Albanian Network for Rural Development (ANRD) in partnership with the Agricultural University of Tirana (AUT) aim to coordinate advocacy efforts and academic experience in influencing rural development policies so that they can be more effective, closely related to the real needs of the local communities and bring concrete results in the life of people living in rural areas. This entails that public policymaking of rural development to be ‘evidence-based’ through research and scientific studies conducted by researchers of the University and other groups of researches.
Therefore, the partnership of the two institutions will support and give impetus to the evidence based rural development policymaking.
To this end, ANRD and AUT will jointly organize on 28-30 September 2017 the First Albanian Rural Parliament – an advocacy, capacity building and networking platform dedicated to rural development. Such an event intends to provide a space for rural development actors to express the interests of rural communities, contact policymakers and influence policies and actions undertaken by public and other actors of rural development. The ultimate goal of the Rural Parliament is to hear and consider the voice of rural communities. In this context, ANRD and AUT jointly organize the Launch Event to publicly announce the First Rural Parliament and objectives of this initiative.
The event will aim to provide a platform to the country’s challenges concerning rural development, which have previously been identified with the participation of local actors. This event will serve as a preparatory activity of the twelve regional workshops where the agreed platform of challenges will be consulted with all stakeholders in twelve Qarks of the country. Member organizations of the ANRD and other civil society actors, experts and AUT academics, representatives of the Regional Development Agencies, representatives of international missions supporting rural development in Albania, representatives of the Parliamentary Commission for Productive Activities, Trade and Environment, representatives of local and regional authorities associations, and other rural development actors are invited to participate in the Launching Event and contribute to the open discussion.
