2015

Annual Report

1

© Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy, 2015

MEGA Annual Report 2015

MEGA Annual Report 2015 presents the projects realized, services delivered, events organized, results achieved,

and impact created by Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA) throughout the year 2015. The

publication also mentions awards received by the organization, its appearances in mass media, and financial

resources attracted and used. Finally, the contribution of partner organizations and companies to the MEGA

success described is recognized and appreciated.

For inquiries please contact the MEGA Team by e-mail: hello@megageneration.com

Photos: Alexandr Iscenco and Gabriela Isac

Design layout and icons: Ruxanda Vihrest

2

Why MEGA? 4

MEGA Vision, Mission, and Values 5

Projects 6

Services 10

Events 13

Publications 17

Awards 20

Finance 22

Media Appearances 24

Partners 26

Impact 28

Summary

3

4

Dear friends,

The year 2015 has been a very productive year for Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA). We

have significantly progressed in the development of our main innovation, MEGA Game: The Game with Impact;

received funding support for it; organized the first edition of the annual initiative on its basis, the MEGA Impact

Championship; added another MEGA project to our portfolio, Operation P.E.A.C.E.; created the interactive Water

Map of Moldova; delivered gamification and game development services to our MEGA Partners in Moldova and

the Netherlands; presented MEGA at the UN Headquarters in Geneva; and celebrated 2 MEGA Years of activity,

results, and positive impact. You will find all these achievements described in this Annual Report.

Still, we could not do all of the activities and achieve such results alone. Throughout the year we were supported

by our MEGA Partners and Friends, as well as members of local communities, who had been inspired by our

mission, vision, and innovation, and believed in them. Altogether we have laid foundation for a community-based

environmental management and governance based not on the fear of environmental disaster, but on such

feelings as enjoyment, fun, and optimism for a bright and environmentally sustainable future. And therefore the

Report also serves as a gratitude message to all our MEGA Partners and Friends, who has walked side by side with

us throughout the year 2015.

Thus, we invite you to explore the pages of our Annual Report for 2015. We hope that the projects, initiatives,

and their results will inspire you to contribute to the protection of the environment as well. We also hope that

you will join us next year to move further in realizing the vision of a sustainable world and

MAKING IT MEGA TOGETHER!

With great respect and gratitude,

The MEGA Team

hello@megageneration.com

www.megageneration.com

5

Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA) was established 2 years

ago, in November, 2013. Indeed, this is a very young organization, which is just a

drop of dew among large environmental organizations with long history of activity

on the market. However, this drop of dew has already refreshed and gave rise to

seedlings of MEGA great and important projects and initiatives. And these days

you can already see them blossom.

MEGA represents an innovative solution to the world’s most pressing social and

environmental issues, such as inefficient natural resource management,

environmental pollution with waste toxins, loss of biodiversity, climate change,

etc. through community participation and collaborative environmental

governance. It has been created in order to combine psychology + technology +

ecology in a unique and innovative way in order to use their combined advantages

to create an environmentally sustainable world not on the basis of fear of possible

environmental apocalypse, but on the basis of such positive feelings as fun,

enjoyment, and optimism about the future. To achieve this we apply the concepts

of gamification, open-source ecology, and citizen science that give communities

the “power” to create the clean, green, and environmentally prosperous world

they desire with their own hands and minds.

Why

MEGA?

6

Our MEGA Vision is a sustainable world, where every person lives an eco-friendly

life, has open access to practical learning opportunities, constructs own open-

source eco-innovations, and thus contributes to sustainable development and

creation of positive social and environmental impact in a collaborative, enjoyable,

and fun way anywhere in the world.

The MEGA Mission is to make people’s green dreams* come true.

*Under “green dreams” we understand sustainable solutions, eco-innovations,

and environmental projects / initiatives that improve both the social well-being of

communities and the quality of the environment they live in.

