In my position as Head of Urban Policies Sector, Urban Planning Policies Department, Ministry of Urban Development, Albania, as the coordination counterpart personnel from the Ministry I have assisting the international companies who prepared the public participation strategies, by reviewing the strategies, approving and helping with the organization and implementation. More specifically: - Assiting muncipalities and compabnies in completing the database inventory neccessary for the plann preparation - Assiting and organizing events of public heraings and stakeholders consultations ( participate in the meetings with stakeholder groups, in several round tables during the project, participation in the seminars with the stakeholder groups, to discuss the vision and SWOT analyses of the plan. Preparation of publications for notifications of public hearings. Chairing the public hearings as representative of the Ministry in some of the cities. Discussion of the results with the companies. Final meetings with stakeholder groups after reviewing the plans). - Reviwing the outputs and the reports

1. Participation in the monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies and policies prepared by the Ministry of Urban Development, in Albania, considering for example, the environmental monitoring and social monitoring. The responsibilities of monitoring are internal, i.e. specific monitoring units included in the Ministry Structure, and in some case also external, i.e. creation of external committees for monitoring the expropriation process. The projects that are financed by donors include the Donors monitoring schemes. 2. Participation in the working groups for monitoring and evaluation of expropriations done by Ministry of Urban Develoepmtn, as part of the process of cities revitalizations. 3. Participate in the process of evaluation of the Land Administration Management Project activities. Monitoring and evaluation of results of the project outcomes, were incorporated in the project activities. For example, the number of days to issue a building permit as well as the compliance with urban plans was monitored by customer surveys in the municipalities. These surveys were undertaken in the first year and the fourth year of the project implementation. Output indicators, such as the number of regulatory plan completed, the number of municipalities accessing the investments, and the amount of property tax collected were measured through the project progress reports.

Over 76% of the EU budget is managed in partnership with national and regional authorities through a system of "shared management", largely through the Structural & Investment Funds. Collectively, these help to implement the Europe 2020 strategy. Part of the European structural and investment funds, for urban development are: European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – regional and urban development, European Social Fund (ESF) – social inclusion and good governance, Cohesion Fund (CF) – economic convergence by less-developed regions, European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for competitiveness of agriculture, sustainable management of natural resources and territorial development of rural communities, and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) for sustainable fishing and coastal communities, etc. Other funds are managed directly by the EU. These are provided in the form of: Grants for specific projects in relation to EU policies, usually following a public announcement known as a 'call for proposals'. Part of the funding comes from the EU, part from other sources. Contracts issued by EU institutions to buy in services, goods or works they need for their operations – like studies, training, conference organisation, IT equipment. Contracts are awarded through calls for tender. Source (https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/funding-grants_en)