LocationsDevelopment Is Measured in Lives, Not Numbers
Why I Write These Stories — and Why They Matter
December 29, 2025
Nora Kushti, Communications Specialist at UNDP Albania, shares a moment with Kevin during a visit to the center where he now works as a graphic designer—proof that the right support can unlock limitless potential.
UNDP Albania
I was visiting a multifunctional community center in Divjakë when a mother asked me a question I didn’t expect.
The center supports children with disabilities, among others. Her son has autism. Through UNDP’s backing by the Government of Switzerland, he now receives services that simply did not exist for him before.
As she watched me take notes and ask questions, she stopped me and asked:
“Why are you writing this story?”
I paused — not because I didn’t know the answer, but because the answer mattered.
I told her the truth. I wanted to understand how much our work truly changes people’s lives. I wanted to be able to explain to taxpayers where their support is going — and why it matters. And I wanted to help ensure that partnerships like these don’t end here, but grow stronger, so more children, families, and communities can access the same support.
She nodded. Then she told me about her son — the progress she was starting to see, the relief of not feeling alone anymore, and the dignity that comes with being supported.
That conversation stayed with me.
Because this is what UNDP’s results look like in real life.
Not slides. Not reports. People.
The Community Center in Divjaka
UNDP Albania
A Year of Listening
As 2025 comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on how full — and meaningful — this year has been.
It was a year of listening. Of travelling across Albania. Of sitting with people and hearing about their lives, their challenges, and their hopes.
From cities to small municipalities, I visited project sites and spoke with communities, institutions, civil servants, social workers, teachers, entrepreneurs, young people searching for work, women seeking justice, and families navigating systems that often feel difficult to access.
Everywhere, the message was the same:
UNDP’s work doesn’t live in documents. It lives in places — and in people.
Results That Change Lives
In 2025 alone, more than 40,000 people across Albania accessed social services thanks to stronger local care systems. Thousands received support to navigate legal systems, access protection, or simply be seen by institutions meant to serve them. More than 9,500 women and men accessed free legal aid — not as a privilege, but as a right.
Integrated social services reached people who had been invisible to the system for years — including Roma families and persons with disabilities.
These are not abstract achievements.
They are quiet shifts that change the direction of lives.
Behind these stories are systems designed to last.
Following a UNDP-developed model, 20 state-funded Free Legal Aid centres now operate nationwide. What began as a pilot has become a national service. Social care services expanded by 56 percent, strengthening both reach and sustainability. Municipalities gained new tools, new funding mechanisms, and greater confidence to serve their communities.
Innovation met inclusion — from Albania’s first digital sign language dictionary to certified interpreters expanding access for the deaf community.
These changes matter because they endure. They become part of how institutions function and how people experience public services.
In 2025, protection systems continued to strengthen, including responses to violence.
Across 61 municipalities, cases of violence were registered and managed through the REVALB system.
Professionals were trained to respond faster and more sensitively, while crisis response models expanded to ensure survivors receive coordinated support when they need it most.
Access to justice and gender equality are not optional. They are foundations of trust.
Hope was also built in places designed for the future. New and rehabilitated schools opened to thousands of children. Solar panels now power education facilities, embedding sustainability into everyday learning.
Climate action moved from planning to preparedness. Albania’s National Adaptation Plan was finalized, local resilience strengthened, and emergency response improved for tens of thousands of residents.
Young people found pathways forward through skills development, employment support, and the Youth Guarantee scheme, helping thousands of young people not in education, employment, or training move into jobs, education, or training.
Each intervention answers a simple question:
What does a fair chance look like?
Why These Stories Matter
2025 was a year of change — for the organization, for the country, and for the world around us.
Change is not easy. But it is necessary.
Albania needs UNDP — and UNDP exists because multilateralism works. Because countries choose to invest together, to trust shared solutions, and to turn global solidarity into local impact.
That impact looks like people:
A school that opens doors.
A centre that restores dignity to children with disabilities.
A protected natural area that will outlive us all.
A training that leads to a job — and a new beginning.
These are not headlines.
They are lives changed, quietly and steadily.
EU4Schools kids
UNDP Albania
Looking Ahead
I carry these stories into the next year — with gratitude, responsibility, and renewed conviction.
I keep writing them for the mother in Divjakë, for communities across Albania, for our partners, and for every taxpayer who deserves to know that their solidarity is making a real difference.
Because when we tell these stories well, we don’t just report results.
We build trust.
And trust is what makes lasting change possible.
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