National Advocacy Campaign in Moldova

Advocacy campaign “EU Pro-Active” was implemented by the Association of Ukrainian Youth in Moldova “Zlagoda”. The first stage of the campaign aimed at training of the 15 young leaders and has been held on 11-14 September 2014 in Chisinau. The training course aimed at the promotion of the European values and Eastern Partnership cooperation principles among minority communities in the Republic of Moldova. The project invited the best country experts to lead the training sessions.

According to the participants’ feedbacks as well as the analysis of the filled-in evaluation forms the Training course was very useful and successful. The issues presented were new to many of the participants, relevant in the context of the activities their organizations and communities implement. Following the training course, the project team planned and held series of meetings with main national institutions, international, inter-governmental organizations that play an important role in the EU-Moldova relations as well as human and minority rights protection system. In total there have been 10 meetings with the country EC delegation, OSCE office in Moldova, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, State Chancellery etc. All the meetings were relevant and interesting in the opinion of the participants. As a result of the organized meetings participants could better understand how human and minority rights protection infrastructure looks like in Moldova, what is the role of governmental institutions, where do the international organizations play its role, how to address and which are the human-rights defending organizations. Worth of mentioning is that the fact that it has been new and innovative for the most of the participants to meet the decision-makers and ask questions in person. Thus the aim to lobby minorities’ interests and establish a first platform for the dialogue between national minorities and main stakeholders was achieved.

In additional to the national level advocacy visits, three regional visits and campaigns have been organized in the remote minority populated regions of Moldova. The Round Table concluded the outcomes of the project and revealed areas of joint interest. Possibilities to further implement new projects have been examined and some ideas voiced by the direct beneficiaries of the project. As a result of the Campaign, importance of the ethnic diversity in Moldova has been brought to the attention of the civil society, international and national level institutions. Targeted groups have been reached and delivered the information about the EU integration, European values and ideas. The latest effort has been especially fruitful and beneficial since the lack of information is predominantly stated as a serious barrier on the way of Moldova’s integration into the EU. The campaign had been evaluated as a fruitful exchange to show-case the importance of the young minority leaders in bringing Moldova closer to the EU.