On 3 March 2017, the official inauguration of the Local Democracy Agency Moldova in Cimișlia was held.

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More than 50 representatives of local governments, civil society, international organizations and donors, as well as the representatives of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe and the CORLEAP attended the event.
Oriano Otočan, President of ALDA opened the meeting, proudly welcoming the 12th Local democracy Agency joining the network of ALDA, as well a 4th in the Eastern Partnership dimension. Among the speakers, the Vice President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of COE, and Mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca; the President of CALM, Tatiana Badan, representing also the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities of Eastern Partnership; Marco Gemmer, representing the Delegation of EU to Moldova and representatives of French Embassy of Moldova, contributed to the opening part, supporting the idea of cooperation between LAs and civil society. Partners of LDA Moldova expressed their readiness to contribute to the local democracy development in Cimișlia and in the whole country.

Migration, capacity building of Local Authorities, regional development, support to EU integration, involvement of youth and women are the future activities of new LDA. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by five partners of LDA: the City of Cimişlia, CALM – Congress of Local Authorities Moldova, IASCI – International Agency for Source Country Information (Representative Office Moldova), NEXUS Moldova, Institute of Administrative Sciences of the Republic of Moldova, and Solidarité Eau Europe. They will work together to create a platform for cooperation, improve dialogue and mutual exchange of experience in all aspects (cultural, social and economic) between local communities and communities of European partners.

The LDA Moldova in Cimișlia operates within a wider network of LDAs in the European Neighborhood, with the aim to foster educational, economic and professional exchanges, and support building of the democratic institution, as a vital European Neighborhood Policy objective. Its role, including the implementation of jointly defined priorities and projects while reinforcing the working level relationship between the local authorities and civil society/ citizens, is of particular importance in the context of improving quality of life of citizens of Moldova.

The celebration continued with two conferences organized in the framework of two ALDA’s projects, LADDER and CHOICE. Migration was in the spotlight as it is one of the topics LDA’s partners decided to focus their joint work on, on top of a challenge for which the multi-stakeholder approach (engagement of LAs, CSOs, private sector, education sector, citizens etc.) has proven to be effective and with a clear added-value in achieving specific objectives at a different scale, from community to international level.

ALDA brought the successful experience of the EU-funded project LADDER on the migration issues to the event and Nicolaas de Zwager – founding director of IASCI, and the partner of LDA Moldova had presented the statistical data on migration in Moldova, as well discuss the current situation and reflect to the recommendations what can be done to make the situation better. Tatiana Badan – the President of CALM and other participants took active part in conversation and debates, the role of local authorities to support migrants was one of the topics of the discussion. ALDA is working in Moldova since 2015, in the frame of the EU-funded regional project CHOICE-Cultural Heritage: Opportunity for Improving Civic Engagement – implemented also in Armenia, Ukraine and Belarus.

The inauguration in Cimișlia was accompanied by an exhibition of photos illustrating the activities performed in the frame of the action to protect cultural heritage and involve communities. Seven small projects have been funded in Moldova, aimed at supporting the cultural heritage and enhancing civil participation. ICOM coordinating the work of “CHOICE” in Moldova organized Public discussion to bring the local perspectives into the policy on culture of the country. The discussion was moderated by the representative of the Ministry of Culture in Moldova – Svetlana Pociuban, Head of Department of Policy.

A partner meeting of LDA concluded this intensive day, during which an action plan, including priorities and lead partner, was identified and adopted. The candidacies of new delegate Nicolae Hristov and his assistant Ana Sofia Raileanu were also approved, and a full list of activities was defined.

With new hopes and energy, we are starting to contribute to the development of local democracy in Moldova. We wish successful and fruitful work to our new delegate, Mr Nicolae Hristov, and we believe that through joint efforts we can improve citizens’ life!

Useful links:
Speech of COE Vice President
Project LADDER – Local Authorities as Drivers for Development Education and Raising awareness
Project CHOICE – Cultural Heritage: Opportunity for Improving Civic Engagement
LDA Moldova in Cimișlia