200 women mayors from Moldova are committed to promote equal opportunities for women and men

Ulziisuren Jamsran, country representative of UN Women in Moldova (United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women), said that “5 years ago, Women's Network of CALM was just an idea.” “Now, it unites over 200 women mayors from all over the country. United Nations, and in particular UN Women in Moldova, is very proud for being the supporter and a partner of the Network from its establishment up until today. Today's event serves as a unique platform for you, the leaders of communities from Moldova, to review your lessons from the past 5 years, but also to devise your strategic plan for the coming years”, stated Ulziisuren Jamsran.

Her Excellency Signe Burgstaller, ambassador of Sweden in Moldova, said that “as a supporter of gender equality and women's rights at the international level, Sweden contributes for the promotion of this priority in Moldova also”. “Gender equality is achieved when women and men, girls and boys have equal rights and equal opportunities and prospects to build their life as they want. Gender equality requires an equal distribution of power, influence and resources and is a mean to achieve social and economic development of the country”, pointed out H.E. Signe Burgstaller.

About the importance of involving women in the decision-making processes at the local level spoke Liliana Palihovici, vice-president of the Parliament, who mentioned that, thanks to joint efforts, is registered significant progress in gender equality sphere. "I am glad that more and more women come to occupy positions of mayors, local councilors - which tells us that women can succeed. And their leadership skills are needed to turn our villages into prosperous communities, citizen-friendly and attractive to foreign investors,” said Liliana Palihovici.

Nina Costiuc, president of the Women's Network of CALM until July, 2016, and mayor of Budeşti village, thanked to the government of Sweden and to UN Women in Moldova for all the support given to consolidating and developing this Network. “Thanks to you, we succeeded to promote gender equality in politics and in decision-making processes, but also to make the life better for our citizens,” stated Costiuc. She also urged the women mayors to remain just as powerful as they were until now, so to further develop their communities.

Moreover, 20 women mayors received special awards for their continuous efforts in developing their communities economically, socially and culturally, and other 90 women mayors at their first mandate were received in the CALM family.

However, Alina Radu, director of the weekly newspaper “Ziarul de Garda”, talked about the way women mayors, and not only, are portrayed in media. She also encouraged them to make their voice more heard, to be more active in the public, so to have an equal portrayal of women and men in the media from Moldova.

In the last session of the event, it was presented the activity report of the Women`s Network of CALM for a 4-year period and was elected its governing bodies. Moreover, a new coordinator board was elected, but also a new President of the Women Network of CALM. Larisa Voloh, mayor of Palanca village, from Stefan Voda district, who, from now on, will be the new president, thanked for the vote of confidence. “I feel honored. I hope to meet all the responsibilities that will arise with new position,” said Larisa Voloh. In the same time, Nina Costiuc became the honorary president of the Network.

The event ended with the adoption of the Declaration of the Women's Network of CALM, whereby women mayors from all over the country are convinced that, locally, it will be understood that solving problems in women's interest means solving social interest. And for this, they are determined to promote equal opportunities for women and men in all spheres of life.

The conference was organized by the Congress of Local Authorities in Moldova, with the support of the Program "Women in Politics", which is implemented by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the East Europe Foundation and Center "Partnership for Development", financially supported by the Government of Sweden.