Effective and functional environmental governance relies on enhanced institutional technical expertise and proactive public engagement. Recognizing the intricating aspects of environmental challenges, the OSCE Presence is working with environmental compliance and enforcement agencies to enhance their technical resources to address environmental violations and increase the role and participation of citizens in environmental governance.
Against this backdrop, as part of its ongoing efforts, the OSCE Presence has taken the lead in undertaking two significant documents, such as a public survey on environmental governance and a training need assessment across the institutional chain dealing with environmental violations.
On 19 December 2023, the Presence unveiled and discussed the preliminary findings of both reports with 30 participants such as prosecutors, environmental inspectors, police officials, civil servant officials, and civil society organizations. The technical discussion further elaborated and deepened the findings, which will guide and support the Presence's work in designing advanced and targeted training programs for institutions and public environmental awareness-raising campaigns.
Opening the event, Head of the OSCE Presence's Department on Governance in Economic and Environmental Issues Aleksandar Maskovic said: "The insights discussed here will help to discuss future training programs and also contribute to the development of a robust and co-ordinated strategy among all stakeholders."
Anila Leka, a prosecutor from the General Prosecution Office, underlined the importance of building capacities of prosecutors on environmental violations which fall in line with the efforts to revise the whole criminal code of Albania.
The survey on environmental governance indicated that 86% of respondents have shown high interest to contribute for the environmental governance in Albania. The survey tackled other relevant issues such as the nexus of environmental violations with corruption and gender. The obtained results will support the Presence and other relevant stakeholders to design and initiate targeted environmental campaigns.
The training need assessment underlined the importance of systematic training programs for civil servant of institutions dealing with environmental violations. It shed light on the current state of affairs, identified gaps in knowledge and skills, and ultimately pave the way for strategic interventions that will empower relevant stakeholders in their efforts to combat environmental crimes effectively.
The public survey and training need assessment are developed under the extra-budgetary project to enhance environmental governance and security in Albania implemented by the OSCE Presence in Albania and supported by the governments of Norway, France and Italy.
