Draft Law on National Decentralization Strategy has been approved

The Moldovan Government has approved the draft Law on the National Decentralization Strategy, which provides clearer national mechanisms for ensuring genuine local autonomy, decentralization and strengthening capacities of mayor's offices and local councils, Info-Prim Neo reports. Victoria Cujba of the State Chancellery’s Decentralization Policies Division said the bill was developed in a broad participative process. During public debates, representatives of local and central public authorities, NGOs, local and foreign experts submitted about 450 proposals. Many of them have been accepted and included in the final version of the document. “The goal of the Strategy is to develop a democratic and autonomous local public administration that would ensure in a fair manner the provision of public services at high standards and an effective management of local functions”, said Victoria Cujba. The Strategy provides a clear delimitation of local and central public authorities’ functions, financial coverage for fulfilling them, and decentralization of public finances and property. The Strategy includes a plan of actions until 2015, indicating responsible institutions, progress targets and estimated costs of implementation. The actions will be funded from the state budget and from foreign sources. Approval to contribute to the decentralization reform has been obtained from the Swedish Government, USAID, the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, the European Council and the European Union. The National Decentralization Strategy has been supported by the Joint Integrated Local Development Program. The Program is implemented by the Moldovan Government with assistance from UNDP and UN Women, and financed by the Swedish Government.