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Women’s Law Center Annual Report 2016

I. Executive summary The present report covers the work of Women’s Law Center (WLC) carried out during 2016, in accordance with the WLC Strategy 2016-2019. During the reporting period, significant progress was made towards achieving the envisaged results. Our gratitude goes to our main funders: OAK Foundation, Swedish embassy, US Embassy and UNFPA. The total expenses budget for 2016 was 361,035.95 USD. During 2016, the WLC continued to promote women’s human rights by ensuring that a gender perspective is applied during the prevention, prosecution, protection, policy and law-making in the field of domestic violence and violence against women, as well as in development of the WLC as a role model and an agent of change. The main highlights of the Prevention component was the advocacy and lobby of the UPR demanding country’s commitments towards domestic violence as well as the advancing of the networking and coalition building process of National Coalition “Life without Domestic Violence” and continued the capacity building efforts of the police and judiciary. The main highlights of the Prosecution component was the increase in the number of women who needed WLC assistance to 335 as well as piloting a new area of work in the field of Court Monitoring and women’s access to justice. The main highlight of the Protection component was the signature of a new partnership agreement with the police inspectorate of Ialoveni and successful piloting of a new service – group psychological counseling. The Policy component was important due to the advocacy, lobby and expertise in the process of adoption by the Parliament of Moldova on July 28, 2016 of amendments of the national legal framework in accordance with the recommendations of CEDAW and human rights standards, the development and delivery of the Report on Costing Domestic Violence and Violence against Women in Moldova as well as the strengthening cooperation with the MLSPF in developing National Strategy to Combat Domestic violence. Lastly, under Organizational Development component, new organizational tools have been developed and piloted (manual, policies, procedures). A new WLC

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Strategy 2016-2019 and WLC Statute reflecting the organizational audit recommendations was developed and registered by the Ministry of Justice. WLC staff has continued to grow, thus 3 new units (staff members) were hired (part-time communication officer WLC, part time communication officer NC, and organizational development coordinator) were hired. WLC has started to diversify its target group of beneficiaries, thus a new project proposal was developed and submitted to SDC Moldova targeting women-detainees at Rusca penitentiary. WLC has started to diversify its funding sources, thus the staff benefited from training on fundraising, a new financial sustainability plan was drafted. During 2016, WLC received two new grants from the OAK Foundation, one from the Swedish Embassy and one from the US Embassy, one from the UNFPA and one from UN Women, tow new small-scale applications were submitted to SDC Moldova and International Women’s Club. WLC managed to insure co-funding for the capacity building component for the judiciary from the OSCE Mission to Moldova. One application made to the EU Commission was unsuccessful. During the reporting period, WLC Statues were amended in line with the recommendations of organizational audit as well as one meeting of the WLC General Assembly and three Board meetings held. New members of the Board were elected and the number of members of WLC association increased to 16, involving among its members women survivors of domestic violence. Main focus for 2017 will be to consolidate the component of victim assistance, development of service specific standards, strengthening of partnerships, monitoring implementation of the new legal provisions, continuation of capacity building efforts, finalization of the National Strategy to Combat Domestic Violence, strategic litigation, finalization of the Court Monitoring report, implementation of the Project on the assistance of women detainees and economic empowerment of women. There will be dedicated activities towards the implementation of recommendations on organization development and gender.

II. Background Annually WLC is delivering an activity report highlighting results obtained during the implementation period. The present report is the first one based on the new WLC Strategy 2016 – 2019. The Strategy outlines main area of interest of the WLC until June 2019. The Strategy objectives and activities are further reflected in the Results Assessment Framework (RAF) which establishes targets for outcomes, intermediate outcomes and outputs aligned to the mission, vision and values of WLC. Overall objective of WLC is to decrease domestic violence in the geographical areas of work of WLC, as a result of WLC actions.

