Engagement with the EU can only be done by the country’s institutions adjusting to the EU’s regulatory framework, standards and values. And Sweden is helping out with that in Moldova. We are also financing projects that help farmers have better harvests and incomes.
Strategy to combat poverty
The current Swedish country co-operation strategy, 2007–2010, reports Sweden as the largest European bilateral donor. Sweden provides assistance for about SEK 100 million per year in close co-ordination with different development players. This simplifies Moldova’s own planning and makes its engagement with the EU more efficient.
The government has formulated a strategy to combat poverty together with the civil society.
No career paths for civil servants
Many projects that we support are built on this strategy. The largest one consists of working together with Norway, the United Kingdom and the World Bank to reorganize public administration and make it more efficient. Civil servants will be recruited on the basis of professional merits by introducing rules for career paths.
Another project will improve the state’s social policy and social services, so that those in poverty, the disabled and other vulnerable groups receive the support they have a right to. A third project is educating mayors and members of local governments in how local governments can be improved so that citizens can gain an insight and call politicians to account.
Strengthening women’s position in the labour market
There are at least six projects within human rights and democracy. The target of the largest one is to guarantee equality, particularly within public administration. Another one contributes towards strengthening the position of women in the labour market in general by producing better statistics. The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) is running this project. During the Soviet era, more women worked outside the home than today.
Legal aid, support for minorities’ ability to assert their rights and increase journalists’ awareness of human rights, is part of a separate project run by several national human rights organizations.
Work to prevent corruption and money laundering is also supported, as is Moldova’s strive to make its administration and energy resources more efficient.
Projects with Swedish non-governmental organizations
Within the framework of strengthening voluntary organizations, support is given to a number of Swedish organizations that have partners in Moldova. The Swedish Center Party’s International Foundation has educated women in particular in democracy, ecology and sustainable development.
The Swedish Consumer Association for Medicines and Health (KILEN) has been co-operating with DrugInfo Moldova, a non-government organization that offers consumer information about pharmaceuticals. The LO-TCO Secretariat of International Trade Union Development Co-operation is one of the organizations that is co-operating with local partners on trade-union democracy and membership recruitment. The Olof Palme International Center has several projects on adult education for democracy issues.
