The International Organization for Migration (IOM), Mission to Moldova, is implementing a three year project “Supporting the implementation of the migration and development component of the EU-Moldova Mobility Partnership,” in order to minimize the negative effects of migration and to harness the benefits for development purposes.

The Republic of Moldova currently faces many challenges posed by migration: from the protection of Moldovan workers abroad, maintaining the linkages between families separated by migration and managing migration flows to utilizing diaspora resources to their fullest potential. Designed to foster linkages between migration and development and to support the operation of the EU-Moldova Mobility Partnership, the project will address the current challenges posed by migration in the Republic of Moldova under a variety of angles: interventions at the levels of policy making, institutional migration management capacity and provision of various direct tangible support measures to Moldovans affected by migration, both in and outside of the country.

The project focuses on four areas of intervention:

1.Supporting the implementation of the EU Moldova Mobility Partnership by strengthening the Moldovan institutional capacity to better manage all aspects of migratory flows through the establishment of a Migration Technical Facility and a Migration Profile;

2.Developing the capacities of Moldovan Government in diaspora out-reach programming to encourage diaspora associations to get actively involved in homeland development;

3.Supporting the Moldovan Government by enhancing the social security and protection of the Moldovans working abroad;

4.Working to offset the negative social consequences of migration by targeting the direct needs of the most vulnerable persons left behind by migrants – their children and elderly relatives.

Through these areas of intervention, the project aims to assist returning migrants and their families, diaspora associations, children and elderly left behind, Moldovan entrepreneurs/loan applicants attempting to start or improve their business in RM, women and youth entrepreneurs, diaspora scientists, the research and development community in Moldova, Moldovan professionals and university graduates of foreign universities.

The activities foreseen within the project will bring together various stakeholders dealing with migration issues from Government institutions such as: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration; the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family; the National Employment Agency; the Ministry of Economy; the National Organization for Small and Medium Entreprises; the Bureau of Migration and Asylum; the Bureau for Interethnic Relations; and the Moldovan Academy of Science, as well as will build synergies with international organizations such as UNDP, ILO, SPES.