This project is being implemented by Co-Plan under the NOSA Good Governance program area. Its goal is to explore patterns of cooperation between/among communes at the local government level for purposes of institutionalizing cooperation between/among local government units to improve service delivery in the context of decentralization reforms.

The project started in January 2006 with an analysis of the decentralization reforms carried out so far and the practical transfer of powers from the central government to the local government units. During the period of March-April a number of interviews were conducted with officials of stake-holding institutions and organizations in the process such as the Ministry of the Interior; the Ministry of Public Works, Transports and Telecommunications; local government units (municipality/commune/region) with representatives of USAID, UNDP, GTZ, SNV, and the Albanian Association of Water Supply and Sewage.

In the next phase of the project, the implementers identified that public transportation directly affected the quality of citizens’ life and agreed to launch a project to analyze the quality of public transportation in the city of Tirana. Public transportation is a decentralized service with direct impact also on regional development. At this stage various experts were consulted from the municipalities, communes and the region of Tirana, as well as from the involved ministries. The input and feedback from various consultations was used to design the overall methodology of the study. On 19 July 2006 a meeting of the advisory group of the project was held to discuss with an extended audience the proposed methodology of the project. The meeting was also attended by representatives from the Ministry of Transports, the Municipality of Tirana, the mayors of communes, the chairs of the association of municipalities and communes, etc.

The Project on the improvement of public transportation in the region of Tirana will focus on research on the ground to diagnose the situation of public transportation in this region. In addition it will analyze the legal and institutional framework concerning this service. NOSA will embark on a carefully planned strategy to disseminate and lobby for the improvements based on the findings and recommendations of the study.