United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has noted that unless policies are drafted to address immigration and declining birth rates, the Albanian population is likely to continue to decline.

Studies quoted by UNICEF show that children and parents see immigration as a positive choice. The decision of almost 60% of graduates to study abroad reflects not only the assessment they have made of their economic prospects, but also the national education system.

"Emigration of young people not only inevitably and exponentially reduces the national birth rate, but also has a negative impact on the economy, social care mechanisms and family models, and has hindered economic growth and development by eroding the country's social capital. "It is said in the analysis of the situation of children and adolescents in Albania.

During the period 2015 - 2019, GDP growth in Albania reached an average of 3.26 percent per year, however, the increase in national income has not translated into improved education, health, or social protection, and successive governments have not sufficiently invested in children's services.

Public spending on education reached only 3.4 percent of Albania's GDP in 2020, which is below the OECD (5.4%) and EU average. Also, public expenditures on Health as a percentage of GDP reached only 3.2 percent in 2020, while expenditures on Health as a percentage of total budget expenditures were decreasing.

Albania was ranked last in the European Index for Consumer Health in 2018, due to the low disproportionate allocation of resources to primary health care (PHC), especially for maternal and child health.

The United Nations through UNICEF thinks that Albania still has room to increase the income available to children, even in the context of the decline in GDP due to COVID-19.

Currently, Albania collects equivalent taxes of up to about 27.3 percent of its GDP compared to an OECD average of 34 percent. According to the United Nations, tax loss through the informal labor market is another area of ??fiscal reform that can be used for the direct benefit of households, as well as the recovery of funds lost from corruption and mismanagement.

A country's development models will not be able to be implemented if the government does not invest in the youngest groups of the population to educate them to provide an environment for them to grow up healthy.

The UNICEF study states that there is little information about the mental health status of the population, especially adolescents. However, the annual increase to 60 percent (from 2016– 2017) of the 0–14 age group performing mental health visits to municipal polyclinics, and the 89 percent increase in hospital visits for 0–24 year olds, combined with a high suicide rate of 6.03 per 100,000 people in the population aged 10–24 should serve as an alarm to address the situation immediately, advises UNICEF.

(Source: Monitor)