OECD: Albania has deteriorated to 28% of the 2030 development objectives, education with the biggest decline

Albania has made moderate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda during the evaluation period in 2023, made by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The well-known international organization analyzed in detail the developments in Albania in the last publication, where it noted that our country has made some progress in 30.9% of the indicators, while the performance has deteriorated in 27.9% of the indicators from the group of 17 main global objectives that must be realized until 2030.

While in some objectives, Albania has made poor progress or has remained stagnant, the education sector has a strong deterioration.

An educated society is the basis for sustainable development in the future, so the decline in the level of education in the country is a bad omen for all areas of social and economic development in the future.

The OECD analyzes that the government has integrated the Global Sustainable Development Goals into national and sectoral agendas, but progress remains weak because they have not been supported with a budget.

The analysis shows that Albania has maintained achievements in two areas, poverty (Objective 1) and climate action (objective 13), and is on the way to achieving clean water supply (objective 6) and reducing inequalities (Objective 10).

Progress has been more moderate in the area of ​​affordable and clean energy (goal 7).

Meanwhile, the OECD points out that Albania has taken steps behind in the education sector (objective 4), with declining enrollment rates in pre-school and primary school.

In the PISA 2022 test organized by the OECD for testing the knowledge of 15-year-olds, Albania was ranked 62nd, among the 80 countries that participated in the test.

In the test results for the PISA 2018 program, Albania was positioned in 61st place, Albania's results marked a strong decline in relation to the results of the previous tests.

The PISA evaluations showed that Albania had suffered the biggest drop in results that a country has had in the entire history of the development of tests since 2001.

Albania has maintained its progress in eliminating extreme poverty since 2021 (target 1). Access to basic drinking water and sanitation services has increased throughout the population (both above 95%).

Health outcomes (target 3) remain positive and moderately improving, with target levels for 2030. But our country seems to have taken steps behind with declining infant vaccination rates and universal health service coverage.

Progress has remained stagnant in the sustainable development of cities and communities (goal 11). Improving access to water, transport and other services remain significant challenges.

Progress is also needed in the area of ​​the circular economy (goal 12) and the protection of terrestrial ecosystems (goal 15). The most significant gaps remain in the areas of decent work and economic growth (goal 8), marine life (goal 14), justice and strong institutions (goal 16).

Economic progress and inclusion remain limited by a lack of access to financial resources across the population, high youth unemployment and a lack of basic employee rights.

Justice and strong institutions (objective 16) have remained in place due to continuous murders, high corruption, illegal practices of expropriation and the decline of press freedom./ Monitor