Achievements in promoting gender equality must continue in Cahul and Ungheni

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The closing conference of the Project "Local Partnerships for women’s empowerment in Cahul and Ungheni districts" brought together beneficiaries of the project from the 12 initiative partner localities, representatives of local public administrations from Cahul and Ungheni districts, Local Initiative Groups representatives, active women, as well as development partners.

The project "Local Partnerships for women’s empowerment in Cahul and Ungheni districts" aimed to strengthen civil society’s and local public administrations' capacities for promotion and protection of women's rights; to strengthen partnerships between civil society organizations and Local Public Administration in order to elaborate and adjust the Local Development Strategies regarding the gender dimension, to develop of Local Plans in the field of gender equality and to implement projects promoting gender equality.

Thereby, for two years were organised training, consultancy and mentoring sessions, as well as actions to support projects of the Local Initiative Groups from the 12 communities, partners of the project, in the districts of Cahul and Ungheni. These actions offer solutions to essential problems in the localities by empowering women and promoting gender equality. Among them, we can mention the 48 mentoring meetings, the establishment of the Network of Active Women from Cahul and Ungheni districts, including the organisation of 17 sessions of the Network attended by over 500 women and men. Also within the project, almost 3000 people from the project's partner localities benefited from six local/community initiatives that were implemented.

 "You are communities-champions in promoting gender equality", said Anatolii Oprea, UN Women Moldova program officer, who highlighted that at the beginning of this project it could be that "gender equality seemed to you just a theory, and now you live it and apply it in practice".

 The president of the "Institutum Virtutes Civilis" Association, Liliana Palihovici, mentioned that "Gender equality is not just a set of rules on paper, it is not just an international commitment, but primarily means a better quality of life for every citizen and I believe that through this project we contributed together to achieve this goal".

The event was attended by mayors and members of Local Initiative Groups from the 12 partner communities of the project: Andrușul de Jos, Cahul, Pârlița, Rădenii Vechi, Zagarancea and Zârnești from Cahul district, and Măcărești, Mănoilești, Larga Veche, Slobozia Mare, Ungheni and Văleni from Ungheni district.

The project "Local Partnerships for women’s empowerment in Cahul and Ungheni districts" was accomplished by the "CONTACT-Cahul" Association and the "Institutum Virtutes Civilis" Association, financed by the European Union and implemented by UN Women in partnership with UNICEF Moldova.