Integrated One Stop Shops, a success story!

Representatives of the government and the international community get briefed on positive practices and the strategic vision of Shkodra Municipality on the consolidation of the territorial reform.

On the initiative of the State Minister for Local Affairs and with the presence of the Swiss Ambassador in Albania, Mr Christoph Graf, the donor’s group composed of representatives of SDC, USAID, UNDP, PLGP, Cooperation Office of Italy and Cooperation Office for Development of Sweden, conducted the first informative visit for the presentation of the Model and Integrated One-Stop Shop System (municipality-administrative unit) in Shkodra Municipality. This model is one of the main success stories of the local government after the implementation of the territorial reform. 

The administrative services in Shkodra Municipality are offered through the system of One-Stop Shops (OSSH), where citizens can deposit their requests in the relevant spots set up in this municipality, to currently receive 74 different services. The model was made possible with the support of dldp, financed by the Swiss Government, and has been piloted since December 2015 in the city of Shkodra and Dajç and Velipojë administrative units, to be then implemented in all administrative units of Shkodra Municipality.

After the implementation of the Territorial Administrative Reform, Albania is divided into 61 municipalities, a part of which, as is the case with Shkodra Municipality, cover a wide territorial space and have a big population living far from the city. For this reason, the model of the Integrated One-Stop Shops is seen as an efficient instrument to have qualitative services offered as close as possible to the citizens. 

This instrument thus serves directly in the territorial consolidation of new municipalities, as well as toward their development. For this reason, representatives of the Albanian Government and of the international community were interested to closely monitor how these offices offering services operate, which are developed from three local governance programs: Decentralization and Local Development Program (dldp), UNDP STAR program, and USAID PLGP program. The dldp-supported model was closely observed in Shkodra Municipality, where the integrated system of one stop shops is operative. 

The visit of the delegation started with a trip to Dajç administrative unit, where the functioning of the OSSH was demonstrated by the employees, as well as the offering of the 74 services to Dajç inhabitants, and the direct demonstration of offering a service. 

Then the delegation continued its visit to Shkodra Municipality, where the Mayor, Mrs Voltana Ademi, presented the benefits and results achieved since the implementation of the pilot-system, stressing the increase of citizens’ satisfaction in receiving services and the commitment to extend the service all over the municipality within a short time-frame. The OSSH administrator, Mr Gjergj Kurti, and the IT admin of the municipality, Mrs Helga Sallaku, demonstrated respectively the way of organisational functioning of the “front/back office” of OSSH, and the functionality and characteristics that the system offers, which are developed in order to fit the organizational needs and the municipality’s functions for offering administrative services to Shkodra’s citizens and businesses.