MEGA functions on the basis of the 7 MEGA Values:

1. We exist to serve the nature and people;

2. We believe in the power of communities;

3. We act sustainably in everything we do;

4. We strive for excellence in all our endeavours;

5. We do serious work in a fun way;

6. We lead by example;

7. We make it MEGA TOGETHER!

MEGA

Vision,

Mission,

and

Values

7

Projects

8

MEGA Game: The Game with Impact is the primary innovation of MEGA and in a

way its “heart” that gives vital “blood” and therefore “life” to all our projects and

initiatives. It is the gamified web platform and smartphone application that give

young people knowledge and power to address environmental issues in a

collaborative and cost-efficient way and create sustainable world by playing for

impact. In such way MEGA Game represents the unique education-and-

collaboration system designed as a game for community-based environmental

and social education and eco-innovation development that improve resilient

social well-being of communities and health of natural environment they live in.

MEGA Game is accessible through the MEGA website at

www.megageneration.com.

In 2015 we managed to achieve significant progress in MEGA Game development.

We have tested the basic features of the on-line platform within a number of

projects and services, including UpGreat Journalism, 1000 Green Hours, MEGA

Impact 2015 Championship, and other. We have also activated the rewards and

experience earning mechanics, improved user statistics and leaderboard, added

the feedback feature, integrated e-learning courses and video trainings,

connected them to missions, and much more. All these features and additions are

now being tested and will be made accessible in MEGA Game early in 2016.

MEGA

Game:

The

Game

with

Impact

9

MEGA Impact Championship is the annual national initiative of MEGA that is

based on MEGA Game and aimed at stimulating cooperation among organizations

and companies around identifying and resolving social / environmental issues in

different places in a specific country. Innovation of this initiative is the usage of

the concepts of gamification and storytelling applied for stimulating participants

(teams consisting of members of various organizations and companies) to create

as much positive social / environmental impact as possible within a limited

timeframe. At the end of the Championship 3 winning teams are awarded, while

the rest of the participants can use their XP points for “buying” additional rewards

in the virtual “shop”.

In 2015 the first edition of the MEGA Impact Championship took place in

Moldova. Its focus topic was water quality and supply management in the

country. 5 teams from different youth organizations collaborated and competed

with each other during the 3 levels of the Championship: City Quest in Chisinau,

Semi-finals in the River Bic basin, and Finals in Comrat. As a result, 8 expeditions

have been made, 8 serious water-related issues have been identified, 3 plans for

resolving them have been developed, 20+ bags (approximately 1 tonne) of waste

have been gathered and removed from the shore of the lake in Comrat, 20+ trees

have been planted in Comrat, and the Water Map of Moldova have been

developed and made public at http://watermap.megageneration.com.

MEGA

Impact

Champi-

onship

10

Operation P.E.A.C.E. (Practical and Entertaining Adventure for Conflict-resolution

and English-teaching) is the „codename” of the Innovation Camp aimed at

implementing gamification and developing “serious games” on the topic of

teaching English through conflict resolution and peace building. Its innovation lies

in the collaborative design and development of games by teachers of English from

different countries and their distribution to schools and colleges that wish to

incorporate gamification on conflict resolution and peace building into their

curricula. The project is supervised by the American Councils for International

Education, organized in cooperation with Academia Nicolae Dumitrescu, and

sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, English Language Innovation Fund.

Operation P.E.A.C.E., like the MEGA Impact Championship, is also the “seed” of a

promising project that was planted in 2015. In its first edition 30 English teachers

from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine came to learn

about the concept of gamification and game development. As a result they

created the concepts and designs of 5 unique games: “Find the Gold”, “The

Inquisitive Snake”, “New World”, “Buddies”, and “Hidden Treasure”. All these

games are now being prepared, play-tested, and produced to be accessible to all

on an open source basis. Besides the games, Operation P.E.A.C.E. has also

resulted in a new MEGA publication entitled Operation PE.A.C.E.: Gamification

Handbook. It is now available for reading and downloading at

http://issuu.com/megageneration/docs/gamification_handbook.

