In 2015, new partnership between Slovak organizations: ZMOS (Association of Towns and Communities of Slovakia) and AKE SR (Association of Municipal Finance Officers of The Slovak Republic) and Moldovan CALM (The Congress of Local Public Authorities of Moldova) was set up with financial support of SR-UNDP partnership. According to the progress report: all project activities (set up for year 2015) were accomplished.
The objective of the project: “Strengthening capacities of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova in the area of public finance” is obviously to strengthen institutional capacities of CALM in the area of local public finance, primarily through sharing experience with ZMOS / AKE and via on-the-job learning. Empowered CALM is expected to contribute to knowledge dissemination to local authorities of Moldova and to advocate for policies and reform initiatives in local public finance (LPF).
First project activities were successfully implemented in 2015, among them: the needs of stakeholders in LPF and PBB were identified; the consulting needs of local governments in LPF were identified during two rounds of consultations with CALM members (from Administrative Council and specialized committees) held in Chisinau on October 2015. The Needs Assessment report “Identification of the local governments’ needs for support in local public finance reform” was developed by CALM experts and sent for consultations to Slovak ZMOS and AKE SR. Two workshops were organised in Chisinau as a part of sharing experience between Moldovan CALM and Slovak organizations (ZMOS / AKE SR) and capacity building in provision of services for the members.
The team of experts from CALM prepared strategic and operational documents for CALM Local Finance Service: “Strategic Paper on the organization, provision and regulation of the CALM services”; and “Regulation of local finance service of CALM”. The Roundtable with CALM members was held in Chisinau to discuss CALM piloting services for members in local public finance. At the end of the year: Training of Trainers for CALM experts (14 participants) on PBB was conducted by AKE SR and ZMOS experts.
The project activities will continue in year 2016. You can read more about the results, as well as future plans in this progress report.