About the campaign

Based on statistics in Albania, 109 boys are born for 100 girls. The country is losing one girl for ten born boys. Based on this trend, only in one decade, Albania has lost around 21 thousand girls aged 0 to 19 years, creating a chain of gender imbalance that affects every specter of society.

The "Next time we hope it is a girl" campaign aims to raise awareness and influence a public debate in families, believing that parents will be more responsible when taking their decisions on gender-biased sex selection (or selective abortions).

“Next time we hope it is a girl” campaign includes an exhibition of photos of Albanian girls, those who live and those who are missing, who tend to give strong messages themselves or through their parents. This exhibition will go to several towns, especially in those areas where the phenomenon is still an issue, but also in those urban areas with the highest density of population in Albania.

UNFPA aims to reach, inform and engage as many citizens and communities as possible, against  harmful practices like gender-biased sex selection, as well as mobilize allies and support to change such social norms and fight gender-based violence in all its forms

The campaign will continue to be implemented throughout 2023.

Ending gender-based violence

As part of the End Gender-based Violence Programme in Albania, and more particularly support communities to be aware of and change discriminatory social norms, gender stereotypes and abusive behaviours leading to gender-based violence and harmful practices, UNFPA launched a campaign to raise awareness and call for action to end gender-biased sex selection in Albania. An open call was also opened for the wider public to submit stories of women who had faced this practice in a way or another.

Three women of different backgrounds, educational, economic and social status presented their personal stories, which were recorded and summarized in three separate video-stories.

Watch more, from the story of a mother of girls who was pregnant with a third girl but her in-las were unhappy as they expected to have a grandson and heir of the name, to the story of a girl, sister of three other girls who was loved very much by her father, but somehow regretted by her mother, who wanted a son: and to a third story of a girl who grew up in a family of girls-only and how she felt psychologically violated in more than one case.

The "Next Time, I hope it’s a Girl!" campaign in support of the empowerment of girls in Albania, putting an end to harmful practices that undermine gender equality, was successfully closed in Tirana. UNFPA is working to shift the attitudes that undervalue girls within their family and society.

The campaign targeted the gender-biased social norms and language in songs that is commonly used to wish for inheritance with sons. UNFPA in Albania promoted the slogan “Next time, I hope it’s a girl!” – a rebuttal to the intense pressure that mothers often face to have a son.

This campaign developed and implemented by UNFPA Albania over a period of 1 year, involved intensive efforts to raise awareness among the population on a very sensitive issue that has affected the country in years: the selective abortion or son preference.

The "Next Time, I hope it’s a Girl!" began its journey a year ago in Tirana's Pedonale, showing for the first time a special photo exhibition of girls professionally taken by photographer Kristina Culaj. The panels of the exhibition also included silhouettes of missing girls who were never born in the last decades due to selective abortion.

The campaign traveled to Tirana, Fier, Kukës and Durrës, covering four important districts of Albania. The exhibition stayed for several days in each city, attracting local residents to get information, reflect and become aware of the phenomenon through a more tangible way - art.

The campaign did also make every effort to raise awareness through information on social media (Instagram, Facebook), as well as media appearances on television, radio and online portals so that important messages managed to reach hundred of thousands of Albanians in Albania and beyond.

The final closing ceremony brought together partners, state institutions authorities, civil society representatives, as well as many activists and other important actors and allies in fighting gender-based violence and harmful practices.

Throughout the campaign, UNFPA joined forces with two key partners: the Mother and Child Hospital Foundation and FiBank Albania.

Let us start wishing "Next Time, I hope it’s a Girl!".