Opera-

tion

P.E.A.C.E

11

Services

12

The beginning of 2015 started for us with participation in the jury of the

competition Diamond Challenge Moldova. Our contribution consisted in

evaluating the social impact potential of the business ideas presented, awarding

the idea with the greatest potential, and generally working together with the jury

for selecting the most promising business ideas of young entrepreneurs in

Moldova. As a result, we made several teams of competition participants very

happy about their ideas, as well as gave them useful advice on how to develop

their entrepreneurial initiatives further.

UpGreat Journalism, the project organized by the NGO AIESEC Chisinau in spring

2015, became the first official test of the Beta version of our MEGA Game. The on-

line gamified platform was offered as an innovative technological mean to

implement the concept of gamification within this project. Due to such fruitful

cooperation, UpGreat Journalism benefitted from the on-line gamification based

on the first core features of MEGA Game, while we received 50+ subscribers and

players, who gave us valuable feedback and suggestions on how to improve the

user experience of our platform. This feedback and suggestions were then

integrated into the development plan of MEGA Game that is now being

implemented to prepare the next version of our on-line platform.

Diamond

Chal-

lenge

Moldova

Chisinau, Moldova

UpGreat

Journa-

lism

Chisinau, Moldova

13

1000 Green Hours, the project currently in progress by the organization

Landschap Overijssel in the Netherlands, is another initiative that uses MEGA

Game in its core. The project invites Dutch youth to become “Green Agents” by

volunteering for various environment-related initiatives in the region Overijssel

designed as “missions”. For this purpose we created a special customized version

of MEGA Game with its own landing page accessible at

http://1000greenhours.megageneration.com. Then 10 missions were designed

and put on this customized platform. Nowadays Landschap Overijssel is doing

active promotion of 1000 Green Hours to attract young people to register, play,

and thus contribute to a better environment in the Netherlands.

The Innovation Camp on gamification and game development in English teaching

and conflict resolution was organized by MEGA in October 2015 as part of the

project “Operation P.E.A.C.E.”. It was supervised by the American Councils for

International Education, organized in cooperation with Academia Nicolae

Dumitrescu, and sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, English Language

Innovation Fund. Within the 5-days Camp in the resort town of Vadul lui Voda we

delivered a series of trainings on the basics of gamification, the gamification

design framework, types of players, and practical applications of gamification and

“serious games” to 30 English teachers from 6 different countries.

1000

Green

Hours

Dalfsen,

The Netherlands

Inno-

vation

Camp

Vadul lui Voda,

Moldova

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15

Events

16

Besides organizing social and environmental projects and delivering

gamification services to our partners, we had also been active in

participating at various events in different countries throughout the

year 2015. The most prominent ones with their learning and practical

outputs are presented below:

Public consultations regarding water management of the river Bic

and the Ghidighici reservoir, organized in Moldova by our partner,

the National Health and Environment Platform. There we presented

the state of water quality in Moldova and specifically in the river Bic

to set the basis for further discussions among the Ministry of

Environment, local authorities, NGOs, and civil society

representatives.

Clean World conference, organized by Let’s Do It! in Riga, Latvia. At

our first conference of 2015 we learnt about the initiatives to

establish a zero-waste world and discussed concrete actions on how

we can do it.

Ideas for Change Award, organized by the United Nations Economic

Commission for Europe (UNECE) in Geneva, Switzerland. This was an

international competition of new groundbreaking entrepreneurial

ideas with high social / environmental potential, where our MEGA

Game had been chosen as a finalist among 150 other ideas from 25

countries. Although we did not win the grand prize, we still

succeeded in presenting MEGA Game at the UN headquarters and

obtain new contacts, subscribers, and feedback.

World Environment Day cleanup, organized by National

Environmental Center in Chisinau, Moldova. In order to celebrate the

World Environment Day (WED) and contribute to cleaning of the

River Bic, we launched the MEGA WED Challenge mission in MEGA

Game and invited players to join us. Then together with other

organizations and volunteers we removed 50+ bags of polluting

municipal waste from the river and its banks.

17

E-waste recycling campaign, realized by e-Reciclare in Chisinau,

Moldova. We contributed to this campaign by collecting and giving

for recycling a box of batteries and a number of our old mobile

phones.

