Report on Racviac s Mission to Albania

							 REGIONAL ARMS CONTROL VERIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION ASSISTANCE CENTRE
                                 (RACVIAC)
                                            DC cell

                                      Stari hrast 53, Rakitje
                                     10437 Bestovje / Croatia

___________________________________________________________________________


                                  Assessment report
                       RACVIAC’s visit to Albania
            concerning resettlement of former military personnel
                                09th till 12th October 2006




1. Background
RACVIAC’s Defence Conversion Cell (DC Cell) has since mid-2006 assisted the Albanian
Ministry of Defence (MoD) in developing their resettlement activities. The DC Cell has
provided advice and shared with MoD best practise gained in the region, the assistance has
focused on preparatory activities such as designing questionnaires, project development and
activities related to facilitating setting up Small and Medium size Enterprises (SMEs) during
the scheduled meetings of Working Group 1 this year (2006). So far the bilateral assistance
has been limited to meetings in connection to Working Group 1 gatherings and distance
consulting by emails with representatives of the Albanian Ministry of Defence.

As an expansion of the support to the Albanian MoD RACVIAC’s DC Cell conducted a visit
to Albania in mid October. The main aims of this visit were to establish connections and
exchange information with public institutions and organizations that are key stakeholders to
downsizing and resettlement of former military personnel. It was agreed with the Albanian
MoD that the visit would result in an assessment of the current situation. This report will
serve as a starting point when exploring future cooperation in assisting and promoting the
MoD’s programme on resettlement of former military personnel. In addition, the RACVIAC’s
DC Cell team would, on the basis of the findings, work out tailored recommendations that
could be passed on to the interested institutions/organisations for evaluation thus assisting in
reaching NATO standards and facilitating access to international project funding.

2. Meetings
As mentioned earlier in this report the main purpose of the visit was to meet identified key
stakeholders to the resettlement of released military personnel. During our visit we
accordingly met with representatives of MoD, Joint Staff of Albanian Army, Ministry of
Labour and Social Affairs, Vocational Training Centre, National Employment Services,
NATO hq and International Organisation of Migration. In nearly all of these meetings
everybody from the RACVIAC team and the MoD transition team participated. The
RACVIAC team also had meetings with the representatives from the Swedish Labour Market
Board Programme in Albania. For details on meetings see meeting schedule in appendix A.

The RACVIAC team consisted of:
Mr Jakob Heradsvteit, Norwegian Ministry of Defence also representing Nordic Initiative
Major Barbara Bencic, Officer, Defence Conversion Cell in RACVIAC
Ms Lena Andersson, Defence Conversion Expert, Defence Conversion Cell in RACVIAC
The Albanian transition team consisted of
Mrs Ivis Noçka, Chief of Sector of Monitoring Projects, Albanian MoD
Mr Ilirjan Tavanxhiu, Human Resource Specialist, Albanian MoD
Mrs Shpresa Zenelaj, Chief of Sector DG HR, Albanian MoD

3. Current situation
3.1. Military downsizing and resettlement
The Albanian MoD has just finalised a draft programme document on resettlement of former
military personnel. In parallel the MoD has sent out 1,000 questionnaires to the commanders
to be filled in by individuals receiving the monthly resettlement payment1. Only the
individuals from the reserve that fill in the questionnaire can be subject to resettlement
assistance from the MoD programme.

The MoD expects results from the questionnaires that they sent out earlier this fall before the
end of October. The first information will be compiled manually covering a summary of the
number of individuals interested in assistance; their current rank and age and their preferred
resettlement activities. The MoD needs assistance in order to make all information from the
questionnaire available in a “resettlement database”. This database can be used to assess the
beneficiaries as well as to monitor the resettlement programme on micro and macro level.

The new draft programme is based on an average of 250 beneficiaries per year for 7 years
covering military personnel released during the period 2003-2009. On average 300
individuals are transferred to the reserve every year2, the MoD estimates that on average 250
of these are interested to receive the assistance that the programme will offer. This means that
the MoD programme is based on providing assistance to 1750 released military personnel.

From 1992 until now approximately 17,000 individuals have been released from the Albanian
Army, out of these more than 50% are retired (55 years old and above) and 25-30% are
employed in other public institutions. As for the remaining around 3,000 individuals the MoD
has no information about their current activities. The MoD estimates that 750 of these 3,000
individuals will seek assistance from the MoD resettlement programme.


