Sweden and UNDP support 64 women with economic activity within their households to start environmentally friendly and climate change resilient businesses. Each of them benefited from grants of US$4,400 each and one-year mentorship and training, in the framework of the “Sustainable and resilient communities through women empowerment” project.

The awarded women were selected through a competition, for which 255 women from Nisporeni, Calarasi, Basarabeasca, Leova districts, Gagauzia region, security zone and Transnistrian region applied.

“Sweden supports women to apply modern and sustainable agricultural practices and will help increase their incomes. In the context of a disaster-prone country, the adoption of sustainable living practices is the key element for strengthening individual households’ sustainability, while building overall community resilience in the face of climate change threats and environmental risks, considering the impact to become more acute in the next years,” notes Virginia Bilici, Programme Coordinator at Swedish Embassy in Chisinau, during the grant certificates’ award event organized on 19 April 2022.

The startups cover a wide range of areas: beekeeping, livestock, poultry growing and manure management, growing and processing of medicinal plants, management of textile waste, replacement of ozone-depleting refrigerants in the commercial sector with natural refrigerants etc.

The received support will be invested in: building greenhouses and installing drip irrigation systems, growing vegetables, flowers or berries, putting in place renewable energy systems for growing and processing vegetables, upgrading an eco-boarding house etc.

“We have limited possibilities to earn for a living in our village. Selling fodder for animals has been one of the income sources for my family for a year. Thanks to this system of solar panels that I plan to install, production costs will be lower, and I will be able to diminish prices of the granular feed, with the hope to have more buyers,” says Ana Copușciu, entrepreneur from Copceac village, Ceadîr-Lunga district.

“In Moldova, rural women are four times more prone to poverty, they are underrepresented in the public decision-making and are more vulnerable to climate change. Therefore, by offering these grants, UNDP and Sweden aim to enhance women’s access to alternative income generation activities, as well as to the knowledge and information on resilient management of natural and agricultural resources on which they depend,” noted Andrea Cuzyova, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative to the Republic of Moldova.

The “Sustainable and resilient communities through women empowerment” project contributes to sustainable development and increased resilience to climate change of communities of Nisporeni, Calarasi, Basarabeasca, Leova districts, Gagauzia region, security zone and Transnistrian region through economic, social and educational empowerment of women.