ClimateLaunchpad competition, organized by Climate-KIC on the

European level and implemented by our partner organization

EcoVisio on Chisinau, Moldova. As a result of the Moldovan part of

the competition our MEGA Game received the National Winner

Award and was chosen to compete on the European level in

Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Although we did not get the grand

prize, we still demonstrated our MEGA Game in Amsterdam and

established a number of valuable contacts for future cooperation.

Networking and cooperation-building expedition to Bender and

conference in Lalova, Moldova, done by EcoVisio. At these events we

succeeded in making our first expedition to Transnistria in a climate-

friendly way (on bicycles) and get to know other environmental

organizations in Moldova. Since then we are also in close partnership

and friendship with EcoVisio.

Seminar “Consolidation of Rural Tourism in Moldova”, realized by

our partner organization INQUA-Moldova on Chisinau, Moldova. At

this seminar we presented the recently tested and improved Beta

version of our MEGA Game, as well as developed the concept of the

MEGA Impact Championship to be implemented during the following

months.

IarmarEco, an exhibition of environmental organizations and green

businesses organized by EcoVisio in Chisinau, Moldova. At this event

we showcased the latest version of our MEGA Game and the results

of the recently realized MEGA Impact Championship. We also

registered organizations and young people willing to participate in

the next edition of the Championship.

18

Civic Fest, organized by Synergetica Eur/Est in Orheiul Vechi (Old

Orhei), Moldova. At this festival of civic organizations and initiatives

we invited youth and environmental organizations to the MEGA

Impact Championship and registered the first interested ones.

Klaus Toepfer Fellowship on biodiversity conservation, implemented

by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) on the

Isle of Vilm in Germany. As part of the first module of this fellowship

we learnt about processes, approaches, and tools to protect

ecosystems and endangered species. At the same time we elaborated

the idea for the next edition of the MEGA Impact Championship with

focus on the topic of biodiversity conservation in Moldova.

Regional Conference for Eastern Cooperation Countries, organized

by Let’s Do It, Ukraine! In Kiev, Ukraine. At this conference we learnt

about interesting environmental initiatives that also use gamification

and noted several important ideas for our MEGA Game. Besides that

we delivered the training “Psychology of Ecology” and presented how

we plan to revive and evolve the national cleanup campaign “Hai,

Moldova!” on the basis of gamification and MEGA Game.

Small Grants Programme training, implemented by the Global

Environment Facility (GEF) and delivered by AEGIS TRAINING. There

we received valuable information on preparing the application for

the Small Grants Programme (SGP) next year.

Forum of environmental NGOs in Moldova, organized by EcoContact

in Chisinau, Moldova. Various topics related to the involvement of

environmental organizations into nature conservation in Moldova

were discussed with our contribution. At the Forum we also

benefitted from the opportunity to present MEGA Game, the MEGA

Impact Championship, and the first results of our initiative “MEGA

Game: Strengthening Environmental Governance in Moldova through

Innovative E-learning and Collaboration Platform for Environmental

Action”.

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Publications

20

MEGA is focused on practical hands-on engagement in environment protection, management, and governance.

Still, we also conduct scientific research on environmental management and gamification and on its basis publish

scientific reports and research articles. In 2015 we released and presented 2 articles and 1 publication, as well as

updated our MEGA Game Book.

Collaborative Sustainability in Open Workshops: The Potential of Co-creation

Spaces to contribute to Sustainable Development. Oekologisches Wirtschaften,

Nr 30, May 2015, pp. 35 – 40 [Online]. Available at http://www.oekologisches-

wirtschaften.de/index.php/oew/article/view/1431

The article is written based on the results of our research project “Collaborative

Sustainability in Open Workshops: The Potential of Co-creation Spaces to

Contribute to Sustainable Development in the Case of Berlin” conducted at the

Institute of Ecologic Economy Research (IÖW) in Berlin, Germany in 2014. It

explores and explains how open workshops (specifically hackerspaces,

makerspaces, and fablabs), collaborative open-source innovation, and desktop

manufacturing by using 3D printers can contribute to sustainable development of

a city such as Berlin.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Animal Husbandry and Strategy for Their

Reduction in Indonesian Villages. In: NATURAL RESOURCES: Sustainable Targets,

Technologies, Lifestyles and Governance. October, 2015, pp. 100 - 105. [Online].

