The Institute for Democracy is launching a Moldovan-Romanian project to support the advocacy and lobby practices in Moldova titled “Your voice matters”, Info-Prim Neo reports. Project coordinator Tatiana Sergheeva, executive director of the Institute for Democracy, told a news conference on Friday that 120 organizations working in Moldova are to be involved in the project. They will delegate by a representative to take part in the project. The participants will attend training courses. The organizers also intend to set up an advocacy and lobby office in Moldova, which may become a common platform for specialists in the field. European expert of the Institute for Democracy Catalin Ilie said the first alarm signal that attracted the Romanian advocacy associations’ attention was the public opinion barometers of 2011 showing that over 51% of the Moldovans consider that they cannot influence the decision-making process in the interest of the community. The Romanian expert came to Chisinau to support the advocacy and lobby project so that civil society in Moldova becomes actively involved in decision-making at the local and national levels. “We aim to support the communication between different institutions as the meeting of society’s needs ultimately leads to socioeconomic growth,” said Catalin Ilie. He also said that when the state meets the social needs through policies, the financial resources are distributed in a planned way. The people do not know all the needs of society and the implementation of advocacy practices will enable to remove this barrier. “In Romania, the conceptions of advocacy and lobby several years ago were considered illegal because they were confused with traffic of influence. This thing was corrected by a law and the problem was solved. In order to avoid such a situation in Moldova, we will make a study of the Moldovan legislation to see if advocacy campaigns were conducted and if the people know what an advocacy action is and how they should act,” stated Catalin Ilie. The project “Your voice matters – Supporting Moldavian Civil Society for Advocacy Practices Development” is financed through the MATRA Rule of Law and Good Governance Program that is implemented by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Ukraine and Moldova. The project will last for 12 months.