TIRANA, Jan. 14 – Albania should increase funding and set the right policies in place to address its rapid depopulation, according to a new report by UNICEF.
The UN body that deals with children and teenagers says lack of investment leading to low quality education and healthcare are major factors in driving the desire to emigrate.
“The emigration of young people not only inevitably and exponentially reduces the national birth rate, but also has a negative impact on the economy, social care mechanisms and family models, and has hindered economic growth and development by eroding the country’s social capital,” the report notes as it analyses current trends in Albania’s children and teenagers.
The report cites several studies that indicate families see the emigration of their children as the best choice for a better life. Moreover, polls show 60 percent of university students want to study abroad, and 90 percent of those who do, have a desire to return to Albania.
The UNICEF analysis notes these indicators show problems not only in economic prospects, but also the quality of a national education system.
During the pre-pandemic 2015-2019 period, GDP growth in Albania reached an average of 3.26 percent per year; however, the economic growth did not translate into improved education, health, or social protections, and successive governments have not sufficiently invested in children’s services, according to an analysis by Monitor magazine.
Public spending on education reached only 3.4 percent of Albania’s GDP in 2020, which is below the OECD and EU averages – 5.4 percent. Also, public expenditures on healthcare as a percentage of GDP reached only 3.2 percent in 2020, while expenditures on healthcare as a percentage of total budget expenditures were decreasing in the pre-pandemic period.
Albania also ranks last in the European Index for Consumer Health in 2018, due to the low disproportionate allocation of resources to primary health care, especially for maternal and child health.
The United Nations through UNICEF thinks that Albania still has room to increase the income available to children, even in the context of the decline in GDP due to COVID-19.
A country’s development models will not be able to be implemented if the government does not invest in the youngest groups of the population to educate them to provide an environment for them to grow up healthy, UNICEF notes.
The report also points out that there is not enough data and research on the mental health status of the population, especially in vulnerable groups like teenagers.
However, the annual increase to 60 percent (2016-2017) of the 0-14 age group attending mental health visits to municipal polyclinics, and the 89 percent increase in hospital visits for 0-24 year olds, combined with a high suicide rate of 6.03 per 100,000 people in the 10-24 age group should serve as an alarm to address the situation immediately, the UNICEF report notes.
