Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.

While Albania has made significant progress in promoting gender equality, women continue to face barriers in fully enjoying their human rights. Women are less likely to participate in the labour market, with a labour force participation rate of 15.9% lower than men’s.

Stereotypes and gender norms continue to be pervasive and contribute to the persistent marginalization of women, especially those belonging to minorities, including rural women. Young people also face specific challenges: at 27.1%, their unemployment rate is about twice as high as that of the working-age population.

Most of the young professionals and students leaving Albania look for opportunities to stay in the host country, rather than returning.

Promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment is a key priority for Albania, underpinning all actions listed in the recently adopted National Strategy for Sustainable Development and European Integration 2022-2030.

The Strategy also recognizes rural development as key for Albania’s sustainable development. Agriculture is the sector that employs the majority of Albanian citizens, accounting for approximately 33.8 % of the employees during 2021, however, agricultural activity is challenged by increased transport and production costs, limited maximization of investment limited efficiency of distribution channels.

Meeting national and international quality and food safety standards and building an administrative capacity to support these processes also remain a challenge.

Women play an important role in agriculture and rural development in Albania, making up 40% of the agriculture workforce, although in most cases invisible and informal.

Male gender roles in agriculture are predominantly associated with tasks that involve control over agricultural assets and implements, mobility, decision-making and access to market; whereas female gender roles are associated with manual work, including pre-harvest and post-harvest activities, food processing, quality control, and household tasks.

Furthermore, women’s access to technical and financial resources and information through agricultural extension service remains very limited, and women represent only 10 % of all beneficiaries of extension services. Women are rarely members of, or represented in, formal associations or committees.

Their limited access to transportation in rural areas has direct implications for their access to health and social services, education, employment and participation in decision making, making them dependent on male relatives and putting them further at risk of marginalisation.

This is especially alarming with the persistence of patriarchal attitudes in rural areas, which often result in GBV.

Women are also strongly discriminated compared to men in term of access to property, While existing legislation guarantees women’s property rights and co-ownership, the implementation of the legislation has been too often hindered by discriminatory cultural and social attitudes, practices at the institutional and community levels, and women’s lack of knowledge of their rights.

This has affected women’s inheritance rights as well as entitlements.

To address these challenges, UN Women with the support of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and funding from the Directorate General for Development Cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will implement a project aiming to improve the empowerment of women in Northern Albania and promote their role as active contributors to sustainable rural development.

Overall, this project will contribute to the realization of SDG targets 2.3, 5.a, 8.3.

The intervention is aligned with the EU Gender Action Plan III, The National Strategy for Gender Equality (NSGE) 2021-2030, the National Strategy for Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, and responds to the CEDAW Concluding Observations for Albania (2023)..

Under the direct supervision and guidance of the International Team Lead/Programme Management Specialist, the National Coordinator/Technical Project Analyst will be responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the project, work planning, engagement of relevant technical expertise and responsible parties, monitoring and reporting.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

1. Technical Support in Project Implementation
2. Results based monitoring and evaluation and knowledge building
3. Finance and Administration
4. Other support

Description of Functions:

1.

Technical Support in Project Implementation

• Ensure timely and adequate implementation of project activities in line with the project document and workplan;
• Prepare a detailed work plan and performance monitoring plan to implement proposed activities in Albania in coordination with the Project Management Specialist and ensure links with UN Women’s commitment under United Nations’ Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework and UN Women Albania’s Strategic Note (2022-2026);
• Design, oversee, and coordinate the implementation of relevant project activities with implementing partners, the whole project team, and other UN Women Albania personnel;
• Maintain close communication with national authorities, development actors, civil society organizations and other key stakeholders working on human rights and ending violence against women;
• Provide overall supervision of the work of implementing partners and external consultants engaged as part of the project to ensure the achievement of the expected outputs.
• Ensure proper identification of and follow up with civil society groups, national institutions and consultants who will be involved in the implementation of activities under the relevant project outcome areas;
• Provide technical support and expert advice to implementing partners and key stakeholders on specific issues related to the project component scope;
• Assume responsibility for the smooth functioning of all operational activities related to project implementation;
• Hold consultations with the project partners and other stakeholders in order to ensure timely information about the project implementation;
• Ensure timely implementation of all project component activities and monitor the proper use of funds according to signed agreements and work plans;
• Prepare complete documentation necessary for signing Project Partner Agreements (PAs) with implementing partners, and contracts with individual and other service providers; and
• Provide support to implementing partners to manage related outputs and activities.

2.

Results based monitoring and evaluation, and knowledge building

• The technical analyst is responsible for regular monitoring and contribute to the overall project reporting as well as for timely submission of quality progress reports and agreed-upon monitoring deliverables;
• Regularly review planned activities, and make necessary adjustments when needed in response to any emerging circumstances;
• Review partners’ reports and provide technical support and capacity building for improved results based reporting of project partners;
• Provide evidence-based advocacy inputs to inform UN Women and the project’s advocacy efforts, as well as its communications and partnership strategies for the empowerment of rural women;

3.

Finance and Administration of the project component

• Support management of the project financial resources in accordance with UN Women rules and regulations;
• Manage project files and support information collection and dissemination;
• Contribute to the development of technical documents, including those needed to initiate and generate momentum, such as implementation/action plans for project activities; prepare terms of reference, etc.