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Government - Donor Round Table chaired by Minister of State Mr. Genc Pollo and co-chaired by Ambassador Henk Van den Dool from The Netherlands takes place on 13 November 2009An excellent forum for an open and constructive dialogue on discussing the effectiveness of donor assistance
 On 13 November 2009 the Government of Albania held the regular Government - Donor Roundtable, chaired by Minister of State Mr. Genc Pollo and H.E. Henk Van Den Dool, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as rotating chair of the Donor Technical Secretariat. Senior officials from the government and the donor community in Albania participated in this event.
On behalf of the Government of Albania, Minister of State emphasised that in spite of 2009 being the election year, the Government kept a steady rhythm of reforms and initiated further ambitious initiatives. Mr. Pollo made an overview of major achievements and reform developments marked since the last meeting in November 2008, and progress towards European integration. Addressing issues concerning improvement of external assistance coordination, he pointed out that as a signatory country of the Paris Declaration on the External Assistance Effectiveness, Albania remains fully committed to its principles of “effective leadership, ownership and alignment of development policies, and strategies”. Ambassador Henk Van Den Dool addressed the roundtable on behalf of the donor community and paid tribute to the effective ‘bridging role’ the Department for Strategy and Donor-Coordination performed between the donor community and the Government. Line Ministries were called upon to take on even greater leadership of the Sector Working Groups to help evolve these into forums where the Government’s strategic vision and operational outlook are shared and discussed and sector wide programmes can be developed. Staff turnover in the public sector was noted as a risk for the sustainability of capacities and institutions that have been built with considerable financial and technical donor assistance. Minister of European Integration Majlinda Bregu and the Head of EC Delegation in Albania, Ambassador Helmuth Lohan presented issues related to EU Integration following the application for EU candidate status on 28 April 2009. Mrs. Bregu highlighted that the government is working intensively for the fulfilment of conditions and requirements to achieve candidate status being fully aware that this the biggest challenge of the Albanian government. An overview of Macroeconomic and Fiscal situation in Albania was given by the Minister of Finance, Ridvan Bode, who also highlighted the sustained economic growth despite of the global financial crisis. The DSDC Director, Valbona Kuko, made a detailed presentation of the IPS implementation and recognised the achievements of the joint work of Government and donor community in strengthening coordination through Sector Working Groups (SWGs) and preparation of a Harmonization Action Plan to implement Paris Declaration. The government and donor representatives concluded the event by identifying a few concrete issues to make further progress over the next year.
Materials from this event can be downloaded here: Speech by MInister of State, Mr. Genc Pollo Speech by Ambassador of the Kingdom of The Netherlands, Mr. Henk Van Den Dool Speech by Minister of European Integration, Mrs. Majlinda Bregu Presentation by DSDC Director, Mrs. Valbona Kuko Speech by Ambassador Helmuth Lohan Speech my Minister of Finance, Mr. Ridvan Bode |
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