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The 5 specific outcomes are: 1. To prevent domestic violence by effectively contributing to changed

behaviour, attitudes and perceptions of gender equality of the target population as a result of the advocacy and lobbying, awareness raising and capacity building efforts;

2. To effectively ensure prosecution of domestic violence through consistent application of domestic violence legislation so that victims benefit from adequate legal remedies and protection while aggressors receive appropriate sentencing;

3. To ensure protection of women and children, victims and potential domestic violence victims through direct empowerment, adequate assistance and support as well as the empowered sense of responsibility in providing support to domestic violence victims by the relevant central and local public authorities;

4. To contribute to policy change by influencing behaviour and actions of the policy makers as a result of WLC contributions to the domestic violence legislation, strategy, research and analysis;

5. To strengthen WLC as organization and promote WLC as an agent of change and organisational role model for its partners.

III. Context analysis Domestic and sexual violence are widespread and systematic in Moldova. The 2011 official data estimate that 63.4 percent of women and girls aged 15 or older had experienced at least one form of physical, psychological, or sexual violence over their lifetime, with the prevalence of violence in rural areas being higher (about 69 %). Domestic and sexual abuse is a violation of women’s rights to freedom from discrimination, equal protection before the law, liberty and security of person, equality before the courts and equality with men before the law, recognition as a person before the law, and freedom from torture. In addition, when a State fails to ensure that its criminal and civil laws adequately protect women and consistently hold abusers accountable, or that its agents – such as police and prosecutors – implement the laws that protect victims of domestic violence, that State has not acted with due diligence to prevent, investigate and punish violations of women’s rights. The 2015 survey has identified alarming patterns dealing with deeply-rooted stereotypes and norms on violence against women and women's role in society. Almost 28% of men and 17,5% of women consider that a woman should tolerate violence to preserve the family and more that 41% of men and 19% of women consider that there are moments when a woman should be beaten up.1 Because of

1 Moreover, 42% of men and 26% women consider that if a woman is raped, it means she did something to get into this situation and 34% of men and 31% of women consider that when a victim of rape has bad reputation, it should not be considered rape Men and Gender Equality in the Republic of Moldova, based on IMAGES, Women’s Law Center and SocioPolis, Chisinau 2015, http:// cdf.md/files/resources/96/IMAGES%20Moldova_English.pdf

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the persistence of ” patriarchal attitudes and deeply rooted stereotypes on the roles and responsibilities of men and women in family and society”2 it is critical that we all work to change the culture, to secure an efficient implementation of the DV legislation. According to official MIA statistics of 2016, the number of cases of domestic violence continued to increase, to 10459 compared to 9203 in 2015 and 7338 in 2014. However, the number of cases investigated as criminal offences decreased in 2016 to 1679 compared to 1914 in 2015 and 2270 in 2014. This is partly due to the subsequent amendments to national legislation, thus a number of cases are investigated under the Criminal Offences Code, starting with 29 July 2016. The number of protection orders was on the rise in 2016 to 916 compared to 828 in 2015. In terms of efforts to combat domestic violence, the year of 2016 was an important year in Moldova. Thus, on 28 July 2016, the Parliament has adopted Law Nr. 196 enacting new provisions to the legislation to prevent and combat domestic violence. This law was a result of the civil society efforts to advocate for the alignment of the national legal framework to the provisions of the European Convention to Prevent and Combat Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, CEDAW Recommendations for Moldova and UPR Recommendations for Moldova. Main amendments included: introduction of the emergency protection order to be issued by the police; the list of family members was extended to cover also former spouses and former partners; criminalization of violations of protection orders, etc. Although in general positive, the last moment amendments proposed by national authorities introducing ‘domestic violence’ causing insignificant damages as administrative offence should be carefully observed as they could cause a setback in the criminalization of domestic violence in general. In November 2016 MLPSF in partnership with civil society started the process of developing the first National Strategy to prevent and Combat Violence against Women and Domestic violence 2017-2021. During its second UPR, Moldova has received more than 22 recommendations concerning domestic violence. Moldova accepted all of these recommendations, and committed to their implementation.

