear goals and great determination to bring positive changes in the environment, culture, economy, and public well-being. One of the most important actions undertaken by them was focused on the Ishëm river, in western Albania, which flows to the northern area of the Albanian capital, Tirana. It is one of the most polluted in Europe by plastic waste which ends up in the sea. The group identified different illegal dumping sites along the river, wondering why this problem was not addressed or even barely discussed by the community. With the clear vision that a sustainable solution required raising awareness and mobilising the local community, ENFORCE Albania involved young volunteers to knock door by door, talk to the residents and raise their awareness about the problem. Over 200 people in total were engaged as part of this initiative including residents, activists, youth, marginalised groups as well as local institutions to set a good example for a common cause.

Achieved results of the project:

• Training on environmental education of 47 students in Laknas and Kamza;
• Two cleaning actions in the targeted area;
• Eleven illegal dumping sites identified and mapped;
• Removal of three dumping sites.

3.1.2 “The Municipalities of Tirana, Kamza and Vora comply with Law on Self Governance”. INFOCIP a well-known CSO, designed and pilot tested a monitoring matrix to assess and measure the transparency of the decision-making processes by the municipal councils in three municipalities in the region of Tirana (Tirana, Kamza and Vora) related to the implementation of the law ‘On Self Governance”. The monitoring matrix is a mechanism which filters in measurable indicators of the legal provisions of the Law 139/2015 “On Self-Governance”, Law 119/2014 “On the Right to Information” and Law 146/2014 “On Public Consultation” enabling measurement of the level of consultation, voting, notification and publication of the municipal council decisions in three municipalities and a comparative analysis and ranking of the results over time. Through continuous pressure on targeted municipal councils, the project built a baseline on implementation of the law at the start of the project where the three municipalities scored very low. By the end of the project, the three municipalities significantly improved the implementation of the law increasing the transparency of the decision-making by the municipal councils and increased interaction with citizens. They published their decisions in the national data base https://www.vendime.al/ as well as in their own websites where they have established the category “Transparenca” (transparency) and appointed the Coordinator for Transparency who is the key person for the implementation of the law. The targeted municipalities highly improved their level on transparency index of the decisions of the municipal council. INFOCIP provided important information on the functioning of municipal councils in the municipalities of Tirana, Vora and Kamza.

Achieved results of the project:

• Improved implementation of the Law on “On Self-Governance” increasing the transparency of the decision-making by the municipal councils’;
• Increased interaction with citizens;
• Creation of the database vendime.al and publishment of decisions;
• Appointment of the Coordinator for Transparency.

3.1.3 A group of engaged citizens organized themselves as a community group and took the initiative to launch a campaign under the slogan "Your Voice: My neighborhood, the administrator of my residence", a campaign not only to raise awareness on the importance of building administrator’s role, but also to resolving administrative and institutional obstacles that held hostage the implementation of the law in Vlora[9]. An extensive awareness raising campaign was conducted to bring in focus the problem addressing the gap of residential administrators and especially the engagement of civil society in Vlora This initiative has given the green light for significant improvement of the situation on the ground.

Achieved results of the project:

• Establishment of "Task force" at Vlora City Hall;
• Signing of a legal agreement to open administrators' courses at the Vocational Training Center in Vlora;
• Opening of the Vocational Training Courses for residential buildings administrators;
• Registration of 10 new applications for the training course.

3.1.4 “Plepat e Brukes”, Laknas

In February 2020, the Legal Clinic started following in court the case addressed by more than 40 residents of Kamëz against a business project, which would completely and irreversibly damage a public forest. The forest was planted during the last 50 years by the residents. Together with local activists, the Legal Clinic initiated a legal and civic movement to change the categorisation of this land in cadastral registers from gravel to forest. The Legal Clinic met the Mayor of Kamza to request not to renew the duration of the building permit in favor of the private company. The Legal Clinic followed the judicial process at the Administrative Court of First Instance of Tirana, at the Administrative Court of Appeal and at the Supreme Court. On November 9, 2021, the Supreme Court decided to uphold the decision on interim measures of the Administrative Court of First Instance which had temporarily suspended the construction of the slaughterhouse.

Achieved results of the project:

• Suspending the construction of the slaughterhouse;
• Protection of the forest area.

