The Minister of State for Youth and Children, Bora Muzhaqi, is leading the Albanian delegation at the CPD 57 Conference on Population and Development taking place at the United Nations Organization in New York.
Minister Muzhaqi emphasized that in Albania, the efforts to fulfill the goals of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), as part of the commitments to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, are ongoing in the field of rights for equality and development of human capital.
Furthermore, Minister Muzhaqi gave a complete summary of Albania’s legal context regarding population and sustainable development.
“At the strategic level, Albania has a strong legal base that promotes equality, inclusiveness, access to services and a strong focus on digitization and the green agenda, highlighted in the National Strategy for Development and Integration,” she underlined.
Muzhaqi continued with the presentation of the intensive work done over the years to meet the objectives of sustainable development to improve and address issues related to population development and physical, social and mental well-being, among which she mentioned: the National Strategy for Youth 2022-2029, National Strategy for Health, Agenda for Children, Strategy for Social Care, Social Inclusion, Education, Gender Equality, as well as National Action Plans for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Elderly and many others.
Regarding the National Youth Strategy and its elaboration, Minister Muzhaqi states that youth policy should always include the youth as an active and participating party in the political dialogue, not only as observers. Albania’s example of co-designing youth policy has shown that the most successful reforms are created with young people, for young people, focusing on the three main objectives of the strategy, which include empowerment, innovation and increasing the skills of young people and their well-being.
In her speech, Minister Muzhaqi also focused on gender equality and stereotypes, emphasizing that as we work towards EU membership, a priority of the government to provide citizens with a better life, “in line with the EU Strategy for Gender Equality 2020-2025, Albania is addressing gender-based violence, gender stereotypes, harmful practices and inequalities in the labor market.”
During her stay in New York, Minister Muzhaqi also visited the exhibition “Abetare” by Kosovar Albanian artist Petrit Halilaj, presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.