2 Ongoing concerns with regard to the government’s response to domestic violence have been highlighted during Moldova’s 2013 CEDAW review: (a) the inconsistent application of laws aimed at combating domestic violence; (b) the failure to take note of lower-level injuries; (c) the fact that it takes repeated instances of domestic violence to trigger an investigation; (d) the ineffectiveness of protection orders against alleged aggressors; and (e) the low rate of reporting cases of sexual violence, including rape, and ineffective investigation and prosecution in reported cases

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IV. Progress per outcome

WLC started implementation of its new Strategy in 2016, thus the report will mainly cover the results achieved at the output level.

Outcome 1: Prevention

Advocacy and Lobbying:

- In July 2016 WLC has organised 3 meetings/round tables jointly with a UNDP project on the extent of domestic violence phenomenon and relevant DV legislation. Circa 65 members of the LPAs, members of multidisciplinary teams and victims of domestic violence from 3 communities: Lozova, Rusestii Noi and Gura Galbenei out of which 62% were women have participated at this. At least 4 new senior LPAs officials (mayors and deputy mayors) out of which 25% are women, involved and promoting the prevention and combating of DV in their communities.

- WLC has participated in 4 formal meetings especially concerning domestic violence where WLC has advocated for the UPR recommendations concerning domestic violence with the Moldovan Parliament, OHCHR follow-up meeting on UPR recommendations, People’s Advocate Office and Diplomatic Missions meeting organised by the Swedish Embassy in Moldova on the follow-up of UPR recommendations. Internationally, WLC has lobbied for the prevention of domestic violence by participating at different conferences and events, including the study visit in Budapest jointly with the police officers organized by the US Embassy and participation as experts at the Council of Europe’s conference on combating domestic violence and access to justice that took place in Chisinau; participation at the UN Commission on the Status of Women in New York.

- WLC has participated in a number of meetings related to gender equality and human rights. During these events, such as 2 meetings on the development of Human Rights Action Plan (PNADO), CSAG/UN Women (6 meetings), Annual Women’s Forum “Women can do it””, the WLC has advocated directly and directly for women’s rights.

Awareness raising:

- WLC continued to develop and disseminate its Quarterly Newsletter “Stop Violence”, which highlights main activities and news in the field. In 2016 3 issues were developed and disseminated to partners, stakeholders and civil society.

- During the “16-Days campaign” a number of activities were organized, including the launch of the “Costing of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence Report” with the support of UN Women and WHO, during which at least 50 persons, representatives of, Deputy prime minister, stakeholders and civil society and media participated. The report raised a lot of interest from the media, thus more that 5 reports in the national media and participation in at least 3 TV/radio shows on this topic during prime time hours (Moldova in Direct, Publica Report

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and National Radio). Also, the launch event had a relevant impact in the social and non-traditional media. More than 14 online platforms reflected the event, including two live broadcastings (www.privesc.eu and www.realitatea.md).

- Other activities involved organization of a roundtable in Balti on multidisciplinary response to domestic violence which gathered over 15 active stakeholders in including police and social workers.

- In December, as part of the campaign WLC and members of the NC participated in the high-level event “10 years united against violence against women” organized in partnership with women caucus from the Moldovan Parliament, the event involved high level participation from the Government of the Republic of Moldova, members of the Moldovan Parliament, civil society organizations. The event culminated with the commitment undertaken by the women caucus members on the signature and ratification of the Istanbul Convention.

- During the campaign WLC supported a social theatre performance “Do not shout at me”, in 5 cities: Chisinau, Drochia, Soroca, Hincesti, Cahul, involving more than 5000 people.

- The Facebook page of the National Coalition was created and launched in the framework of the 16 Days Campaign of Activism against gender-based violence.

