30 communities from Nisporeni, Calarași, Basarabeasca, Leova, Gagauzia region, security zone (Dubasari district) and Transnistrian region obtained grants up to $16,000 for projects aiming to increase communities’ resilience to climate change, to reduce disasters’ risk and to contribute to communities’ sustainable development.

The winning communities were selected within a call for proposals organized by the “Sustainable and resilient communities through women empowerment” project, funded by Sweden and implemented by UNDP. 43 applications were submitted at the competition. The winners were announced at an online awarding ceremony, conducted on 24 December.

As a result of the selected projects’ implementation, 110,000 people from 18 localities will benefit from access to a modern system of waste management, over 30,000 people from four communities will benefit from rehabilitated territories via afforestation and land planning, about 100,000 people from four localities will implement projects for river cleaning and landscaping the adjacent territories, and 19,500 people from other four localities will have access to alternative energy systems, including in public institutions.

To implement these projects, the local public authorities from the respective communities will be guided and assisted not only by the team of the “Sustainable and resilient communities through women empowerment” project, but also by three nongovernmental organizations, selected during a public contest. During the next 12 months, the NGOs ProEntranse, MEM Comrat and Dniester Enterprise will provide necessary technical expertise and mentorship to local public administrations in the field of resilience to climate change, disaster risk management and sustainable development, with gender mainstreaming. 

As a result, after implementing these projects, over 263,177 people from the 30 selected communities will benefit from improved and upgraded local public services and rehabilitation of social infrastructure for increasing resilience to climate change and sustainable development of localities.

The  project "Climate resilient communities by empowering women" contributes to sustainable development and increased resilience to climate change of the localities in the districts of Nisporeni, Calarasi, Basarabeasca, Leova, Gagauzia region, the security zone and the Transnistrian region through the economic, social and educational empowerment of women. The beneficiaries of the project are environmental NGOs, local public administrations, women entrepreneurs, as well as women with economic activity in households from target districts, which will be assisted in identifying, formulating, planning, and implementing initiatives to reduce environmental degradation and increase resilience to climate change at the local level. The project is implemented by UNDP from 2020 to 2023, with the financial assistance of Sweden.