Albania

3 May 2008 – The UNDP Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) initiative and United Nations Volunteers (UNV) recently teamed up to support local small-scale businesses improve the quality and range of their products.

From 21 April to 2 May, the GSB initiative hosted two UNV volunteers from the Italian organization, Seniores Italia. The experts came to Albania on short-term advisory missions to support entrepreneurs working in the field of goat milk and wine production.

The goat milk expert split his time between goat farmers working in Shkodra, Kukes and Has. The expert visited farmers to gain an understanding of the conditions and challenges they face. Using his experience and knowledge, the expert was then well-positioned to advise the local farmers on how to enter the goat cheese market, as well as advise on how to achieve consistently high-quality milk.

Following the expert’s visit to Has and Kukes, the goat farmers expressed their enthusiasm for working together to create a goat cheese processing facility. For this, they are in need of further training and investment in order to build the necessary infrastructure.

The expert in the field of wine production traveled to Berat with a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture to advise a local producer on how to improve and diversify his wine products. Again, the first-hand experience allowed the expert to fully understand the limitations and challenges that local wine producers face, and so tailor his advice to the circumstances. The expert also traveled to Kukes where he met with another local wine producer and again, was able to offer tips and support on improving output.

These volunteer missions contributed to GSB’s work, particularly in support of agro-processing value chains  (from producer to consumer) for dairy and viticulture in rural Albania.   

The Corporate/Private Sector programme
These two recent visits are examples of expert missions that are regularly organized by UNV Albania as part of a Corporate/Private Sector programme. Current and retired professionals lend their expertise to development initiatives by providing voluntary advice to enterprises, civil society organizations and government. The experts offer technical expertise from a wide range of competencies.

To find out more about the most recent work of these volunteer experts, please refer to the latest UNV Newsletter – issue no. 10 – August to December 2007.

United Nations Volunteers (UNV) is the UN organization that supports sustainable human development globally through the promotion of volunteerism. As well as organizing expert missions as part of the Corporate/Private Sector programme, UNV Albania works to create International and National UNV volunteer opportunities and encourages community mobilization. One of UNV Albania’s goals is to work to encourage communities, especially those that are disadvantaged, to get involved with and address local development issues through voluntary action.
 
The UNDP Growing Sustainable Business (GSB) initiative partners with the private sector to facilitate solutions to poverty. The GSB initiative brokers pro-poor investment – to improve access to affordable goods and services for low income or socially excluded populations and to increase employment and livelihood opportunities (through job creation and small enterprise development). One objective of the GSB initiative in Albania is to strengthen value chains in sectors, such as agro-processing, in order to boost opportunities for sustainable, value-added growth and employment.

For further information, please contact:
Marina Kaneti
Growing Sustainable Business Initiative Investment Broker
marina.kaneti@undp.org

or

Fran Deans
UNV Programme Officer
fran.deans@undp.org