Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama has counted some of the contributions of the
United Nations Development Program in Albania, writes Albanian Daily News.  In his speech, at
the ceremony of the 30th anniversary of this program, Rama said
that he has given an unforgettable hand to the country by being
present at several important moments, from administrative reform to justice
reform.

In the end, Rama exchanged jokes with those present, comparing the program
with an ant that works slowly and according to him, does greater work than
an elephant.

“They gave me a very long speech. I am trying to speak as concisely as
possible, which does not come very easily to me after the Swedish ambassador
who gave a special tone to this tribune. Albania joined the United Nations in
December 1955 but it took so many years to enter into meaningful relations
through the development program. The aim was to give the country oxygen in lifetime we have had the good fortune to see two worlds so different from each
other.

We had nothing to do with United Nations development programming. We are
non-permanent members of the security council. There are many things that
have been done in these 30 years by this cooperation between the program
and the government. What impresses me is the fact that the program has been
present in the most critical and key moments of this extraordinary process of
transforming the country from a closed dictatorship to a democracy under
construction. The program was present with the opening of the first school of
administration, at the time of the great riots of 1997. The program was in the
period of the historical turn of Tirana.

An entire society had to enter a real course against illiteracy. The program has
an unforgettable hand in the history of our country. It was also present at
some important moments where we had to conceive impactful reforms, from
the administrative one to the justice reform. It was present when we had to
deal with the issue of floods.

I have not had any love story with UNDP. I believe that in this case it is not out
of place to count the things done. I mentioned just a few of the many things
done. When I was going through the to-do list, I had the feeling of an ant’s
work. The program is an ant compared to large elephants. But an ant that
manages to make possible an imaginable amount of work for its size. I do not
know what it would have done if it had the elephant’s opportunity. The ant has
no choice but to make up for what nature has not given it. At the end of the
day, it is a fact that the volume of work done and the quantities of loads in
relation to the unit represented by ants are greater than those of larger
bodies”, said Rama.

Source: Albanian Daily News