Besa Shahini

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Besa Shahini
51st Minister of Education, Sports and Youth
In office 17 January 2019 – 14 September 2020
President	Ilir Meta
Prime Minister	Edi Rama
Preceded by	Mirela Karabina Lindita Nikolla (Acting)
Succeeded by	Evis Kushi
Personal details
Born	1982 (age 41–42) Pristina, SFR Yugoslavia (today Kosovo)
Political party	Socialist Party (Albania) Social Democratic Party (Kosovo)
Spouse	Dardan Molliqaj ​ (m. 2019)​
Alma mater	Pearson College UWC York University
Signature

Besa Shahini (born 1982) is a Kosovo-born Albanian politician, who served as the Minister of Education, Sports and Youth in the second cabinet of Edi Rama.^[1][2]

In the decade and a half prior to joining the Albanian government, she focused her research and advocacy on education and EU integration issues in the Western Balkans and South Caucasus. Besa Shahini holds a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School in Berlin.^[3]

In 1999, her family moved to Canada. During her first two years there, she considered becoming an artist, but went to York University and studied political science and public administration. When she returned to Kosovo after her studies, she founded the Kosovar Stability Initiative think tank there.

In 2009, she completed a Master's degree in Public Policy at the Hertie School in Berlin.^[4]

At the end of 2018, there were major student protests in Albania, in the course of which Prime Minister Edi Rama partially reshuffled his government cabinet. He proposed to the Parliament of Albania (Kuvendi i Shqipërisë) the then Deputy Minister of Education Besa Shahini as the successor to Lindita Nikolla (PS – Socialist Party of Albania). She was elected with 77 out of 140 votes.

She was the first Kosovo Albanian to hold this post.^[5]

She is the founder of the Education Plenum Think Tank in Pristina (2014), focusing on research and educational analyses on schools and high schools in Kosovo. From 2016, she focused increasingly on education policy and the education system in Kosovo and Albania.

At the same time she was an independent policy analyst at the European Stability Initiative (ESI) in Berlin.^[6]

In September 2023, Besa Shahini officially took over the Henrik Enderlein fellowship from Dr Johannes Lindner, who continues his work as Co-Director of the Jacques Delors Centre, the Hertie School’s research and policy centre working on the European Union.^[7]

• Besa Shahini's X account
• European Stability Initiative, Besa Shahini (former staff)
• Jacques Delors Centre, Besa Shahini, Henrik Enderlein Fellow

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