3.1.5 “HydroPower Projects (HPPs) Sekë and Zais in Zall Gjoçaj, Mat” Two HPPs were being built in the Mat River, in breach of the environmental law and other legal acts. The main breach relates to the fact that a big part of the project was developed without consultations with the local residents, inside a protected area, which is the National Park “Dea Lurë”. The legal assistance was requested by the residents of nearby villages. The Legal Clinic initiated a civil action asking for a court decision on the suspension of the construction works. In January 2021, the Administrative Court of Tirana annulled the decision that licensed the company to build a hydropower plant in a protected area. In November 2021, the Administrative Court of Appeal decided to uphold the decision of the Administrative Court of First Instance and stopped the construction of the HEC in Zais. In March 2022, the Supreme Court decided to suspend the execution of the decisions of the Administrative Court of First Instance of Tirana and the Administrative Court of Appeal. On November 24, 2022, the Supreme Court decided to uphold the previous decisions by revoking the license of the concessionary company for the production of energy for Hec Zajs, in Zall Gjocaj.

Achieved results of the project:

• Suspending the construction of the hydropower plant in the protected area;
• Protection of the environment.

4. Cluster B: Process of significantly influencing the dialogue around the legislative processes for systemic/structural changes favouring local democracy and civic engagement 

4.1 Projects’ snapshot and Policy impact and achievements

The analysis will include topics like what happened when, who was involved, who partnered with whom, and how. It will be possible to clearly visualize the interventions that created an appropriate and enabling environment for civil society.

Civic actors supported by LevizAlbania have provided specific outputs and significantly influenced the dialogue around legislative processes for systemic/structural changes favouring local democracy and civic engagement through horizontal cooperation described in the cases below:

4.1.1    “Advocacy and lobbying for changes to Law 45/2016 “On volunteering to establish national standards for volunteer contributions”.

The volunteer sector needs an urgent intervention in terms of legal aspect and social character. “Vullnetarizmi.Al” is a project that aimed to improve the existing legal and social infrastructure with systemic interventions from the bottom-up and for the creation of a multi-dimensional enabling environment where volunteerism is encouraged, supported, recognised as a key mechanism for promoting active citizenship, solidarity, and social cohesion in Albania. The project was implemented by a coalition of three organisations, based on three main pillars:

• Concrete proposals for improving the current volunteering law in terms of the comprehensive concept but also to fix the barriers that this law has set for volunteering providers;
• Collection and analysis of data at the national level with essential elements that accompany the concept of volunteerism and the establishment of intersectoral cooperation;
• The creation of stable structures with quality standards for the management of voluntary work and the bringing of an innovative approach by empowering volunteerism through the digital platform that promotes discussions, debates openly for all interested parties.

A National Study on Voluntarism in Albania was conducted. Several meetings took place with different stakeholders at central and international level.

In parallel close collaboration took place with media and journalists to emphasise the issues on volunteering and support the cause. As a result of the lobbying campaign and all the meetings held thanks to the project, at the initiative of the Minister of State for Youth and Children, on January 21, 2022, the Parliamentary Committee for Work, Social Affairs and Health convened, in a hearing regarding the implementation of the law “On volunteering”. Currently work has started on the draft changes to the Law 45/2016 on Volunteering, including the concrete recommendation provided by the project.[16]

Achieved results of the project:

• creation of the first national digital platform vullnetarizmi.al
• Parliamentary Committee for Work, Social Affairs and Health convened, in a hearing;
• Recommendations on drafting the Law “On volunteering”.

4.1.2    “Citizen legislative initiative for changes to the Electoral Code to allow open list for the election of Municipal Councils” is an initiative undertaken by the Albanian Institute for the Development of Electoral System. After a thorough analysis of the perceptions and opinions of citizens, it was reached in the conclusion that significant deviation from the principle of proportionality in representation was noticed. The current situation carried out the risk of compromising the quality of services for citizens, which should be provided by the authorities and local self-government bodies.

About 74.4 percent of the citizens living in rural or suburban areas and about 46.3 percent of the interviewed citizens living in the city stated that they did not feel represented in the Municipal Council.

Based on the opinions and proposals gathered through a wide consultation process, the civic alliance drafted a set of proposals for changes that could be made to the Electoral Code, changes aiming in the best possible way, to increase the qualitative representation of citizens in the bodies that are elected for local self-government.

Based on the right provided by the Constitution, according to which 20,000 voters have the legislative right to submit a draft law to the Albanian Parliament, the Civic Alliance has started the process for the realisation of this initiative.

Achieved results of the project:

• Drafted amendments of the Electoral Code;
• Starting of the process for submitting the draft law.

5.      LevizAlbania’s policy impact

The assistance provided by LA has played an important role in addressing issues of local democracy and in enabling an active civic environment to local community. The programme had a significant impact in increasing public pressure through the encouragement of accountability with regard on citizen’s rights and promoting local democracy.

