Seventy Moldovan settlements will be assisted in the local development process. For this purpose, representatives of several national NGOs were involved in the course “Mobilization of Community for Empowerment” that is organized by the Joint Integrated Local Development Program, Info-Prim Neo reports. The training course is a continuation of the activities initiated by the Joint Integrated Local Development Program with the aim of strengthening the capacity of the local public administration in the context of the decentralization reform. Within the course that is taught by national and foreign experts, the participants will discuss such conceptions as empowerment, vulnerability, human rights- and gender equality-based approaches, the stages of community mobilization and the role of the main actors taking part in the implementation, monitoring and assessment of the mobilization activities. The development objective of the Joint Integrated Local Development Program is to provide assistance to Moldova so as to make sure that the vulnerable groups in the urban areas profit from the sustainable socioeconomic development opportunities through appropriate local and regional policies implemented by the local public authorities and their partners in a sensible way. “Four NGOs selected by contest benefit from this training course. They are to work with about 70 communities in Moldova and to assist them in the local development process,” said Alexei Buzu, consultant of the Joint Integrated Local Development Program. According to Alexei Buzu, local development in Moldova was usually stimulated by the local public authorities and the most active groups of the community. Most often, this process had positive effects on these groups. He said that the approach used within the Joint Integrated Local Development Program is based on the active involvement of men and women, who represent vulnerable groups or are from families on low incomes, disabled persons, lonely elderly persons, religious minorities, ethnic minorities and Roma communities. Alexei Buzu also said that the future activities are aimed at involving the partners in the target communities of the Joint Integrated Local Development Program. They will mobilize the socially underprivileged groups and convince them to actively participate in local planning and to promote the group interests, while the local public authorities will be urged to deal with their problems. The Joint Integrated Local Development Program is implemented with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, with financial support from the Government of Sweden.