» Our mission

Working in partnership for development, progress, and prosperity for all



Welcome to the United Nations in Albania!

As a family of specialized agencies, the UN in Albania works closely with the Government and other partners including civil society, academia and the private sector, to fight poverty, strengthen the rule of law, promote human rights and fundamental freedoms, protect the environment and support economic and social reforms.

Often at the centre for harmonizing these actions, the UN in Albania takes its inspiration from the United Nations Charter, the overarching instrument of the UN, as well as more recent agreements reached by world leaders, such as the Millennium Declaration that address many of the complex challenges the world faces.

Through a coherent country programme, the UN fully supports and works towards the complementary agendas of: Albania’s goal of European Union integration, national priorities expressed in the National Strategy for Development and Integration and the Integrated Planning System, as well as the programmes of international partners, and harmonization and aid effectiveness. This includes Albania’s commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Albania is unique in the world in that following a request from the Albanian Government to the United Nations, Albania was selected as one of eight countries around the world to pilot UN efforts to Deliver as One UN in January 2007. The One UN concept builds on the existing reform agenda set by UN member states, which asked the UN to accelerate its efforts to increase the coherence and effectiveness of its operations in the field.

The piloting phase of Delivering as One came to an end in 2011, and the efforts of the Albanian government, the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) and international partners to lay the foundations for a new way of working together showed concrete results, including increased alignment with national priorities, improved joint programming, increased efficiency gains and cost savings.
The conceptualisation and formulation of the next One UN Programme took into account national priorities and the role of the UN in a pre EU accession middle-income country, and culminated in the signing of the Government of Albania–United Nations Programme of Cooperation 2012–2016.

The Government has affirmed its commitment to the continuation of the Delivering as One approach and reiterated that there is no going back to business as usual. Building on lessons learnt and results of the Country-Led Evaluation and of the Independent Evaluation of Delivering as One, the UN Country Team, under the new programme cycle, will work together with partners towards further strengthening of the systems put in place to date.