This activity is placed in the frame of the targeted capacity building activities (Work Package 3 of the Policy Answers project) in ALBANIA (Task 3.1) led by the National Agency for Research and Innovation (NASRI) as Associated Partner in cooperation with Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI).

Implementation of the capacity building activities

The contractors have started our work with introductory/informal contact meetings with designated RPOs. Each member of our team has contacted two of the approved RPOs that will receive training and support for the design and implementation of GEPs. In these meetings, they explained the purpose of the project to decision-makers and higher management in each RPO, the need and requirements for GEPs and gender budgeting in their institutions and the prerequisite to have a GEP for participation in the EU programmes.

Memoranda of Cooperation have been signed by eight Albanian RPOs. Each Memorandum included the establishment of responsibilities for GEPs at RPOs (nomination of responsible persons or a team) to coordinate activities in the areas of gender equality and the fight against gender-based violence and discrimination. This has served as the first step towards a strategic commitment of Albanian research performing organisations (RPOs), to ensure gender equality and a safe environment for teachers as well as students. The Rectors of the Universities and the General Director of NASRI have signed the respective Memorandums.

The team then organised the first workshop for RPOs' representatives for a half day in Tirana. The main theme of this workshop was “Definition of GEP, tools and resources, data collection”. There were five trainers in charge of the organisation of the workshop. These trainers prepared the materials and delivered the training. In the first session of the workshop, the participants were introduced to the main concepts of gender equality and gender budgeting in high education, the definition of a gender equality plan. They discussed the requirements and the strategy of the European Commission in support of the achievement of gender equality and gender mainstreaming. In the second session, the trainers explained the need and the role of context analysis as well as the steps to be followed for the identification of gender gaps in each institution. The participants discussed the important role of the stakeholders and ways to engage them in the process. Then the trainers explained the importance of gender-segregated data and the calculation of indexes that will help the RPO identify their needs that are to be addressed in the first draft of GEP. At the end of the training, the trainers explained how this project would work, the expectations from each RPO and the procedure to be followed after this first workshop. All the materials of the training were sent to the participants after the training (Annex: Materials of the first workshop).

After the first workshop, the representatives of each RPO have been working on collecting gender-segregated data in their institutions and performing their context analysis (Annex: An example of the gender segregated data for RPOs). Each member of the team has supported the representatives of the RPOs in this process with explanations of the indexes and worked examples. These data and the results of the analysis will be discussed and interpreted in the second workshop to be organized after each RPO has concluded this process.

Presentations of the workshop are in Albanian language and made available in the attachments to this news. They may be reused with attribution by other stakeholders.

List of RPOs / beneficiaries of the training

1. Universiteti “Fan S.Noli”, Korce http://www.unkorce.edu.al/
2. Universiteti “Aleksander Xhuvani”, Elbasan https://uniel.ems.al/
3. Universiteti Europian i Tiranes, https://uet.edu.al/
4. Unversiteti Mesdhetar i Shqiperise, https://www.umsh.edu.al/
5. Universiteti Barleti https://www.umb.edu.al/
6. Universiteti Metropolitan Tirana, https://umt.edu.al/
7. Canadian Institute of Technology (CIT), https://www.cit.edu.al/
8. Agjencia Kombetare e Kerkimi Shkencor dhe Inovacionit (NASRI), http://nasri.gov.al/