1. General situation of the country
The Republic of Moldova is a small country, in the Southeast part of Europe, neighboring Romania and Ukraine. The capital of Moldova, Chisinau, is situated in the middle of the country and is cultural, scientific and administrative center of the country.
Moldova is divided into thirty-two districts and two autonomous regions (Gagauzia and Transnistria). Transnistria is a self-proclaimed unrecognized republic (Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic), situated at the east of the Dniester river.
The population is about 3,57 mil (excluding Eastern part - Transnistria), including over 977 thousands young people (aged between 16-30 years).
Moldova enjoys a favorable climate and good farmland, but has no major mineral deposits. As a result, the economy depends heavily on agriculture, featuring fruits, vegetables and producing wine.
After declaration of its independence on 27 August 1991, the Republic of Moldova passed through a complex stage of transition to the market economy and experienced a significant economic recession. Since 2000 the economy has been on the rise. This period is characterized by a steady recovery of the production output, which had a partly impact on poverty reduction.
2. The state institutions responsible for Youth Policy, with relevant information about that institution and contacts:
- Parliamentary Commission on Culture, Science, Education, Youth, Sports and Mass Media
- National Commission for Youth Affairs within the Presidency
- Ministry of Education and Youth, Youth Department
- Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child
- Ministry of Economy and Ministry of Finance
- Republican Center for Children and Youth
- Regional level within the District Council: General departments for education, youth and sports; Department for Social Affairs and Family Protection
3. Legal framework (laws, strategies, etc.):
- Law on Youth (adopted in 1999, amended in 2003, 2007)
- National Youth Strategy and the Action plan (2009-2013)
- Strategy for Development of the civil society (2008-2011)
Relevant draft laws lobbied by civil society to be adopted:
Law on Prevention and Combating Discrimination
Law on Volunteering
Law on Public Utility and rule of 2%
4. Youth policy directions/fields
The objectives of the Youth Strategy (2009-2013):
- To assure the access to education and information for youth
- To develop health and social protection services for youth
- To create opportunities of economic development for youth
- To assure the participation of youth in the public life and to promote the active citizenship
- To strengthen the institutional capacities in the youth field
5. Youth NGO sector
Civil society in the Republic of Moldova is now in a transition process to an institutional durable presence that contributes to national and local development. Civil society organizations are becoming more visible as plenipotentiary and durable partners for public authorities and business environment on local and national levels.
In Moldova are registered about 8000 non-governmental organizations acting in different fields. This relative impressive number could be construes as an indicator of high level of civic participation in Moldova. In fact, no data is available about how many of those are active.
The Law on Public Associations was amended in 2008. The amended law obliges all the nongovernmental organisations to reregister. Thus, the decreasing of number of registered NGOs is expected. The re-registration of the NGOs will show the actual number of active association in Moldova.
Besides the youth NGOs, in Moldova the forms of youth participation in the process of decision making are developing. According to the National Youth Strategy the process of creation and development of the Local and Regional Youth Councils will continue in the period 2009-2013.
