Youth Leadership Academy

22 March 2019, at 11.00

Innovative “Welfare” Formats: Personal and Community Services.

Lecturer: Merita Xhafaj, Director of Health and Social Protection Programs and

Biography:

Mrs. Merita Xhafaj has been the Director of Health and Social Protection Programs since 2013. She received her degree in Finance from Tirana  University in 1982 and completed her Master’s degree in Public Administration at the University of Tirana in collaboration with the University of Nebraska – Lincoln during 2003-2005. She has shown exceptional work during her career and has pursued various qualification programs on policy making in different EU and US countries. Mrs. Xhafaj has over 25 years of experience at high levels of politics in the public administration sector and has been managing a private company for over 5 years.

This organization’s main responsibilities are focused on gender equality, violence against women and the family, integration of Roma and Egyptians, child protection, economic aid, and social protection. In the last three years she has led teams to prepare a number of reports and strategic documents for Albania, such as Beijing +20, the report for Albania, and the CEDAW report as well. Additional she has assisted in the  preparation of the Gender Equality Strategy 2016-2020, the Action Plan LGBTI, The National Action Plan 2016-2020, the National Action Plan for Youth 2015-2020, the National Action Plan for the Integration of Roma and Egyptian Minorities 2016-2020, and legislation in the field of Human Rights, as well as a law on Socially Owned Enterprises and the Protection of Children’s Rights. She is now monitoring the implementation process for implementing all of these strategic documents.