The development level of civil society in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia is very low. An examination showed only 27 NGOs of those registered officially in the region can be described as active or viable. The key areas in which the NGOs in Gagauzia worked during the past three years include the youth sector, community development, education and social services. Most of the activities carried out by NGOs centered on training, professional orientation and service provision. Such conclusions are contained in a study carried out by the Institute of Public Policy, IPN reports.
Most of the NGOs in ATU Gagauzia work based on implemented projects. On average, the analyzed NGOs develop by three project proposals annually. Two of these obtain financing. Knowledge of the Romanian and English languages is relatively low and difficulties are thus encountered in writing project proposals at national level.
An opinion poll was carried out to determine the Gagauz people’s perception of the role of NGOs in Gagauzia. The results show the people in the region are poorly informed about the NGO sector. This sector is the least known by respondents - 40% do not know about it. The population does not know the role, key areas of activity and financing sources of NGOs, including about the latest possibilities that appeared in this sector nationwide (2% law).
The study authors recommend adjusting the normative framework of Gagauzia to the national one and eliminating the existing inconsistencies by directly involving the People’s Assembly, the executive and the Bashkan of Gagauzia. They also recommend working out a regional strategy for improving communication between NGOs and the people and creating a platform for dialogue that will involve the local public authorities, business sector and NGOs sector so as to identify the local priorities.
The study “General state of civil society in ATU Gagauzia” was conducted to support the activities implemented by Soros Foundation Moldova in partnership with the public association “Piligrim Demo” and the National Assistance and Information Center for NGOs CONTACT within the project “Development of civil society in ATU Gagauzia”, which is financed by the European Union. Qualitative data were collected by the CBS-AXA Center for Sociological Investigations and Marketing Research. The opinion poll covered a sample of 599 persons older than 18. The margin of sampling error is +4%.
