"INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT TO THE COUNTRIES OF SOUTH EASTERN EUROPE"

Phase B
4th Workshop
Athens, 9th - 15th November 2003

Albania
By: Engejell Skreli
      Rezarta Abdiu

Report of Albania on Civil Society in South Eastern Europe

Legal framework
Nowadays, the NGO sector in Albania bears more than 11 years of experience. During these years this sector has indeed increased in figures and expanded in activities, increasing the offered services.
Initially the legal basis of NGO activities was regulated by the Civil Code of November 1st, 1994. The legal framework adopted in May 2001, consists of three laws: "Amendments to the Civil Code of Albania", "On the Registration of non profit organizations", "On Nongovernmental organizations".
Law no. 8788 regulates issues concerning the right to fund NGOs, their independence, their rights and obligations, their foundation and registration, their organization and functioning, international non profit organizations, their financing, and the merging and interruption of their activity.
Regarding the role of the civil society, article 46 of the Constitution guarantees the right of citizens to be organized for whatever lawful intention. In the same manner, the Civil Code regulates a part of the NGOs activity concerning their rights and obligations, unless otherwise stipulated in law no. 8788.
The law on NGOs, through other laws and procedures, provides for the registration of NGOs at courts and the depositing of their acts in the respective register, and other rules for the public procurement of funds.
Law no. 8789 regulates the court's jurisdiction for the registration of NGOs, the manner and the content of the register and the procedures for their registration and publication of decisions.
NGOs are funded through membership fees, funds, grants and donations by private or public subjects, international or domestic, revenues from an economic activity, and real estate of the organization's itself.
The law "On NGOs" regulates that these organizations may make expenditures to achieve the aims and the intent for which they have been founded and also to manage their property.
The law prohibits the distribution of financial or material profit, except in cases where obligations such as wages, payments, remuneration, and compensation arise due to employment contracts or other contracts. The organizations, in these cases, may give financial aid to their members, personnel or other subjects.
The law regulates that NGOs have the right to carry out economic activities in pursuing the achievement of their objectives and activities without establishing another subject. It must be noted that the economic activity is a source of revenue and does not make up the sole purpose of the organization.
Additionally, NGOs have the right to carry out activities in order to collect funds that will be used to accomplish the aims and objectives of their activity or to support the aims and objectives of other non profit organizations. The regulations for the collection of funds are stipulated in a separate law. Therefore, the law "ON NGOs" allows volunteerism in the framework of these organizations.
The legal framework on the organization and functioning of the notary public is regulated by article 29 of law no 7829, dated 1.6.1994, "On the Notary Public". This law regulates the following issues:

a. Rights of exercising the profession
b. Rights and obligations of the notary public
c. Financing of the notary activity
d. Organizational of notaries
e. Activity of notary public offices
f. Notary acts and activities

The law guarantees the right to exercise the profession of the notary public. According to this law, notaries are organized at a local and national level through representation in Chambers of Notaries Public, which are juridical subjects.
The Ministry of Justice determines a tariff to carry out notary acts and activities, after considering the suggestions of the Ministry of Finance and the National Notary Council. The law stipulates that the Council of Ministers, if appropriate, may liberalize these tariffs.
Notaries are organized at a district and national level, through professional representation in Chambers of Notaries. The competence of the general assembly of the Chamber of Notaries are stipulated in this law and in the Chamber's status. The competence of the general assembly and the approval of the Chamber's budget and annual results, determine the quotas that the notaries public pays to the Chamber's account.
Law no. 7827, dated 31.5.1994, regulates the profession of the attorney. This law regulates:

a. The right to exercise the profession
b. Attorney's rights and obligations
c. Attorney's professional organization
d. Remuneration
e. Disciplinary measures

