Draft strategy on culture
The main objective of the policies concerning the development of cultural expressions has been introduced in the draft strategy on Culture which is currently under drafting in the Republic of Albania and can be summarized as follows:
- Support of creativity of Albanian artists and their art and creation of the appropriate conditions for increase of the level of the creativity. More concretely the priorities in this field are:
- Creation of a supportive climate for the Albanian artists.
- Creation of fiscal facilities for Albanian artists.
- Increase of quality of the cultural product.
- Improvement of social status of artists
- Protection and preservation of cultural heritage and national identity. More concretely the priorities are:
- Preservation of tangible and intangible heritage
- Safeguard the monuments and sites within their cultural landscape.
- Promotion of Albanian cultural heritage values.
- Increase of role of cultural life in the improvement of quality of life. Increase the demand of quality cultural goods and services through:
- Increase the dissemination and promotion of culture
- Facilitate the mobility of cultural professionals.
- Create access to the market of cultural products
- Support cultural organizations.
Although the Strategy on Culture is not approved yet officially, some concrete action has been undertaken to implement these objectives. The Ministry of Tourism, Culture, Youth and Sports of Albania has from 2010 has approved a new structure in which the Cultural Heritage Department is also in charge of cultural diversity. A fund of 45.450.504.000 ALL(Albanian lek)/ 32.464.645 euro was allocated to private individuals and/or private associations for supporting activities which deal with creation, promotion and facilitating access of public in cultural life for the period 2010-2011-2012.
Challenges identified in the implementation of this measure:
During the process of drafting the policy measures and implementing them, several challenges were identified. These challenges are connected first of all with the lack of human recourses specialized in cultural diversity issues. There is a strong need of training of officials of government as well as other people involved in cultural diversity in general and in drafting legal framework and action plans in specific. The involvement of the civil society in the process has been a challenge in itself, the awareness raising of the society and different actors about the implications of implementation of the Convention is another strong issue to solve in the near future.
A lack of coherent and systematic communication between private sector, central
and local government and individuals is a difficulty which is faced very often in implementation of the objectives of the Convention, given the wide scope and variety of sectors involved in the process.
There doesn't exist a specific impact based evaluation of the intervention, neither are indicators established as such. The indicators used to the time being are the financial indicators and percentage of funds dedicated to the activities financed for the cultural activitites.