Welcome to our Progress Report 2022

The Government of Albania and United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2022–2026 guided the United Nations support in Albania in 2022.

This year, the UN in Albania made progress in its support to the government in all four strategic directions of its work, with enhanced focus on the 2019 earthquakes and Covid-19 responses and recovery, advancing human rights and gender equality, strengthening institutional and governance capacities, improving the quality of education, health services, crisis management and social assistance, access to decent work, enhancing local services and infrastructure and promoting climate change resilient development. Section 2.1 dives deeper into the details of the United Nations Country Team (UNCT)’s main results for the year under each of the four outcome areas, focusing on significant highlights rather than providing an exhaustive list of results.

In 2022, the Cooperation Framework was implemented by 19 UN agencies, funds and programmes, which 1. Resident agencies: FAO, IOM, UNDP, UNFPA, UNHCR, UNICEF, UN Women, WHO, UNOPS; non-resident agencies: IAEA, ILO, ITU, UNCTAD, UNECE, UNEP, UNESCO, UNIDO, UNODC, UNDRR, UNV. comprised UNCT in Albania, chaired by the UN Resident Coordinator, the designated representative of the UN Secretary General for development operations in the country. Of these agencies, nine had a physical presence in Albania, either through a stand-alone representative office, project staff or a capacity embedded in the Resident Coordinator.

The UN in Albania implemented more than 200 interventions in 2022, each linked to SDG goals and targets. More than half of the activities contributed to achievement of SDG 5 Gender Equality, and SDG 16 Peace and Justice-Strong Institutions. In terms of budget allocation, more than half of the budget for the year was directed towards SDG 4 Education, and SDG 2 Good Health and Well-being, credited to support provided for the earthquake and Covid-19 responses.

In 2022, the UN collectively delivered USD 58 million through its Cooperation Framework, of which 90 per cent was mobilised by efforts of the country offices. A key enabler to achieving results is the Albania SDG Acceleration Fund, which by the end of the year had six joint programmes in its portfolio. It served to maximize the effectiveness of the Framework implementation to deliver expected results, incentivize good performance, facilitate the prioritization of limited financial resources among competing funding needs and requests, ensure that funding is channeled to support strategic priorities, and ensure transparency and fairness in the allocation of resources. Section 2.3 and Annex B dive deeper into the details of the Albania SDG Acceleration Fund.