This document reports on an Institutional Learning Process that has critically analysed the impact and effectiveness of Terre des hommes’ (Tdh) engagement in Albania over the last 14 years. It looks at the role Tdh has played in the emergence of a State Child Protection System (CPS) in Albania.
Tdh’s involvement in Albania began in 1999 following the demise of communism in Albania, when few social care services existed. Albania has since received support for development from Western governments and global institutions. However, despite ongoing commitment to reform government structures, a lack of funding, insufficient capacities for planning and implementing social services, and local political traditions have hindered the development of stable and effective municipal social services. Aside from the existence of a few residential institutions, formal child protection has only emerged fairly recently. Against this backdrop, Tdh, UNICEF, World Vision, Save the Children, and other organisations have been active in providing support and resources to local government child protective structures, central institutions, local non-governmental organisations and community-based organisations, and families.
The Institutional Learning Process (also known as a Capitalisation Study) was commissioned to reflect, identify and document the knowledge and lessons learned across the various programmes Tdh has contributed to in Albania, which could be used to inform developments by Tdh and others elsewhere. The Institutional Learning Process involved desk research in which an extensive collection of documents was reviewed, interviews and focus groups with stakeholders in Albania and elsewhere, and facilitated workshops in the Tdh regional office in Budapest. An example of the latter is Tdh’s work to form a partnership with an organisation in Greece to address the issue of children who move across borders. While many children move across borders, child protection is often viewed as a national issue, and Tdh sought to take an innovative approach to this problem.
Lastly, the Institutional Learning Process revealed three organisational commitments that have informed Tdh strategy and practice and could apply in other development contexts:
- Commitment to maintaining and sharing child protection practice expertise, allied to a community-empowerment vision among marginalised communities.
- Commitment to multiple capacity-building collaborations including community collaborations, local NGO collaborations, INGO collaborations, and State collaborations.
- Commitment to a sustained but not static approach to projects which progressively build the capacity of local state and NGO stakeholders.
