The government of Albania is making strides in institutional reform to improve public services and boost human and economic development. Under its National Strategy for Development and European Integration (2022-2030), the country aims to enhance public sector efficiency, focusing on digital services, human development, and local government modernization.
The World Bank has committed $145 million through a Program for Results (PforR) titled "Improving Equitable Access to High Standard Public Services through GovTech." This initiative seeks to improve access to public services by integrating digital technologies with public administration reforms. The program targets four main areas: enhancing digital service usage and quality, improving human capital, strengthening institutional frameworks, and modernizing local government services.
By 2025, the e-Albania portal's service applications increased by 40%, with expectations of a further rise in digitally enabled service usage by 2029. Additionally, new service standards were introduced to enhance quality. By 2029, it is anticipated that service delivery time will reduce by 20% and user satisfaction will reach 90%.
In education, 216 Education SmartLabs have been established to aid primary school students in developing digital skills. Five Youth Innovation Centers are set to open by 2025 to equip young people with market-relevant skills. These efforts are expected to benefit approximately 35,000 students and train around 4,000 youths for the digital economy job market.
At the local level, significant progress has been made towards digitizing government services. Critical services have been identified for improvement, readiness assessments conducted on local governments' digital capabilities, and an inter-institutional working group established.
By the program's conclusion in 2029, enhancements from e-Albania 2.0 aim to benefit three million users by re-engineering priority services for improved user experience and upgrading local governments' digital infrastructure.
"The Improving Equitable Access to High Standard Public Services through GovTech Program for Results," launched in 2023 has shown substantial progress toward its goals by mid-2025," stated a World Bank representative.
The World Bank supports this reform agenda primarily through the PforR instrument valued at $135 million. An additional $10 million is provided via Investment Project Financing (IPF) for technical assistance.
Partnerships play a crucial role in this initiative's success. Collaborations include financing from Japan's Quality Infrastructure Investment program; Austria’s Ministry of Finance Department of International Affairs; Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs; and Austria’s Western Balkans Climate-Support Facility.
Looking forward, there are plans to scale up investments focusing on local economic development projects alongside building partnerships with the private sector aimed at job creation. Two lessons highlighted include the necessity of combining digital tools with administrative reforms as well as ensuring inter-institutional coordination among government entities for effective results.