The impact of Early Childhood Care and Development services on Women’s empowerment in Albania Table of Contents
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V. Country contextSocial and demographic contextAlbania is a country that has grown significantly economically in the last couple of decades in comparison to other developing countries in the world. Also, it is on the list of becoming a member of the European Union and this has lead the government to implement important actions towards reaching social goals such as working on gender equality and child’s rights. However, despite the government’s efforts, Albania continues to have low social indicators, in particular due to the disparity of growth between the more developed regions, that tend to be the center and south of the country and the rural and northern area, with substantial inequalities amongst rural and urban contexts and high levels of exclusion of vulnerable population such as women, children, people with disabilities, Roma and Egyptian communities20. This suggests that Albania has experienced what economists call a non “pro-poor growth” of the country, which shows an accelerated economic growth of the middle and higher socio-economic class and a stagnant growth situation for the poorest cohorts. According to the last census21, Albania has a total population of 2.800.138 people, of which 1.397.079 are women, 1.403.059 are men and 163.493 are children under the age of 4. Of the total Albanian population, 25.4% are poor and 4.7% are extremely poor22. The poorest region is in the Mountain Region (44.5% poor and 10.8% extremely poor), followed by the Central, Coastal and Tirana regions, respectively. This distribution unfortunately coincides with the insufficient provision of social services and employment opportunities, given that these are concentrated in the urban areas. This reality affects all the Albanian population, but even more the most vulnerable groups amongst which women and children are included. The only official data found on the number and percentage of the Roma population is in the 2011 National Census. The community constitutes 8,301 people (0.30%) of the total Albanian population. However the census does not provide data on sex or age groups. This information is the official numbers, but it is not consistent with the information provided by different studies that have been done in the country regarding Roma communities, which state that this community ranges between 10.000 and 120.000 people23. Despite the lack of official and valid demographic data on this population, it is a specific ethnic group that seems to be largely excluded from services and employment opportunities and larger efforts should be done to improve their quality of life. The 2011 National Census states that there are 137.435 people with disabilities, from which 75.239 are women and 62.196 are men. To date the CENSUS presents only data for people 15+. The census also divides the resident population with disabilities24 into the following types: seeing (49.996), hearing (37.919), mobility (81.585), cognition (40.586), self-care (39.402) and communication (33.084). This means that approximately 5% of Albanian population reported some type of disability that indicates the need for inclusion policies and programming in order to uphold the rights of this group. In particular, actions need to be focused on those families with young children. The registered unemployment rate for 2011 was 13.3% of which women represent 14.3% and men, 12.4%. The largest unemployment rate rests in the age group that falls between 15-29 years and it is estimated that there is at least 50% of employment in the informal economy. These indicators are consistent with the rest of the social indicators of the country, being lower in the rural areas and for vulnerable communities. Violence against children and women, women’s participation in the black market, exclusion of people with disabilities and of Roma communities are social problems that are still rooted in Albanian society25 and important actions of social mobilization, policy and programming need to be undertaken in the short and medium term. Investment in these strategic areas has not only to increase substantially, but also to be better targeted. Despite this, the Government of Albania has developed a set of policy strategies in order to address all these social issues and improve the quality of life of its citizens. The more relevant strategies for this study are: The Social Inclusion Cross- Cutting Strategy (SICS) 2007 – 201326, the Social Protection Sector Strategy (2007-2013)27, The National Action Plan for Roma (2010-2015), the National Strategy on People with Disabilities (2006)28, the National Strategy for Gender Equality, Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Violence 2011-2015 and the Action Plan for Children (2012-2015). The two first strategies focus on poverty alleviation, equality, social protection programming, cash transfer alternatives, and intersectoral collaboration and they both target vulnerable populations that include women and children. The National Action Plan for Roma communities, although there is still much financial and technical effort to be done, includes areas of work such as: education and training, cultural heritage and family, economy and employment, poverty and social protection, health and infrastructure, public order, justice and civil administration. This strategy is important because the level of commitment and interest shown by the government in this policy, contradicts the reality that this population group faces in the country regarding access to services, job market and others29. Similarly the National Strategy on People with Disabilities has the objective of ensuring “significant improvement in the status and life quality of people with disabilities in the Republic of Albania”30, and has the specific goals to: i) encourage and educate for a non-disabling society; ii) ensure rights for people with disabilities; iii) provide the best education for people with disabilities; iv) employment and economic development for people with disabilities; v) aware and responsive public service; vi) support quality living in the community for people with disabilities; and vii) collect and use relevant information about people with disabilities and disability issues. Despite this important milestone of the strategy, there is still important work to be done in order to increase visibility of people with disabilities and in particular children in policy design and implementation. It is also a reality that the issue of people with disabilities is still a taboo, in particular in the poorer more isolated areas of Albania, where parents of CWD still “hide in” their children, do not have any skill sets to cope with their condition31 and there are no specialized child care services in their areas32. Directory: albania albania -> Communications strategy albania -> Various structural reforms in albania Download 247.72 Kb. Share with your friends:
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