Formalizing the Agri Sector is the key to economic growth and investment as well as to new employment opportunities.  High production costs for farmers, traditionally resulted in lack of competitiveness and lack of growth. To address this, the Government of Albania has approved the reduction of fuel costs for farmers starting from January 2021. In exchange, all farmers need to offer data on their land, products, and contracts. All farmers are invited to apply for this support till 25th of February, via e-albania. This incentive was achieved thanks to many efforts of business associations like KASH, and other stakeholders such as BiznesAlbania, National Rural Entity, Albania Food Industry,…

Increasing market access of the Albanian IT and BPO sectors aims to enable the local IT and BPO companies to diversify markets, increase sales and investment, and create new jobs. Our strategy for increasing market access of IT and BPO sector is built around two main pillars: i) developing the marketing capacities of the IT and BPO companies to access to the domestic and foreign markets and attract investments; ii) supporting IT and BPO companies to add value to services and respond to requirements of buyers in order enable them to secure contracts from new buyers. One of the laters partners of RisiAlbania is Softup ltd, a software…

Tirana Municipality backed by Swiss project RisiAlbania inaugurates the first career guidance centre to assist youngsters and adults seeking employment The Career Guidance Office of Tirana Municipality that opened December 18th, offers a new service for young people and the wider community. It will serve to inform and advise young people and adults in their professional and educational decisions. Deputy Mayor Anisa Ruseti and Swiss Ambassador Adrian Maître were the first visitors in the centre on its opening day. The centre’s services follow the model of Swiss examples of career centres, adapted to Albania’s context and youth needs. “Career guidance has a two-fold benefit: First, young people benefit…

Career services at university level are relatively new in the Albanian context. Empowering young students since their early career steps with information, orientation and professional guidance is crucial for their success in the labour market. On the other hand, sharing best practices from European higher education institutions empowers staff at universities to adapt and adopt their services based on labour market, as well as student needs. To this purpose, a series of virtual exchange visits between Albanian Universities andWarsaw University of Technology are taking place, with the first one held yesterday on December 3rd. RisiAlbania is facilitating these exchanges with the aim to build capacities and knowledge transfer…

EBRD Small Business Advice (ASB), funded by EU Western Balkans Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility, in cooperation with AASF and RisiAlbania, organized on Wednesday, December 2, at 10:00, the thematic webinar “Agribusiness in Albania: From Certifications to Contracting in Agriculture”. The panel consisting of Ms. Ardiola Hristic (Program Manager, EBRD, Small Business Advice), Mr. Stephan Joss, (Project Director Risi Albania), Ms. Adela Leka (Deputy Director of AASF Program), and Mr. Drini Imami, PHD, (Associate Professor, Agricultural University of Tirana), had presentations and discussions on the possibilities of support programs for agribusiness as a whole and Albanian exporters in the field of Medicinal and Aromatic Fruits, Vegetables and Herbs…

Improving customer service is essential to increase trust and accesibility of National Agency for Employment and Skills services, both by employers and jobseekers. NAES with the support of RisiAlbania has developed the Customer Satisfaction Measurement and Monitoring System. This is an information system that helps NAES to achieve its objectives in improving the services provided as well as increasing citizen satisfaction and grievance management within service standards. During October 2020, the Complaints Management System was piloted at the KPA Central Directorate, analyzing the sources of complaints, the type of complaints and their management. The findings of this process were presented on 27 November at a ‘round table’ online,…

Responding to market needs and filling non-formal training gaps in the market is the backbone of the interventions within skills supply component. Through its intervention in this domain Risi is enabling non formal private training providers to improve their approach in cooperating with businesses in order to have their voice in curricula development, practical training of their trainees and well as in offering a decent job after the training. this effort is combined with many innovative training methods such as online, blending learning, virtual classes which now more than ever are supporting the training providers to adapt to the “new normal” of pandemic.  In response to the Covid-19…