1
 This resettlement payment is paid out through the respective commands 2-3 years from leaving the army.
2
 In 2006 approximately 800 military personnel will be released since there were no downsizing for some time
and there is a backlog to take care of.
The Army has “in-house” capacity; the Military Academy and the Troop Schools. At these
schools they can offer for example training courses in management, electronics and English
language. However the demand is greater than their supply and they need assistance in order
to meet the needs. The Chief of J1 in General Staff and his staff have prepared a project for
part-time studies at the Military Academy that will cost approximately 260 Euro per year and
student. The redundant military personnel could take part in this project.

3.2. Labour market and Labour market institutions
According to the Ministry of Labour (MoL) the official figure of unemployment 3 is 13,8%
and has gone down slightly since the beginning of this year when it was 14,1%. However the
Swedish Labour Market Board points out that 70% of the population is “self employed” in
agricultural and this group is excluded from statistical mapping. This means that the
unemployment is rather 50% than the official figure of around 14%. The sectors that are
growing and where there is a demand of skilled personnel are construction (both private and
public sector) and service (mainly in Tirana and the larger cities). There is also lack of
electricians and mechanical engineers especially in car repairs.

Referring to the “old” programme4 the MoD in collaboration with Albanian Atlantic
Association (AAA) prepared a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that should be signed
by MoD and MoL related to resettlement of military personnel. However, this MoU was
never finalised by the reason of disapproval of AAA program. In our meetings we found that
the MoL was not well informed about the newly drafted MoD programme but keen to
cooperate with the MoD to provide assistance to this special target group.

The National Employment Centre under MoL has 9 vocational training centres throughout
Albania out of which 2 are located in Tirana at these centres they offer 15 different courses.
They train 4,000 persons per year, and the courses are 3-4 months long on average. They have
experience from retraining redundant employees in the public sector5 and with good results:
40-45% of those trained were employed or self-employed after the retraining. There is a one-
year unemployment pay that could be extended to a total of one and a half year if the
beneficiary is undergoing vocational training during the period. There are also private training
centres that can provide retraining/counselling. Their courses are 6-9 months long however
and cost around 800 $ per person. The laid off soldiers will have to pay the total cost which is
unaffordable for most ex-soldiers.

There was an agreement among the persons we interviewed that there is a lack of good labour
market surveys in Albania and that this seriously influences the matching of the unemployed
with the employers. The surveys that exist are too broad and general and will not be of much
help in resettlement of released military personnel.

3.3. International actors
The MoD has also started discussion on cooperation with International Organisation on
Migration (IOM) already in September-October 2006 as IOM has experience with assisting
other MoDs on similar projects in South East Europe. As a result of this there is a MoU
between MoD and IOM. IOM has also sent a project proposal outlining the areas in which

3
  The Institute for Social Insurance (INSTAT) are officially responsible for reporting the rate of unemployment.
4
  This programme was developed in 2004 and was meant to be implemented by an NGO (AAA) but was never
implemented.
5
  Recently there was a decision by the Government to decrease public employees with 30%.
IOM could assist the resettlement of released military personnel to the MoD. Both MoD and
IOM is of the opinion that this proposal needs to be assessed in the context of the new
programme developed by the MoD and the assistance of IOM need to be incorporated into
potential subprojects of the programme. Assistance to redundant military personnel is one of
three key areas for the IOM Mission to Albania in 2007.

In May 2006 NATO hq in Tirana initiated a workshop together with MoD and IOM. MoL,
potential donors, press and other stakeholders were invited to discuss resettlement of released
military personnel as a part of defence reform. IOM and NATO are now afraid of loosing
momentum and are concerned with the slow progress since the workshop in May. Also the
Deputy Minister of Defence expressed concerned about need for urgent actions and suggested
to start up of some small limited pilot projects as soon as possible and closely monitor the
result and progress of these pilot projects in order to gain necessary experience before starting
a massive launch of activities.

NATO HQ in Tirana consider the area of resettlement of former military personnel as very
important and see its role and tasks to facilitate the process and participate in fundraising,
once there are concrete project proposals on the table.

As a general observation throughout our visit we would like to state that there is room for
improving the information flow within the MoD as between the MoD and other public
institutions and organisations. We just want to highlight this in our report and will discuss
how to improve the information flow with the MoD transition team in our next meetings.