The law guarantees that the profession of the attorney may be exercised as a free and independent profession. According to this law, attorneys are organized into Chambers of Attorneys and the National Chamber of Attorneys, which are juridical subjects.
The Chamber's competences determine each member's regular contribution to the chamber and the approval and administration of its budget; to examine complaints against disciplinary measures given by the Chambers of Attorneys; to design and endorse the Attorneys' Code of Ethics; to grant and revoke the license to exercise the profession of the attorney when conditions determined by this law have been met.
The development, consolidation, and further strengthening of self-organizing structures, of professional independence and ethical integration of the professions of the attorney, notary public, and legal translator are directly related to the quality of the legal and judiciary reform in the Republic of Albania.
The Ministry of Justice is cooperating with the National Chamber of Attorneys, with the direct assistance of the experts of the Council of Europe, aiming at the further improvement of the legal framework regarding the exercise of the profession. The drafting of the new law "On Attorneys", which is currently deposited at the Parliament for enactment, aims at the regulation in a more detailed way and the formulation of the Albanian legislation concerning matters of juridical assistance and legal services in the Republic of Albania in compliance with European and international standards, based on principles determined in the Universal Declaration "On the Independence of Attorneys."
Additionally, the establishment of mechanisms to assist chambers of attorneys regarding self-organization and disciplining, training of attorneys, and the promotion of relations of Albanian attorneys to the counterpart European network is of special importance.
Taking into account the importance of the profession of the Notary public in the Albanian judiciary, the professional awareness and the consolidation of legal capacities of the National Chamber of Notaries, the Ministry of Justice has invested towards the improvement of Chambers' self-organization and disciplining, the improvement of transparency in their daily activity, the organization of seminars and training programs. Currently, the draft law on amendments and additions to the Law "On Notary Public" is being examined by the Parliament.
The trade unions of employers or employees are independent and voluntary professional organizations. Their foundation, activities and dissolving are foreseen in the Albanian Labour Code art.176-187 and aim at representing and protecting the economic, professional and social rights and interests of their members.
The trade unions and employer organizations have the right to be joined in federations or confederations, or can be a member in one of those. Each of the above organizations has the right to be a member of international professional organizations.
According to the Labour Code, professional organizations need to form a detailed status. The organizational status has to be presented in Court. In case of being in conformity with the law, the organization will be considered and registered as a Juridical Person after 60 days. The law doesn't permit two or more organizations with the same name. Each organization recognized by the court must deposit the original copy of the status at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Each organization has to develop their activities according to Albanian legislation provisions.
Professional organizations can complain in Court in case of their members being prejudiced or the employer not respecting the law and individual or collective labour contracts.
The financial 'sources' of professional organizations are membership fees, donations, and incomes from economic, cultural and social activities. These incomes are not subject to tax as far as the fiscal law previews.
Any intervention act by state's bodies, employers or employer's organization to the foundation, functioning and administration of a trade union is forbidden, except when trade union activities are against the law.
Dissolve procedures are foreseen in organizational status. If the activities are apparently against the law, the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, any interested body stipulated by law or the court can decide to dissolve the organization.
The Chambers of Commerce and Industry are institutions of public right and are not intended for profit. They are established and exercise their activities in all regions of Albania according to law No. 7804, dated 10.03.1994, "On the Chamber of Commerce and Industry".
The Chambers' main objective is to represent the business community in their relationship with the government, and to support and protect its legal interests. They play a stimulating role in the development of trade and industry in their circles, in accordance with economic interests of their members and state laws.
Pursuant to the law "On the Chamber of Commerce and Industry", membership in this Chamber is mandatory for all traders registered in the Trade Register and for all Commercial Companies established and registered in accordance with law No. 7638, dated 19.11.1992, "On Commercial Companies" and law No. 7667, dated 28.01.1993, "On the Trade Register and formalities to be observed by Commercial Companies".
Through the services of Chamber of Commerce the members profit:

- Free of Charge: business information, business and legal consultation, seminar participation, professional training, the newsletter, different publications, and others.
- With reduced tariffs: participation in business missions out of country, fairs, exhibitions, consular services for their movement out of country, and others.
- Executive services: membership certificate, non-preferential certificate for origin of Albanian goods, ATA Carnets- international documents that allow temporary admission without customs duty for goods and equipment for demonstration and utilization in international fairs and exhibitions.

The Governing Bodies of Chambers of Commerce and Industry are:

- The Representative Assembly and its President, who are elected by member businessmen.
- The Board of the Chamber and its Chair are elected by the Assembly.
- The General Secretary is nominated by the supervisory body.
In its daily activity, the Chamber is led by the Board and the Chairperson, whereas according to the provisions of the law, the Chamber is represented by the Chairperson and General Secretary in all juridical acts.
At the national level, the Chambers are represented by the Union of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, which is established in accordance to the law "On Chambers of Commerce and Industry"; its headquarters are in Tirana.

