83 research outputs found
A quality perspective of sustainable management of water services. Insights of citizens' perceptions in five albanian municipalities
Get PDFThis paper aims to explore citizens' perceptions of water services to inform policy-making and pressure service providers to improve efficiency and service quality using innovative solutions. Despite abundant water resource endowments, ongoing infrastructure upgrades, and technological advancements implemented for sustainable service management, the industry failed to deliver the expected results. However, more than 60% of produced water goes unbilled, service coverage disparities persist, service quality falls short of goals, and low water meter readings worsen resource utilisation and financial sustainability. As a result of poor and unsustainable social, environmental, and economic management of services, the industry witnessed a significant restructuring process, shifting from municipal to regional-level governance, overlooking citizen perceptions of water services as an element that may directly impact the sustainability and future developments of the water sector. The latter, coupled with research findings highlighting deficiencies of municipalities in Albania in local public services provision, triggered the in-depth investigation of water sector governance in Albania (from the citizens' point of view). The research sets a baseline in exploring citizens' perceptions of water services, using a representative sample-based survey in five Albanian municipalities and along five dimensions of service management: access and quality of the services, transparency and communication, satisfaction with services, value for money, and willingness to pay (WTP) for improved services. Our findings suggest a low satisfaction with water services offered by municipally-owned water utilities, primarily related to water supply duration and quality. Despite lacking trust in service improvement, WTP for improved services is positive
Place Attachment in Seven Areas of Tirana, Albania
No full textLittle is known about place attachment in the Balkans. This study aims to start filling this gap. After a contextualization of place attachment studies in the Balkans and its relevance for research and practice, a brief review of theory is offered. Then the methodology of the empirical part of the study is clarified. Over 300 citizens living in seven different neighborhoods of Tirana have been interviewed on place attachment issues such as sense of belonging, familiarity, self-identification and neighborhood experience. The results of the empirical study show that place attachment in Tirana is quite positive. The findings and analysis indicate that place attachment indicators do not vary significantly according to educational level, gender and age, but do cor-relate with length of residence. It also appeared that place attachment indicators are higher in well-established neighborhoods compared to the new high-rise areas. The study concludes with recommendations for follow-up research, specifically qualitative research on citizens’ meanings of place attachment and study on place attachment related to responsible behavior
Social Innovation and Sustainable Economic Development: Participatory Tourism Destination Management
No full textThe importance of tourism for the Balkan region is growing (World Travel & Tourism Council 2017). Tourist numbers are increasing, and, perhaps given the lack of much promising alternatives, governments embrace tourism as a priority economic develop- ment sector. There is however a substantial gap between governments aiming at tour- ism development, and tourism practices in real life. Tourism is a fragmented sector with many service providers and a dynamic tourism demand. Since tourists organize their travel increasingly by themselves with the support of internet (Nientied & Karafili, 2016) tourism demand also becomes more diverse and ad hoc. The increasingly impor- tant role of internet, the lower fares of airlines, and tourist searching for new destina- tions offer opportunities for the Western Balkan. However, Western Balkan governments have no adequate answers to such developments and for example marketing is rather conventional and destination management is inadequate.
The Albanian government recognizes the importance of tourism as an economic growth sector, yet, its contribution to the GDP is almost insignificant based on the National Institute of Statistics data. The latter may not be a genuine reflection of the real situation for numerous factors, among which informality. According to Medina and Schneider (2018) and Boka and Torluccio (2013), the informal sector in Albania accounts for at least 30% of the GDP. The World Tourism and Travel Council, how- ever, assess that the direct contribution of the sector during 2016 is 7.9%, with a growth rate projection of 5.4% annually (WTTC 2016). Despite contradicting fig- ures, the Government of Albania aims at developing tourism in its broadest sense and to extend the tourism season to span across all four seasons by introducing alternative forms of tourism, such as sightseeing, cultural, culinary, sportive, histori- cal, religious, and adventurous. This would lift the development pressure off the coastal area and shift the focus towards more inland destinations.
