The U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation that financed the Compact says gender inequality is a constraint in the process of reducing poverty and ensuring economic growth. That’s why within the Compact the women were encouraged to take part in decision-making, to invest in the development of agricultural businesses and to take part in the monitoring of construction works in their communities. In this connection, over 60 women from all the regions of Moldova came to Chisinau to discuss the Compact model of empowering women and of engaging them in projects to do reforms and to invest in infrastructure and the role of women in the successful implementation of these projects, IPN reports.

The conference organizers said the participating women run agricultural businesses and are members of Water Users Associations, managers of education institutions from villages and towns located along the Sarateni-Soroca road and from the area of the irrigation systems renovated within the Compact.

Attending the event, Deputy Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Nighina Azizov said the economic and political empowerment of women is a difficult, but inevitable process if we want to have a prosperous country, but this does not mean marginalizing men. On the contrary, partnerships should be established with them.

MCC Resident Country Director Leslie McCuaig said the Compact itself, which was implemented by two women managers, is an example showing that the women are active and want to play an important role in decision-making, in agriculture, economy and the social life.

Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Chisinau Julie Stufft said that after long decades during which the women were ignored in many countries, we can now discuss gender equality at different levels of the social life. “I’m glad to ascertain that the Compact managed to really implement a balanced gender policy in its infrastructure projects, which will produce results,” she stated.

Valentina Badrajan, executive director of the Millennium Challenge Account Moldova, said the Compact encouraged the ensuring of gender quality in all the project activities, from thematic training courses to mandatory inclusion of women in the decision-making process. This is not only a condition imposed by the donors, but also a good practice of encouraging women, of making the men more socially responsible and of ensuring sustainable economic growth for all the families.

About 40% of the members of the administration boards of the Water Users Association created within the Compact are women. The women also represented over 50% of the members of the social impact monitoring committees constituted in the communities where the Compact carried out construction works.