Our Mission
The Department’s mission is to assist the Government of Albania in ensuring that policy coordination, at the strategic level, occurs within the Integrated Planning System framework, leading to greater effectiveness, transparency and accountability.
Toward a fully Integrated Planning System
In December 2005, Council of Ministers of Albania (CoM) formally established the Department of Strategy and Donor Coordination (DSDC) as an integral part of its organisational structure. DSDC lies at the heart of the Government’s modernization reforms. The Department was established with the primary aim of ensuring that (by the time) fragmented strategic planning and budgeting processes of the Government were coherent and effectively managed and the external assistance was targeted towards national priorities. The main key feature of these reforms became the linkage between the medium- to long-term national strategic priorities and the budgeting and resources allocation process, ensuring that external assistance is targeted towards Government priorities. In the view of establishing the Integrated Planning System, DSDC was the main driver on the technical redesign and harmonisation of these core processes based on the assumption that their quality and coherence will greatly affect the Government’s ability to achieve its policy objectives and keep its promises to the public. Through its central role in the implementation of IPS, DSDC is mandated to ensure that the Government’s priorities and the requirements for EU and NATO integration are fully reflected in all core government policy and financial planning processes and communicated to all stakeholders. DSDC also prepares and facilitates the proceedings of the Strategic Planning and Government Modernization Committees in line with the annual IPS calendar. The Department works with the Ministry of Finance to ensure that the Medium-Term Budget Programme and the annual budget reflect Government’s strategic priorities, and with the Ministry of European Integration for guaranteeing that European Integration priorities are an integral part of all government processes. DSDC led the preparation for the National Strategy for Development and Integration (NSDI) 2007-2013, which entailed a broad consultative process involving key stakeholders from government, private sector, civil society and donors. Prior to the preparation of the NSDI, DSDC coordinated the process of developing sector and crosscutting strategies by line ministries that provided the main input for the NSDI. Introducing a monitoring mechanism on the implementation of the NSDI/sector and crosscutting strategies is a new challenge for DSDC. These new monitoring tools will supplement the annual NSDI Progress Report, which reports on the year-to-year results achieved against a series of high level indicators. The Department also provides guidance and orientation to line ministries in the development of the Ministry’s Integrated Plans and Ministry Annual Reports. DSDC`s Aid Co-ordination Unit provides a ‘one stop shop’ for donors with respect to strategic matters related to external assistance. As such, it is responsible for organizing major co-ordination activities such as the Government donor roundtables and the IPS Support Group, which is a policy-level advisory board. The Department, in cooperation with the Donor Technical Secretariat, has already established a donor database, which comprises data about all active donors that have been working since 1994; including information on foreign assistance disbursements. Together with the Ministry of Finance, DSDC co-leads negotiations with donors on policy-based conditions for loans/credits and participates in negotiations led by the Ministry of European Integration on IPA programming. In co-operation with donors and line ministries, the Department established 10 Sector Working Groups, whose aim is to ensure that external assistance is effectively Coordinated and supports sector strategy aims.
Structure
DSDC has been approved as part of the overall restructuring and with office within the Council of Ministers. It is composed by the Director of Department, the Director of Aid Coordination Unit and six coordinators in two units: NSDI and donor coordination.
Strategies Coordination Unit
