Another 15 Moldovan settlements to benefit from migration and local development project

Chisinau, 26 July /MOLDPRES/ - A meeting of the coordination council of the Migration and Local Development Project (MiDL) took place at the government on 25 July. The participants in the event presented a report on assessing the activities of the project in the first half of 2017 and a working plan for the period August – December 2017. Attending the meeting were representatives of the State Chancellery, MiDL project and UN Development Programme, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.

The MiDL project was launched by UNDP Moldova in August 2015, with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The project’s goal is to support the development of the migration-hit communities from Moldova, through the improvement of local water and sewerage supply services, social and education services, as well as to stimulate economic activities generating incomes, including by economic encouraging of migrants who returned to the community.   

During the first stage (2015), 25 communities were selected based on an open contest. These communities received comprehensive assistance, which encompassed both the setting up of local associations of natives, and through consolidating the capacities of the local public administration and co-financing of projects on improving the local services and infrastructure.  

To implement the second phase of the Migration and Local Development Project, an additional number of 15 mayoralties from 15 districts and the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, uncovered by the project so far, are to benefit from the project’s assistance, ensuring a better territorial representation and replication of the model of the Natives’ Associations. Attending the event, Government Deputy Secretary General Valentin Guznac said: “We are sure that, by continuing the project, we will ensure full functionality of the achievements got so far, as well as will extend the MiDL model of mobilizing the migrants from all over the country. I am confident that, along with the project’s team, by the experience gained, we will manage to create national models worth being followed.”    

In the end, representatives of the State Chancellery and development partners validated a proposal to select communities – target of the second sub-phase of the project. Thus, at least one association of natives would be in each district of Moldova. This is to be a model of involvement of migrants’ community in the local development, enhancing the chances of multiplication and dissemination to an ever larger number of settlements.