The Union of Chambers protects the interests of trade and industry businessmen in the country, represents the business community in its relationship with the government, makes concrete proposals to the central administration to stimulate trade and industry, coordinates the Chambers' work in all regions and their relationship with counterpart Chambers in other countries.
The Governing Bodies of Union of Chambers are the same as the Chambers'.
According to the law "On the Chambers of Commerce and Industry", the Ministry that covers trade is the supervisory body of the Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The supervision is carried out through the Chamber's General Secretary, who is appointed by the Ministry of Economy, and extends to the Chambers' compliance to the law in all its activities and the decisions that are taken by its General Assembly.
The development of private business has increased the role of Chambers in the main regions of the country and has made the amendment of law "On Chambers of Commerce and Industry indispensable". In this framework, a new draft-law on Chambers has been endorsed by the Council of Ministers, which is currently being discussed in respective Commissions of the Assembly.
In addition to the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, many other organizations are established in Albania, representing different business categories. The most important are:

- Institute of Authorized Experts on Accountancy (IAEA)
- National Chamber of Notary
- National Chamber of Attorney
- Order of Medical Doctors of Albania
- Association of Albanian Pharmacists etc.

The establishment of the above professional organizations has been done in compliance with specific laws. Membership in such professional organizations is compulsory prior to any individual or company's becoming licensed as a professional operator.
Their revenues are secured through membership fees, registration fees, and the support of different donors.
There are other professional organizations where membership is not compulsory:

- Union of Industrialists and Investors in Albania.
- Council of Albanian Agro-Business
- Italian Entrepreneur Associations in Albania
- American Trade Chamber
- Foreign Investors Association in Albania
- Albanian Constructors Association
- Albanian Bank Association
- Professional and Business women's Association
- Turkish Businessmen Association in Albania etc.

These associations are established with specific businesspeople's initiative, industrialists, and domestic and foreign investor groups, who carry out their business in the Albanian sectors of trade, manufacture, agro-industry, construction, agriculture, fishery, processing.
The each association's objective is to protect, promote, and develop the interests of the respective entrepreneur communities in Albania and their foreign member companies. They secure information service and network cooperation for their members.
To support their members' interests, the associations develop dialogue with public administration, other state institutions, and international institutions that operate in Albania. They are consultative bodies that contribute in the development of institutional activities for ministries and international organizations.
The associations are governed by their boards, which determine the association's organization structure. Their revenues are secured through membership fees, various services for members, and the support of different foreign projects.
The trade unions are independent from political parties. Their leaders do not adhere in any political activity. The unions do not act under political pressure, but according to their statutes and the labour legislation. The main activity of trade unions is the improvement of working conditions, wages, pensions, and the implementation of the labour law.
The union actually ensures financial viability from the administration of its properties, which have been legally given to them. Unions manage these properties in order to collect the benefits and use them for union activities or anything else related to their members.
The unions organize their training activities and have a very beneficial cooperation with international trade unions.
Trade Union leaders are the most qualified individuals of the unions. They participate in any important training activity related to social dialogue or discussion on labour legislation or negotiation for collective bargaining.

Statistics on Civil society
Nowadays, a great number of NGO-s are present in Albania. Only the District Court of Tirana can register NGOs, according to Law "On the registration of NGO-s". The statistics of The Ministry of Labour and The Social Ministry indicate that approximately 700 NGOs operate in the field of social affairs, culture, education, research institutions, economical, agriculture and environment. According to the statistics, approximately 1000 organizations operate in all areas in Albania, but some of those are not very active and most of them do not have a permanent activity.
The difficulty in determining the expansion and the density of the NGO-s sector, due to the lack of a central unit, which would collect and deliver all the necessary information on the NGO-s sector is yet to be faced. The changes in the registration procedures recently, have affected as well the difficulty in determining the number of NGO-s in Albania. Before 1994 the registration of NGO-s was under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice and each ministry covered respectively the sector of NGO-s. According to the Civil Code of 1994, the responsibility of the registration passed to the first instance courts in the districts on the NGO-s being under their jurisdiction. Presently, according to the law on NGO-s adopted in May 2001, the registration of NGO-s is under the responsibility of the Tirana district court.
The problem of recording the number of NGO-s in Albania has been a broadly discussed in several publications. The type of the registration the NGO-s have chosen in each sector is ideed very interesting. Thus, business NGO-s have preferred to register more as foundations and less as associations. In other sectors, the majority of the organizations are registered as associations. Within this group the sector of democracy, has more foundations, succeeded by the sector of social/health services, women and youth. Environment organizations are all registered as associations.
According to a broad definition of civil society, Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) and trade unions are an important part of the civil society in Albania.
The system of CCI is represented by 36 chambers, one per each district. Every registered Albanian company is required by law to become a member of CCI. Actually, the Albanian companies are only partially members of CCI
The main Trade Unions in Albania are Confederations of Trade Unions of Albania and Unions of Independent Trade Unions. According to the Confederation of Trade Unions of Albania, in 2001, 95,348 was the number of members. According to the Union of Independent Trade Unions of Albania, the membership participation is approximately 87,000.
In the beginning, NGO capacities, information, and donors were located in Tirana. National organizations were established, which linked their branches in other cities. Even though this issue has been addressed, and long-term training and information programs are being provided, much effort needs to be undertaken.

