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Albania: Performance Measurement: Improving Municipal Service Delivery and Strengthening Local Autonomy
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Background
Unlike more advanced countries of East and Central Europe, Albania is without a real tradition of local self-governance. This lack of experience, as well as lingering legal uncertainties, can explain very low levels of confidence and trust on the part of both the elected officials and the publics they serve.
Like other transition countries, Albania is undergoing a simultaneous process of democratization and fiscal decentralization in which authority and decision-making powers will be devolved to local governments. One key reward of decentralization is that local governments are better able than central authorities to provide public services that are well aligned with citizen needs and demands. But ensuring that services improve requires that local governments are able to define their own objectives and deliver services in accordance with local needs. This process can be assisted by performance measurement, a management tool that enables local governments to perform meaningful self-evaluations and regularly track, measure, and report service delivery improvement or decline over time and across services. As a special area of financial management that is centered on the relationship between local government and the citizen, performance measurement can also help build confidence and accountability.
Approach
An Urban Institute team introduced the steps of performance measurement in Albania in three municipalities and one commune. A particular sector was identified and a working group was formed in each local government. This working group and the UI team together developed a Service Improvement Action Plan. The Plan described the main problems and issues faced by the sector, assigned specific performance indicators, and mapped out a plan of action for more efficient, effective and well-targeted service delivery. From a customer survey carried out in each locality, a set of performance indicators was derived to identify citizen observations of current services and their needs and expectations. Each local government made survey results public and began the tasks in the Action Plans for service improvement and citizen outreach.
Results
A final seminar presented project results to a spectrum of local governments, focusing on the four model Action Plans for solid waste, roads, social services, and water sectors with key results from the citizen surveys as building blocks for other local governments to start performance measurement in their own communities. Also discussed was a national indicators database, to be housed with the Association of Municipalities , which would allow Albanian local governments to see how their own communities compare to others, and identify which local governments were sources for best practice models. Sectoral experts could then assess local services in order to identify areas of greatest need and to design appropriate regulations.
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