SCSMCM Program – a success story in Moldova

The Program on Strengthening the Civil Society Monitoring Capacity in Moldova (SCSMCM) ends in Moldova after running two years. The beneficiaries assess the program achievements as very important and plan new activities to fight corruption in Moldova, this insuring a continuous impact, Info-Prim Neo reports. The SCSMCM has been running since 2007, pursuing to strengthen the capacity of the NGOs and media to enhance the transparency and publicly scrutinize the government's work. Some 30 NGOs and media, and over 70 investigative reporters have acquired knowledge and resources to continue the fight against corruption. Sean Roberts, a senior program advisor, Tuesday told a program closing conference that he was happy with the performance of the beneficiary organizations. “After five trips to Moldova during the last two years, I see both the media and NGOs have made huge efforts in professionalizing their work and I see this as very important, taking into account the short period of time,” Roberts said. He says the fight against corruption requires a long-time effort, “a fight that never ends” and that is why it's very important the civil society goes on monitoring the governance. “The program has been a frame of pressure over authorities to promote certain reforms in different spheres. As the program ends, the civil society should keep up this pressing because there lots of things to be changed in this country,” said Petru Macovei, the director of the Independent Press Association (IPA), a beneficiary NGO within the program. Vasile Spinei, the president of the Acces-info Center, has said he was very skeptical in the beginning, but by the end of the program he realized its goals have been achieved. “Initially I thought the question was about fighting a prehistoric monster called corruption. Two years later, the monster is there, but there NGOs and media have managed to strengthen their capacity to monitor and to join their efforts,” Spinei specified. “This project helped a lot the investigative journalists, as many of them benefited from training and support in caring out researches,” said Cornelia Cozonac, the president of the Investigative Journalism Center. “This support was a real help in the circumstances in which Moldova has a real problem: journalists do not carry out investigations, because they don't have time, sufficient resources, or even are afraid to investigate corruption,” she said. Although the program ends, the work of the councils for local transparency in Ungheni district goes on. They were created by the Sustainable Development Regional Center. This organization has managed, for the first time, to engage citizens to participate with the local administration in planning the local budget. For example, the villagers from Manoilesti, Ungheni, determined their priorities: repairing roads and securing access to gas and water pipes. The Soarta association has run an advocacy and corruption monitoring project on medical-sanitation entities in Soroca district, and now it works on a new project to fight corruption at the graduation exams in the district's schools. Apart from NGOs and media, the SCSMCM program informed hundreds of thousands of Moldovans about corruption and ways about counteracting this phenomenon through an unprecedented awareness-raising campaign “You can stop corruption!” The polls show a 10% decrease of the citizens' willingness to offer bribes, while the number of Moldovans reporting cases of corruption surged twice. The SCSMCM Program is implemented by the Academy for Educational Development (AED), with the technical support of IREX, financed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and managed by USAID within the Country Threshold Plan for Moldova. Strengthening the civil society's and media's monitoring capacity in Moldova is the second component part of the CTP.