ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORT United Nations Development Programme Moldova “Improving the quality of Moldovan democracy through parliamentary and electoral support” Reporting Period January - December 2014 Donor Government of Sweden Government of Norway Government of the Netherlands Government of the Republic of Moldova Country Republic of Moldova Project Title “Improving the quality of Moldovan democracy through parliamentary and electoral support” Project ID 00058053 Outputs 00071949 Parliament Component 00083338; 00091532 Electoral Component Implementing Partner(s) Parliament and Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova Project Start Date July, 2012 Project End Date July, 2016 2014 Annual Work Plan Budget 2,149,164 USD Total resources required 6.299.426,200 USD UNDP Contact Person Narine Sahakyan Resident Representative a.i. UNDP Moldova E-mail: [email protected] Table of Content I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. 3 II. BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................................... 4 III. PROGRESS REVIEW .................................................................................................................................. 5 IV. PROJECT RISKS AND ISSUES .................................................................................................................... 25 V. CONCLUSIONS AND WAY FORWARD ..................................................................................................... 33 VI. FINANCIAL STATUS* ............................................................................................................................... 35 ANNEX 1: RESULTS AND RESOURCES FRAMEWORK ....................................................................................... 36 ANNEX 2. LIST OF SERVICES, PRODUCTS AND WORKS .................................................................................... 45 I. Executive summary In November 2014 the Republic of Moldova held ordinary Parliamentary elections. Elections provided important benchmark to analyse Programme’s progress towards its targets and expected results since its inception. Significant progress has been achieved in all target areas as defined in the Programme Document’s four key deliverables. Gender and human rights issues have received significant attention both in the work of electoral administration and in the Parliament. Adoption and implementation of gender action plan at the CEC and high level political discussion on Temporary Special Measures (TSM) is evidence of this progress. At the same time gender and human rights have not been fully integrated in the formal political process. TSM still needs to be adopted and work on gender equality and human rights mainstreaming undertaken in both electoral administration and the Parliament remains to be formalised and become a genuine part of the organisational culture. Capacities of the Parliament to deliver on its legislative, oversight and representative functions have increased. Training of parliamentary staff on regulatory impact assessment, legislative techniques and EU legislation approximation contributed to a more effective enforcement of legislation. The Parliament is more and more using the oversight tools to assess the progress of the reforms implemented by Government in different areas (i.e. financial, social protection, human rights, security and defence and education). Parliament’s representative function was successfully strengthened by opening four regional offices around the country, publishing of internal and external news bulletins and regular filed visits of standing committees. As result, the level of confidence of public in the Parliament increased to 24% (comparing to 14% registered in 2013). Since last elections the CEC has become a more strategically oriented and modern institution. These were first elections organised after adoption of CEC Strategic Plan for 2012-2015, with a new CEC structure in place and with every staff member having a detailed job description and a development plan. Electoral administration on all levels has received significant training. International election observation missions assessed electoral administration as professional and specifically noted strengthened capacities enhanced through extensive training. Moldovan CEC has also become one of few election management bodies in Europe certified according to ISO management standards. Nevertheless, risks posed by staff turnover as well as by vague legislative framework have had its impact on the CEC performance, which has been noted also by international observers. In relation to modernisation of electoral process through roll out of new technologies and improved voter registration process, these were the first elections during which the State Register of Voters was introduced using automatized data import from the State Register of Population. This has allowed for significant step in the positive direction in relation to quality of voter register. However, this progress was overshadowed by stoppage of hardware on Election Day for a period of three hours which disabled access to electronic voter registers. In relation to the quality of data of voters’ lists and voter registration process itself, the new technological developments have also revealed new challenges: quality of the source data, especially data on voters’ addresses, requires improvement on sustainable basis. Also regulatory framework for new technological realities needs further elaboration. 3 II. Background The reporting period generally can be characterized by preparation for elections, by significant attention to and progress on EU Association issues and by discussion on gender and Temporary Special Measures. At the beginning of the reporting period it was not yet clear when the next Parliament elections will take place – according to the Law, they could have been scheduled during November 2014 – February 2015. The official decision to schedule the elections for November 30, 2014 was announced on 28 May, 2014. Nevertheless, already in the second quarter of 2014, MPs and political parties started unofficial campaign with regularly visits to regions, meeting with citizens and frequent appearance in media. Early preparations to parliamentary elections had affected the path of the project implementation, since the partners (Parliament) requested to postpone some of the activities to 2015 in order to achieve stronger sustainability and an increased ownership with the new Parliament. Following the elections, five political parties passed the threshold and were elected to the Parliament: Party of Socialists of the Republic of Moldova (PSRM) – 25 mandates; Liberal Democratic Party of Moldova (LDPM) – 23 mandates; Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) – 21 mandates; Democratic Party of Moldova (DPM) – 19 mandates; and Liberal Party (LP) – 13 mandates. As regarding the country’s EU agenda, the first part of the year was marked with the unexpectedly fast progress. After the initialling of the Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013 during Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius, the Association Agreement (AA) and Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) were signed by both parties on 27 June 2014. An important landmark in relations with the EU was signing of the visa liberalization on 28 April 2014. From this day, Moldovan citizens with biometric passports were able to travel visa free to the European countries in the Schengen zone, following the European Parliament vote on February 27. The political environment related to the project activities during the reporting period, especially in the 3rd quarter of 2014, was characterised by an increased attention to the issues of gender equality and introduction of Temporary Special Measures. The issue of TSM received a lot of attention partly due to enhanced advocacy of the United Nations through the Democracy Programme and the Women in Politics Programme, international development partners and civil society organisations. Two draft Quota laws have been debated in the Parliament standing committees and included in the Parliament’s agenda. The two draft laws on Quota have been approved in the first reading with the decision that the responsible Committee shall collate them into one draft Law. However, this did not take place, and the draft had not been debated in the second reading. There was a discussion also on the adoption of political party finance legislation. Political party finance legislation drafts had been submitted to the Parliament in March 2013, but had not been included into the Parliament’s agenda since then. In relation to the Programme administration, during the reporting period the resources provided by the Government of Denmark to the Parliament Component had been fully absorbed, while UNDP managed to mobilise additional resources for the Programme that allowed enlarging the scope of its Parliament and Electoral Components. 4 The Programme underwent mid-term evaluation that confirmed the Programme’s approach in bringing together the parliament and elections work under one umbrella. It also led to proposals on further activities of the Programme and streamlining of programme structure. III. Progress Review Deliverable 1. Improved quality of Moldova’s formal political processes by mainstreaming gender and human rights in parliamentary