Albania PLGP National Territorial Planning Agency

49 Pages·2012·0.81 MB·English

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ALBANIA PLANNING AND
LOCAL GOVERNANCE
PROJECT (PLGP)
NATIONAL TERRITORIAL PLANNING AGENCY

APRIL 2012
This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development
and was prepared by Tetra Tech ARD.
LOCAL GOVERNANCE PROGRAM IN ALBANIA: 1
NATIONAL TERRITORIAL PLANNING AGENCY ACTION PLAN
Prepared for the United States Agency for International Development, USAID Contract Number
AID-182-C-12-00001, Albania Planning and Local Governance Project (PLGP).

Tetra Tech ARD Principal Contact: Adrienne Raphael, Project Manager

Tetra Tech ARD Home Office Address: Tetra Tech ARD
159 Bank Street, Suite 300,
Burlington, VT 05401
Tel: [phone], Fax: [phone]
www.ardinc.com
ALBANIA PLANNING AND
LOCAL GOVERNANCE
PROJECT (PLGP)
NATIONAL TERRITORIAL PLANNING
AGENCY
ACTION PLAN

APRIL 2012

DISCLAIMER
The author’s views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of
the United States Agency for International Development or the United States
Government.
CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................ iii
1.0 THE CONTEXT ............................................................................................... 1

2.0 THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF NTPA BASED ON THE LAW ....................... 3

3.0 NTPA SWOT ANALYSIS ................................................................................ 5

4.0 DETAILED SWOT ANALYSIS ....................................................................... 7

STRENGTHS (S) ............................................................................................. 7
WEAKNESSES (W): ........................................................................................ 8
OPPORTUNITIES (O): .................................................................................. 11
THREATS (T): ............................................................................................... 13
5.0 NTPA VISION STATEMENT ........................................................................ 19

6.0 NTPA STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES ............................................................... 21

7.0 NTPA ACTION PLAN ................................................................................... 23

ANNEX 1. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS TO THE WORKSHOPS FOR THE
PREPARATION OF NTPA ACTION PLAN .................................................. 31
ANNEX 2. PHOTOS ............................................................................................ 35

ANNEX 3. SUMMARY OF COACHING PLAN ................................................... 37

ANNEX 4. APPOINTMENT OF NTPA WORKING GROUP ............................... 39

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ABBREVIATIONS

CoM Council of Ministers
DCM Decision of the Council of Ministers
DNTC Decision of the National Territorial Council
EU European Union
IPRO Immovable Property Registration Office
IT Information Technology
INSPIRE Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe
GoA Government of Albania
GIS Geographical Information System
GNTP General National Territorial Plan
LAMP Land Administration and Management Program
LGPA Local Government Program in Albania
LGU Local Government Unit
MCA Millennium Challenge Account
MoF Ministry of Finance
MoPWT Ministry of Public Works and Transportation
NTC National Territorial Council
NTPA National Territorial Planning Agency
SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
TP Territorial Planning
PLANNING AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE PROJECT IN ALBANIA: iii
NATIONAL TERRITORIAL PLANNING AGENCY ACTION PLAN

1.0 THE CONTEXT
On January 3, 2012, Tetra Tech ARD was awarded the five-year USAID Planning and Local
Governance Project (PLGP) in Albania. The goal of PLGP is to provide technical assistance
and training to the Government of Albania (GoA) and Albanian local government institutions to
help the GoA and local governments successfully implement decentralization legislation,
policies, and reforms. To achieve this goal, the Project will provide assistance in the following
four areas:
Component I: Support the GoA’s work to implement effective government decentralization
policies and legislation.
Component II: Improve the efficiency, transparency, and accountability of local government
operations.
Component III: Improve local government management and oversight of selected public
utilities to provide services in accordance with European Union (EU) standards.
Component IV: Strengthen the capabilities of the GoA and local governments to plan and
manage urban and regional growth.
To achieve the Component IV objective, PLGP will work with the National Territorial
Planning Agency (NTPA) to improve its capacity to exercise its mandate to effectively
implement the Territorial Planning Law (TPL). The NTPA is responsible for coordinating
horizontally among national authorities involved in territorial planning, and coordinating
vertically between national and local planning authorities. Additionally, the Agency
provides training and technical support to national and local planning authorities; conducts
research and evaluations as a basis to develop recommendations for legal changes,
improvements to planning processes, or other necessary measures; maintains the planning
registry; and provides public information regarding all aspects of territorial planning.
Given the broad and complex mandate of NTPA, and its financial and human resource
constraints, there is a need to prioritize and integrate an approach to the institution building
and strengthening of the Agency. As an initial task under PLGP, the Component IV team
facilitated a series of strategic planning sessions with officials from the NTPA, and other
stakeholders at the national level, to review current NTPA strategy documents, outline
additional steps required for achieving the NTPA mandate, and identify a subset of training
and capacity-building elements for project assistance. The result of this strategic planning
process is this NTPA Action Plan, which lays out the actions to be taken by NTPA, with
support of PLGP over the next five years in order to ensure the NTPA has the human and
institutional capacity to effectively perform its mandate.

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2.0 THE RESPONSIBILITIES
OF NTPA

The Albania National Territorial Planning Agency (NTPA) was established through the Decree of the
Council of Ministers (DCM) N. DCM 1190, dated 13 November 2009 (Organization and Functions of the
National Territorial Planning Agency), that became operational in March 2010 with the appointment of
the General Director. The responsibilities of NTPA are defined in Article 10 of the Territorial Planning
Law (10119/2009) as follows:
a. Provide support to horizontal coordination among national authorities in territorial planning, in order
to harmonize address of the national importance issues belonging in various areas and sectors, by
bringing the responsible authorities and stakeholders together and being present in the settlement of
disputes among them;
b. Provide support to vertical coordination between national planning authorities and local planning
authorities in order to harmonize address of the issues of local and national importance in the area of
territory planning, by bringing the responsible authorities and stakeholders together and being present
in the settlement of disputes between the local and national authorities and the stakeholders;
c. Draft, and through the Prime Minister, propose sub-legal acts pursuant to this Law, which are linked
with territory planning;
ç. Provide technical support to local government units on developing policies and acts, which are linked
with urban planning and management, and the development control;
d. Provide support to development of the local and national planning authorities’ technical and
professional skills through training and direct assistance;
dh. Conduct research and evaluations on developments in territory and, based on this, suggest to the
Council of Ministers (CoM) the improvement of the legal system regarding territory planning and
development control instruments, or the need to undertake planning processes, or other necessary
measures;
e. Provide information to the public on the planning processes, and provide information and advice to
planning authorities on the procedures and rules in territorial planning processes;
ë. Draft and publish methodological manuals on territorial planning, and design and deliver training
programs on drafting planning documents;
f. Design and distribute technical standards regarding the register setup and management, as stipulated by
Chapter V of this Law;
g. Provide support to planning authorities on the manner of registering and managing the data in it, in an
independent manner, and advice to the planning authorities on their effective distribution to the
stakeholders;
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