Attitude of Albanian NGOs: Pan-American or Pan-European?
For the sake of truth, there is an American support to the NGO sector in Albania. The two movements: Albanian Coalition Against Corruption (ACAC) and the movement Enough (Mjaft) are mainly supported by USA funds. On the other hand, USAID if funding large NGOs like the Albanian Centre for International Trade (ACIT) and a number of other projects intended to improve government and fight against corruption. Actually, the NGOs associated with these movements and those supported by US government, and SOROS Foundation sources are doing more think tank work and are developing a pan-American attitude. Again, the think tank type of activities is still limited.
On the other hand, the fact that the NGOs that grow are those that are working on a subsidiary basis has to be highlighted. It seems that this logic pattern is close to the one of EU. In fact, it is partially true. A number of NGOs are carrying out government contracts in terms of different studies and other type of government required services. But, the most lucrative activity is working as local partners of large foreign companies, mainly consultancy companies. Based on that it is hard to say whether or not Albanian NGOs are developing a pan-European attitude.
Even though working on government and foreign private consultancy companies represents lucrative activities for NGOs, there is a growing risk of neglecting think tank type of work which is desperately needed in Albania. Actually, a number of companies are considering converting from NGOs into limited liability companies.

Main directions of public sector reform
Three main frameworks are supposed to shape public actions in the years to come: Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) - an instrumental tool of the Stabilization and Association process, aiming at bringing Albania closer to the European Union, National Strategy for Socio-Economic Development (NSSED) - a medium term strategy focusing on poverty reduction, and Millennium Development Goals (MDG) - a political agenda intended to reduce poverty in the long run.
Based on the three frameworks, the main directions of public sector reform are the following (i) improving democracy and rule of law, (ii) building a functioning market economy, and (iii) improving the performance of public administration. The three main directions reflect the three EU accession Copenhagen criteria (political, economic, and administrative: the aquis). In addition to above mentioned criteria, special emphasis is put on poverty reduction and on reforming the social sectors (see paragraph 3), since poverty (multidimensional) represents a problem for Albania.

Civil society and public sector reform
The Albanian NGO-s started to offer services to the community and their supporters only during 1999 and afterwards. This change was due to the Kosovo emergency. The Albanian NGO-s were supported by donors aiming to offer to their community. During the last 4 years NGO-s are directed towards projects offering services, while they are aware of the fact that they need training and technical assistance in this field. Even though now the NGO-s offer more services, generally they have gaps in the institutional capacity to fully implement those services, as well as in skills to answer to the community needs and to include them in their activities.
NGOs have been actively involved in the drafting of the National Strategy for Socio-Economic Development, EU integration Strategy and a number of reports regarding the Millennium Development Goals.
Government's institutions are aware of NGOs work and contribution in certain fields; their efforts to represent groups, suggestions in decision-making process, preparing recommendations for governmental bodies and cooperating to elaborate and implement different policies. A very important element of partnership is NGOs work on monitoring the implementation of the legal framework. As a result of pressure by the civil society, government initiatives to undertake the necessary actions for protecting different groups in need have increased. The participation in the decision-making process is another responsibility of the civil society, which is mainly carried out through managing social debate and transmitting needs and priorities in concretely formulated recommendations in decision making-processes and in the drafting of specific policies. Pressuring for issues such as human rights has produced concrete results regarding the improvement of the legal framework, and in the changing of mindsets and concepts.
The Albanian Government initiatives to support the development of civil society consist in preparing and implementing the legal framework, and supporting NGOs in different fields; in social, human rights, professional training, environment protection, and agriculture fields etc. Albanian Government appreciates NGOs contribution and offers fiscal and customs facilities for their activity. Realizing the fact that in the fight against corruption everybody has to play a role, involvement of the civil society was seen as very important. As such, the Anti Corruption Monitoring Group (an anti corruption governmental structure) was strengthened by including full membership representatives of the civil society and the business community in its Board. The Albanian Coalition Against Corruption (civil society) includes more than 150 NGO-s and has a number of activities on the fight against corruption, funded by MSI/USAID. In this frame, the office of the Minister of State to the Prime Minister, and the Anti Corruption Unit have close cooperation and joint activities with this structure, resulting in very good results, recommendations and awareness rising.

