Partners Center in Albania was established in 2001 with support of the United States Agency for International Development. Over the last three years it has reached out to diverse communities throughout Albania and established itself as a strong and independent organization, proactive and visible among funders and NGO community.

We recently evaluated the work and impact of the Center, looking specifically at its Youth Leadership Program, Women’s Leadership Program, Academic Program, and Small Grants program (PA distributed 46 grants to local NGOs providing social services in their communities). Interviewees included program beneficiaries, funders (EU Delegation, CIDA, OSFA) and partners in Partners Albania’s programs (World Bank, UNDP, Handicap International, Deutsche Welthungershilfe).

The client feedback on Partners- Albania is dramatic:

“PA was a first organization who provided a new kind of support; in addition to financial assistance they offered project preparation, and financial reporting assistance; with their support our Shelter was able to place about 40 kids in schools over the period of 8 months and we began working with parents of street children to help them find jobs; frequent communication with PA allowed us to be more productive in the implementation of our grant.”
- Morena Gjecovik, Project Coordinator, International Social Services

“PA is one of the most visible NGOs in Albania, extremely competent working with civil society and local governments, and with very high level of monitoring and evaluation capacity.”
– Ana Gjokuta, Communications Officer, World Bank

“Trainings and consulting provided to us by PA have been extremely helpful in strengthening our capacity as an organization and in enabling us to become more sustainable and capable of raising more funds for our programs.”
– Eduard Ajas, Director, Albanian National Association of the Deaf

“Cooperation with PA helped us introduce the subject of change and conflict management into our curricula.”
– Ylli Pango, Dean, University of Tirana, Faculty of Social Sciences

“PA’s trainings provide an interactive approach based on open communication and collaboration; their careful monitoring and reporting of the impact of their programs is impressive, especially in the Northern part of the country, which is so difficult.”
– Etleva Qinami, Program Officer, Canadian International Development Agency

“We hold very high respect for the work of PA. Their support enabled us to cover 100% polling stations in the local elections in October 2003, which we have not been able to achieve before. Through their trainings we established collaboration with another organization, also working on monitoring of electoral process and we were able to increase our efficiency in the overall coverage of the 2003 elections.”
- Gerta Meta, Executive Director, Society for Democratic Culture