Available at http://www.wrforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/WRF-2013-

2014-Natural-Resources.pdf

The article has its foundation in another research project conducted at BINTARI

Foundation in Semarang, Indonesia back in 2012. It presents the results of

estimating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from livestock and manure

management in the village Indrokilo in Indonesia during the period of 2008 –

2012, suggests strategies on emissions reduction to be realized there, assesses

the potential of such strategies to decrease emissions of methane and nitrous

oxide, proposes the optimal strategy to pursue by the village community and

concludes with recommendations on ensuring sustainability and success of the

climate change mitigation program in the Indrokilo village, as well as other rural

communities in Indonesia that are part of the “1000 Climate Villages” initiative.

Re-

search

Articles

21

Operation P.E.A.C.E.: Gamification Handbook is a handy compendium of the

most important tools, guidelines, and frameworks for implementing gamification

and “serious games” in English teaching with specific focus on the topic of conflict

resolution and peace building. It is aimed to be used by English teachers

interested in developing games for their students, as well as for any person willing

to use the power of games in teaching and learning. The Handbook is not a book

or a manual on teaching what gamification is and how to use it. It is more of a

visual support tool to recall and implement the main aspects of gamification and

“serious game” development.

The Gamification Handbook was developed by American Councils for International

Education in Moldova, Moldovan Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA),

and Academia Nicolae Dumitrescu (AND) as part of the project “Operation

P.E.A.C.E.: Practical & Entertaining Adventure for Conflict-resolution and English-

teaching” implemented in Moldova in October, 2015, and sponsored by the U.S.

Department of State, English Language Innovation Fund. It is now available on-line

at http://issuu.com/megageneration/docs/gamification_handbook.

MEGA Game Book is a compendium of educational games (on-line games, activity

games, and board games) on the topics of environmental protection,

management, and governance from around the world. Its purpose is to help

environmental organizations, teachers of classes on ecology and environment,

trainers delivering sessions on these topics at various events, and other educators

to enhance their education and learning practice through play, entertainment,

and fun. MEGA Game Book is also meant to support research on applying the

concept of gamification and “serious games” in environmental education.

MEGA Game Book was released in 2014. This year thanks to the contributions of

Huyen Do Thi Thanh from Vietnam and Valeria Svart-Gröger from Moldova, as

well as due to our own inputs, it has been enriched with 10+ more games.

The latest version of MEGA Game Book can be found at

http://issuu.com/megageneration/docs/mega_game_book.

Contributions can be made via our Projects page at

http://megageneration.com/projects#/projects/mega-game-book.

Gamifi-

cation

Hand-

book

MEGA

Game

Book

22

23

Awards

24

Although the year 2015 was not so rich in recognitions and awards for MEGA as the previous year, we were still

lucky enough to receive important national award and international awards. They were given for the idea and

concept of our MEGA Game, as well as its potential to bring positive social / environmental change to the world.

UNECE Ideas for Change International Finalist was awarded to MEGA by the

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in Geneva, Switzerland.

ClimateLaunchpad National Winner was the award given to MEGA by Climate-KIC

and EcoVisio in Chisinau, Moldova.

UNECE

Ideas for

Change

Finalist

Climate

Launch-

pad

National

Winner

Geneva, Switzerland

Chisinau, Moldova

25

Finance

26

In 2015 MEGA operated with several budgets for its projects and initiatives. Some of the budgets were

administered at the accounts of MEGA, while others were managed through our partners and customers. The

financial resources of the budgets were directed entirely towards covering the costs of the projects.

In addition, our organization has received certain financial and in-kind contributions from our partners. In turn,

MEGA sponsored an initiative of another partner we are closely connected with.

