Deadline: 06-Jul-2026
UN Women Moldova is inviting civil society organizations to implement a gender-transformative capacity-building programme that promotes the socio-economic empowerment and resilience of vulnerable women. The programme will support women in Cahul, Stefan Voda, and UTA Gagauzia through personal development, soft skills training, employment integration, mentorship, coaching, and evidence-based support.
The implementation period is from August 2026 to January 2027, with a maximum budget of USD 37,500 available for each region. Eligible organizations must be registered legal entities in Moldova or abroad with at least three years of relevant experience in gender-responsive capacity-building, socio-economic assessments, women’s empowerment, or gender equality programming.
What is this UN Women Moldova Call?
This call invites civil society organizations to design and implement a gender-transformative capacity-building programme for vulnerable women in Moldova.
The programme aims to strengthen women’s socio-economic empowerment, personal resilience, employment readiness, leadership confidence, and participation in economic and community life.
It also contributes to UN Women Moldova’s Country Strategic Note 2023–2027.
Main Purpose of the Programme
The main purpose of the programme is to support vulnerable women through structured capacity-building and employment-focused support.
The programme aims to:
- Promote women’s socio-economic empowerment
- Strengthen women’s resilience
- Build communication and interpersonal skills
- Improve self-confidence and self-efficacy
- Support employment integration
- Provide mentorship and coaching
- Promote gender-responsive approaches
- Strengthen climate resilience
- Increase women’s participation in economic and community life
- Support evidence-based programming for vulnerable women
Geographic Focus
Separate proposals are expected for each target district.
The target regions are:
- Cahul
- Stefan Voda
- UTA Gagauzia
Applicants should submit separate proposals for each district where they intend to implement activities.
Implementation Period
The programme will be implemented from August 2026 to January 2027.
Applicants should prepare a realistic workplan covering participant identification, needs assessment, programme delivery, mentorship, employment integration, monitoring, evaluation, and reporting within this period.
Budget Available
The maximum budget available is USD 37,500 for each region.
Applicants should prepare a clear regional budget that directly supports the proposed activities and implementation requirements.
Strategic Alignment with UN Women Moldova
The intervention contributes to UN Women Moldova’s Country Strategic Note 2023–2027.
The Strategic Note focuses on four impact areas:
- Governance and Participation in Public Life
- Economic Empowerment and Resilience
- Ending Violence against Women and Girls
- Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction
The proposed programme contributes to these priorities by promoting gender-responsive policy approaches, women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and participation in economic and community life.
Why the Programme is Needed
Women in rural Moldova face significant economic, social, and structural barriers.
Traditional gender norms can limit women’s participation in rural economies and restrict their access to productive resources, decision-making opportunities, leadership roles, and employment pathways.
The programme responds to these challenges by supporting vulnerable women with practical skills, confidence-building, coaching, mentorship, and employment integration.
Key Context and Gender Inequality Challenges
The call highlights several challenges affecting rural women and women-led households in Moldova.
Key statistics include:
- Rural women represent 30 percent of Moldova’s population.
- Rural women make up more than half of Moldova’s countryside residents.
- The rural poverty rate is 29.3 percent among female-headed households.
- The rural poverty rate is 25.6 percent among male-headed households.
- Nearly 30 percent of women-led households live below the poverty line.
- 26.3 percent of women live in absolute poverty.
- 23.6 percent of men live in absolute poverty.
- The highest rate of absolute poverty, 36.9 percent, is recorded among households with three or more children.
- Only 2 percent of women participate in local governance structures.
- Less than 1 percent of women occupy leadership positions.
- Women face a 70 percent rate of intimate partner violence.
These figures show the need for targeted, gender-responsive support for vulnerable women.
Focus Areas
The programme focuses on gender equality, economic empowerment, resilience, and employment support.
Key focus areas include:
- Women’s empowerment
- Gender-transformative capacity building
- Socio-economic resilience
- Employment integration
- Personal development
- Communication skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Self-confidence
- Self-efficacy
- Gender-responsive policy approaches
- Climate resilience
- Sustainable natural resource management
- Multi-stakeholder engagement
- Monitoring, evaluation, and reporting
What Selected Organizations Will Do
Selected organizations will be responsible for designing and implementing the full capacity-building programme.
Responsibilities include:
- Identifying participants
- Conducting assessments to determine women’s needs
- Designing a structured personal development programme
- Delivering gender-responsive training modules
- Supporting employment integration activities
- Providing mentorship and coaching
- Conducting monitoring and evaluation
- Preparing reports throughout implementation
- Promoting multi-stakeholder engagement
- Ensuring activities are evidence-based
Participant Identification and Needs Assessment
Selected organizations must identify vulnerable women who can benefit from the programme.
