Newsroom

Prosperity through Participation: Building Social Capital in Moldova

March 2005

Orhei Social Organizer Tudor Golub (center)
leads his group in a display of team spirit.

Inspiration, strategy, creativity and team spirit combined to make IREX’s Visioning Conference for the Citizen Participation Program (CPP) a challenging and engaging three-day immersion in the concept of citizen participation.
CPP is a five-year, USAID-funded program to strengthen the capacity of individuals and groups to use democratic processes to create tangible and positive change in their communities. Following the creation of a network of six regional centers in Balti, Causeni, Comrat, Orhei, Soroca, and Ungheni, IREX brought together the entire CPP staff and key partner organizations from February 28 through March 2 for a conference aimed at developing a participatory and team-oriented organizational culture and refining program implementation strategies using consensus-building techniques. Participating organizations included USAID, Local Government Reform Project, International Republican Institute (IRI), Independent Journalism Center, and Partners for Democratic Change.

Guest speaker Mark Levinson, Program Development Officer for USAID-Moldova, set the stage with an opening talk about ‘social capital,’ the value of citizen networks and civic partnerships within society, and their undeniable link to improved economics. Quoting from Robert D. Putnam (Making Democracy Work), Mark described how “economics does not predict civics, but civics does predict economics … better than economics itself.”
Participants spent the next several days exploring ways in which they could contribute to Moldova’s civic development through the CPP. Reflecting on his conference experiences, IREX’s Ungheni Hub Coordinator Constantin Stratulat concluded, “I took away some useful experiences that focus on getting citizens to participate in changing the face of their community, demolishing the outdated stereotype that the local government or someone else has to do something for us. In addition, I acquired some techniques for facilitating participatory processes. This is amazing, because I was expecting to learn that during several months of field work; [instead] I did it in a conference room in three days.”

With nearly 700 letters of interest already received from citizen initiative groups throughout the country, the IREX CPP team is now developing its own network of ‘social capital’ and is ready to bring the message and the work to the villages of Moldova. Whether applied to organizations, communities, or individuals, the concept of partnership and the development of social capital is the driving force behind transparent governance, improved economics, more stable democracy, a fruitful and collaborative workplace, and a healthier and more prosperous life for ordinary people. As IRI Director Michael Getto remarked during a conference discussion, “ … when ordinary citizens feel like they are empowered, the sky is the limit in terms of creating better communities and a better standard of living.”

An online gallery of Visioning Conference and IREX staff photographs is available on URL www.iatp.md/cpp_conference.