“Women for Good Governance” Leadership Academy, organised with the EU support

Dozens of active women from different regions of the country attended a series of training sessions in February and March at the “Women for Good Governance” Leadership Academy. The participants are representatives of local government, NGOs and Local Initiative Groups from all over the country.

They were given guidance on how to engage in the decision-making processes in their localities, including what to draw attention to when they decide to participate in election campaigns. President of the AO “Institutum Virtutes Civilis” Liliana Palihovici moderated the session “Formulating the mission statement”, where she described techniques for communicating with voters, understanding the problems they face and, above all, how they can engage with the community towards solving them. “We especially urge you to communicate with each other, the representatives of the different parties, because we want you to do politics differently! One in favour of the citizens, one that strengthens cohesion in society”, was Liliana Palihovici’s message.

The journalist and communication expert Mircea Surdu led a practical session on the importance of participating in TV debates. The techniques shared by the journalist were related to the rules of electoral debates, to making speeches in an accessible language and, above all, in a respectful manner, even towards the opponents. “You have 30 seconds to make a good impression” is one of the messages of actress Dana Ciobanu, who moderated the session “Diction and the Art of Speech”. She pointed out that in public debates “how you say” is as important as “what you say”.

The youngest participant of the Academy is Valeria Mihalache, from the capital, and she says she wanted to attend these trainings because she believes that political education is as important as financial or legal education: “As long as the new generation invests in knowledge, we can be sure that our society has a future, so I am grateful to have the opportunity to learn new things that will be useful for my career,” mentioned Valeria.

Academy participants are from several regions of the country. Lidia Ostaș is a local councillor in the village of Congazcicul de Sus, UTA Gagauzia. She says that she is constantly involved in the Academy’s trainings so she can help her fellow villagers. “We need changes in the decision-making process. We need to help people to get involved in solving local problems,” said Lidia.

More than one hundred women from several regions of the country have been selected to participate in the “Women for Good Governance” Leadership Academy trainings. The mentoring sessions are organised within the framework of the project “Partnerships for Women’s Leadership and Good Governance”, implemented by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Moldova and the AO “Institutum Virtutes Civilis“, with the financial support of the European Union and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.