Albania "Torn Between Hope and Despair"

U.S. Ambassador Tony Hall participates in the first Balkan
 gathering and is encouraged by growing reconciliation and forgiveness

August 22 - 26, 2003

 

It is staggering that a country in Europe has almost half of its population living on less than $2 per day and 17 percent on less than $1 per day.

Kids enjoying Tirana’s warm late summer sunshine.

Kids enjoying Tirana’s warm late summer sunshine.

Background

US Ambassador to the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Tony Hall, visited Albania from August 22-26, 2003 at the invitation of Albanian parliamentarians and the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP). 

Ambassador Hall and US Congressman Frank Wolf were the keynote speakers at the first “Balkan Gathering,” attended by Albanian President Alfred Moisiu, Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, and other politicians from this troubled region.

A gathering of Albanians, Macedonians, Bosnians, Kosovars, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Croats – including current and future leaders in government, academia and business – would have been unthinkable a decade ago. It provides hope for the region and the world that reconciliation and forgiveness have begun among people long divided by hatred.  “I am excited by what I witnessed this past weekend, with former enemies calling one another brother and sister.  I was encouraged by those who came together in the spirit of friendship,” exclaimed Ambassador Hall.

Albania is the poorest country in Europe, ranked 95th out of 175 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index. The ten-year post-communist transition has exacerbated food insecurity in rural and semi-rural areas while chronic unemployment, poor social services and impoverishment are widespread. Ambassador Hall noted, “It is staggering that a country in Europe has almost half of its population living on less than US $2 per day and 17 percent on less than one US $ per day.”

The Republic of Albania

The Republic of Albania

Since the collapse of the society and economy in 1997, the World Food Program (WFP) has spent US $470 million to feed Albanians and their war-ravaged neighbors.  WFP’s current protracted recovery and relief operation (PRRO) is for an 18-month period through December 2003. It enables a transition from relief food aid to food assistance used to create community and human capital assets. WFP’s activities, designed to assist about 63,000 beneficiaries at an overall cost of about $6.6 million, include the rehabilitation of state forests, assistance to vulnerable women attending training and counseling, and building community assets through food-for-work projects.

For many in Europe and America, the Balkans is the symbol of “ethnic cleansing,” religious strife and intolerance.  The global community responded with outrage toward the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and compassion toward the victims.  Unfortunately, the wounds of centuries cannot be overcome in a few short years.

What We Saw

Ambassador Hall and his team, together with US Congressman Frank Wolf, WFP Regional Director for Europe, Saeed Malik, and Country Director for Albania, Mushtaq Qureshi, visited projects run by WFP and its implementing partners.

Albanian women constitute one of WFP’s core beneficiary groups because traditional social institutions had not been able to accommodate their needs. Although official statistics show female unemployment in Albania at 19 percent, the actual rate is thought to be substantially higher, particularly in cities where food, textile, and handicraft industries have closed.

Some women living in Albania are victims of sexual and physical abuse, a common cause of migration from traditional communities in the north, and many are unemployed. Others are victims of human trafficking. Destitute and ignorant of the scams, women are shipped to Western Europe, abused, and forced to work as prostitutes. Food-for-training programs provide necessary economic support and knowledge to avoid this trap.

Training and counseling center run by Refugee and Migrant Services of Albania.

Training and counseling center run by Refugee and Migrant Services of Albania.

 

Historical Note:

The year 1614 is considered the date that Tirana was founded, when Sulejman Pasha Bargjini built a mosque, a Turkish bath, bakery, and several shops. Within a few years a bazaar was established, and its craftsmen made silk, cotton, and leather fabrics, ceramics, iron, silver, and gold artifacts. The Ethem Bey mosque, built in 1789, has been preserved and is located at Skenderbeg Square.

As recently as 1937, Tirana had no running water, no sewage system, no electricity, narrow streets, and only one-story houses except for a few multi-level houses owned by wealthy merchants.

Today Tirana, with a population of about 300,000, is the largest industrial center of Albania. It produces 30 percent of Albania’s coal and a half of its textiles. Many industries, such as the building materials, textile, food, mechanical products, and electrical products, are based in Tirana.

 

Tirana children of WFP food aid recipients.

