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The social protection system in the country is still far from fully functioning and remains at very low levels, making many people not benefit from social security schemes or other programs such as economic assistance.
This is acknowledged by the government itself in the draft for economic reforms 2022-2024 where despite the improvement, social protection expenditures are significantly below the region and almost half of the European Union average, with only 9.4% of GDP.
According to the document, the economic assistance scheme, which is also the main program for the poor in Albania, is facing major obstacles.
The level of benefit and its coverage is not adequate to the needs of the population that are part of the program, the document says, and for this purpose it is expected to revise the targeting formula based on calculations of poverty indicators in order to increase social protection coverage for reduction. of poverty in the country.
The strategy for social protection includes the creation of a social fund that aims to support municipalities to provide new services to groups in need and support families in economic assistance with social health packages and for this purpose a fund of 200 million ALL is provided. in the years 2022-2024.
Improving the social protection framework by targeting the most needy has been an ongoing recommendation of the International Monetary Fund as evidenced in its latest country report.
Albania has the highest level of poverty in the region. Although the poverty rate decreased compared to 2019, the latest INSTAT report shows that over 621 thousand individuals live at the risk of being poor, ie less than $ 5.5 per day.
The social protection system in the country is dominated by social security schemes that include pensions and unemployment benefits as well as other programs such as economic assistance or payments for people with disabilities.
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