Consultation Meeting on “Drafting Position Papers for Capacity Development in the Water Supply and Sewerage Sector in Albania”

SHUKALB organized an online consultation meeting on 18 February 2021, with the overall objective to discuss and establish a common approach among the stakeholders on two advocacy topics for International Financing Institutions (IFIs) and Donors: (1) Better integration of capital investment projects and capacity development measures of Public Utility Companies (PUCs) with existing training and capacity development programs offered by SHUKALB; and (2) Support for the use of asset management products and funding for capacity development for asset management of Local Government Units (LGUs) and PUCs, in the framework of the Regional Capacity Development Network (RCDN) Project.

The meeting was successful in collecting feedback and identifying important elements to be included in the draft position papers. 15 representatives attended the meeting from member PUCs, Association of Albanian Municipalities, Association for Local Autonomy, GIZ-Bilateral Water Program, Water Regulatory Authority and RCDN. The meeting was moderated by Mihallaq Qirjo, Director, The Resource Environmental Center, Albania.

The moderator gave an overview of the advocacy topics and facilitated an interactive discussion among the participants about the issues and needs of the sector toward the specific topics. Furthermore, the participants were invited to provide feedback in the position papers drafting process, as well as participate on the final stakeholder meeting to be organized in March to further discuss on the final position papers.[:]