Tirana children of WFP food aid recipients.

Before departing Tirana for the countryside, Ambassador Hall and Congressman Wolf and their party visited several WFP projects to evaluate the assistance provided.

Mrs. Frank Wolf with two healthy residents of Tirana.

Mrs. Frank Wolf with two healthy residents of Tirana.

The contrast between urban and rural areas was striking. The areas of north and northeast Albania suffer from the highest levels of destitution, the highest rates of unemployment, and the lowest levels of income on national surveys. Market access for agricultural products is problematic because of the lack of roads. Accordingly, WFP’s food aid can provide an income transfer mechanism for families whose incomes are below minimum standards. Through support to rural infrastructure, permanent communal assets are created or restored, while bolstering participation among newly formed community groups still wary of state-imposed development structures.

In Milot and Postribe, WFP runs food-for-work, road-building projects like this one.

In Milot and Postribe, WFP runs food-for-work, road-building projects like this one.

 

Here is the women's crew in a project run by Islamic Relief Worldwide in the north.

Here is the women's crew in a project run by Islamic Relief Worldwide in the north.

Through the World Bank Communal Forestry and Pasture Management project, a component of WFP’s PRRO, the management of State-owned forest is transferred to rural communities for an initial period of 10 years. Forest areas are rehabilitated for planned income-generating activities as WFP ensures food security for participating villagers.

The communal forestry project in Kallmet depends on participation by Albanians willing to work for food.

The communal forestry project in Kallmet depends on participation by Albanians willing to work for food.

WFP projects are implemented by a variety of national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Refugee and Migrant Services of Albania, Albanian Association of Women Heads of Households and Islamic Relief Worldwide, as well as local governments through the Communal Forestry and Pasture Users’ Association.

“One woman building a road told me, ‘we’re not just poor, we’re very very poor,’ and one local official stated that ‘life is getting worse, not better,’ ” quoted Ambassador Hall.

“Fortunately, all sectors of the country – especially civil society – are engaged in confronting the challenge of hunger and poverty, despite many obstacles.”

Although road building is hard work, it can also build civilty.

Although road building is hard work, it can also build civilty.

The United States Government has donated approximately US $360 million to Albania on a bilateral basis since 1992.  Additionally, the US has donated US $175.6 million to WFP since 1997 to feed the hungry in the region.  Of this, US $22 million was specifically for Albania.

“Today, I am pleased to announce that America is continuing our tradition of demonstrating compassion for people in need by providing a grant of up to US $4.2 million to feed Albanian school children through the American NGO, Mercy-USA for Aid and Development,” stated Ambassador Hall.

This funding will be provided by the US Department of Agriculture through the George McGovern-Robert Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, in the form of food and support funding.  This grant is one of 21 programs to be approved worldwide.  Depending upon additional resources and performance, this funding could be approved for up to seven more years.

School feeding helps to attract kids to school, keeps them there, and helps them to learn.

School feeding helps to attract kids to school, keeps them there, and helps them to learn.

Recommendations

The need for a continuing humanitarian focus was communicated to Ambassador Hall throughout his travels around the country. By the end of the trip Ambassador Hall’s team identified a set of recurring social phenomena or “tripwires” needing more dialogue between Albanians and newly forming social institutions as follows:

  • Lack of access to justice for groups of people in need;
  • Lack of poor capacity in management and leadership skills of local government authorities;
  • Limited access to basic health services;
  • Difficulties accessing clean water;
  • General poor state of rural roads;
  • Growing youth migration abroad;
  • Human trafficking;
  • Low employment among women;
  • Discrimination against marginalized and vulnerable groups of women; and
  • Negative impact of blood feuds in certain regions of the country.

Ambassador Hall is the chief of mission at the US Mission for the UN Agencies for Food and Agriculture, including WFP, which is based in Rome, Italy.  Prior to his appointment by President George W. Bush last year, he served in the US Congress for almost 24 years.  He was the longest serving representative in the southwestern part of the State of Ohio, home of the Dayton Peace Accords.  He is the founder of the Congressional Hunger Center, an NGO that focuses on fighting hunger by developing leaders, and was chairman of the Select Committee on Hunger.