A set of general remarks are worth to be underlined. First, the analysis of the projects carried out with the LA assistance shows that LA follows mostly a concept that can be labelled, think nationally and act locally.

This approach should be praised and even encouraged in countries like Albania. BTI in its latest Transformation Index of 2022[19] concludes that in Albania, para-modern forms of social capital, based on blood, family, regional and clan loyalties, including patronage relations, have helped to sustain informal networks of support in the context of a difficult transition and meagre social welfare. On the other side, these traditional forms of solidarity have undermined the civil society participation and trust in state institutions.

Therefore, the bottom-up approach designed by the LA and the selection of projects were highly appropriate to overcome this shortcoming of the Albanian society. The projects were initiated by members of the community or CSO that had close ties with the community involved in the project. Further, the projects were focused on highly tangible issues or problems for the community. Last, these were relatively small projects that usually generated change and achieved success in a short period of time. Due to these characteristics, the projects were embraced relatively easy by the communities compared to large projects run from the capital and following the top-down approach. This local social capital can be used in the future to generate and build further the social capital at the national level.

Second, the support by LA was focused on independent mostly local CSOs. These CSOs constitute the genuine civil society that acts independently of the political parties, providing honest and unbiased check to power. The support of LA seems to have been directed to the CSOs of the third group underpinning their existence and activity. Further, the selected projects aimed the common good of the communities irrespective of the political forces that controlled the local government. All these increased the chance of success and attracted across-the-board support from the local communities.

Third, the LA approach and role, should not be assessed only on the results of the projects related to their goals. In a broader sense, the projects supported by the LA, were proper schools of collective action and civic engagement for the initiators, the coordinating and monitoring groups, for every person that participated in the projects, and lastly for the entire community. Capacity to identify issues, formulate goals, create engagement, etc, will come handy to these individuals and CSOs in their future activities, independently if these activities would be framed as part of the project supported by foreign donors.

Forth, the self-assessment(s) of the LA and its supported projects, such as this one, have helped to analyse the successes of the projects, their difficulties and obstacles. These self-assessments would help both LA and its grantees in the future improving the toolbox of advocacy and increasing the chances of success.

Despite the difficulties and obstacles encountered during the implementation process, the LA programmes have resulted in shifting various concepts and work processes. In the description below the results are classified in five different categories. However, in real life, these categories are usually enmeshed together.

Shift in definition (framing of issues)

The study shows that all the projects run with the LA support achieved a shift in definition. In fact, a shift in definition is a precondition for all the other changes that can be brought from the LA supported activities. This shift of definition happened first to the members of the community that were involved. It included broadening their perspectives, raising awareness on their rights or the rightness of their cause, the importance of the issue, and the possible ways and means to resolve the issue.

A considerably amount of time and efforts were dedicated to other important shifts of definition:

• convincing the local communities on the benefit and necessity to participate in the democratic process;
• convincing the local communities to believe on the success of their participation in the democratic process.

At the second step, this shift of definition was transferred through various means such as petitions, meetings, protests, newspaper articles, video clips, etc, was transferred to the local public administration.

Many municipalities were aware of their obligations and the relevant legislation, such as their legal obligation on the transparency of the decision-making processes, etc. However, these obligations were not respected due to administrative inertia or the false belief that public was incompetent or indifferent to local policies.

LA’s local networking and dialogue helped to build a joint understanding between the residents (community) and the local government institutions on the issues and to agree on a common approach to resolve these issues.

Shift in behaviour (behaviour of stakeholders)

The shift in definition goes hand in hand with the shift in behaviour. If we define the shift in behaviour as ability to deliberate on a particular issue, then it is clear that a shift in definition cannot happen with a shift in behaviour. The ideas are formulated, and the people are influenced and mobilised only through deliberation.

In this respect, the LA interventions significantly influenced a shift in behaviour. LA programme helped the broad public and primary stakeholders to be able to speak more openly about the addressed issues.

Namely, the project “Citizen legislative initiative for changes to the Electoral Code to allow open list for the election of Municipal Councils” was implemented through a wide consultation process which included several open meetings aiming to discuss and draft a set of amendments to the Electoral Code.

Overall, all the projects organised one or another form of discussion within the group of initiators or the implementation/ monitoring group. Several projects used door to door visits in order to contact their local residents. The most advanced form of deliberation were the public forums (organised as town hall meetings) with the candidates in the local and national elections. Media coverage was another powerful form of a shift in behaviour, which was used successfully by the projects.

