The Country Office is implementing the projects that form part of the biennial collaborative agreement (BCA) 2008–2009 between WHO/Europe and Albania, which identifies the following priorities:

1. enhancing the stewardship role and capacities of national and regional health authorities for health policy development, implementation and evaluation and addressing health financing;
2. improving the coverage and quality of health services through further support to the hospital reform process, integrated primary health care, reform of the population-based public health services for protecting health and implementing the noncommunicable disease prevention and health promotion strategy;
3. improving maternal, child and adolescent health services; and
4. improving capacities for prevention and control of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

These priorities have the following expected results, which can be seen in detail in the BCA.

Enhancing the stewardship role and capacities of health authorities is expected to result in:

• strengthened capacities of the national health authorities in policy development and evaluation;
• guidance to the government and consensus-building with partner agencies to reduce the fragmentation of health financing and its consequences for efficiency and equity, in the context of Albania’s health sector strategy; and
• strengthened capacities of the health authorities to develop and implement a national human resources strategy.

Improving the coverage and quality of health services is expected to result in:

• health care delivery services, including primary health care, hospitals and emergency medical services, rationalized to take into consideration the private/public mix and the needs of rural areas;
• population-based public health services reformed and strengthened at district level, with focus on communicable disease surveillance and control, foodborne disease surveillance and control, environmental and occupational health risks monitoring, and risk assessment, management and communication;
• the national food safety system reorganized and strengthened in line with the recommendations of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and WHO, and with European Union directives;
• strengthened capacity to detect early, assess, respond to and cope with major epidemic and pandemic-prone diseases through the development and implementation of effective tools, methodologies and partnerships; and
• national capacities strengthened to implement the national noncommunicable disease strategy, dealing with major health determinants and health promotion.

Improving maternal, child and adolescent health services is expected to result in:

• the stewardship function strengthened to improve the access to, and quality and use of maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health care;
• services strengthened to expand and scale up effective interventions to improve maternal, neonatal, child and adolescent health and development, by providing quality care in primary health care and communities; and
• immunization systems strengthened to maximize equitable access by all people to vaccines of assured quality, including new immunization products and technologies, and to integrate other essential child health interventions with immunization, with special emphasis on sustaining the polio-free status and achieving measles and rubella elimination.

Improving capacities for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis is expected to result in:

• universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care, progress towards fulfilment of the Millennium Development Goals, and expanded implementation of the Stop TB Strategy.