They must also conduct assessments to understand participants’ needs, barriers, skills, employment interests, personal development goals, and socio-economic circumstances.
The assessment should help ensure that the programme is tailored to women’s real-life situations.
Capacity-Building Programme Components
The programme must be structured, gender-responsive, and adapted to participants’ needs.
Core modules will include:
- Communication skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Self-confidence
- Self-efficacy
- Personal development
- Employment readiness
- Resilience-building
The programme should support women in developing practical skills that can improve their participation in work, community life, and decision-making.
Employment Integration Support
Selected organizations must support employment integration activities.
This may include:
- Career guidance
- Job readiness support
- Skills mapping
- Support for employment pathways
- Coaching for job search or workplace readiness
- Referrals to relevant services or opportunities
- Engagement with employers or local stakeholders where relevant
The employment integration component should help women move toward greater economic self-sufficiency.
Mentorship and Coaching
Mentorship and coaching are expected parts of the programme.
These services should help participants:
- Build confidence
- Set personal and professional goals
- Strengthen decision-making skills
- Navigate employment or training opportunities
- Improve communication and self-presentation
- Develop resilience and motivation
Gender, Climate Resilience and Rural Development
The programme recognizes the link between gender equality, climate resilience, and sustainable natural resource management.
Limited knowledge of sustainable agricultural and forestry practices affects rural communities’ ability to adapt to climate change.
Women-led enterprises are particularly affected by climate impacts, reduced asset ownership, limited access to productive resources, and lower employment opportunities.
The programme supports approaches that help women become more resilient in the face of economic and environmental challenges.
Who is Eligible?
Eligible applicants must be officially registered legal entities.
Applicants may be registered in:
- Moldova
- Abroad
Eligible organizations must have full legal capacity to act.
Applicants should be civil society organizations with relevant experience in gender equality, women’s empowerment, capacity building, socio-economic assessments, employment support, or related programming.
Experience Requirements
Applicants must have at least three years of experience in relevant areas.
Required experience may include:
- Designing gender-responsive capacity-building programmes
- Implementing gender-responsive capacity-building programmes
- Conducting socio-economic assessments
- Advancing women’s empowerment
- Promoting gender equality
Applicants should demonstrate a proven track record in delivering relevant work.
Preferred Experience
Additional experience will be considered an advantage.
Preferred experience includes:
- Soft skills programme implementation
- Employment programme implementation
- Previous collaboration with United Nations agencies
- Experience working with vulnerable women
- Experience in multi-stakeholder engagement
- Experience with monitoring, evaluation, and reporting
Key Concepts Explained
Gender-Transformative Programme
A gender-transformative programme goes beyond supporting women individually. It seeks to address the social norms, power relations, barriers, and structures that create or reinforce gender inequality.
Socio-Economic Empowerment
Socio-economic empowerment means improving women’s ability to access income, employment, skills, resources, services, confidence, and decision-making opportunities.
Self-Efficacy
Self-efficacy means a person’s belief in their ability to take action, make decisions, overcome challenges, and achieve goals.
Gender-Responsive Policy-Making
Gender-responsive policy-making means designing policies, programmes, and services that consider the different needs, barriers, and realities of women and men.
Climate Resilience
Climate resilience means the ability of people, communities, and livelihoods to prepare for, adapt to, and recover from climate-related shocks and stresses.
Multi-Stakeholder Engagement
Multi-stakeholder engagement means involving different actors, such as civil society, public institutions, communities, service providers, employers, and local leaders, to support stronger programme outcomes.
How the Programme Works
Selected organizations will implement a structured programme in one or more target districts.
Each proposal should focus on a specific target district and explain how the organization will identify participants, assess needs, deliver training, provide mentorship, support employment integration, and measure results.
All activities should be evidence-based and tailored to the circumstances of vulnerable women.
How to Apply
Applicants should prepare separate proposals for each target district.
Suggested Application Steps
- Confirm that the organization is a registered legal entity in Moldova or abroad.
- Confirm full legal capacity to act.
- Verify at least three years of relevant experience.
- Select the target district: Cahul, Stefan Voda, or UTA Gagauzia.
- Prepare a separate proposal for each target district.
- Describe the target group of vulnerable women.
- Explain the participant identification and needs assessment process.
- Design a gender-responsive personal development programme.
