Albania Results Report 2020-2022

Albania’s fifth action planAction plans are at the core of a government’s participation in OGP. They are the product of a co-creation process in which government and civil society jointly develop commitments to open governmen... resulted in integrity plans at line ministries and a beneficial ownershipDisclosing beneficial owners — those who ultimately control or profit from a business — is essential for combating corruption, stemming illicit financial flows, and fighting tax evasion. Technical... register. Engagement between government and civil society was limited during co-creation and implementation. However, the creation of an OGP multistakeholder forum places Albania in a better position to engage civil society during the next action plan cycle.

Early resultsEarly results refer to concrete changes in government practice related to transparency, citizen participation, and/or public accountability as a result of a commitment’s implementation. OGP’s Inde...

Albania’s fifth action plan had nine commitments comprising four themes: anti-corruption, digital governanceAs evolving technologies present new opportunities for governments and citizens to advance openness and accountability, OGP participating governments are working to create policies that deal with the ..., access to justiceAccessible justice systems – both formal and informal – ensure that individuals and communities with legal needs know where to go for help, obtain the help they need, and move through a system tha... More, and fiscal transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub... More.

Commitments 1 and 2 achieved marginal early results with the introduction of integrity plans at line ministries and the launch of the Register of Beneficial Owners (RBO) respectively. However, it is too soon to establish if the integrity plans have led to institutional changes around corruption prevention. Meanwhile, in order to enhance transparency, further actions such as verifying data submission and imposing sanctions for incompliance need to be introduced on the RBO.

CompletionImplementers must follow through on their commitments for them to achieve impact. For each commitment, OGP’s Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) evaluates the degree to which the activities outlin...

Five of the nine commitments had substantial or full completion. The government’s end-of-term self-assessment report contained little evidence of completion for many commitments. Not all ministries and other relevant stakeholders responded to IRM requests for evidence. IRM Action Plan Review identified CommitmentOGP commitments are promises for reform co-created by governments and civil society and submitted as part of an action plan. Commitments typically include a description of the problem, concrete action... 6 as promising, but the inter-institutional forum to oversee the quality of legal aidMore and better information about aid helps partner countries and donor institutions plan and manage aid resources more effectively, parliaments and civil society to hold governments accountable for t... and the procedures for providing feedback and complaints was not set up.

Participation and co-creation

Albania met the minimum requirements under OGP Participation & Co-Creation Standards during implementation.[1] The government published an end-of-term self-assessment report which contains information on commitment implementation status, but provides little supporting evidence. The Multilateral Committee for OGP, which serves as Albania’s multistakeholder forum, was formed in December 2021. The forum met in November 2022 to discuss the co-creation of the new action plan for 2023–2025 as well as review and approve the self-assessment report.[2] This was a welcome development for the collaboration of government and civil society.

The IRM Action Plan Review found Albania as having acted contrary to OGP process during action plan development. As a result, the OGP Criteria & Standards Subcommittee had placed Albania under procedural review in September 2021 for having acted contrary to OGP process for two consecutive action plan cycles (2018–2020 and 2020–2022).[3] The government then failed to deliver a new action plan by the 31 December 2022 deadline, which meant that it had now been found acting contrary to process in three consecutive cycles. In April 2023, the subcommittee announced that it had decided to maintain Albania under procedural review until future IRM assessment finds that minimum requirements are met in the next co-creation process.[4] Failure to do so may result in Albania being rendered an inactive OGP member.

Implementation in context

As with previous action plans, commitments were supported by international donors, such as the United Nations Development Programme or were linked to specific measures in Albania’s journey towards European Union (EU) accession.

In July 2022, Albania suffered a series of cyber-attacks on various government systems.[5] In response, the National Agency for Information Society temporarily shut down online services and other government websites, including some that were relevant to commitment implementation.

[1] During the 2020–2022 action plan cycle, the former Participation and Co-creation Standards were in effect. Updated standards were put into effect on 1 January 2022, but apply to action plan cycles submitted after this date. See: “OGP Participation and Co-Creation Standards,” Open Government Partnership, 24 November 2021, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/ogp-participation-co-creation-standards.

[2] “Konkluzionet operacionale te mbledhjes së komitetit shumepalesh mbi partneritetin per qeverisje te hapur,” [Operational Conclusions of the Multilateral Committee Meeting on the Open Government Partnership], OGP Albania, 30 November 2022, https://ogp.gov.al/uploads/2022/12/II.draft_KonkluzioneOperacionale_v1_30.11.2022.pdf.

[3] “Albania under review letter (September 2021),” Open Government Partnership, 17 September 2021, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/albania-under-review-letter-september-2021.

[4] “Albania – Procedural Review Resolution by C&S Subcommittee (April 2023),” Open Government Partnership, 27 April 2023, https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/albania-procedural-review-resolution-by-cs-subcommittee-april-2023.

[5] Maggie Miller, Albania weighed invoking NATO’s Article 5 over Iranian cyberattack, Politico, 10 May 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/05/why-albania-chose-not-to-pull-the-nato-trigger-after-cyberattack-00060347.