New assistance programme for developing institutional capacities to be implemented in Moldovan parliament with UNDP support

Chisinau, 12 May /MOLDPRES/ - Development partners will continue backing the  Moldovan parliament to strengthen institutional capacities. A new assistance programme will be implemented in parliament, with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Moldova, in order to speed up the enforcement of the Association Agreement and approximate the national legislation to the European one, the parliament’s communication and public relations department has reported.

The concept of the new development programme and the results achieved within the previous support programmes, provided by development partners, were presented in parliament. Attending the event were Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu, Deputy Speaker Liliana Palihovici, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Moldova Narine Sahakyan, Parliament Secretary-General Ala Popescu, MPs, representatives of development partners, civil servants.       

Speaker Andrian Candu thanked the Swedish Embassy, government of Sweden, UNDP and other development partners for the support provided for parliamentary development and building the institutional capacity.

“The parliament has made significant steps for developing the institution and improving the legislative process. The results gained due to the foreign assistance provided are considerable, especially in terms of parliament’s transparency and efficiency; yet, there are gaps which are to be removed. The new programme, due to be enforced with UNDP’s support, will bring a better governance in the parliament, will accelerate the implementation of the Association Agreement and will provide backing to synchronize the agendas of the parliament and government,” Andrian Candu said.    

The speaker appreciated the support offered by UNDP to work out a functional analysis of the parliament’s secretariat, the first gender audit in parliament, create the Parliamentary Council for European Integration and a platform of communication on Transnistria-related topics, modernize the parliament’s webpage, elaborate documents of strategic development, etc.   

For her part, Narine Sahakyan praised the parliament leadership’s commitment to develop the legislative body and strengthen the institutional capacity. The UNDP deputy resident representative noted that the actions provided for in the new development programme were relevant for continuing the support provided by UNDP to parliament.   

Liliana Palihovici said the results achieved through the projects implemented so far by development partners were visible, especially via enhancing transparency and openness of the legislative institution, as well as a qualitative improvement of the qualification of the parliament’s civil servants.  

“A mechanism of communication, due to adjust the new programme to the parliament’s needs, depending on the challenges on the way of developing the institutional capacities, is to be established for the next years,” Palihovici added. 

The new programme on institutional development of Moldova’s parliament, financed by the Swedish government with the UNDP’s support, will be implemented in July 2016 – December 2019. The programme’s overall value is 4.3 million dollars. The goals of the programme are to provide support to parliament in implementing the Association Agreement and the Association Agenda, enhancing the institution’s transparency, strengthening institutional capacities to improve the legislative function, the parliamentary control function and the one of parliament’s representation.     

(Editor A. Raileanu)