The State Chancellery, with the support of GIZ Moldova initiated the development of the Concept of The Civil Society Development Programme 2024-2027 (CSDP 2024-2027). This is a new policy document regarding the development of civil society. The previous document concerning the development of Civil Society Development Strategy 2018-2020, expired three years ago. According to a self-evaluation of the Government, only 50% of its planned actions were actually implemented.
Timeline for adoption
CSOs and Government representatives met on 5 May, 2023 for an inception meeting. According to the presented timeline, the plan will be developed in May-July 2023, promoted in July-August 2023 and adopted in September 2023. The State Chancellery plans to finalise the document by September 2023. Unlike previous strategies that were adopted by the Parliament, the new CSDP will be approved by the Government.
The Directorate of Human Rights and Cooperation with Civil Society is the focal point for cooperation with CSOs and they will coordinate the elaboration process. The development of the CSDP 2024-2027 is the task of an independent expert who also carried out the ex-post evaluation of the CSDS 2018-2020 last year. The elaboration process will involve CSOs, but the specific mechanism has not been defined yet.
In focus: cooperation, transparency and financial sustainability
According to the presented Concept, the document has four objectives:
- Strengthen cooperation mechanisms between central and local public authorities and civil society and diversify channels for collecting input and feedback from civil society and citizens.
- Increase transparency in policy formulation and decision-making, ensuring broad citizen involvement.
- Increase the financial sustainability of civil society organisations (CSOs).
- Improve the capacities of CSOs in addressing social issues and promoting democratic values (eg advocacy, sectoral expertise, development of local coalitions, etc.).
The CSDP 2024-2027 was not included in the Medium-Term Budgetary Framework, and thus has no financial support for now. However, the State Chancellery has assured that it would carry out all necessary procedures in order to guarantee the necessary financial support.