The objectives of the Civil Society Development Stagey for 2012-2015 haven’t been achieved also because the legal acts on social entrepreneurship, refunding of costs incurred by volunteers and others weren’t drafted and adopted. This is one of the conclusions formulated in the NGO Forum that was held recently in Chisinau. In a news conference at IPN, members of the NGO Council called on the authorities to implement all the overdue measures stipulated in the strategy.
The NGO Forum discussed the process of developing civil society, ensuring of transparency in decision-making, involvement of NGOs, financial sustainability of the nongovernmental organizations and the implementation of the strategy. “The Civic Society Development Stagey for 2012-2015 is expiring. Assessing the plan of activities and the provisions of the strategy, we ascertained that many activities are overdue,” said the head of the NGO Council Iuliana Cantaragiu.
Another conclusion of the NGO Forum is that civil society has been consulted in the decision-making process mainly formally. “We established that the cooperation with civil society is simulated rather than real or some representatives of the political class want to cooperate, but there is primarily no political will in this regard,” stated Iuliana Cantaragiu.
According to the director of the Partnership for Development Center Alexei Buzu, 2015 was a rather dramatic year in Moldova’s history. “The involvement of civil society in the process of taking particular key decisions was sporadic, mainly because the political class wanted to marginalize civil society and didn’t offer a platform in this regard,” he stated.
“Where there is no political will over particular subjects related to Moldova’s development, which are also related to what the NGOs do, there is the will of some of the NGO platforms where the people from these organizations come together to discuss the situation in particular areas and to identify solutions to change things,” said secretary general of the NGO Council Antonita Fonari.
A resolution that provides for the promotion of volunteering, among others, was drawn up in the NGO Forum. “Volunteering does not mean only youth. There are also sports, educational, international volunteering and volunteering of the elderly. Each of the competent ministries should promote these types of volunteering and we request that a national volunteering agency or center should be created,” said NGO Council member Terentie Carp.
The eighth NGO Forum was held on November 24. The participants in the event set the main objectives of activity in the next two years.
