Press releases 
A practical guide to e-filing now at taxpayers fingertips
TIRANA, February 2, 2010. In support of the Albanian government efforts to promote e-filing as a simple, quick, and transparent way to declare taxes, MCCA2 work...
Albania’s One-Stop-Shop Licensing Center Expands to Regions
TIRANA, December 14, 2009. Businesses in cities across Albania will soon be able to enjoy the ease of the one-stop-shop for applying for commercial licenses nea...
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Publications 
Multimedia 
GDT hotline radio spot

GDT hotline campaign, October-November 2009
 
NLC TV spot

National Licensing Center campaign, June-July 2009
 
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Poverty and discrimination drive Albanian exodus to EU
On the main streets in Bujanovac and neighbouring Presevo glittering, low-cut party dresses let customers dream of a better life far away from the unemployment and poverty in southern Serbia.

Poverty and discrimination drive Albanian exodus to EU
On the main streets in Bujanovac and neighbouring Presevo glittering, low-cut party dresses let customers dream of a better life far away from the unemployment and poverty in southern Serbia.

Useful Links 
Civil Society Engagement - Advocacy 
The MCCA2 project is committed to support advocacy efforts by civil society organizations through a tailored technical assistance program and funding.


Advocacy Capacity Assessment
 
The first step in the process was to conduct an advocacy capacity assessment, which involved in-depth interviews with representatives of 30 Albanian CSOs. The assessment was conducted in cooperation with the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC), a U.S. based organization which has led transformative community-driven projects across the globe. It was based a questionnaire developed and tested elsewhere by ISC, based on the Advocacy Index (AI), a USAID-developed tool specifically geared towards measuring the ability of organizations to successfully engage in advocacy campaigns and achieve advocacy goals, revised to fit with the Albanian context.

The interviews focused on the past involvement of the organizations with advocacy campaigns or other advocacy-related work. The goal was to learn about their experience with advocacy: the successes achieved, the challenges encountered, as well as what further training or technical assistance they would find most useful, in order to be able to develop a capacity building program and a subcontract program tailored to meet the needs and priorities of the Albanian civil society organizations.

After the interview, the detailed USAID Advocacy Index was used to rank organizations’ performance on each indicator on a scale of one to five with one being the least advanced and five being the most advanced (see Annex D). A score of zero was recorded in the rare cases that an indicator was not applicable for the CSO’s work. The scores were then averaged automatically in the CSO database for each of eight components. The average of these components results in an overall score for the CSO. Scores and comments made explaining each score were then used to compile individualized Assessment Reports for each organization that include recommended priority areas for improvement as well as specific recommendations. Individual reports have now already been shared with respective CSOs.

The overall conclusion of the assessment was that the group of the 30 CSOs assessed, have a strong set of basic advocacy skills. Half of the group scores are between 3.5 and 3.9 on the 5 point Advocacy Index. This is consistent with advocacy skills of CSOs throughout the region.


The Training Plan

Following the completion of the Advocacy Capacity Assessment, the project is now working on consolidating a capacity development training assistance plan which will consist in group trainings as well as individual technical assistance, based on the self identified needs by the organization, and the assessment findings.

MCCA2 will offer the organizations with which we partner the opportunity to benefit from the capacity building activities that the program will develop.
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News Blog 

Wednesday, February 24, 2010


The fourth MCCA2 quarterly newsletter is published

By clicking on the title “Project newsletter”, under “Publications” on the left of the screen, you can read the fourth issue of “Monitor”, the MCCA2 quarterly newsletter, which covers the key activities of the program in the period between November 1, 2009 and January 31, 2010. Its editorial comes from Prof.Dr. Mariana Semini, Director of the School of Magistrates.

Your comments on the newsletter are welcome!


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Contact Information 

Millenium Challenge Corporation
Albania Threshold Program II

Rruga "Pjetër Budi"
Classic Construction Building
First floor, No. 10
 Tirana 1000, Albania

Tel: +355 4 23 80 400
fax: +355 4 23 80 424 

Email: office@mcata.org.al