The main objective of this grant was a knowledge exchange between the Albanian Development Fund (ADF), the Project Implementation Unit of the Project for Integrated Urban and Tourism Development (PIUTD) in Albania as well as the Project Coordination Unit (PCU) of the PIUTD, which is part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, and the Municipal Development Fund, the PIU of the Regional Development Projects (RDPs) in Georgia, to improve capacities regarding urban and tourism development. The knowledge exchange activities consisted of two study tours. The first study tour brought a Georgian del-egation to Albania in the fall of 2017, and in the second study tour that took place in the spring of 2018, an Albanian delegation travelled to Georgia. Each study tour also involved a workshop in the visiting coun-try with a broader audience where the visitors acted themselves as experts to share knowledge.

A number of obstacles prevent the south of Albania from realizing its full economic potential. First, basic urban infrastructure is inadequate to meet residents' needs and growing tourism demand. Second, de-spite the rich asset base available, tourism activities are concentrated over a short period of time, are not sufficiently diversified, and are dominated by high-volume and low value local and regional markets.

Also, reducing poverty and promoting shared prosperity remain a challenge in Georgia. Progress has been made in poverty reduction and shared prosperity in recent years, but it has been driven by factors other than net job creation. Episodes of poverty reduction and increase in Georgia have not always been closely aligned with periods of GDP growth, underscoring the fact that growth has not been inclusive.

The objective of the Project for Integrated Urban and Tourism Development in Albania is to improve urban infrastructure, enhance tourism assets and strengthen institutional capacity to support tourism-related
development. The project became effective in April 2017 and will close in 2022. The objective of the Re-gional Development Projects (RDPs) in Georgia is to improve infrastructure services and institutional ca-pacity to support increased contribution of tourism in the local economy of selected regions in the coun-try. In 2012 the first Regional Development Program started and since then two more RDPs were added to the World Bank’s Georgia portfolio. The first RDP was closed in 2017.

The South-South Facility grant was linked to these projects and aimed at improving capacities regarding urban and tourism development of the Albanian Development Fund (ADF), the PIU of the Project for In-tegrated Urban and Tourism Development (PIUTD) in Albania as well as the Project Coordination Unit of the PIUTD, which is part of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, and the Municipal Development Fund, the PIU of the Regional Development Programs (RDPs) in Georgia. The capacity development goal of this grant for Albania was to benefit project implementation of the PIUTD project through valuable insights into project implementation of the multi-sector RDPs in Georgia. The capacity development goal for Georgia was to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Municipal Development Fund through knowledge exchange with the Albanian Development Fund and the PCU.

The PIUTD in Albania and the RDPs in Georgia are very similar projects as they both focus on regional development regarding urban infrastructure and tourism. Due to their similarity, the two projects offer a lot to learn from each other. The knowledge exchange is special in a way that it went in both directions. Albania got valuable insights into project implementation experiences of the Georgian RDPs – which are all at different stages of implementation- while Georgia learned from the sound institutional capacity of the implementing agency of the Albania PIUTD, the ADF as well as the PCU. The ADF is a well-established and recognized implementing agency in Albania, in charge of implementing small and large government, and development partners’ projects, covering a diversity of sectors.

The grant-financed activities for the knowledge exchange consisted of two study tours. The first study tour took place from November 6 – 10, 2017 and brought a Georgian delegation to Albania. The delegation consisted of high-level officials as well as project managers of the Municipal Development Fund and the Georgian National Tourism Administration. In the second study tour, an Albanian delegation travelled to Georgia from April 30 – May 4, 2018. Participants in this second study tour consisted of a group of eight project specialists from the Albanian Development Fund and the Project Coordination Unit as well as the management of ADF.

The discussions during the study tour covered a wide range of topics ranging from the organizational structure of the two development funds, collaboration between central and local government level, pro-ject design, strengthening local economic development through tourism over in-depth discussions regard-ing lessons learned and best practices for project implementation and supervision to the design of the dream project of the two development funds. In order to have an independent person supporting a fruitful exchange besides the World Bank team, the institutional discussions of the first study tour were led by a facilitator.

Each study tour also involved a workshop in the visiting country with a broader audience where the visitors acted themselves as experts to share knowledge. The participants in this workshop comprised officials of the project municipalities of the PIUTD and the RDP projects as well as representatives from different ministries and other project stakeholders. On the one hand, the Georgian delegation presented on best practices of the implementation of the Regional Development Projects and on Georgia’s approach regard-ing tourism development. On the other hand, the Albanian delegation presented on the process of the development of general local territorial plans (GLTPs) and the Albanian Alps Masterplan and on the in-volvement of municipalities in tourism development.

In addition to discussions, workshops and various other sessions, both study tours also included field trips to the project sites of the PIUTD project as well as the Regional Development Projects to provide the study tour participants with first-hand insights and understanding of project sites, followed by discussions at sites.

The following lessons learned have been emphasized by the teams:

Stakeholder engagement for project implementation:

• There is a necessity to include explicit rules and obligations for all key stakeholders in a selected object before investing (an agreement should be concluded and signed prior to the design of the investment).

• Regarding collaboration with municipalities, the Albanian practice of a bottom-up approach, which includes community consultations about the project implementation, outcomes and envis-aged changes at the local level was presented as a good practice.

• Clarification of the management structure and cost of operation and maintenance for each site is very important before the intervention takes place to minimize any potential risks after the hand-over.

Design of subprojects:

• Large and complex structures seem to require high maintenance costs and a large amount of staff and it should be considered to avoid such cases.

