27 Ianuarie 2020 — The Contact Center organized a conference to evaluate and totalize the project “Increasing Local Government Transparency through participatory policies”. The event was attended by representatives of LPA, NGOs and community activists from Drochia, Glodeni, Dubăsarii Vechi, Ștefan Vodă, Mereni, Costești, Chetrosu, Gura Bîcului, Copceac and Leova, as well as experts, representatives of national organizations and donors.
During the two years of the project, several activists and representatives of the civil society in these localities, carried out activities to increase the transparency of the local public authorities and to encourage the participation of citizens in the decision-making process, and during this event, they spoke about the results of their involvement.
“Thanks to this project, we were able to make ourselves heard by the LPA and the community and to create a communication platform, by means of which to solve our problems”, said Nicolae Nastas, member of the Ecological Movement in the town Stefan Voda. In the same context, Natalia Procopii-Scobioală, president of AO “Genesis” from Mereni, spoke about the importance of community involvement in the decision-making process, but also about the openness of the authorities towards the inhabitants.
Conclusions of the participants involved in the project:
• Transparency has become a known term. The ordinary inhabitants use it consciously and in repeated situations;
• Local public authorities have become more receptive and transparent, although there are still cases when community initiatives are ignored;
• Platforms and tools for communication and transparency have been created (information boards, online pages, newsletters, meetings). In this way, the natives from the diaspora gained access to information as well;
• The level of involvement and interest of the inhabitants towards the problems of the community increased, etc.
A comparative study, conducted within the project, which aimed to evaluate the level of transparency and participation of the residents in the 10 beneficiary localities was also presented during the event. The study showed that in these communities, after two years of project implementation, transparency and citizen involvement increased. More data from the study will be published soon.
This project was carried out by the Contact Center, with the financial support of the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF).