GIZ Albania

The development cooperation between Germany and Albania began in 1988. The Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH has been active in Albania on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) ever since. In 2008 GIZ opened an office in Tirana. Currently 94 national and 14 international employees, and seven integrated specialists are working in the country (as of 31.12.2018). Once the poorest country in Europe, Albania could make some very significant advancements and is now a candidate country to the European Union (EU). Yet, some challenges remain: unemployment is high, particularly among young people, where the current rate is at 30 per cent. 40 per cent of the population work in jobs that are related to agriculture. Since a lot of the equipment in this sector is outdated, productivity is very low. Public Institutions are still weak, infrastructure needs further development and awareness of the environment is not ver...