• Terms of References (TORs) should set conditions for the designers to better integrate structures with the environment to have a minimum impact on the landscape and they should also empha-sized the use of local materials. This seems to reduce the costs for the materials and preserves local traditions.

Tourism development:

• It is essential to define the tourist product before any intervention. It should be clear from the beginning what kind of products will be offered to tourists and project investments should be oriented around these ideas.

• Interpretation is important and should be included as an integral part of an intervention on any touristic site of the PIUTD.

• Vehicle movements on touristic sites should be avoided, if possible. In the case of public vehicle usage within the territory of a touristic site, the project should prioritize the use of electrical or hybrid vehicles.

• The PIUTD should explore Public Private Partnerships for the management of public touristic structures.

• The Albanian delegation got interesting insights into Georgia's approach to country promotion, strategic objectives and priority activities of tourism development as well as tourism statistics.

• Destination management organizations (DMO) on a municipal level should be reconsidered in the (PIUTD) project in favor of the possibility of a regional DMO.

• It would be important to involve the private sector at the stage of conceptualization of the struc-ture and functions of the DMOs.

Organizational structure for implementation of projects:

• The fusion between a matrix and a full project organization structure seem to bring good results for the implementation of projects.

• The Albanian best practice of a national single project pipeline for longlisting projects was dis-cussed as an excellent example to follow.

• Establishing a good monitoring and evaluation system for project indicators is important – collec-tion of data should be done regularly.

Representatives of both development funds expressed their surprise over the fact that the two countries which have a completely different cultural background are facing similar challenges. Thus, they high-lighted that they can profit very much from each other’s’ best practices and lessons learned and both delegations were proud of the fact that their experience can be interpreted as the best practice.

"Upon completion of this exchange visit, the Albanian PIUTD team highly appreciates this experience and finds it very useful for the implementation of the PIUTD project in Albania." said Blendi Bushati, Director of the Regional Development Department at the Albanian Development Fund in a thank-you note to the WB team after the study tour.

Albania

• Director of the Regional Development Department, ADF

• Project Manager, ADF

• Head of Environmental and Social Unit, ADF

• Head of Regional Development and Innovation Unit, ADF

• Project Architect, ADF

• Project Architect, ADF

• Tourism Expert, ADF

•  Project Assistant, ADF

• Project Architect, ADF

• Project Coordinator, Project Coordination Unit, Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure

• Architect, Project Coordination Unit, Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure

• Tourism Expert, Project Coordination Unit, Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure

• Deputy Minister, Ministry of Tourism and Environment

• Urban development Sector, Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy

• Urban Development Department, Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy

• Institute of Cultural Monuments

• Deputy Mayor, Saranda Municipality

• Deputy Mayor, Berat Municipality

• Department of Tourism, Culture and Youth, Berat Municipality

• Head of Tourism and Project, Municipality of Permet

• Architect, Municipality of Permet

• Director of Tourism, Tirana Municipality

• Acting Country Manager, WB

• Sr. NRM Specialist, WB

Georgia

• Deputy Director, Municipal Development Fund (MDF)

• Head of Donor Relations Unit, Municipal Development Fund (MDF)

• Project Manager, Municipal Development Fund (MDF)

• Project Manager, Municipal Development Fund (MDF)

• Project Manager, Municipal Development Fund (MDF)

• Project Manager, Municipal Development Fund (MDF)

• Mayor of Telavi

• Mayor of Kvareli

• Acting Deputy Director, Georgian National Tourism Administration

• Urban Specialist, World Bank

and further participants from Georgian ministries and municipalities

The knowledge exchange primarily relates to the Albanian Project for Integrated Urban and Tourism Development (PIUTD, P155875) as well as the Georgian Regional Development Projects (RDPs, P126033, P130421, P150696).

The South-South Facility financed the knowledge exchange and the PIUTD and RDP WB teams organized the program of the two study tours and the workshops together with the two development funds. The support of the World Bank facilitated a fruitful exchange and learning opportunity between the Georgian and Albanian delegation.

Both MDF as well as ADF and PCU will be able to apply the increased knowledge and enhanced skills regarding project implementation/supervision and organizational structure to successfully implement the Albania PIUTD and the Georgia RDPs and to further develop the two development funds as institutions for successful project implementation. The knowledge exchange participants will also be able to rely on the network they have built with the Georgian and Albanian counterparts for additional guidance in the future.

After the second study tour to Georgia, the World Bank team started to work closely with ADF and the PCU as well as MDF to mainstream the lessons learned during the knowledge exchange into the imple-mentation of the PIUTD project and the RDPs.

The following outcomes have been generated with the knowledge exchange: increased knowledge, en-hanced skills as well as new and improved actions.

The Municipal Development Fund (MDF) has gained increased knowledge regarding the structure and ways of working of the Albanian Development Fund (ADF) and it has acquired enhanced skills regarding the improvement of its own institutional capacity. The Albanian Development Fund (ADF) has gained in-creased knowledge regarding best practices for project implementation of the multi-sector RDPs and it has acquired enhanced skills to overcome challenges which will be faced during the implementation of the PIUTD. The Albanian Development Fund (ADF) will be able to build on the best practices of the RDPs in Georgia and incorporate the lessons learned into successful project implementation of the PIUTD.

• Albanian Development Fund, Albania

• Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, Albania

• Ministry of Tourism, Albania

• Municipal Development Fund, Georgia

• Georgian National Tourism Association