For the initiative “MEGA Game: Strengthening Environmental Governance in

Moldova through Innovative E-learning and Collaboration Platform for

Environmental Action” and the MEGA Impact Championship as part of it MEGA

received financial support in the value of 8,758 USD from the program “EU-NGO:

Strengthening Environmental Governance by Building the Capacity Of Non-

Governmental Organizations (NGOs)”, funded by the European Union,

implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and

delivered by the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP). In addition to that the

organization benefited from sponsorship in the value of 1,259 MDL (63 USD) from

the company Spark Research Labs.

Within the project “Operation P.E.A.C.E. (Practical and Entertaining Adventure for

Conflict-resolution and English-teaching)” MEGA operated with the budget of

27,000 USD. The funds were provided by the U.S. Department of State, English

Language Innovation Fund, through the American Councils for International

Education.

MEGA did not only receive financial resources, but also gave them for promising

initiatives. Thus, a total donation of 75 USD was sent to the organization EcoVisio

for its crowdfunding campaign on building an environmental training center in the

eco-village Riscova, Moldova.

Grants

and

Sponsor-

ships

External

Budget

Dona-

tions

27

Media

Appear-

ances

28

AIESEC Alumni International. Change the World Campaign: Moldovan

Environmental Governance Academy (MEGA). August, 2015. Available at

http://aiesec-alumni.org/change-the-world-campaign-moldovan-environmental-

governance-agency-mega

American Councils. News: Operation P.E.A.C.E. November, 2015. Available at

http://americancouncils.md/news/1447

Civic.md. Campionatul MEGA Impact 2015: Salvează natura și distrează-te!

October, 2015. Available at http://www.civic.md/evenimente/29935-

campionatul-mega-impact-2015-salveaza-natura-si-distreaza-te.html

Eye on Earth. A Better World through Knowledge and Information. September,

2015. Available at http://www.eoesummit.org/a-better-world-through-

knowledge-and-information

GagauzMedia. У комратского озера волонтеры собрали 20 мешков мусора.

November, 2015. Available at http://gagauzmedia.md/index.php?newsid=5167

Gagauzinfo. Унионисты провели в Комрате социальную акцию. October, 2015.

Available at http://gagauzinfo.md/index.php?newsid=21275

InfoPrut. Echipa „Uniţi sub tricolor”, câștigătoare într-o competiţie încheiată la

Comrat. October, 2015. Available at http://infoprut.ro/41704-echipa-uniti-sub-

tricolor-castigatoare-intr-o-competitie-incheiata-la-comrat.html

Ministerul Mediului. Consultări Publice privind situaţia lacului Ghidighici. January,

2015. Available at http://mediu.gov.md/index.php/serviciul-de-

presa/noutati/1966-consultari-publice-privind-situatia-lacului-ghidighici

TNT Bravo. Istorii Urbane. September, 2015. Available at

https://www.facebook.com/637422239640759/videos/886134764769504

Zugo. Salvează natura și distrează-te la prima ediţie a Campionatului MEGA 2015.

October, 2015. Available at http://zugo.md/article/Salveaz-natura-i-distreaz-te-la-

prima-edi-ie-a-Campionatului-MEGA-2015.htm

29

Partners

30

The organization of all the projects and initiatives of MEGA described in this Report, the achievement of their

results, the obtaining of the awards, and the creation of positive social and environmental impact in 2015 would

had been impossible or extremely costly without the great support from our MEGA Partners and Friends.

Therefore here we express our gratitude, respect, and appreciation to the following partner organizations,

companies, and institutions:

31

Impact

32

WE MADE IT

TOGETHER!

Beta 2.0

of MEGA Game is

available

Water Map

of water issues in

Moldova created

8 Issues

of water quality in

Moldova documented

200+ Users

learnt to protect the

environment in practice

28+ NGOs

connected during

environmental initiatives

14 Sessions

on environment and

gamification delivered

2 Articles

with new research

results published

20+ Trees

planted in Moldova

during our projects

3 Events

related to environment &

gamification organized

1+ Tonne

of waste removed from

the environment

33

For more information please

visit us at www.megageneration.com

write us to hello@megageneration.com

and follow us at www.facebook.com/mega.md

Playing

For Impact