Executive Summary
This social assessment (SA) examines the effects on Albania of the 1999 Kosovar refugee crisis, when nearly half a million Kosovars fled across the border to escape Serbian ethnic cleansing. Albania's remarkable response to this short but intense human emergency not only was critical to helping the refugees, but helped to transform civil society in Albania, and to foster longer-term links between the Albanians and the Kosovars. The study finds that activities on behalf of refugees carried out by local governments, NGOs, religious organizations, community groups, women's groups, youth groups, and families helped to generate the kinds of social cohesion and local capacity in Albania that are considered preconditions for successful development—preconditions that, before the crisis, donors had considered largely absent.
The efforts of Albanians at all levels to house, feed, educate, and provide counseling and other services to the refugees generated trust between civil society and local governments, enhanced the credibility of the NGO sector, and gave Albanians a sense of empowerment that has carried over to post-crisis civic actions. These include a number of grassroots efforts to build roads across borders; pursue cross-border trade, education, and cultural initiatives; and in other ways maintain and expand the new relationship with the Kosovars. In addition, the study finds that the crisis created some new opportunities for the participation of different social groups in community-driven development (CDD) initiatives across borders.
Social Impacts of the Kosovar Refugee Crisis in Albania (pdf, 128 kb)
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