New contest on financing green ideas launched in Moldovan capital

Chisinau, 18 June /MOLDPRES/ -     The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has launched a new appeal of grants for innovating solutions of modern and environment-friendly urban development. The support is part of the Green Sustainable Cities project, financed by the Global Environment Facility (GIF).     

The overall value of each grant is 8,000 dollars at the most. The initiatives are to be submitted by legal entities registered in Moldova. The participants in the context must provide at least 30 per cent their own contribution to the total value of the project submitted. The project proposals accepted in the context will cover the following sectors: urban mobility; waste management, energy efficiency and turning to account sources of renewable energy; sustainable urban planning.   

„We want to boost the innovating initiatives which meet the challenges of urbanizing, enhance people’s comfort and, at the same time, produce positive impact on the environment. Within this grants programme, which we symbolically call Fast Track Challenge, we will finance initiatives which can be implemented in a short period and will provide tangible results in due time,” a project manager at UNDP Moldova, Alexandru Rotaru, said.       

The projects submitted will be carried out on a period of nine months at the most. The co-financing can be non-monetary or monetary and is to be provided by the company or consortium asking for the grant. Also, the partnerships with the NGOs, public companies or institutions will be regarded as an advantage.  

The deadline for submitting the files is 31 July 2019. The project proposals will be assessed by a commission of experts, based on the eligibility criteria, such as relevance, innovation, social, economic and environmental impact; sustainability, degree of replication/extension of the initiative; territorial coverage and period of implementation. The evaluation will take place in two phases: consideration of files submitted, according to the eligibility criteria and presentation of the innovating project before the evaluation commission. In 2019, four project initiatives will benefit from financing; yet, the Fast Track Challenge programme will continue in 2020-2021 as well.    

The Sustainable Green Cities for Moldova project, which has a duration of five years (2018-2022), has an overall budget of 2.72 million dollars, of which 2.64 million dollars is provided by the Global Environment Facility and 80,000 dollars – by UNDP Moldova.