Capacity building

- During the reporting period 5 one day workshops for police were organized. These are transformative thinking workshops for specialists responding to cases of DV, including police, judges and prosecutors.

- The success of the training is ensure by the leadership of WLC as women’s rights organization and the police, working towards challenging existing stereotypes to promote the victim-centered approach, respect for victims’ rights and dignity, prioritizing victim safety offering victims due guidance in the process and respecting victim’ s autonomy. A total of 125 police officers (12% women) trained on effective police response to cases of DV. Participants showed an approximate 11% increase in the knowledge of the subject and at least 59% of the participants demonstrated adequate knowledge regarding the effective police response to cases of DV at the end of the training.

- WLC conducted 8 two-day workshops for 224 judges (43%), prosecutors (44%) and lawyers (23%), (40% women) in partnership with the National Institute of Justice and the National Council of State Guaranteed Legal Assistance. After the training the participants showed an increase in knowledge by 17,15% in the following areas: dynamics of domestic violence, root causes of the violence, the national legislation and the relevant knowledge about existing services for efficient referral of victims.

- In 2016 WLC developed the Manual for health specialists on effective response to cases of gender based violence, based on the WAVE/UNFPA regional manual. This is an important and unique tool for health specialists dealing with specific intervention on such cases based on national context and law and international standards. At the end of 2016 the Manual was officially approved by decision of

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the Minister of Health and will be part of the training curriculum of in-service doctors. This manual will be used as a resource for the WLC planned capacity building activities for doctors and forensic specialists within the next period.

- In 2016 WLC in partnership with the National Institute for Justice initiated development of a curriculum for training of in-service judges and prosecutors on effective response to cases of domestic violence, it is anticipated that it will be finalized in 2017.

Coalition/network building

- WLC continued to ensure the Secretariat of the National Coalition “Life without Domestic Violence”. This is a non-formal platform established in 2012 to promote the reform in the field of domestic violence and ensure access to services to survivors of violence. At the moment there are 18 organizations members. During 2016 the NC continued its work, has organized 2 General Assembly meetings and 7 Board Coalition meetings.

- Several workshops for the NC-members on development of Strategic Plan 2017-2019 and coalition building were conducted. The development of the SP of the Coalition was initiated during the three-day training session in April ”Leadership Institute for National Coalition members”. Later on it continued in September with a 3-day workshop for the NC members from all 18 organizations. The trainings built the capacity of the participants on development of mission, vision of the NC, SWOT assessment, strategic directions, the Concept of Results Based Management. At the beginning of December, the Draft was finalized and sent to members for comments, it will be approved at the beginning of 2017.

- Members of the NC established the thematic group on developing standards guided by WAVE standards and Explanatory Report to the Istanbul Convention. During July – September, 2 working meetings were conducted on best practices of developing standards. They were followed up with the meeting with MLSPF and the National Council for Accreditation of Social Services in December where the issues of legislative and procedural deficiencies of accreditation and lack of a mechanism for procurement of accredited social services by the state were addressed. The development of standards is pending.

- Nine organisations from the NC that benefited from the Small grants programme for service providers (60.000 MDL each). As a result, more than 100 women with children (including 12 girls victims of sexual abuse) from different rayons of Moldova received support and assistance such as shelter and food, medications and personal hygiene products, legal, psychological and social assistance. Other activities focused on awareness raising, thus 7 radio broadcasts covering sensitive issues as violence against women, sexual harassment and building sustainable relationships were conducted in Chisinau, were attended by more than 300 young people in Chisinau, 7 radio broadcasts conducted with an average audience of 5000 people.

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- Members of the NC lobbied for the adoption of the law on amendments to the DV legislation participating at least 8 public consultations with the Parliamentary committees and other relevant actors (Ministry of Justice, General Inspectorate of the police, Council of local authorities, representatives of church) as well as at the hearing of the Parliamentary commissions to present the new amendments during July-August.

