New Opportunities in Kukës – NOK
The Municipality of Kukes ( in the role of the Leading Partner &
Europartners Development ( in the role of the Project Partner into the
Project)
Beneficiaries:Youth of Kukes – around 200 youth will directly benefit through the
project implementation (ii) Abused women – around 50 abused
women will participate on the project activities; (iii) Kukes
Municipality staff – 3 main directories will be involved in
collaboration and implementation of the project; (iv) Unemployment
citizens of Kukes – at least 70 unemployment people will benefit by
the project implementation.
01.09.2021-31.12.2023
Overall Objective
The decentralization process in Albania gave to the new municipalities
some new functions that were transferred from central to local government. Based on the law 139/2015 the functions under
municipalities are in the field of: (i) infrastructure and public services;
(ii) social services; (iii) culture, sport and recreational services; (iv)
environmental protection; (iv) agriculture, rural development, public
forests and pastures, nature, and biodiversity; (v) local economic
development and (vi) public safety. The new functions create a more
central role of the municipalities towards creating the conditions/
infrastructure/environment/social structures to serving directly to the
citizens.
Summary of the Project
The 2019 Performance Assessment Report “Municipalities in the
Process of European Integration” details that slight progress was made
in the fight against corruption, drug cultivation and trafficking, and
money laundering. At the local level, good progress was marked in
two out of three main measures in the fight against organized crime:
The Strategic Document on Public Security was drafted and approved
by 42.62% of municipalities, or +16.4 p.p. compared to 2018, the
structures of Community Councils (CC) were set up by 49.18% of
municipalities, or +18.03 p.p. more municipalities, compared to 2018,
while the establishment of the WG in the Fight Against Organized
Crime was at the same level as in 2018, based on reported data.
Remaining challenges include the establishment of WGs and
Community Councils in all municipalities, improving the work quality
and efficiency of these structures, and improving coordination of
measures with state institutions and other actors at the local level.
The same report details that there has been an improvement in the
performance of municipalities regarding the development of the local
social plan – 63.9% of municipalities reported that they approved the
local social plan by the decision of the City Council; the indicator
shows an increase of +17.9 pp compared to 2018. Kukes municipality
has not prepared yet the Local Social Plan
Activities
Act.0 Project Management: Project management, monitoring and
evaluation
Reconstruction of “New Opportunities Centre”: (1.1) Draft the
feasibility and architecture plan of the actual building which will be
transformed on a skills and resource center; (1.2) Implement the
reconstruction project; (1.3) Refurbishment of the new center
Establish the functionality of the new center: (2.1) Develop the
Strategy and Regulation of the center; (2.2) Draft the Manual for
administrative staff of the center; (2.3) Develop a Communication
Strategy for the promotion of the new center to the inhabitants of
Kukes
Launching the “Skills and Employment Program”: (3.1) Launch
the call for application to take part on the soft skills program,
professional short term courses in Tourism Guide and Management,
IT, Handcrafts/Cooking, Barber; (3.2) Organize trainings for youth
and women on job market and entrepreneurship (15 targeted trainings
during the project implementation); (3.3) Launch the start-up
program (at least 3 start-up initiatives supported financially and
mentored)
Actions towards social development: (4.1) Implement a creative
awareness campaign to stop the drug usage “From youth – to youth”
Provide psychological hands-on support to abused women
Expected Results
A. The municipality of Kukes will have a community-based which
will provide public local services to youth and women B. Youth and
women are able to follow professional short term courses and soft
skills trainings C. Aware youngs and women against cannabis
cultivation;
The expected impact of the action: A. New opportunities for social-
development in Kukes increased; B. Increased professional capacities
of youth and women; C. Increased awareness of youngs and women
through creative activities
The following assumptions underlie the intervention of the action:
Youngs and women will actively use the community based new centre
to increase their capacities. Their interest to have social-economic
development will be in continuation. The municipality of Kukes will
take the measures to promote the centre and keep maintaining it even
after the project will be finished.
The following risks might undermine the implementation of the
project: coronavirus pandemic situation can cause difficulties in
relation with activities organisation; political instability with general
election taking place in June 2021 might also affect the activity of
local government administration and entire public life.
Mainstreaming of relevant cross-cutting issues
In preparing this proposal, the municipality of Kukes and partner
organisation EuroPartners Development based on the previous
experience and implementation of the similar programmes, has
developed, the intervention strategy is based on a Human Rights
Based Approach (HRBA) to sustainable local development, with
specific focus on marginalized groups and strengthening aspects of
skills, self-employment and social service delivery. Gender equality
issues will be considered in all aspects of the project. On the
other hand, the project will encourage the involvement of Roma
community in the activities. iv. State how the action will improve the situation of the target
groups and final beneficiaries and the technical and management
capacities of target groups and/or any local co-applicants and affiliated
entity(ies).
In the city of Kukës there are 5 primary schools and a high school
(where there are about 1300 students) some of them are from the rural
areas of Kukës. In the city there is also the dormitory for boys and
girls who study in high school classes. Youth employment is a global
phenomenon but in Albania it is a problem with high impact especially
for small towns like Kukes.
The lack of manufacturing businesses, make the business activities in
Kukës not more or less than Bar-Cafe, confectionery and bakery.
These businesses employ family staff and this does not change much
the employment situation in Kukës but leaves unemployment at high
levels.
There are not enough social institutions that can be in function of
different groups for various services in Kukes. There is a regional
hospital, maternity hospital and a health centre (polyclinic). Kukes
doesn’t have any Youth Center which will can serve as an activism
centre of the youth. There is a multifunctional center for disabled
children in Kukës.
