About Project

The project “Increasing Civil Society Organizations Capacities for Mainstreaming Rights of People with Disabilities in Albania” is implemented by World Vision Albania (WV) (as the leading organization in this project) in cooperation with the “Albanian Disability Rights Foundation” (ADRF) and the “Association Defending the Rights for Persons with Disabilities” (MEDPAK).

Why this project?

Based on the 2011 Population and Housing Census by INSTAT data’s, in Albania, 6,2% of the population over the age of 15 represents a disability, while according to official statistics of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth, persons with disabilities assessed as such by KMCAP and which are beneficiaries of disability payments, account for 4.9% of the population in the country (No. 141,721, out of which 68,270 are part of the Social Insurance scheme and 73,451 are beneficiaries of the State Social Service scheme). Despite the efforts and measures taken so far, the community of people with disabilities still faces difficulties, which prevent them being citizens with equal rights and opportunities as the rest of society.

Meanwhile, according to the study for the prevalence of children with disability in Albania’s, undertaken by World Vision in Albania in partnership with Save the Children, 2017, the prevalence of children with disabilities in Albania is 10.4%. According to this study the areas with the highest prevalence of children with disability are the cities of Lezha, Berat, Korça and Dibra, areas that were selected to be supported by this project.

The project aims to support advocacy efforts in monitoring of public policies related to mainstreaming rights of people with disabilities and capacity building for local CSOs and disabled people organizations (DPOs).

Through interventions that are planned to be carried out during three years project cycle, it’s foreseen to be achieved below results:

1. Strengthen the capacities of CSOs active in the disability rights area (including DPOs, persons with disabilities and their caregivers) to advocate for the rights of PwD and their participation in monitoring of public policies.

2. A mechanism will be set up to monitor the implementation of the National Action Plan on Persons with Disabilities (2016-2020) at local and national level and used effectively by CSOs.

3. Empower local CSO networks to actively engage in dialogue with local and central government to contribute to the implementation of the National Action Plan on Persons with Disabilities (2016-2020).