- A Memorandum of cooperation between the MLSPF and the NC was signed in December.

- Due to the advocacy efforts of WLC and NC with the Prime Minister Filip, and Moldovan Parliament, the amendments to the Law on DV and other normative framework that were pending for 3 years already, were adopted and further published in September and 4 maternal centers (Causeni, Hincesti, Balti, Drochia) and Centre for Perpetrators have been allocated necessary funding from the state budget.

Outcome 2: Prosecution

- WLC continued to improve its legal assistance component, thus, significant improvement to the database system as to have more accurate and timely reporting on the cases was carried out. The data base is constantly being improved, as to keep up with the increasing work load.

- In 2016 WLC provided legal assistance to 336 victims of domestic violence (335 women and 1 man), the majority of cases were referred by Chisinau police inspectorates (43%), by the court, 1.5% (5 cases) by the prosecution, 2.4% (8 cases), women addressed directly or being referred by other service providers. 25% of victims are women between 35-44 years old, 22 – between 25-34, 4% were children. Only 5% are between 18-24 and the rest are above 45. 91% are victims of psychological abuse, 76% of physical abuse and 26% of economic abuse and 5,6% sexual abuse. In 9 cases the courts awarded compensations of about 118,000 MDL.

- 60 victims which is 18% from those that approached WLC were provided with full legal aid and were represented by in-house and outsourced lawyers. The legal aid was initiated in 58% of criminal cases, 37% of civil cases and 5% of misdemeanour cases. Only 24 cases received some closure in 2016. Out of them only 3 prison sanctions and 7 conditional.

- In 2016 WLC started implementation of a court monitoring project with support from US Embassy, aimed at monitoring progress, gaps and challenges in the application of national legislation on domestic violence to specific cases. A partnership agreement with the Superior Council of Magistrates was developed and number of meetings with the leadership were conducted, a team of 12 national monitors were selected a court monitoring methodology was developed (including sample monitoring forms for civil and criminal procedure) and a

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training on best practices of court monitoring is scheduled in early February 2017 with advocates from Global Rights for Women, US based NGO.

Outcome 3: Protection

- In December 2016 WLC has signed one new partnership Agreement with the Ialoveni Police Inspectorate.

- In 2016, 63 persons (almost 21%) have been provided psychological counselling and received psychological evaluation reports used in courts as additional evidence.

- In the reporting period, WLC piloted the group therapy sessions approach, thus a group of 10 beneficiaries were selected and benefited from 10 group therapy session during October-December. According to the evaluation of beneficiaries, 100% of the beneficiaries stated that they would like to continue the group counselling sessions, the majority confirmed that their general psychological status has improved (self esteem, reduce of depression, change in the relationship with others). All the beneficiaries confirmed new and improved skills such as communication.

- 7 women and their children benefited from emergency support and economic empowerment in 2016. This assistance consisted from support covering the rent of an apartment for a beneficiary with a handicapped child, covering the tuition fee for college (2), covering the training and kit for hairdresser and emergency support food package.

Outcome 4: Policy

Development of new DV national legislative framework

- In 2016 WLC continued to provide expertise and support in the process of improvement of national legal framework in accordance with international standards. During the reporting period, WLC participated in numerous meetings, consultations on this law, including the meeting with the Prime Minster Pavel Filip in April 2016 as well as numerous meetings and consultations with representatives of the church, local public administration bodies, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and all the Parliamentary commissions. As a result of these efforts, on 28 July 2016, the Parliament has adopted Law Nr. 196 enacting new provisions to the legislation to prevent and combat domestic violence. This law was a result of the efforts to advocate for the alignment of the national legal framework to the provisions of the European Convention to Prevent and Combat Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, CEDAW Recommendations for Moldova and UPR Recommendations for Moldova. Main amendments included: introduction of the emergency protection order to be issued by the police; the list of family members was extended to cover also

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former spouses and former partners; criminalization of violations of protection orders, etc.

