People-centered land governance was the main topic of the National Engagement Strategy Workshop, which took place on 23 November 2017 in Chisinau. The event was organized by NGO BIOS in partnership with International Land Coalition (ILC).
50 people attended the NES Workshop. Among the participants were farmers, representatives of the National Farmer Federation of Moldova, local and districts public administration, Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, Agency for Land Relations and Cadastre, State Ecological Inspectorate, CPIU-IFAD, Small Business Association of Moldova, research institutes in the field of soil, forests and economy; the private sector, the public associations, Water Users Associations for Irrigation and the media.
Ms. Anna Moldovan, NGO BIOS Program Coordinator and Valentin Ciubotaru, Executive Director of BIOS Association, presented the draft of following documents: Country Assesment of people-centered land governance in Moldova, the National Engagement Strategy (NES) and the Action Plan for NES implementation, 2018-2021. Ms. Albora Kaçani, NESI Facilitator in Albania, presented the experience of NES formulation and implementation in Albania.
What is NES?
NES an approach promoted by the International Land Coalition (ILC) at country level, in order to create the conditions for policy changes that promote inclusive, people-centered land governance. NES is developed by ILC members in a country with other relevant actors to develop a framework for identifying the main priority areas where the actors involved see opportunities to catalyze change, either at policy formulation or at the level of implementation the existing policies. ATheNES process aims to facilitate a collaborative and coordinated action among the various stakeholders involved in land related issues at national level to promote peoplecentered
land governance. Through these processes of NES formulation and implementation, national civil society actors are increasingly gaining the opportunity to collaborate with each other and with international actors, both overnmental and non-governmental, as well as to solve problems with the local and central public administration.
NES The Republic of Moldova
The team that prepared the respective documents and the stakeholders they consulted concluded that possible areas of intervention would be best identified by establishing regular dialogues on agricultural land, pasture, forests, forest belts, ponds, natural resources among key stakeholders at national level in order to solve land ownership issues, management of commons, integration of environmental issues into community development plans based on pilot communities, development of problemsolving guidelines based on international and local experience, creating a unified database; lobbying and promoting the improvement of the legal framework for land issues through active participation of the population in decision-making, public hearings on agriculture, communal forests and pastures, dissemination of good practices throughout the country, etc.
A multi-stakeholder platform on land governance for policy dialogue and knowledge sharing was set-up at the NES Workshop, NES Steering Committee was elected, which will approve the discussed documents after including the comments of the members of the Platform. The National Platform brings together all stakeholders to solve problems related to agricultural land, forests, meadows, waters, natural resources, so that land governance is in line with international agreements to which the Republic of Moldova is part of. Thus, the National Platform implies the involvement of key actors - who unite and build the foundation of a common strategy based on the complementarity of their capacities and their
reciprocity. The establishment of a multi-stakeholder national platform speeds up the likelihood of achieving results, increases the efficiency and effectiveness of action, and provides a constructive space for action where more activities can be coordinated.
Ms. Anna Moldovan was selected as the NES Platform Facilitator in Moldova. Any governmental, nongovernmental, academic or private sector organizations or institutions, the media, IGOs, INGOs working in these fields and willing to contribute to addressing the issues listed above, are invited to join the Platform so that each of us can jointly contribute to solving the issues in the field is requested to contact the National Platform Facilitator at: anna.moldovan@yahoo.com or ngobios@yahoo.com, telephone (+373-22) 545733 and (+373) 67181990 for further information.
The NES Workshop Agenda https://www.dropbox.com/s/js4fvth1a4arob8/Agenda_Atelier_NES.pdf?dl=0, presentations https://www.dropbox.com/s/u1pf1p9nj3e8jt2/Prezentari%20Atelier%20NES.%20... and pictures https://www.dropbox.com/s/exwjjzq2rkzwkwi/Picture%20NES%20Workshop.rar?dl=0 could be downloaded following the respective links. NES Organising Committee.