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ECO Friends

Funded by the IPA II – European Union Integration Facility 2017 program, under the management of Albania’s Ministry of Finance and lasting 18 months (March 2021-September 2022), the ECO Friends (Environment and Climate Operative Friends) project was dedicated to strengthening cooperation between civic and social organizations, and Albanian state organizations involved in environmental protection and on issues concerning climate change and disaster risk reduction in Albania.

The project

The main aim of the project was to promote inclusive dialogue policies between citizens, organizations and public institutions, at national and local level. This made it possible to strengthen trust and bonding between citizens and civil organizations on the one hand, and between organizations and institutions on the other. Globally, this supports an improvement in the resilience of communities to climate change and helps to create the necessary conditions for cooperation in the creation of new policies, closer to EU standards, on climate change and risk reduction.

Results

  • Mapping and implementation of a network among Albanian organizations active in the area of risk reduction and climate change
  • Implementation of an awareness-raising campaign targeted at citizens, to raise awareness about the issues among the population in the target areas
  • Implementation of training activities dedicated to participatory democracy, participatory processes, and issues of climate change and environmental protection
  • Realization of courses with prefectures and municipalities in the target areas (the Prefectures of Shkodra, Lezha and Berat), to train stakeholders on climate vulnerability and capacity assessment, thus also improving the capacities of public institutions and opening windows of dialogue and exchange with civic and social organizations

CIMA Research Foundation’s contribution

As part of the project, we conducted several trainings with civil organizations and institutions, at the local and prefecture levels. We have also carried out an awareness campaign for high schools and four consultation tables with institutions in the Prefecture of Berat; in addition to these, there is a national table with civil protection, dedicated to the theme Minimizing and managing the effects of main risks related to climate change.
Finally, CIMA Research Foundation produced the Standard Operating Procedure for Integrating Real-Time Data into Prefecture-Level Emergency Planning (NCPA) and a policy document based on the results of the consultation tables.