- In November 2016 MLPSF in partnership with civil society started the process of developing the first National Strategy to prevent and Combat Violence against Women and Domestic violence 2017-2021. WLC is facilitating the process of development of the strategy and has provided substantive inputs to the analysis, contents and consultation process. Costing of this strategy will also be provided by WLC experts, taking into account the ample costing exercise that was conducted as part of the Report “Costing Domestic Violence and Violence against Women in Moldova” supported by UN Women and WHO. It is anticipated that the Strategy will be finalized in the spring of 2017.

- During its second UPR, Moldova has received more than 22 recommendations concerning domestic violence. In 2016, WLC developed the joint UPR Moldova Report, submitted in March and participated in the preparatory meeting in Geneva in October. As a result, a number of recommendations formulated including by WLC were accepted by the Moldovan Government, and committed to their implementation, one of the main being the signature and ratification of the Istanbul Convention.

Development of new national legislative framework other than DV

- In February 2016 WLC facilitated one consultation for the formulation of recommendations to the new National Strategy on Gender Equality 2016-2020, based on the IMAGES Moldova Survey and international best practices. More than 30 representatives of policy makers and civil society organizations participated as well as foreign experts from Promundo-US Care International. As a result, the workshop participants, based on best international practice and experience of Moldova in the field of gender equality developed a set of recommendations for the new draft Strategy on Gender Equality in Moldova based on gender transformative approaches, involving men in promoting gender equality.

- WLC participated in meeting and developed inputs to National Plan on Human Rights, the component dealing with domestic violence and gender equality.

- In November 2016 WLC organized a regional workshop is to support the efforts of key Ministries, Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health and civil society organizations in revising existing instructions on domestic violence based on the regional Standard Operating Procedures (SoPs). As a result, more than 25 national stakeholders and civil society representatives have enhanced knowledge on best practices of multi-sectorial response to GBV, have reviewed major development challenges in Moldova agreed on priorities, next steps, roles and responsibilities in the new instructions, SOPs development process. In this framework, it was agreed that under the leadership of MLPSF and WLC and with the support of UNFPA, a team of national consultants will be recruited to review existing national regulations and adapt the regional SOPs to the national context, which as a result will contribute to strengthening the muli-sectorial response mechanism in Moldova.

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Outcome 5: Organisational/institutional development

- From the good governance perspective new recommendations to the WLC Statute were drafted, in accordance with SDA Recommendations and WLC changes. The membership of the WLC association increased to 16 and a new Board was elected, the GA and Board Agenda and Minutes templates were developed and applied to the 3 Board meetings. The WLC started drafting a financial sustainability plan.

- In terms of human resources processes perspective, in 2016 the HR manual and procedures on recruitment and performance management were developed and approved by the Board in December. One informal corporate team building pre-Christmas was organised. WLC has hired 3 new personnel – two part time communication officers and one organizational development coordinator.

- In terms of project management, WLC staff was trained on project management in June 2016, a draft manual on project management with the focus on WLC, including planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation was developed and pending for approval.

- In terms of financial management, a manual on financial procedures is in a draft stage, authorization document specifying staff positions that are allowed to approve purchases, threshold in monetary values and non-eligible costs is applied, Audit policy as per the requirements of the SDA and Swedish Embassy was approved in July. The financial staff is currently applying the new accounting software.

- From the financial sustainability perspective, a new fundraising plan part of the overall sustainability plan is drafted. Additionally to the Swedish Embassy, US Embassy and OAK Foundation funding for the National Coalition, the WLC has secured one additional funding from NORLAM for activities concerning women in penitentiaries, one more funding from Oak Foundation for a project relating to awareness raising and a small grant from the International Women’s Club in Moldova. The WLC has participated in the fundraising event organised by IWCM – the yearly Winter Bazaar that raised funds for its project. The WLC did not receive the EU Funding it was counting on.