Main directions of social policy reform
National Strategy for Socio-Economic Development (NSSED) focuses on poverty reduction and social sector reform, namely health, education and housing.
The poverty reduction implies (i) increasing opportunities for the poor, through stimulating inclusive growth, and increasing the access of the poor to education, health and basic infrastructure, (ii) strengthening the voice of the poor reforming the institutions in order for the poor to participate in the decision making process, and (iii) enhancing the security for the poor, through reforming the program of economic assistance, social care, employment promotion, and building social capital.
The reform of the health sector entails: (i) increasing the effectiveness (improving health indicators) and efficiency of resources, through decentralization and privatization of health services, improvement of programming and M&E, and fighting against corruption.
The reform in the education sector implies: increasing the effectiveness (increased attendance in primary and secondary and vocational education, and increased teaching quality) and efficiency, through decentralization of decision-making, motivation of innovative initiatives making use of special funds, and training. Special programs will be designed to support education for poor families.
The reform in the housing sector entails: (i) reduction - and progressive retiring - of government funding towards the housing sector making use of government low cost (or no cost) instruments, such as low cost construction technologies, soft credits, mobilization of private savings, support community savings, support and credit for joint ownership associations, etc., (ii) decentralization of housing responsibilities to local power, (iii) effective use of subsidies targeting the most needy, and (iv) better management and maintenance of private dwellings.

Civil society and Social policy reform
Civil society is a very active government partner in designing and implementing social policies. The role of the civil society has been very active in - at least - three main directions: (i) in preparing and monitoring the NSSED, (ii) in preparing a number of social related strategies, and (iii) in delivering better social services.
Albanian Civil Society has been an integral part of the institutional set-up of the NSSED. The main function of NGOs involved in NSSED preparation was the one of facilitator of the whole process. A large number of consultations, namely with the poor, communities, local power, and business community used to be facilitated by the NGOs. Civil society is also involved in the monitoring process.
The NGO sector has been very active in preparing social related strategies. NGOs have been active in preparing the Strategy on Children, the Strategy of Social Services, and National Strategy of Fight against Trafficking of Human Beings. In association with a group of associations of people with limited abilities, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs will co-chair the governmental group to prepare a National Strategy on limited abilities. On the other hand, NGOs have also a very important role on implementation of these strategies.
A very important role of the NGO sector with respect to social policies had to do with improving the delivery of social services. The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is (has been) working with around 150 NGOs to identify the needs in order to deliver better social services.
Voluntarism is a characteristic of some categories of NGO-s in Albania. Not all the work being done is awarded. The organization of community, schools, and students, doing voluntary work has been very successful, which was apparent during the 1998-1999 crisis of the displacement of Kosovo people. The commitment of the Government, civil society, and community alleviated the situation until the refugees return to Kosovo.

