RisiAlbania by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) closed its first phase and started its second phase today during an official event at the Youth Centre in Tirana with representatives from private sector, government, civil organisations and academia.
“I feel privileged that our Swiss cooperation programme with Albania has a large part dedicated to the area of vocational education, employment and private sector development”, said Swiss Ambassador Christoph Graf in his opening speech. “This second phase will have even a stronger focus on cooperating with the private sector for job creation, mobilising the Albanian diaspora, and including more vulnerable segments of the population among beneficiaries”, announced Ambassador Graf.
Deputy Minister of Finance, Economy and Labour Dajna Sorensen spoke about the need to focus on opening up new opportunities for youth employment. “What sets RisiAlbania apart as a project is that it does not only address social issues but it also does so by developing businesses”, said the Deputy Minister.
Present at the event was also Matthias Herr from Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation – the main implementer of the project – who spoke about the need to “remove barriers for growth and investment for the private sector and remove barriers faced by young people in accessing job opportunities through education, services and support”.
During its first phase RisiAlbania managed to create over 900 jobs and also enable over 5,000 young women and men to find jobs. By working directly with private companies and also with government institutions the project introduced new ways of doing business, new services and products, and new information packages on the job market.
However, Ambassador Graf warned that the “job of creating more jobs for youth” is not over yet. “In fact it is crucial that we continue to address youth employment and scale up any successful way of how to create more jobs”, he said.
RisiAlbania focuses on supporting three business sectors: Agroprocessing, Tourism and ICT as these have more promising potential for youth employment.
The project is implemented by the Swiss consultancy Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation and local NGO Partners Albania.
