2.0 PROVIDING AN EVIDENCE-BASED AND TRANSPARENT NEED ASSESSMENT OF SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE IN SIX MUNICIPALITIES IN ALBANIA

The project was launched in September 2023, supported by USAID and implemented by UNICEF Albania, in cooperation and with the Ministry of Education and Sports, with the aim to help the selected municipalities in the process of evidencing the problems and identifying the needs for reconstruction and/or rehabilitation of the schools’ infrastructure in a transparent way through the use of technology tools, namely an online web-GIS platform.

The project contributed to developing a shared vision between all involved stakeholders for the improvement of schools according to contemporary challenges having a direct effect to the quality of life of children that are the direct beneficiaries of the project and the communities where the schools are located. The development of a GIS platform and applications, contributes in faster and more transparent cooperation between the municipality staff, local directories of education, the ministry of Education and Sports, altogether with other stakeholders and groups of interest.

The approach and methodology used during the implementation of the project involved:

• selection of a representative number of schools in each municipality,
• prepare assessment reports for 100 schools in total based on a comprehensive survey form which included architectural, structural, electrical, utilities, energy efficiency and urbanistic aspects,
• develop a sustainable online GIS platform (web-based) where all the data collected have been inserted which enables visualizations of data and ranking comparisons within the same municipality and across different municipalities.