Project Proposal

Group Member(s):
Benjamin (Min) , Chinorod (Chino) , Natanicha (Bible) , Phatsakorn (Field), Wanwarisa (Pretty)
Country assigned: Albania
Development goal selected: The goal of this self-directed project is to apply the ideas and how
imperialisms cause and effect and the industrial revolution lead to the Albanias socio-economic
issues.
Type of Product: Comic book and model

Product Description
(Make sure it is clear what the product will look like, what it will include, and how it will be
organized.)
he product of our project will be a comic book containing 3 main
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topics ( basic information about the country, The issue and how the
government deal with it. ) The comic style will be both narrative and
dialogue between characters. The size of the comic book will be around
A5 for each page. The number of page are still unpredictable right now
because we didn't know how much our information are we going to
have. Min and Pretty are going to sketch the comic book, Bible will be
the one who bold the line and Chino and Field will color the work.

In addition, there will be a model of Albania about its environment which

contains the mountain and the sea that represent the country. Also, the
building which will indicate the gap between rich and poor people in
Albania. One side will be the urban area which represent the rich
people. In this area, we will set a government house and build a model
character of congress and president which all of them are male. On the
other side will be the rural area which represent the poor people. In this
area, we will build a model character of female who has to do a lot of
work at home. Also, a lot of children in this area. This will make the
reader can imagine more about the situation in our assigned country
today. The comic book will set on the middle of the model.

Summaries: (one paragraph minimum for each section with main ideas only)

Brief background of your country in written in your own words: (post 1900 creation of
country + some major events that made the country what it is today)
 1939-1941 Before the start of World War II, Albania was invaded by
Italy which made Enver Hoxha becomes head of new Albanian
Communist Party while the King Zog flees to Greece.

1943-1946 Then, Germany invaded and occupied which made Italy

surrender. However, Germany withdraw after that but Enver Hoxha
who is a communist politician installed as new leader which made the
non-communist were forced to leave from government position.

1948-1955 After that, Albania breaks ties with Yugoslavia and Soviet
Union begins economic aid to Albania which leads to the founding of
Warsaw Pact.

1985 Enver Hoxha, the Stalinist dictator died lead to the fall of
Communist rule in Eastern Europe.

The Independent political parties formed. At first, the Communist

Party wins the multiparty elections. But, in the next year elections,
Democratic Party wins and Sali Berisha becomes the first elected
president.

2009 Albania joins Nato officially and applies for membership of the
European Union

2014 The European Commission recommends Albania as a

candidate for EU membership.

Brief summary of the history of the social issue (based on MDG selected) in your
country: (causes of the social issue in your country)
he social issue in Albania is their inequality of the gender. This is
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due to the tradition of Albania which is female is inferior than male.
They believe that women need to stay at home and only men should
be the one who do work. In addition, the more gap between rich and
poor and the rate of unemployment increases the gender
discrimination too. This loop continue even though their country
reshapes the right of women after the collapse of Communism in
Albania. The poor women give birth to many children which influence
Albanias social to be more inequality since poor people will be
overpopulate rich people. This comes from the problem that they were
not as educated as male.
Albanias education are quite outdated because they had been
communist country before and they also had civil war in the year 1997
which cause a lot of damage to the country (Spend more money on
other area that is not education).

Brief summary of how the social issue (based on the MDG selected) has affected your
country (post 1945): (effects of the social issue in your country current situation)
First, in education, that boys get more chance than girl to attend
school. Next, health services, the country did not have a water and
sanitation so the burden falls to the girls in the country which they have
to find and carry safe water to the country. This is one of the reasons
that girls cannot attend the school. Furthermore, the girls who are not
allowed to attend school are forced into early marriage. When those
girls have kids they may not know how to take care their children and if
their children got diseases or health problems, they wont know how to
deal with those. Therefore, this can lead to other issue such as infant
mortality. There is also a gap between the payment of men and
women. The average payment of women is about 18% lesser than
males (in urban area), and it is doubly lesser in rural.

Brief summary of what your countrys government has done to deal with the social issue
(based on the MDG selected): (p
olicies in place and progress in dealing with the problem)
The country will take steps to prevent and reduce violence against
women and eliminate gender discrimination by legal law. The stronger
legal and institutional will help to protect womens right. Also, the
improved monitoring and evaluation mechanisms will keep progress
towards gender equality on track. They also eliminate gender disparity
in primary and secondary school. This means more girls are
encouraged to attend school.

