Over the past two decades, Tirana has nearly doubled in size as people migrated from the rural areas and northeastern parts of the country to the capital.
The city’s population has increased from 250,000 in 1991 to 600,000 in 2008, an average growth rate of 8 percent a year.
As a result, informal settlements have spread quickly in the Tirana metropolitan area. Many residents of these settlements have limited access to basic municipal services and lack secure land tenure.
Local authorities have undertaken a number of different initiatives to improve services to residents and foster economic growth, but the absence of a coherent, planned strategy has impacted their effectiveness.
The Cities Alliance funding will provide support for the Municipality of Tirana in developing a long-term strategy for sustainable development that will bring all of those initiatives together. This includes:
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A Local Economic Development plan that will strengthen Tirana’s role as the economic center of Albania, create a competitive business environment and attract investment. Currently, much of its growth is centered on the service, construction and transport sectors, and a significant part of the local economy is informal.
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An integrated strategy to upgrade the city’s informal settlements, with an emphasis on involving residents in the process.
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A framework for cooperation among the various municipal governments. Metropolitan Tirana covers three municipalities and six communes, and many informal settlements cross administrative boundaries. This requires coordination in the areas of overlapping services, economic planning and managing growth.
The proposal was submitted to the Cities Alliance by the Municipality of Tirana, and approved on February 25. It is sponsored by members the World Bank and GTZ, who are co-funding the activity.
