The World Bank (WB) Office in Moldova has today designated the winners of the 2007 Small Grants Programme (SGP) during a ceremony in which the winners were awarded grant certificates and the results of the 2006 SGP winning projects were presented. A total of 48 NGOs applied for a grant, but the committee reviewing the projects has approved only 8 of them. Two grants were offered to the civil society based in Chisinau, with the rest of financial aid being received by the districts of Briceni, Rezina, Sangerei, Soldanesti, Straseni and a number of Chisinau suburban localities. The grants offered by the WB in 2007 ranged from USD 2,150 to 5,500. For the year 2007, the SGP budget for Moldova was USD 32,000. This year’s SGP was themed “Civic Engagement for Rural Youth” and continued the idea of encouraging and promoting projects centred on the interaction of citizens with the public sector to strengthen mechanisms for inclusion, accountability and participation in order to enhance and influence development outcomes, World Bank Country Manager for Moldova Edward Brown said. This year’s key target was the youth from rural regions as beneficiaries of the projects. According to Brown, the evaluation committee made a great effort to choose only 8 out of those 48 applicants. The other projects that did not get financial assistance due to the limited resources of the programme are also important and good very, Edward Brown added. In the period from 1997 to 2007, the SGP allotted nearly USD 365,000 for 92 projects belonging to 95 non-governmental organisations in Moldova.