Mission supports dialogue on how NGOs in Transdniestria can identify resources

On 14 September, the OSCE Mission to Moldova held the third in a year-long series of informal club discussions for civil society groups implementing activities on the left bank of the Dniester/Nistru River.

During the event, 15 participants voiced their views on how the NGO sector can attract more resources to better develop and implement their ideas for addressing the public’s needs. Oxana Alistratova, the director of Tiraspol-based “Interaction” NGO, described the main types of financial resources available to the civil society on the left bank. She encouraged her colleagues to actively and regularly communicate with donors when seeking financial support. It is important to know what other civil society organizations are doing to avoid duplicating efforts and to work together towards common clearly defined goals addressing the community’s problems.

Participants agreed that the focus should be not only on seeking financial support, but also on trying to tap into human, technical, informational and intellectual resources that may be available on a voluntary basis for the benefit of the community. 

Participants exchanged good practices for using various sources of funding to advance current social and human rights issues. Participants stressed that the Donors Forum, organized annually by the OSCE, is the most useful platform for interacting with donors and proposing new ideas that seek to improve the lives of people on the left bank.

Civil Society Club meetings serve as an informal platform for dialogue among NGOs from the left bank of the Dniester/Nistru River. These meetings are part of a year-long project implemented jointly by the OSCE Mission to Moldova and the Tiraspol-based Apriori Legal Information Centre, which provides capacity-building assistance to local civil society organizations. Two more meetings of the Civil Society Club are planned for this year.