The Government’s overall development strategy is the National Draft-Strategy for Tourism 2014–2020. This strategy has two significant flaws. First, 3 years after discus- sion in parliament, it is still a draft policy. Insufficient attention has been given to the strategy after delivering the draft. In the real world, the importance of the policy is lim- ited. Second, the strategy is broad and aims at promoting “everything”. The strategy talks about sustainable tourism, but does not elaborate the concept in practical measures for destination management, environmental management, etc. In practice, it is noted that tourism development is rather uncoordinated, is led by the private sector tourism service providers, and the role of government at local and regional level is limited. A risk is that local governments (and national government too) are eager to get investors and can easily “forget” about sustainability when investors come with a tourism project proposal. Indeed, the current conditions for sustainable tourism in Albania are rather unfavourable. The current tourism policy of the government is inconclusive with regard to sustainable tourism development, the priorities for short-term economic development are high (and much higher than the concern for environment and communities), and local governments are weak in applying regulations. In terms of management and coordination, the culture of working together in partnerships in destinations is weak.
The experience of tourism in the Durres coastal region, close to Albania’s capital Tirana, gives ample reasons for concern. Tourism development along the Durres coast is a typical example of unsustainable tourism as it is seasonal sun-sea-sand tourism, with high environmental costs and congestion. Local governments have issued permits for construction of hotels, and later “discovered” that their actions led to serious reper- cussions, such as higher investments needed in infrastructure. Alternatives for this type of tourism development are needed. There are however only very few best practices on small-scale sustainable tourism in Albania, and no replicable local sustainable tourism models have been designed and promoted. Exactly this issue is taken up in a sustain- able tourism project developed in the Albanian municipality of Gramsh. The concept is to develop an innovation in local scale tourism, based on available resources and with local coordination. The role of an external NGO (non-government organization) is meant to fuel the process during the first 2 years and then develop others sustainable tourism cases. Before discussing the case of Gramsh, attention first turns to a brief discussion of the two key concepts of social innovation and sustainable tourism, and to the methodology of social network analysis, used for the present study
D1.5 ‐ Data Management Plan
No full textThe Working Package 1 'Project Management and Coordination", Task 1.3 "Data Management Plan (DMP),
open science practices and Research Data Management" of the GreenFORCE project comprises the Deliverable
1.5 – Data Management Plan (DMP). This document is the first Version of the DMP, which, as per the Grant
Agreement, is to be submitted within the 6th month of the GreenFORCE Project, more precisely, within
31/12/2022. In case needed, an updated second version of the DMP shall be shared in the 18th month of the
project duration.
The DMP produced in the framework of the GreenFORCE Project is a living document that describes how
to research information (research documents and data) will be managed during and after the project duration (the
data life cycle). The document is prepared based on the Horizon DMP Template1 and reflects the Grant
Agreement and Consortium Agreement requirements. Furthermore, the DMP describes the data that will be
generated/created/used, how the generated/created/used data will be shared and preserved in the short and
long term, and what restrictions (if any) will be applied.
The approach for the DMP preparation evolved in steps. Preliminarily, all partners in the GreenFORCE Project
provided information regarding data management policy and practices in respective institutions through a
structured questionnaire. Part of the information provided has been embedded in the current version of the
DMP. In a second step, the draft DMP was shared with all partners, providing information regarding research
documents and data used/produced in the framework of the GreenFORCE Project. Once all comments were
addressed, the DMP was submitted to the Ethics Advisor for clearance. Finally, the DMP was finalised and
uploaded into the system on 31/12/2022.