All these forms of deliberation help to improve the understanding among local stakeholders regarding the issues, priorities, and their effective solutions.

Shift in engagement (concrete actions)

The shift in engagement can be successful only after a certain build-up of shifts in definition and behaviour. Otherwise, the shift in engagement would be purely cosmetic without any impact on policies and practices. True shifts in engagement require participation, action by the stakeholders, dedicated to achieving their goals.

The shift in engagement has taken many different forms depending on the theme and goal of the project. LA has succeeded in generating significant concrete steps taken to address the relevant issues. Establishment of Forum of Transparency, Working Groups, initiation of legal battles against harmful business projects (such as the slaughterhouse and HPPs), appointment of the Coordinator for Transparency, drafting of legal amendments to the Electoral Code, creation of a national digital platform (www.vullnetarizmi.al), collecting of 20,000 signatures of citizens with voting right, are all clear and real performance indicators that show growth and success of the scope that LevizAlbania has conveyed since 2015.

Shift in policy.

The interventions that were carried out aimed mostly to set goals in accordance with the current legal and policy framework. As such, they were trying to utilise the possibilities offered by the current legislation rather than change this framework.

To a certain degree, the project in Vlora on residential administrators resulted in a policy change with the Order of Minister of Finance and Economy on opening of a vocational training course for building administrators.

In addition, the projects of cluster B are preparing policy changes, although these changes will happen in the future.

A quick analysis of actors involved in cluster B interventions, shows that they there are consolidated CSOs that possess substantial expertise and resources. On the contrary, actors involved in cluster A interventions operate mostly at the tactical level than a strategic one.

Shift in practise (concrete improvements)

During its implementation, LA programme has had a fundamental influence on supporting the local actors to organise, build resources and carry out their activities, resulting in an active civic environment at the local level.

Further, the interventions have generated tangible results for the local communities. The results vary again due to the theme and goal of the project, ranging from better understanding of processes to more information, to fulfilment of priorities set by citizens, etc. Many municipalities have addressed electoral promises by achieving concrete results, others have reached to publish their decisions in the national data base www.vendime.al as well as in their websites.

The interventions on the cases such as the slaughterhouse and HPPs have required a considerably time to generate the required impact, namely those achieved through court decisions, due to the length of judicial proceedings. The length of judicial proceedings has really tested the stamina of civic actors involved. However, at the end, these two interventions have resulted in positive changes in the environment, culture, economy, and public well-being.

6. Findings

Notes have been collected and organised for the analysis of the relevant achievements and impacts that have been identified through the years.

The main findings after analysing the different reports and interviewing all the grantees can be summarised as below:

• The citizens are not satisfied with the level of addressing of their problems by their local administrations. They complain mostly not on the legislation, but rather on its implementation;
• The local government units show indifference to the needs and demands of the community. The activity of the local government units is mostly reactive. They implement few, if any, pro-active methodologies/ systematic activities aiming to identify the needs of the community, especially in the remote areas;
• The engagement of citizens in the democratic processes remains relatively moderate. The citizens are sceptical to the benefits and chances of success through participation in the democratic process;
• The mentality of young people has changed which is very promising for the future. A proactive approach of young people in seeking their rights has been noticed;
• The inclusion of vulnerable groups in democratic processes is an innovation. Nevertheless, their participation in grassroot actions is hampered by weak group coordination and insufficient capacities;
• The LA programme has played a crucial role in enabling an effective civic environment and providing support to the local actors to carry out their interventions;
• The results of the interventions were perceived by the local public as valuable and successful;
• Most of the achieved results are continuous, sustainable and irreversible;
• Media has played a pro-active role in reflecting realistically the efforts, challenges and achievements of the grantees, stakeholders and beneficiaries;
• Overall, the interventions have increased transparency and good and responsible governance;
• As a result of successfully completed cases, the public perception on the transparency and decision-making processes from the LG has grown;
• A closer and more direct connection between the community and the local government has been established;
• In the supported cities/villages there is an increase in the community's belief that justice exists;

7. Conclusions and recommendations

Although, the decentralization reform was a major achievement, several factors, notably the lack of sufficient capacities and own resources are impeding the local government units from designing and implementing fully autonomous and efficient policies. Therefore, increased, and sustainable pressure from civil society organizations, continuously supported by LA, was necessary in order to fight the apathy of the local government units and improve their overall performance. Local government units should be induced to become more accountable to the citizens and to create the institutional mechanisms to properly address the citizens’ problems and requests.