- Include modules on communication, interpersonal skills, self-confidence, and self-efficacy.
- Describe employment integration activities.
- Include mentorship and coaching support.
- Explain how multi-stakeholder engagement will be promoted.
- Prepare a workplan for August 2026 to January 2027.
- Prepare a budget of up to USD 37,500 per region.
- Include monitoring, evaluation, and reporting arrangements.
- Submit the proposal according to UN Women Moldova’s requirements.
Assessment Considerations
Applications may be assessed based on organizational capacity, experience, project design, and expected impact.
Review may consider:
- Legal registration and capacity
- Relevant experience of at least three years
- Track record in women’s empowerment and gender equality
- Quality of the proposed capacity-building approach
- Strength of participant identification methods
- Quality of the needs assessment process
- Relevance of training modules
- Employment integration strategy
- Mentorship and coaching approach
- Evidence-based methodology
- Multi-stakeholder engagement
- Feasibility of the workplan
- Budget clarity
- Monitoring and evaluation plan
- Experience with UN agencies, where applicable
Expected Results
The programme is expected to strengthen the resilience and empowerment of vulnerable women.
Expected results may include:
- Improved communication skills
- Stronger interpersonal skills
- Increased self-confidence
- Increased self-efficacy
- Improved employment readiness
- Better access to mentorship and coaching
- Greater participation in economic life
- Increased community engagement
- Stronger resilience among vulnerable women
- Improved understanding of gender-responsive approaches
- Better support for women affected by poverty, unemployment, and social exclusion
Why It Matters
Vulnerable women in Moldova face overlapping barriers related to poverty, unemployment, gender norms, limited access to resources, low representation in governance, and exposure to violence.
Rural women and women-led households are especially affected by economic vulnerability and climate-related challenges.
This programme helps address these barriers by combining personal development, employment support, mentorship, coaching, and gender-responsive capacity building.
Tips for Strong Applications
A strong proposal should clearly explain how the programme will create practical benefits for vulnerable women.
Applicants should focus on:
- Clear district-specific approach
- Strong understanding of women’s needs
- Evidence-based participant assessment
- Practical training modules
- Gender-transformative methodology
- Strong employment integration plan
- Meaningful mentorship and coaching
- Strong multi-stakeholder engagement
- Realistic workplan for August 2026 to January 2027
- Clear monitoring and evaluation framework
- Budget within USD 37,500 per region
- Proven organizational experience in gender equality and women’s empowerment
Applicants should avoid generic training proposals and show how the programme is tailored to the realities of vulnerable women in the selected district.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Applicants should carefully review eligibility, geographic scope, and implementation requirements.
Common mistakes include:
- Submitting one general proposal for all districts instead of separate district proposals
- Not demonstrating at least three years of relevant experience
- Providing weak evidence of women’s empowerment work
- Not including participant needs assessments
- Offering generic training without gender-responsive design
- Ignoring employment integration requirements
- Not including mentorship or coaching
- Providing a weak monitoring and evaluation plan
- Missing the implementation period of August 2026 to January 2027
- Requesting more than USD 37,500 per region
- Not explaining how activities are evidence-based
- Failing to promote multi-stakeholder engagement
FAQ
What is this UN Women Moldova call about?
It invites civil society organizations to implement a gender-transformative capacity-building programme that promotes socio-economic empowerment and resilience among vulnerable women.
Which districts are targeted?
The target districts are Cahul, Stefan Voda, and UTA Gagauzia.
Are separate proposals required?
Yes. Separate proposals are expected for each target district.
What is the implementation period?
The programme will be implemented from August 2026 to January 2027.
What is the maximum budget?
The maximum budget is USD 37,500 for each region.
Who can apply?
Officially registered legal entities in Moldova or abroad with full legal capacity to act may apply.
What experience is required?
Applicants should have at least three years of experience in gender-responsive capacity-building programmes, socio-economic assessments, women’s empowerment, or gender equality work.
Conclusion
UN Women Moldova’s call supports civil society organizations to implement a gender-transformative capacity-building programme for vulnerable women in Cahul, Stefan Voda, and UTA Gagauzia. The programme will strengthen women’s socio-economic empowerment, resilience, soft skills, self-confidence, employment readiness, mentorship access, and participation in community and economic life.
Strong applications will demonstrate legal eligibility, proven gender equality experience, a district-specific approach, evidence-based participant assessment, practical training design, employment integration support, mentorship and coaching, multi-stakeholder engagement, and a clear implementation plan for August 2026 to January 2027.
For more information, visit UN Women.