Florensa Haxhi

Dr. Florensa Haxhi has earned a PhD Degree in Economics (Public Administration focus) from the State University in Albania; owns a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Finance (dual major) from the State University of New York and an MBA in International Finance from Ecole Superieur de Gestion (Paris Graduate School of Management).
She has worked for a about 3 years at the higher education field as a Coordinator for Graduate International Programs in Athens, Greece.

Her main experience is focused in the Public Administration sector, where she has held various positions in the last 10 years. For more than 3 years she has been a coordinator for national strategies responsible for overseeing, as well as participating in the preparation of the National Strategy for Development and Integration of the country, as well as drafting Sector and Cross-Cutting National Strategies, mostly in the field of Justice and Home Affairs, Rule of Law and Democratization, Anti-corruption, Land, etc.

For about 4 years, she was involved in programming and managing foreign assistance (grants, soft loans), coordinating among development partners and line ministries, preparing foreign assistance progress reports, updating donor databases and ensuring that government priorities are being financed either by state budget, or by foreign aid. Some of the donors which she has been responsible of, are: the World Bank, EU, Italy, Slovenia, etc.

In addition, she has been actively involved with the research and incubation of new policies and reforms, such as the Civil Society Reform, the Integrated Land Management Program, etc.

Dr. Florensa Haxhi currently holds the position of the Director General of the Development Programs and Cooperation Unit, at the Prime Minister’s Office, and is responsible of drafting a number of national development programs in different sectors which are translated into concrete executable national strategic projects with a direct impact to the country’s economic growth. One of the programs she is currently drafting is the Start Ups and Innovation Program for the country. The objective of this program is the development of a clear roadmap on what steps should the government take to boost the start ups ecosystem in the country and how to coordinate efforts with all the actors involved.

The last 2 years, she has also been the Program Manager of the Regional Economic Area, focused on the development of the Western Balkans region with the aim at developing an economic area where goods, services, people and knowledge move without borders. She is responsible for coordinating work with the relevant national and regional stakeholders involved, ensure a successful implementation of measures under the Multiannual Action Plan and contribute towards the drafting and signing of regional agreements.