In its first Version (V1), the DMP provides the general approach and policy to the data management of the
GreenFORCE Project. It is expected that during the GreenFORCE Project implementation, the DMP will be
updated regularly and accordingly, gaining precision and substance
Entrepreneurial Eco-Systems for Sustainable Community-Based Tourism Development in Albania
No full textMotivation of Knowledge Workers – the Case of Albania
No full textBackground and Purpose: Very little is known about motivation of knowledge workers in the Western Balkans. There is a widespread belief that money and career opportunities are the most critical motivational factors, but from a pre-study more intrinsic motivational factors also appeared to be important. To develop a better understanding of work motivation, a study was conducted among knowledge workers in Albania, with a special interest in the themes of extrinsic / extrinsic motivation and organizational commitment
Raporti paraprak baze: Monitorimi i zbatimit te Planeve te Pergjithshme Vendore ne Shqiperi
No full textKy raport është hartuar nga Agjencia Kombëtare për Planifikimin e Territorit (AKPT) dhe Projekti i USAID-it për Planifikimin dhe Qeverisjen Vendore (PLGP), i cili u zhvillua gjatë periudhës Nëntor 2017 – Dhjetor 2018. Raporti synon të paraqesë monitorimin e zbatimit të Planeve të Përgjithshme Vendore (PPV) të territorit dhe ndikimin e tyre në këtë të fundit si dhe në zhvillim ekonomik. Ky raport, vjen pas një periudhe intensive pune që lidhet me procesin e planifikimit të territorit në Shqipëri. Në 5-vjeçarin e fundit janë hartuar e miratuar 3 plane të rëndësisë kombëtare, përkatësisht: Plani i Përgjithshëm Kombëtar i Territorit (PPKT), Plani i Integruar Ndërsektorial për Brezin Bregdetar (PINS Bregdeti), si dhe Plani i Integruar Ndërsektorial për Zonën Tiranë-Durrës (PINS Tr-Dr). Në nivel vendor, 34 bashki kanë Plane të Përgjithshme Vendore të miratuara, 10 bashki janë në proces miratimi, 16 bashkitë e tjera janë në proces hartimi dhe vetëm 1 bashki nuk ka filluar ende procedurat për nisjen e hartimit të PPV-së. Procesi i hartimit të PPV-ve është mbështetur nga Qeveria e Shqipërisë (për 50 bashki), PLGP (për 5 bashki) dhe Programi për Decentralizimin dhe Zhvillimin Lokal (dldp) (për 5 bashki)
The impact of rural emptiness on gender relations in postsocialist Albania
Get PDFThis paper explores impacts of dramatic levels of outmigration from Puka, a remote region of northern Albania. Since 1991 depopulation, economic decline and state withdrawal have created conditions of what Dzenovska calls rural emptiness. Drawing on focus group discussions with women from eight villages, it explores how conditions of rural emptiness have led to a transformation of gender contracts, with women taking on additional responsibilities. However these changes have been accommodated within a re-traditionalised patriarchal system through the devaluation of tasks assigned to women, their increased surveillance by male relatives, and erosion of women’s social life outside the household
Information Gap Activities to Enhance Speaking Skills of Elementary Level Students
No full textAbstractSpeaking is considered as one of the most essential means of effective communication. Teaching English-speaking skills to elementary level students at university is especially challenging. The most demanding issue for teachers is how to assist students to apply the knowledge learned in the class to real-life situations. The biggest problem with low-level proficiency students is that they lack motivation and confidence when they speak. They are usually very silent and passive. They hesitate to answer any question or take self-initiative when needed to participate in class activities. Second, most students lack the vocabulary. Students are not able to bring their ideas and also comprehend the information well because they have very limited vocabulary and are not able to pronounce the words well.In many studies, students⿿ speaking competences have been shown to be influenced by their exposure to the target language. Having this in mind, teachers should create and use activities that will be authentic, up-to-date, that will be fun and motivate students, so that they can actively be engaged in the learning process.One of the speaking activities that promotes communication competences is Information Gap activities. In these activities, students have to use the target vocabulary to share the information. This paper aims at examining the methodological strategies that Information Gap technique provides and its effectiveness to increase speaking competence. The paper will describe the implementation of Information Gap activities to the elementary level students and its impact to the students⿿ speaking performance. The Information Gap techniques are activities that are designed practicing on specific items of language and short sentences. The research results revealed that the use of Information Gap activities helped students improve their speaking skills. After the implementation of these activities, students felt more confident to speak in English; they were enthusiastic in doing the activities; and their motivation for learning and using the language improved
The Role of Video Materials in EFL Classrooms
No full textAbstractThe rapid growth of technology has brought many innovations in education and especially in language teaching. In order to offer and create successful classes language teachers, especially English language teachers are using different audio-visual tools to facilitate the teaching process, besides textbooks and other interesting and engaging activities, which ensure student centeredness, autonomy, interaction and connectivity to a certain theme, and videos such as: movies, songs, power point presentations are widely used in EFL classrooms. This paper first attempts to explore the goals of using video material in EFL classrooms and the advantages of using video materials in EFL teaching, on the basis of which proposes a framework of teaching principles, strategies and specific tips which facilitate EFL teaching. Then will bring theories and practice related to the use of audio- visual tools in language learning especially in ESP classes at a university level and the reason why videos can be considered as valuable pedagogical tools, to facilitate the teaching process. The purpose of this study is to investigate the benefits that the language teachers and learners get in using audio-visual aids in teaching and learning the English language, as well as to show that by using the appropriate video material the teachers can improve and ensure student- centeredness, have their students interested and engaged in activities, be more active, motivated and confident in their communicative language competence
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