For the first time in Moldova, Promo-Lex Association organized the Forum of Transnistrian NGOs.
The event was held in 2 stages ( on October 25, in Chisinau and on November 15, in Cosnita village, Dubasari district).
Greetings were addressed to participants of the Forum by the EU Special Representative for Republic of Moldova – Mr. Kalman Miszei, Vice-Minister of Reintegration from Republic of Moldova Mr. Ion Stavila, Senior Human Rights Adviser Programme Manager, Human Rights and Democratization Programme, OSCE Mission to Moldova – Ms Dace Lukumiete, Director of the Center for Human Rights in Moldova, the Ombudsman – Anatol Munteanu and vice president of the Dubasari district Ms Maria Jimbei.
Nearly 100 participants: representatives of non-governmental organizations and initiative groups from transnistrian region, donor community representatives and state officials evaluated the state and the situation of the NGO sector from transnistrian region.
The participants expressed their opinion towards the problems, obstacles and positive results in such fields as: youth, human rights, ecology and social. Participants were divided in 4 working groups. Each group was moderated by an expert in the field. After the event, Experts drafted 4 analysis referring to the state of the NGOs active in the aforementioned fields.
During the discussions regarding human rights field were addressed various issues and formulated various conclusions and recommendations. As a result, it was concluded that the NGOs active in human rights area are at the incipient stage of development comparing to other NGOs active in other fields. Human Rights NGOs from transnistrian region are focusing on classical rights and make abstraction of the civil or political ones.
Regarding social and youth fields, the experts concluded that the incipient stage of development is partly overcome by most NGOs, but there are still evident shortcomings in ensuring the continuity of the launched projects or initiatives and there is a significant lack of qualified human resources working for NGOs.
Due to the geographical location of the region, the river Nistru is a subject of various activities promoted by most of the NGOs active in environmental field. However, the expert identified that the NGOs in the region still need to strengthen their capacities and develop an appropriate strategy in order to properly address the existing problems.
These and many other conclusions and recommendations were presented by the experts at the final stage of the Regional Forum of transnistrian NGOs to approximatively 100 participants, representatives of NGOs, donor organizations, diplomatic missions, international organizations, media and governmental institutions .
While drawing the final conclusion concerning the level of NGO development and general situation of non-governmental sector in the region, the experts mentioned that the regional organizations are still at the incipient level of development. The causes of this phenomenon are the numerous general problems faced by the transnistrian region inhabitants. The regional NGOs consider necessary to develop and to strengthen civil society, thus they request assistance and support in this regard.
As well, the representatives of the civil society in the transnistrian region are eager to engage in public life, to provide quality services to various categories of citizens and to participate in the decision making processes in the region.
The Forum was organized by “Promo-LEX” Association with the financial support of the OSCE Mission to Moldova.