ECNL and FHI 360 in partnership with the National Council of NGOs in Moldova and Moldova Civil Dialogue Project held International Conference on State Financing for CSOs: New Opportunities for Moldovan CSO Development.
The Conference took place in Chisinau on September 26-27, 2011. The opening remarks were delivered by Vlad Filat, Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, William H.Moser, US Ambassador to the Republic of Moldova, and Ghenadie Barba, Deputy Head of the Council of Europe Office.
The Conference brought together government officials, CSO representatives, CSO lawyers and experts The current issues in legal reform affecting CSOs were discussed at a talk show between Mr.Oleg Efrim, the Minister of Justice, and Mr. Serghei Ostaf, President of the National Council of NGOs.
With the help of the assessment tool for Government-CSO cooperation (first developed for the Global Forum on Civil Society Law 2011), the Conference participants could assess the current stage of development of the cross-sector cooperation in Moldova and rely on the results to determine the priorities for reform. Further on, the discussions and group work focused on direct and indirect financing of CSOs, institutional framework for cooperation between the Government, Parliament and CSOs, public benefit status and other issues.
As the result, recommendations were drawn for the following areas:
- Recommendations for reform of the Public Benefit Status (PBOs);
- Recommendations to develop a supportive framework for distributing state grants to CSOs;
- Recommendations concerning possible adoption of percentage legislation;
- Recommendations on social contracting;
- Recommendations for fiscal benefits.
The Conference was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and with the financial support of the European Union and Council of Europe.