- As far as capacity building for WLC is concerned, besides the project management training in June, members of the WLC staff participated at a workshop on fundraising strategies organized and financially covered by the Advocates for Human Rights in Bulgaria, as well as participated at a workshop on IMAGES in Vienna, in March 2016, UN Commission of Women in New York in March 2016, UPR process in Geneva in October 2016 and English language classes for WLC staff.

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- From the visibility perspective, by the end of 2016 Woman’s Law Centre's Facebook page had 1.193 followers, with an organic reach of 929 persons (the number of people our posts were served to). The average number of views of the webpage - www.cdf.md- was 739 per month. In order to inform properly our stakeholders, partners and other target audience, an institutional newsletter is developed quarterly. It’s the main tool used to reflect the WLC activities on domestic violence and progress on DV reform at national level.

V Finances and management The total budget available on 1st of January 2016 was of 116,189.27 USD; during 2016 WLC received funding in the amount of 462,333.04 USD. During the reporting period WLC received funding from the following sources: Swedish Embassy (institutional grant), Oak Foundation 1 (focused on the strengthening of the National Coalition), Oak Foundation 2 (Institutional grant) and Oak Foundation 3 (most recent grant on implementing the awareness raising component of the WLC Strategy), the US Embassy and the UNFPA. The sources were received in different time periods. They cover also different time frames of the WLC (from 01 January 015 (US Embassy) to 31 July 2019 (OAK foundation). The total expenses budget for 2016 was 361,035.95 USD and comprised the following lines:

1. Program activities comprised 216,846.61 USD (60,6%),

- 66,952.26 USD (30,88%) Prevention Program;

- 60,827.87 USD (28,05%) Policy Program;

- 56,036.31 USD (25,84%) Prosecution Program;

- 21,945.20 USD (10,12%) Organizational Development Program;

- 11,084.97 USD (5,11%) Protection Program. 2. Administrative staff 120,352.21 USD (33,34%), 3. Administrative expenses 19,921.79 USD (5,52%) and other.

Additionally to the funders above, the new funders in 2017 will be Swiss Development Cooperation and International Women’s Club of Moldova.

VI. Lessons Learnt WLC continues to be an important actor and continue playing a pivotal role in

promoting reform in the field of domestic violence in Moldova.

Working on the development of the legislation in accordance with the Istanbul Convention and best practices enables to bring change at the level of implementation of the legislation and finally in the lives of women and children victims of violence.

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It is important to continue implementation of all activities by WLC based on the principle of cooperation and coordination among different actors, at the level of the Government, service providers and donor community present in Moldova, so as to make effective use of all funds received and increase the impact of activities. The WLC was able thus to attract more funding.

Continuation of capacity building efforts for different professionals in the field of DV is crucial for improving effective response to cases of DV.

The approach of specialized ToT for police, judiciary and medical professionals on effective response to domestic violence and development of curriculum and manuals by WLC based on best practices and international resources with subsequent training of specialists proved a very efficient approach.

The institutional and core support by main WLC funders has enabled WLC to grow into a leading organization in the field of women's rights, viewed by members of the donor community as a serious and sustainable actor. Moreover, the reform embarked by WLC will transform it into a completely sustainable organization;

The process of networking building for service providers in field of DV is a long and difficult one and needs strong guidance and leadership.

The new Strategic Plan developed by the WLC for 2016-2019 enables the organization to position itself as an important actor in the field and will increase its future sustainability.

The number of beneficiaries has steadily increased due to strong partnership with the law enforcement, partnership agreements signed with the police, where WLC starting acting as a true intervention center. Lack of awareness raising and information campaign on victim rights led to a relatively low number of direct beneficiaries of the legal services available under the Project.

The development of pioneering research, such as the Costing of Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in Moldova, has positioned WLC as an important actor in advocacy for the overall reform in the field of DV in Moldova and region.