Albania, the Constitution, from 1998; Article 18, Say that women and
men are equal in the law

The Gender Equality Programme (GEP) is the programme to help

Albanias lawmaker to work out the solution for gender inequality
problem by conduct awareness raising activity on gender equality and
against gender based and domestic violence.
Albanian government is also working on a plan, creating strategic
goals to remove gender-based violence and domestic violence:
1. Economic empowerment of women and men.
2. Guaranteeing factual and equal participation of women in the
politic and public decision-making.
3. Reduction of gender-based violence and domestic violence
4. Empowerment of the coordination and monitoring role of the
National Gender Equality Mechanism, as well as
awareness-raising of the society on gender equality advancing

Reference list for the starter sources used: (APA format)

- Why is Albania Poor? (2017, August 15). Retrieved October 17, 2017, from
https://borgenproject.org/why-is-albania-poor/
- Woman and Children in Albania Double Dividend of Gender Equality (2007). Retrieved
November 08, 2017 from
https://www.unicef.org/eca/Women_and_Children_in_Albania_english.pdf
- Goal: Promote gender equality and empower women. (n.d.). Retrieved November 08,
2017, from https://www.unicef.org/mdg/gender.html
- Albania vows to include more women in decision-making and the labour market
(updated). (n.d.). Retrieved November 08, 2017, from
http://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/step-it-up/commitments/albania
- Sheshi, E. (n.d.). National Gender Equality Policies in Albania. Retrieved November 10,
2017, from:
http://eurogender.eige.europa.eu/sites/default/files/events-files/al_1-2june17.pdf
- Dragoti E., Tahsini I., Dhembo E., & Ajdini J. (2011). Monitoring Albanias steps
towards gender equality: The case of Gender Quotas in Politics. Retrieved November 10,
2017, from:
http://www.rrpp-westernbalkans.net/en/library/Research-Results/Albania/Monitoring-Alb
ania-s-Steps-Towards-Gender-Equality/mainColumnParagraphs/0/text_files/file/faqosje
%20ang.pdf

1. What are your overall solutions/suggestions for the country - national level - in solving the
problem/reaching the goal that you have chosen? (200 words or more)
Firstly, we should change the law. For example, the law regarding rape should have a
harsh punishment such as a lot of fees that they have to pay and went to jail for many years.
Secondly, In many case women in Albania are usually left uneducated due to the reason that if
got to choose between educated men and the women they would prefer educated men people
because with equal education men are more likely to receive more chance. To overcome this
problem equality of chance and salary should be made, increase the life quality and money of
Albania citizen. Next, some attitude about bad sexism should be taken out of citizen through
education system (teaching students that they are equal) and for the people that already finish
education if there is an report that employers are bias due to racism, then they need to be
punished. Encouraging women to report and what they think is incorrect through a new agency
that specifically made up to receive report about gender inequality. Finally encourage people to
choose politician who is a not sexism and really take the gender inequality problem seriously
because politician mean power to change and through them attitude of people in albania can be
change!( structuration people shape politician, politician shape citizen ).

2. Where (city or province) is the problem worse in your country - local level - and state
information/data/statistics showing how/why it is worse? (200 words or more)

We can assume that the poverty places in Albania will have more gender inequality due
to the gap of rich and poor and low education since we cannot identify exactly the area of gender
inequality. The poorest places in Albania are mostly the rural, northern and mountainous areas. It
is poorest in the north-eastern districts of Kukes, Dibra and Shkodra. From the maps below, there
are five maps involved with poverty in Albania. We can see in every map that the part that have
darker color which means higher poverty is in the north and east of the country. Kukes has the
highest percentage of headcount poverty comparing to the other areas, it is 21.8%. The reason
that people who live in that rural mountain area is poor is because they lack access to market
outlets for them to sell the product from their farm. So they cannot increase their incomes and
standard of living. In addition, the access of technology and education to these people are also
lack. As a result, their productivity are quite low which cause them to receive less income. This
is the loop that hard to break out since their will not have much money to develop their farm in
terms of technology, equipment and organization.

http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/web/rural-poverty-portal/country/home/tags/albania
https://knoema.com/atlas/Albania/Kukes?compareTo=AL-09,AL-10
3. What are your specific solutions/suggestions for the city/province - local level - in solving the
problem? (200 words or more)
For this micro level, we need to have the training program and training centre for women
and men in each city. The training program will be about educate people to have more
knowledge and change the attitude or behaviours about gender inequality. We will build the
center that women and men can gather in one place and discuss together about experience and
solution for gender inequality in Albania. In addition, there will be an update information of
every news or policy that government release or the good solution from other country which face
the same problem. Furthermore, we cannot change adults mindset about gender inequality.
However, we can change childrens mindset from education in school. We can change the way
we teach student in Albania to respect each others even they are male or female. Children are
innocent, means that they did not know about inequality at first, but they were told by adult and
society that male have to be stronger than female. Society is one of the main reason that shape
children to think like that. Also, we will create a campaign to encourage people in those area.
We will have an agency to examine the gender inequality in local level and report to the
government so we will not miss any gender inequality problem. This examiner will receive the
report and then investigate that issue. After that, they will sent to the government for further
punishment.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2016/mar/14/gender-e
quality-women-girls-rights-education-empowerment-politics