Description
The purpose of this Call for Proposals is to promote “International cooperation projects aimed at strengthening relations between local institutions, to be implemented in the Balkans”, with a primary focus on Albania, an area identified by the Provincial Executive as a priority. The primary objective is to contribute to local social and economic self-development, based on a cooperative approach founded on reciprocity, which also envisages potential benefits for the province itself.
In particular, the main area in which the Albanian Government and the Provincial Council intend to launch cooperation projects with Trentino has been identified as the development of measures to combat depopulation in mountainous and/or peripheral areas. At this point in history, this is a highly significant phenomenon in Albania too, a country characterised by severe depopulation of inland areas and internal migration towards the capital or other major cities. The depopulation of mountain areas is a pressing issue common to many regions, and to tackle it, there is a desire to implement initiatives that can contribute to the repopulation of rural peripheral areas, by trialling replicable and mutually transferable models, and promoting innovative, sustainable projects that are highly attractive to sections of the population seeking permanent solutions.
The Call for Proposals aims to identify Third Sector organisations with which to launch a co-design process aimed at achieving the objective described above, and to establish partnerships in the Balkans – with a primary focus on Albania – with government bodies, municipalities and other public-private sector actors, with the aim of combating depopulation in marginalised areas.