The issues generated from the lack of resources and weak capacities are generally more pronounced in the small/ remote municipalities. High emigration rates, poor local economy, lack of attention from the national media, etc., exacerbate their issues. Therefore, additional attention should be paid to applications coming from local activists/ CSOs in these “small/ poor” municipalities (probably even in the form of dedicated calls for applications).

The projects supported by the LA do not cover the entire territory of Albania. However, it is necessary to try to develop projects in unsupported cities/villages/areas with the aim of reaching the same level of development and awareness of the community as in the supported cities/villages/areas.

The legal framework has been improved in the last years. This legal framework includes the right of information, obligation of public consultation, etc., providing increased opportunities that can and should be used by the citizens and CSOs. Therefore, trainings, assistance, and good examples (show cases) should be provided to CSOs in order to recognize the legal possibilities and how to employ these in order to achieve their goals.

The participation of citizens in the democratic processes through ad hoc pressure groups or established (permanent) CSOs independent from the political parties remains moderate. Therefore, continuous support should be given to community activists and CSOs in order to provide an additional channel for the citizens to influence decision-making at the local level. This will strengthen and promote democracy first at the local/regional level and having a spill-over effect at the national level.

Each community seems to have its own specific combination of issues, concerns, and interests. One may add into the mix also the specific capacities and interests of local activists. Therefore, the LA should continue to base its activity on demand-driven projects that come from activists/ CSOs. The issue and goals should as much as possible be defined by the applicant, while the LA should provide the toolbox and means to achieve the goals.

Particular attention should be paid to gender mainstreaming and inclusion of vulnerable groups in all the interventions supported by the LA. Projects related to environmental justice should be encouraged as well. There is no doubt that there are other energy or transport projects that do not take into consideration the interests of the local communities.

Implementation of “Value-added Support Service” has created opportunities for citizens and communities for further strengthening and promoting democracy at the local and regional level.

The association of municipalities and the Agency for the Support of Local Self-Governance should be engaged in order to spread the best experiences related to strengthening of civic participation, etc.

In the last seven years, the enabling environment for civil society has increasingly and considerably improved. The LA has contributed positively to this respect and its support provided to CSOs seems fit to the purpose. Overall, the LA has succeeded in generating significant interest from key stakeholders across communities. Some of the main concrete achieved result are: increased transparency in local governance (mainly on a local level) through dissemination and sharing of data for CSOs, citizens and other interested stakeholders, improved dialogue between stakeholders and finally improved decision-making practices and rule of law. Important cases in the areas of consumer protection, health care, housing and environmental degradation were properly addressed and successfully resolved. The communities have appreciated the results achieved by the projects supported by the LA.

Prepared by: Anila Shehi (Dollani)

[1] https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N07/464/19/PDF/N0746419.pdf?OpenElement

[2] https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/democracy

[3] https://www.idrainstitute.org/files/star2/Local%20Governance%20Mapping%20in%20Albania.pdf

[4] https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/60797/st15935-en22.pdf

[5] Annual Narrative Report 2015-2016, LevizAlbania

[6] https://www.levizalbania.al/en/initiatives-supported/thirrja-per-aplikime-8/metamorfoza-e-lumit-ishem-itinerari-i-se-nesermes

[7] Evaluation Report 2 Nd Call for Applications Projects, Annex 4 to the Interim Report, LëvizAlbania, February 2018

[8] https://www.infocip.org/al/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/monitorimi-special-publikii-i-vendimeve.pdf

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvx4kN_MfBY

[10] Semi-annual Report July 1^st – December 31^st, 2021, Annex 5, “Vlora gives green light to the administrators of residential buildings; the civil society wins its cause”, Jerola Ziaj.

[11] Annual Report July 1^st, 2020 – June 30^th, 2021, LevizAlbania

[12] https://klinikateligjit.al/banoret-e-laknasit-mundin-thertoren/

[13] https://cle.al/en/opposition-to-the-construction-of-a-slaughterhouse-in-the-laknas-forest/

[14] Operational/Financial Annual Report July 1^st, 2020 – June 30^th 2021;

[15] Annual Report July 2021 - June 2022, Annex 5. Advocacy for legal changes for a more enabling environment for volunteering

[16] https://www.levizalbania.al/media/files/2022/02/10/Semi-Annual_Report_LA_July-Dec_2021_for_publication_to_LA_web_page.pdf)

[17] Annual Report July 2021 - June 2022, Annex 4- Citizen legislative initiative for the voting of municipal councillors with open lists, LevizAlbania

[18] https://insiz.org/fazat-e-projektit/

[19]             https://bti-project.org/en/reports/country-report/ALB