GIZ Gender Competition 2016
Project “Modernization of local public services in the Republic of Moldova”
Intervention area “Local Public Services”
I. Context
The European Union refers to gender mainstreaming as the ‘integration of equal opportunities’
in all policy actions, including legislation and programs, in all areas and at all levels. In the
context of EU integration, Moldova is one the way to improve the level of gender integration,
and ultimately equity, in local governments operations, policies, plans, and budgets. Currently,
Moldova has a strong legislative framework to support gender equality:
1994- Moldova Ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women (CEDAW)
2005- Law on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings was adopted
2006- Ratified the Optional Protocol of CEDAW
2006- Ratified Law on Ensuring the Equality of Opportunities between Women and Men
2008- Law on Prevention and Combating Violence in the Family was adopted
2010-2015- Adoption of National Strategy on Gender Equality (NSGE) and associated
National Action Plan (NAP)
2012- Adoption of Decentralization Strategy which require Gender Focal Points for Local
Municipalities.
Even though Moldova has a strong legislative framework to support gender equality, still there
are profound challenges in this regards, as follows:
19 % of Parliament (21 out of 101)
20 % of the Council of Ministers/Government (4 out of 20)
18 % of mayors (164 out of 898).
under 20 %1
district councilors
under 20 % Upper management of communal services providers2
5% of the members of water user associations
Gender imbalance in representation means policies, plans, budgets, and municipal services are
unlikely to accurately reflect the needs of both men and women and limits women’s
representation in the Local Government decision-making process.
II. Gender mainstreaming in GIZ Project ‘Modernization of Local Public Services in the
Republic of Moldova
MLPS Project has a gender marker G1, which according to OECD DAC criteria suggests it
carries out its interventions in a gender aware and gender sensitive way. Gender mainstreaming
is considered in MLPS project as a cross cutting issue to ensure that women, men and disadvantaged groups can equally participate in and benefit from the implementation of all the
measures of the project.
One of the success indicators of the Projects states that ‘In 35 communities, 50% of
implemented measures in the three project priority sectors have improved access of women to
local public services’. Following impact logic the indicator implied that specifically women’s
needs will be taken into account during project implementation. The results in the area of
gender equality are an integral part of the M&E system and systematic recorded. The
measurement of the result is documented in quarterly and annual reports of the MLPS Project.
In order to integrate gender in Project’s activities, a set of general mainstreaming principles
have been developed to guide the gender mainstreaming, as follows:
o using gender (sex-) disaggregated data in developing studies and reports,
o tracking male and female participation of events,
o reporting on gender related outcomes using M&E tools,
o promoting women’s participation in public consultations and decision making process,
o considering gender dimensions during capacity building measures,
o including gender dimension in awareness raising campaigns,
o Including gender in feasibility studies, business plans and other products of the
II. Cooperation and Capacity Development
According to MoU between the Congress of Local Authorities from Moldova (CALM) and
MLPS/GIZ Project, signed on 31st of January 2015, one important area of cooperation refers to
gender mainstreaming and vulnerable groups’ perspective in planning and decision making at
the level of local governments.
For 2015, MLPS/GIZ and CALM planned to organize one national conference and six
workshops/sessions with CALM members (women) aiming at enhance the understanding newly
elected governments on gender equality were organized in 2015.
Gender equality cannot be achieved by individuals alone. It is a joint task of the national
stakeholders and the development partners to assure that the measures are synchronized for
the maximum efficiency for the beneficiaries. This is why, the Project rise the interest of other
development partners to join the efforts and support the initiative of CALM of the activities
mentioned above. In this regards, a Gender Working Group was organized and an
responsibilities’ matrix was developed with GIZ support.
As a result, the following activities were organized:
1. WOMEN IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT: AUTHORITY, POWER AND LEADERSHIP
On 4th of March 2015, during Gender Week and close to the International Women’s Day, the
best female mayors from the Republic of Moldova were honored for the successes obtained at
the local level. The female mayors shared with their positive experience in various fields, as for
example the maintenance of national values, establishment of quality local public services,
promotion of traditions and culture of different ethnic groups. The best models in this respect
received awards. The event was organized by CALM with the support of GIZ Moldova, UNDP,
UN Women and USAID.
2. CALM Gender Week
In the week of 9-13 November 2015, the Congress of Local authorities from Moldova (CALM)
with the support of GIZ, UNWomen and USAID organized six trainings for local governments
representatives related to gender at local level.
The trainees found out about the gender concept, the legal framework in the domain, what is
gender balanced local planning, why it is needed and how to mainstream gender in local public
services, in infrastructure projects development and implementation, what are gender
responsive budgets and also found out about the duties and responsibilities of the local gender
focal point.
The aim of trainings was capacity building of local governments so LGs will be able to:
Use gender-disaggregated data to track male and female participation in events, promote
women’s participation in public consultations and decision-making process in local planning and
programming, and conduct M&E reporting on gender-specific indicators;
Include the gender dimension in feasibility studies for infrastructure projects;
Consider gender dimensions during capacity development measures, development of
operator’s manuals, and other efforts to improve delivering of effective and efficient communal
services;
Including the gender dimension in awareness raising campaigns and other activities related
to mobilizing citizens to efficiently use local public services;
Implement Program Based Budgeting (with principles of gender sensitive budgeting
included).
The 3 success factors of the activities organized in 2015 were the following:
1. Cooperation and agreement between the development partners to support together in a
synchronized way the measures to support the gender mainstreaming activities
2. Identifying one national partners and later, Ownership that CALM took in order to organize
the national events regarding gender mainstreaming;
3. Proactive support of the individual project, one of the m being , MLPS of GIZ in order to
implement the activities in gender sensitive way and continuous on job capacity development of
the partner institutions, such as LPAs, RDAs, MRDC, CALM etc
Still, severe challenges were faced during the implementation, such as:
1. Low level of interest from local governments to delegate representatives to the activities
related to gender subjects,
2. Delegate gender focal points at the level of the organizations and institutions and
allocate resources for the appointed gender focal points,
3. Develop Gender Action Plans at local level and mainstream gender equity principles in
decision making process.
After the events, CALM President, Tatiana Badan, thanked the MLPS Project for the
support offered in promoting gender equity to local governments.