More than one thousand residents of Chisinau described the quality of life in the Capital City during a research conducted between May 2018 – April 2019. The initiative was is of the Innovation Laboratories of the UNDP Moldova: MiLab and Green City Lab – and was carried out in partnership with Chisinau City Hall.

The research combined the qualitative and quantitative method of information collection. Besides the statistics, the interviewees were encouraged to share a personal story regarding the subject of the survey and answer questions to detail their experience. The survey aimed at grouping the stories with the same particularities to determine common trends for further research.

The results of the study show that people are unsatisfied most of all with the transport infrastructure, untidy appearance of the city and inefficient management of green spaces. The respondents were concerned more about the city’s problems than those of their immediate neighborhood (yard, block of flats).

“The quality of life in Chisinau has to be indeed improved. One of the unpleasant situations I face daily is the crowded public transport, which on top of that, does not follow the timetable because of the traffic jams. Another painful thing for me is the garbage on streets, in yards, parks,” says Elena in her questionnaire.

“Poor illumination in the public space makes us feel unsafe. In our district, many robberies take place mainly in the evening, or at night. It’s been a year since we are trying to solve this problem,” mentions Marius in his story.

The UNDP research revealed a general perception that things are managed incorrectly and chaotically, and the interviewees noted that they would rather rely on their own forces and resources than on the community or authorities.

“The stories told by people give us the possibility to capture and understand complex phenomena. These were used as a mechanism to collect, interpret and analyze the perceptions about the quality of life of the residents of Chisinau,” states Dumitru Vasilescu, Policy Specialist, UNDP Moldova.

The data of the research were presented at a event attended by representatives of civil society, private sector, local authorities and urban specialists.  

The collected information represents an important support for already existing statistical and administrative data and will be used to solve recurrent problems that reduce the quality of life in Chisinau.

Similar initiatives to collect public opinions were conducted successfully in the region of Europe and Central Asia and resulted in generation of innovative solutions to the problems reported by citizens.