12 companies, members of the “Moldova Fruct” Association, participate during 8-10 February 2017 in the 25th edition of the international fair “Fruit Logistica” in Berlin.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) today agreed to extend their cooperation for another five years, aiming to scale up their support for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Southeastern Europe, Turkey, Moldova and Georgia.

A flashmob was conducted on 2 February 2017 in Carpineni by students from three local schools. Drawings on the topic “How I see roads maintenance in my village” were exposed at the event. A weeklong drawing contest had been organized in all schools from Carpineni, which engaged 36 students, who shared their visions on the issue of road maintenance in their home community.

The Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have signed today an agreement under which UNDP will procure in 2017 vital medicines and medical products to patients across the country.

49 new biomass heating systems, including 20 solar collectors, will be installed in 2017 using the European funds of the Energy and Biomass Project. As well, 27 kindergartens will be equipped with solar water heaters that will operate in conjunction with the biomass heating system.

Young people from Rusestii Noi organized a snow-clearing event and shoveled the snow in 20 households of older and lonely persons. The local campaign „LA URAT PE CURAT” (CAROLING IN A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT) provides an opportunity to encourage native persons who migrated to donate for the purchase of a tractor for garbage disposal, snow clearing and road maintenance in their village.

The 5 Centers of Career Innovative Development SYSLAB took stock of their activities, together with graduates of employment and entrepreneurship programs from 2013–2016. Thus, over 200 project beneficiaries, 137 women and 66 men, met former colleagues, who currently are employed or have started their own business.

In 2016, UNDP has pledged for the adoption of a law that establishes a 40% minimum representation quota of one sex in governmental offices and on the electoral lists for local and parliamentary elections.

“Whenever I am away from home, I am overwhelmed with homesickness and returning home is the most beautiful and emotional moment for me. I left my home village, but it’s time for me to help it with the skills and expertise I have gathered”, says Tatiana. This summer, Tatiana spent full 8 working days of her short vacation on creating an architectural plan of the community centre to serve the inhabitants of the village for various purposes.

After the break-up of the Soviet Union, the archives of enterprises, or even of entire villages, perished. Thousands of people have paid social contributions, but as pension reform in Moldova drags on, their pensions remain minimal. Others can’t officially prove they worked their entire lives; they await retirement with despair.

Not long ago, the Republic of Moldova – lacking both mountains and coastlines - was considered to be bereft of tourist attractions. Even its own people did not really realize that there is an exceptional cultural-natural treasury right in the middle of the country, just 50 km from the capital city.

9 o’clock in the evening of the Election Day in Moldova, polling stations are closing. However, the hardest work only starts. Members of the electoral bureaus begin counting the ballot papers. Citizens impatiently wait for the next morning to find out the preliminary results. This was the reality until recently, 2014.

The idea of tackling the problem of low fruit intake in Moldova came during a banal lunch. We were intrigued by the paradox that in a country that is a regional “garden”, abundant in fruits and vegetables, the average consumption of these goodies constituted only 60% of the minimum WHO recommended quantity.

The way the governance process takes place has changed dramatically in the last decade or so. The rise of new technologies, widening democratic space and rise of citizen expert together with our growing understanding of complexity of development challenges, mark the pronounced shift to distributed forms of governance, with governments-enablers and co-creation of solutions at the heart of a such system.