The civil society organizations (CSOs) are encouraged to become actively involved in the decision-making process. To find solutions to the potential impediments that can undermine the role of the NGOs in society, the Regional Assistance and Information Center for NGOs “CONTACT-Cahul” initiated a series of club discussions. On February 26, the meeting took place in Chisinau. The Center’s executive director Silvia Strelciuc has told IPN that the involvement of civil society in decision-making is an instrument of democracy and, if the participation is not active, democracy is not authentic.
The meeting in Chisinau is the second after that held in Cahul. The civil society members were able to exchange opinions and to discuss the challenges they face when they aim to take an active part in decision-making. “One of the aspects we discuss is the role of civil society organizations in the regional development policies implemented by the Regional Development Agencies, coordinated by the Regional Development Councils. One of the members of the councils is a member of civil society. Regretfully, there is no clarity as to the criteria used to select these members and we aim to find solutions to improve the participation of civil society in the regional development process,” Silvia Strelciuc stated for IPN. She also said it is very important for society to know all the actions of the authorities and how the public money is spent and to suggest solutions to the problems faced by the community.
The participants in the club discussions in Chisinau, who included members of civil society and mayors and local councilors from nine districts, said the involvement of SCOs in decision-making is important because those from regions know better the people’s needs. The participants noted that when civil society becomes actively involved in decision-making, the authorities also become more responsible. Asked what the SCOs can and should do when public policies are being worked out, implemented and assessed, the participants said these can make studies and analyses to identify problems of public interest, can facilitate the process of designing public policies and can carry out activities to convince the local public authorities to include people’s problems in their agenda.
Liuba Stavinschi, head of the public association “Nufarul” based in Rezina town, said the SCOs that form part of the Regional Development Councils must be more united and promote only the public interests. Mihai Nani, jurist at the Keystone Moldova Association, said the SCOs from regions should carry out polls among the people and present their results to the authorities. These organizations should also present alternative reports on the authorities’ work.
Speaking about the challenges they experience, the participants mentioned the shortage of human resources competent in the area of public policies, the incomplete implementation of the law on decisional transparency, the promotion of group interests and political bias.
The next club discussions will take place in Balti town in March. The collected ideas will ensure the basis for appropriately planning the activities to train the SCOs in the field of advocacy, will create preconditions for planning regional advocacy campaigns and for monitoring the implementation of regional development policies. These will be afterward included in the guide of advocacy practices.
This activity forms part of the project “Advocacy and mobilization for a greater power of action and intervention and the Europeans information campaign in the South Region of Moldova”, which is implemented owing to the generous support of the American people provided by USAID through FHI 360.