4. Conclusions and Recommendations
4.1. Programme Development
The MoD is ready to send their draft programme for translation in order for RACVIAC to
review the draft, and will send an estimate of the cost for translation so that RACVIAC can
start looking for ways to fund the translation. RACVIAC team agreed with MoD that
RACVIAC DC Cell together with Ms Karin Delin, expert on project development and
associated with Working Group 1, will assess the programme documentation.
Action: Ivis Noçka to send estimated cost for translation to RACVIAC so that RACVIAC
can make necessary funds available. MoD to send translated programme documentation to
RACVIAC as soon as translation in finalised.

A new MoU between MoD and MoL has to be established. In order to draft this
representatives from the two ministries have to sit down and discuss future cooperation. Prior
to this a point of contact with MoD has to be appointed within MoL. This person should also
be appointed permanent member of RACVIAC’s DC Working Group 1 and attend our next
meeting at the end of January. The MoU should preferable also regulate information exchange
between the two ministries.
Action: RACVIAC to send an invitation to MoL to point out in collaboration with MoD the
point of contact and start drafting a proposal. Barbara Bencic to ask for MoU regulating
similar issues in Serbia that might serve as a model.

We concluded that although the J1’s effort to help is very welcomed and the idea to use the
military education facilities to support the redundant military personnel is excellent it is vital
to include the proposed retraining activities of J1 into the MoD overall programme. This will
ensure a common approach thus providing one offer to the beneficiaries and avoiding
duplication.
Action: The programme will be included in the MoD programme. (It will be under J1 and
Military Academy responsibility but financed by the MoD budget during 2007.)
Ivis Noçka to send translated version of J1 project proposal to RACVIAC after the approval
of financial support.

4.2. Assessments
The RACVIAC team agreed with MoD that RACVIAC DC Cell will draft a project for
assistance in creating and maintaining a “resettlement database” with the idea to use the
experience from IOM Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). The suggestion is that a
local expert from BiH could visit Albanian MoD for a limited number of days to train
designated MoD staff to manage, develop, adjust and maintain the database using a copy of
the database used in IOM Mission to BiH and in BiH MoD. IOM Mission in Tirana has some
funds that could be used for assessments and would consider funding the resettlement
database builds up.
Action: Lena Andersson to contact IOM BiH concerning making the database expert
available for a visit to Tirana.

To improve the situation in respect to labour market surveys it was agreed with the MoD to
explore possibilities to set up a joint MoD-MoL project. The aim of this project should be to
assess the demand side / employers’ needs of the labour market relevant for the released
military personnel.
Action: Barbara Bencic to contact Serbian MoL and MoD to request a copy of the labour
market survey project implemented in Serbia in 2005 and to look into the possibility for a
study visit to MoL and MoD in Serbia. Lena Andersson to contact European Union
(CARDS) concerning funding.

4.3. Implementation
Their need to be activities related to Public Relations and information flow in order to ensure
timely and correct information to all actors including the beneficiaries.
Action: The RACVIAC team and the MoD transition team will discuss this in their next
meetings.

One area where the IOM expertise could be valuable is the counselling. The RACVIAC team
pointed out the importance to have an institutional building approach and suggested a
methodology where the IOM would assist in selecting and training MoD staff to become
counsellors. The last part of this training programme could consist of “on the job training”
where the IOM staff and the MoD counsellor assist beneficiaries jointly. At the end of the
process the IOM staff can have the role of mentor or “back office”.
Action: Lena Andersson to consult IOM Tirana on drafting a project proposal to be sent to
the MoD for consideration.

There are only two business incubators in Albania and that is not enough to meet the need.
Setting up a business incubator was identified as an area where MoD and MoL could
cooperate. The Deputy Minister of Labour mentioned that International Labour Organisation
(ILO) has good experience in this area. There was an agreement to look into the possibility to
convert a military base to a business incubator that could be used to support laid off soldiers
supported by counsellors from MoL and MoD.
Action: Ivis Noçka to suggest potential bases to be converted. Lena Andersson to contact
Franz Gundacker at ILO, to see if they are interested to assist in such a project.

The Swedish Labour Market Board suggested the RACVIAC team to contact those involved
with the European Union’s CARD programme on labour market reform and explore potential
cooperation with them as they have a broad programme with a large budget and are interested
in cooperation with other organisations and are interested in improving labour market surveys
according to National Employment Service.
Action: Lena Andersson to find out whom to contact in the EU office in Tirana on this and
explore potential for further cooperation.




RACVIAC
Defence Conversion Cell                                              21st December 2006
Lena Andersson