Comunitatea Mea is a five-year, USAID-funded program that is strengthening local government in Moldova to become more effective, transparent, and accountable to citizens.

The program is facilitating Moldova’s decentralization process, building local government’s capacity to meet citizens’ needs, and strengthening citizen confidence that democratic institutions improve their quality of life. To do so, Comunitatea Mea provides comprehensive assistance to local public authorities in communities throughout Moldova, who engage civic groups and businesses to improve public services.

• 1.3 million citizens in 87 communities assisted to meaningfully engage in local governance 
• 800 local civil servants have trained on innovative tools for asset management and managerial control 
• 23 partner communities have completed community development projects, with another 51 in progress 
• $7.2 million in revenue  gained by partner communities as a result of improved asset management 
• 87% of partnered local public authorities have reported improvement in key capacity areas 

• Improve quality of and access to municipal services.
• Meaningfully engage citizens in local governance.
• Advance decentralization policy reforms.
• Increase locally owned revenues and improve financial management practices.

• Technical assistance: Local public authorities receive training in developing municipal budgets and community development strategies through participatory, inclusive planning processes.
• Maximize revenue potential of local public authorities: The program works with local public authorities to increase the percentage of their budget that is locally owned and improve management of all resources, including resources for the reduction of fraud and waste.
• Infrastructure projects: The program supports small community investment infrastructure projects that meet community needs and improve public infrastructure and social services. Groups of 3–5 communities collaborate on larger intermunicipal projects.
• Citizen engagement: Civil society organizations and community initiative groups receive small grants to incubate and expand on successful models for transparency and citizen engagement. Grants provide opportunities to bring successful models to scale and to develop and test new models.
• National dialogue around reforms: Comunitatea Mea will help shape the national dialogue around decentralization and local governance reform through its direct work with communities.
• Support for local-evidence expertise: The program will issue a call for policy research proposals to empower local thought leadership and use of data in policy analysis and development. Staff will also facilitate and support biannual local governance policy exercises for young professionals.