Implementation Period: January–December 2024

ASET Center, funded by the Debt for Development Swap Program resulting from the Agreement between the Italian Government and the Albanian Government – IADSA II, is implementing a project in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the State Social Service, Regione Liguria, and Regione Marche.

The main objective of the project is to strengthen actions supporting vulnerable elderly individuals, ensuring timely identification of the challenges they face and improving the social welfare system in Albania. Specific objectives include: innovating social services for the elderly, establishing two telephone counseling lines dedicated to their needs, developing a new professional role of social operators for the elderly through regular training sessions, with a total of 350 psychologists and social operators to be trained, mapping social centers across the country, and creating new mechanisms and protocols for elderly care categories at a national level.

This initiative aligns with the National Plan for European Integration 2022–2024 and the National Strategy for Development and European Integration 2022–2030, aiming to harmonize Albanian legislation with EU standards. It also adheres to the National Health Strategy 2021–2030, which focuses on improving the health of the Albanian population through an integrated healthcare system.

Given the global pandemic we have experienced, there is a pressing need to provide alternative and comprehensive social services for all vulnerable groups in the country, to help avoid loneliness, social and physical isolation, and promote social inclusion, thereby preventing their institutionalization.