NGO challenges
Networking and partnership among national NGOs
The Albanian NGO sector is represented by little organizations; the majority of them are represented by a 'one man show'. Therefore, networking and partnership could be an efficient way of escaping the insufficiency of resources and isolation.
In principle, there is a limited culture of networking and partnership among national NGOs in Albania. The most common kind of partnership is getting together to form a consortium when it comes to competing to win tenders. This means that partnership is more an ad hoc and tactics than a permanent and strategic way of getting stronger.
That said, there at least two large coalitions of NGOs: The Albanian Coalition Against Corruption (ACAC) and the movement Enough (Mjaft). It is important to note however that the two mentioned coalitions are more kind of movements than partnerships.
The Albanian NGO-s work together in order to achieve their goals, organizing at least once joint activities with one or more other NGO-s. the cooperation ways are: exchange of information, participation in each others activities, coalitions, giving and receiving assistance through using supplies, offices and training for personnel, fund raising through umbrella units, joint answers to the donor requests, etc.
An identified difficulty is "the unfair delivery of work and responsibilities" which resulted in the non-official agreements before the cooperation even really started. The financial management and reporting was identified as well as problems or difficulties in the cooperation based on financial means. One of the concerns affecting this problem is the lack of transparency among partners, which is not characteristic only for the cooperation based on financial means.
The cooperation of the NGO-s with the State is considered as usual and necessary. They recognize the role of the state in their activities as an important partner due to the facilitating role, which it plays with the community (e.g. reference letters, increase of confidence, etc.).
The methods of cooperation with the state are similar to those with other NGO-s including: exchange of information, experience and joint projects. Some NGO-s are regularly invited to meetings to assist the state in different issues. Like the NGO - NGO cooperation, sometimes, the NGO - State cooperation is a must on some funds and donors. In the majority of the examples of the NGO - state cooperation, the state is in the donor's position. The financial support is given by the state in different ways. Several times state finances are directly part of the activity or projects and other times the State assists through giving offices, conference rooms, supplies, etc free of charge. Some NGO-s were contacted by the state in order to train their personnel, on strategy development, project implementation, etc. Even though the cooperation with the state is difficult to some extent, nevertheless this difficulty is manageable.
With regard to the NGO-s long - term and short - term position and their role in society, as well as their development strategies, the Albanian NGO-s use short - term plans that work. They feel it is very difficult for them to develop long - term plans because their work is based on individual projects, initiatives and donors funds.
At the same time not all NGO-s have systems and official procedures, and the old organizations have better procedures (democracy, women and business).

Other challenges
The activity of NGOs is based mainly in the accomplishment of the projects sponsored by local and international donors. One of NGOs greatest difficulties is the lack of sponsorship and the lack of services. Currently, most funds come from international donors but the NGOs risk becoming dependent on donor programs. NGOs must enter into the relationship with local power structures, business and other internal resources to secure their financial viability.
Independently of the fact that the level of funds has increased, they have mostly been funded by donors. It is interesting to add that the associations have received more funds while the annual budget of the foundations has decreased in 2001.

Development NGOs and humanitarian crises
There are a number of international NGO-s working in Albania, such as: Red Cross, Save the Children, SOROS foundation, Caritas, Medecins sans Frontieres, Oxfam, etc. They are working on a permanent basis, but their activity intensity increases in case of emergencies: wars, and natural disasters situations.
During the Kosovo crisis a lot of NGOs development activity was observed in terms of feeding the Albanian market with food and other first necessity products in response to Kosovo people flooding Albania. Surprisingly, the imports carried out by development NGOs did not cause any large damage to Albanian producers. (The analysis of cause and effect relationships of this case are beyond the scope of this report)

Ideas for raising awareness of international community on poverty problems
Making use of Millennium development Goals (MDG-s), a political agenda agreed upon by heads of states and governments, an agenda focussing on poverty reduction in the long run could be helpful in sensitizing the donor community. There is now a broad consensus that poor countries have little chances to escape the poverty trap without donor assistance. In this context, costing the attainment of MDG-s (halving the number of poor people, achieving universally primary education, substantially reducing child and maternal mortality, etc.) could prove appropriate in making donor community aware on the magnitude of resources required to reduce poverty in poor countries. According to a study carried out recently in Albania, foreign resource requirement (public and private) to meet MDG-s in Albania amounts to some 20 billion US$.
It happens that sometimes, developed countries, and the donor community are at the origin of poverty problems. Let us use three examples: trade regime, knowledge management and financial architecture. As far as the trade regime is concerned, it should be recognized that a lot remains to be done on the side of developed countries to reduce tariff and non tariff barriers to trade and to phase out more than US $ 300 billions a year they spend currently on agricultural subsidies. International arrangements for knowledge management are designed to reward the creators of new technologies; it is an important function, but it comes at the expense of the widest possible dissemination of knowledge and its application to development. Financial architecture is also designed to favour developed countries. Developing countries hold some US $ 540 billion in currency reserve in bank accounts in order to guarantee their currency without investing in their development. In summary, it is important to understand that foreign official assistance need would be much less if international rules (trade, knowledge management and financial) were fairer.

References
1. Government of Albania, 2001, National Strategy for Socio-Economic Development,
2. Skreli, E., 2003, Millennium Development Goals, National Strategy for Socio-Economic Development, and Stabilization and Association Agreement
3. UN, 2003, Global Public Goods: A key to Achieving the Millennium Development Goals
4. Republic of Albania, 2003, Social Services: Mid Term Country Strategy
5. Partners Albania, march 2002, Evaluation of NGO Needs, National Report