The European Commission granted Moldova candidate status, on the understanding that a series of important steps are taken across several areas of reforms in the immediate future.

The aim of the Moldova4E Diaspora Task Force is supporting institutions back home in rapidly accessing know-how and good practices from across the EU member countries in which Diaspora members are residing, given their direct connections with experts, institutions and hands-on experiences. Thus, increasing the capacity of institutions back home to deliver on key priority reforms of the Government in due time.

This is a win-win context, in which Diaspora members with specific experiences and thematic expertise, have the opportunity to contribute to the developments in their country of origin, while also supporting and promoting it in the country of destination.

Note: It is estimated that between 1,2 and 2 million Moldovan citizens are working abroad. However, there is no accurate data in place about the exact number of Moldovan citizens residing abroad on a permanent basis. Nonetheless, given that Moldova is currently facing a sever shortage of human resources across various sectors, public and private, any support from Diaspora could become transformational in the face of such a challenge.

The specific tasks of the Moldova4EU Diaspora Task Force are:

*Conducting mapping of the existent practices across the areas of reforms included in the Recommendations by the Council;

* Identifying challenges across Moldovan public sector ecosystem/per sectors of EU related reforms;

* Identifying the know-how in EU based institutions (public, private, not-for-profit), connecting 'know-how owners' with 'problem owners' in Moldova (i.e. through online interactions and exchange of knowledge, study visits, bilateral meetings, etc);

*Capitalising on the experiences and knowledge sharing through blog posts, articles, papers, video materials, other communications materials - which could become a valuable resource for Moldovan stakeholders tasked with EU integration, i.e. an online Open Repository;

*Providing support on technical procedures of EU accession, organising workshops with diaspora members on the integration criteria, i.e. Copenhagen criteria, etc.

*Other activities based on needs-assessments conducted by Diaspora members with relevant institutions in Moldova.

Innovating Governance Association is particularly keen to engage with Diaspora members around the following areas, but not limited to:

• Public Administration Reform

• Local Government

• Digital Transformation

• Good Governance, Open Government, Citizen Engagement

• Open Data & Big Data, Artificial Intelligence

• Cybersecurity

• Human Rights & Justice

• Renewable Energy

• Climate Change

• Gender Equality

• Human Capital Development

• Education

• Community Development

• Business Environment

• Tourism

• Migration and Brain Drain

• Others (depending on the expertize and interest of the Diaspora Members)

The role of the Innovating Governance Association:

*Providing its ‘institutional’ platform for expertise & knowledge sharing, and the online space (a sub page under the main igovernance.eu);

*Connecting representatives from Moldovan organisations, Austrian based organisations, EU based organisations, with Diaspora members acting as liaisons on various thematic areas;

*Facilitating meetings, workshops, network building, study visits, panel discussions, knowledge & expertise exchange etc.

Innovating Governance Association will incubate the Moldova4EU Diaspora Task Force throughout one year, as a pilot initiative, and will assess the results which will be determinant in the ways the platform will develop further.