KEY FACTS

Implementation period: 01/2019 - 12/2021

Implemented by: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, as commissioned by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in coordination with the ‘Modernisation of Local Public Services in the Republic of Moldova’ project

Financed by: European Union – 4,9 Mio. EUR (including 3,75 Mio EUR in grants)

Target beneficiaries: Citizens (including pupils) in the development regions North, Centre, South and ATU Gagauzia - as the ultimate beneficiaries of the action, Civil society organisations, especially at the local level, Mass media representatives, Networks of CSO

Partners: Regional Development Agencies (North, Centre, South and ATU Gagauzia), Regional Development Councils (North, Centre, South and ATU Gagauzia); Mayors and local councils LPAs I level and rayon’s presidents and rayon councils from LPAs II level, National Council of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)

Political counterpart: Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development

ACTION OBJECTIVES

The overall Action objective is to empower citizens through constructive participation of CSOs in local, regional and national decision-making processes.

The specific objectives of the Action are:

• Participatory planning: citizens, men and women equally, are enabled to contribute in a meaningful way in participatory planning of public infrastructure by Local Public Administrations;
• Participatory monitoring: citizens are enabled to participate in a meaningful way in oversight activities of procurement, management and maintenance processes of public infrastructure;
• Awareness raising: citizens – including pupils of public schools – are informed about investments in the areas of WSS and SWM, relevant environmental issues related to local public services and the relevance of cost-recovering tariff setting of their provision.

EXPECTED KEY RESULTS

• 1800 citizens participate in the development, monitoring and evaluation of regional and local strategic documents and plans;
• 600 representatives of LPAs are trained on how to apply the participatory approaches during the planning processes;
• 3200 citizens - including pupils of public schools - have an increased awareness of issues regarding sustainable development, including WSS, SWM and energy and energy efficiency as well as the impact on climate change;
• 240 mass media representatives are trained to raise awareness at the local and regional levels about sustainable development and local public services, including SWM, EE, as well as the impact on climate change.

APPROACH

In order to achieve the expected results, the Action applies a holistic capacity building approach to support citizens' capacity development, CSOs' institutional capacity building and the development of appropriate conditions for networks and functional mechanisms for coordination and communication between CSOs and different actors at institutional levels.

For the implementation of the Action, four CSOs have been selected for the implementation of the Local Grants Programme acting at regional level (North, Centre, South and ATU Gagauzia) and one organisation for increasing the information and communication potential.

Organisations will provide the following in their respective region and area of activity:

• Assistance in the development of the capacity of local CSOs, related to improving the involvement of citizens in decision-making processes, including monitoring public procurement, public works and providing local public services;
• Strengthening the capacities of local and regional CSOs and media institutions to reflect activities related to citizen participation in decision-making processes;
• Sub-grants to local CSOs, to implement projects of socio-economic and sustainable local development based on citizens' needs;
• Supporting awareness campaigns to improve the provision of public services;
• Facilitating and fostering the exchange of experiences and good practices in the field of communication and awareness for the provision of citizen-oriented services.

For more details on the project approach and the anticipated results, see the project information in Romanian, Russian or English.

STEERING COMMITTEE

The Steering Committee steers the Action and serves as a platform for ensuring cooperation among the main stakeholders as well as monitoring and evaluation of key actions pertaining to relevance, performance and progress towards intended re-sults, as well as of the progress in the implementation of the project activities. 

The Steering Committee is chaired by the EU Delegation and co-chaired by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development. Permanent members include representatives of the contracted CSOs, National Council of NGOs, Regional Development Councils and GIZ. 

The Steering Committee meetings:

• October 24, 2019 - Minutes in English and Romanian
• October 29, 2020 - Minutes in English and Romanian
• May 12, 2021 - Minutes in English and Romanian
• November 24, 2021 - Minutes in English and Romanian