With support from Austria: The Door That Stays Open

UNDP Albania

September 2, 2026

With support from Austria: The Door That Stays Open — From September 2019 to February 2025, the Expanding Free Legal Aid Services for Women and Men in Albania (EFLAS) project was funded by the Austrian Development Agency with €2 million and implemented by UNDP Albania, in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, the People's Advocate, the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination and civil society organizations. EFLAS helped expand both the reach and capacity of Albania's legal aid system.

UNDP Albania

In Albania, free legal aid is changing what justice looks like for people who once believed the law was for everyone — except them.

I never imagined that anyone needed free legal aid more than Adriana did.

A divorced mother raising a son with a severe disability, she needed a lawyer to formalize her divorce, secure alimony, and obtain her former husband's signature so her son could travel abroad for medical treatment unavailable in Albania.

None of these things were optional. But legal help was beyond her means.

Then she found a free legal aid centre.

Adriana is one of thousands of people in Albania who have faced the same gap between having a legal right and being able to exercise it.

An elderly woman in Kukës struggled for years to claim a pension she had earned. A young widow in Shkodër fought to regain custody of her children after her husband's death. A Roma woman experiencing domestic violence believed that a lawyer and a protection order were privileges reserved for people with money.

Their circumstances were different. The barrier was often the same: access.

Albania has made major strides in justice reform, including through the adoption of the Law on State Guaranteed Legal Aid. The law established primary legal aid — information, advice and assistance with documents — and secondary legal aid, including representation in court. It also created the Free Legal Aid Directorate and expanded access for people with insufficient income and vulnerable groups. UNDP, working with partners including EURALIUS, provided technical support to strengthen the legal and institutional framework.

But a law is not a lawyer.

Turning legal rights into practical help requires people, institutions and sustained investment. This is where Austria's partnership with Albania and UNDP has made a difference.

Bringing legal aid closer to people

From September 2019 to February 2025, the Expanding Free Legal Aid Services for Women and Men in Albania (EFLAS) project was funded by the Austrian Development Agency with €2 million and implemented by UNDP Albania, in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, the People's Advocate, the Commissioner for Protection from Discrimination and civil society organizations.

EFLAS helped expand both the reach and capacity of Albania's legal aid system:

12 free legal aid centres were established across Albania, from Durrës and Fier to Dibër, Shkodër, Kukës, Korçë, Gjirokastër and Vlorë.
17,850 vulnerable people received primary or secondary legal aid, including 9,785 women and girls.
More than 24,600 people received information about their rights.
22 civil society organizations, working across 36 municipalities, were strengthened as delivery partners.
209 lawyers and 28 public officials were trained in secondary and primary legal aid, with attention to gender-based discrimination and the specific needs of women clients.

These figures become more tangible when you see the system at work.

I spent almost three hours at the Free Legal Aid Centre in Shkodër. During that time, more than fifteen people came through its doors. Most were seeking help with property rights and registration, some involving disputes that had lasted for decades. Others came with pension and disability claims, divorce and alimony cases, or questions about custody and protection from violence.

Different problems, different lives — but the same need for someone to explain what the law could do for them.

For many, the most important moment is simple: someone tells them they have options.

Yet bringing legal aid closer to people does not mean every barrier has disappeared.

“For me, any legal, institutional or policy initiative has to be judged by one thing: does it respond to people's real needs, and does it help them overcome the everyday obstacles they face in actually accessing the rights the law promises them? That's what free legal aid centres are for. That's exactly why, with EQUALS, we're pushing further into secondary legal aid and mobile outreach, because knowing a right exists on paper means little if someone in a remote community still can't reach the person who can help them use it.,” says Vilma Çobani, Project Manager.

Those remaining gaps point directly to the next phase of the partnership.

Keeping the door open

In November 2025, Austria launched EQUALS — Enhanced Quality Legal Aid Services, a €2.5 million regional project running through October 2028 and implemented by UNDP in Albania and North Macedonia.

Austria launched EQUALS — Enhanced Quality Legal Aid Services, a €2.5 million regional project running through October 2028 and implemented by UNDP in Albania and North Macedonia.

UNDP Albania

Building on EFLAS's final evaluation and a 2024 UNDP access-to-justice study, EQUALS focuses on the areas where further progress is needed: strengthening institutions, improving access to secondary legal aid, expanding outreach through mobile legal aid teams for underserved communities, and increasing public awareness of rights and available services.

The initiative contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 16, 10 and 5 — advancing access to justice and strong institutions, reducing inequalities, and promoting gender equality.

In this way, the partnership is moving from establishing access to making it more sustainable — ensuring that legal aid reaches not only those who know where to look, but also those who may never think to knock on the door.

Free legal aid is not charity. It is how a rights-based justice system becomes accessible to people who cannot afford a lawyer.

For Adriana, it meant being able to navigate a system she had once faced alone. Now she has secured alimony for her son thanks to the support provided by the Free Legal Aid Office, buther r son still needs care, and the affidavit is only one step in a much longer journey. But she no longer walks the corridors of justice alone.

Neither do the thousands of people who have passed through Albania's free legal aid centres since 2019.

The challenge now is to make sure the door stays open — and that more people know where to find it.