Republic of Moldova

In fall 2009, UNIFEM (now part of UN Women) has successfully mobilized additional financial support from the Government of Sweden for the implementation of the Programme “Women’s Economic Empowerment through Increased Employability in the Republic of Moldova” (WEE Programme).The programme is aimed at addressing the needs of rural and sub-urban population, especially poor women in exercising their social and economic rights through (1) increasing access to quality information and services, (2) strengthening of the key stakeholders capacities and (3) improvement of the legislative and normative framework and is implemented during a four years period.

These outcomes are implemented at three levels of intervention: work at the regional/local, policy and institutional level. At the local level the programme focuses on establishment of Joint Information and Services Bureau (JISB) to support women and vulnerable group of population especially from rural areas to benefit from coordinated gender sensitive service provision. The concept of Joint Information and Services Bureaus was introduced in August 2010 and up to day it is operational in 5 raions of Moldova namely: Singerei, Telenesti, Nisporeni, Cantemir and Ungheni. In this way, the establishment of JISBs paved the way for functioning of a coordinated service provision for the benefit of women and vulnerable groups of population. Establishment of JISBs was also unique and cost effective for Moldova’s local public administration as it did not entail creation of new structure or recruitment of additional staff.

It is important to mention that this new approach to service delivery at the local level directly contributes to the realization of the Governmental Programme on “European Integration: Liberty, Democracy, Welfare” for 2011-2014, and especially its priorities under the chapter related to provision of Quality Public Services for all.  Also, because it brings quality services closer to citizens, this approach contributes to the realization of the government decentralization agenda and corresponding decentralization strategy and its priority actions: 1.4 on “creating institutional, legal and financial instrument that would stimulate the efficient delivery of services specific to decentralized powers” and 1.7 on ”improving institutional mechanisms at local level to ensure implementation of the principle of gender equality in local development policies”.

The decentralization strategy recognizes that vulnerable groups encounter difficulties in accessing local public services and that affirmative measures addressing vulnerable groups are key-factors to improve the access to quality public services. In line with this, Joint Information and Services Bureauscarry out mobile visits to villages, apart from regular weekly meetings, to ensure provision of services for population living in remote and hard accessible areas.  Mobile teams proved to be beneficial especially for women and disabled persons not being able to travel to the district centre (disabled, mothers with children, elderly). Mobile teams are being organized in close collaboration with representatives of village public authorities, mainly the mayors.

Rationale

Mayors being at the frontline of service delivery and local development in Moldova represent one of the most important entry points to reach rural population, especially the poor and disadvantaged. In this way, the role of the mayors is crucial for the successful organization and implementation of the JISB mobile team visit, and thus, ensuring effective service delivery to rural women and men. Usually, the results of the visits are directly proportional to the level of involvement of the village mayors and other local public servants such as the secretary of the local council, the social assistants, etc.

During the piloting phase of the JISBs, as well as the result of numerous consultation, retreats and workshops with service providers and raion administration it was identified that most of the raions encountered problems in organizing mobile teams because of limited communication, support and involvement of the mayors. Also, most of the service providers mentioned that there is a stringent need to increase communication and collaboration between Local Public Administration Level 1 (Mayoralty - LPA1) and Local Public Administration Level 2 (Raion Council - LPA2), as well as the involvement of the mayors which is crucial for the success and efficiency of the mobile teams. To address the issue of effective operation of Mobile Teams and coordination between LPA1 and LPA2 in the frames of the Joint Information and Services Bureaus, the Programme has planned to organize a series of workshops and trainings with the participation of Raion administration representatives, Service Providers within JISB, and village mayors from the 5 raions in which JISBs are functional for the moment (Singerei, Telenesti, Nisporeni, Cantemir and Ungheni). The first round of these workshops is planned for the period of July – August 2012. The objective of these workshops is to raise awareness of mayors on services and information provided within JISBs, increase their capacity to link the needs of population to specific services and to increase their involvement in the organization of JISB Mobile Teams.