Chisinau- “The Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund Steering Committee, chaired by Antonio Vitorino, the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration as Coordinator of the UN Network on Migration, has approved in July 2023 a funding allocation for the project “Leveraging the positive impact of migration on Moldova’s development through improved policy evidence and better engaged diaspora”, to be jointly implemented in Moldova by IOM, as the Convening UN organisation, as well as UNDP, UNICEF, and WHO.

The objective of the new Programme is to leverage the positive impact of migration on Moldova’s socio-economic development and minimize the negative effects of migration. The goals will be achieved by strengthening the capacities of relevant public authorities for ensuring an effective country’s migration policy design and management, and through employment of innovative instruments for better engagement of the highly skilled diaspora in country’s development.

Moldova is one of the countries most impacted by migration – with more than one million nationals residing abroad - a quarter of the country’s population, following the migration waves which started in the 1990s. Many diaspora members are well integrated abroad, yet they yearn to re-connect with the homeland and to contribute to its prosperity with skills and resources. Diaspora plays an important role as vector of change and supporting the reform and keeping the EU-integration path of the country, through active and informed participation in several rounds of parliamentary and presidential elections. The upcoming elections in 2024 and 2025 will be very important for ensuring that Moldova stays on course with the EU accession, and diaspora’s direct democratic participation, but also via “democratic remittances” to their families and communities, will be once again determinant.
Under the new Programme, IOM will be working to foster closer and more effective contacts between the Government and the diaspora, support, and protect the Moldovan citizens working abroad and develop suitable strategies aiming at minimizing the depletion of human capital and make the most of its diaspora’s resources.

Migration strongly contributes to the socio-economic development of the country, with 16% of GDP being made up of remittances. Remittances helped reduce poverty, send children to school, cover health expenditures, and boost local business. In 2022 remittances were 8 times the foreign direct investment, and 10 times the official development assistance. The current economic growth and the poverty reduction trends are closely correlated with the flow of remittances and consumption generated by the latter – and such a development model is not sustainable. In the last decade, Moldova has made great progress with directing the migrants’ resources for small business development the remittances, through implementing matching grants model. The PARE program resulted in more than 2200 new businesses, worth more than 60 million EUR, resulting in more than 7000 new jobs; and training over 6000 migrants returning to Moldova from over 40 countries. However, the existing efforts need to be scaled up, and more innovative instruments are called for, incl. crowd-investment, bonds, investment funds, pension, and insurance schemes etc. The new Programme will work to capitalize the largely un-valorized potential of the diaspora to attract investments to Moldova, develop trade and business partnerships and promote tourism, address the shortage of financial mechanisms and innovative tools to manage remittances and investments. The climate change adaptation agenda will be promoted through integrating the migration, environment and climate change aspects when conceptualizing instruments for valorizing diaspora’s material resources for green-business creation and sustainable agriculture.

One third of the Moldovan students are educated abroad, benefitting from enhanced access to knowledge, cultural experiences, networks, and further professional opportunities. However, the benefits of migration are nearly matched by its negative impact on human capital development, de-skilling, brain-drain, but also expressed in irregular migration and exploitation, children being left behind by migrant parents, and broken families.  As 80% of medical graduates do not even enter the profession, many leaving the country, this worsens the medical services in rural areas, which feature 10 times fewer doctors per capita compared with urban areas. Moldova cannot afford to lose professionals and workforce anymore, nor the investments made in educating them. The new Programme will work on solutions to drive more investment in human capital development, fostering partnerships with countries benefitting from the attracted Moldovan talents and skills. IOM will work to unlock the potential of expatriated Moldovan professionals, such as migrant health workers to engage in areas such as telemedicine, short term assignments, and public health policy, as well as other areas such a reformation of the justice sector, investment attraction, innovation, public finance etc. The expatriated Moldovans’ skills and competences will be engaged in supporting Moldova’s EU accession and reformation process.

Should we account for the Moldovans in the diaspora, the country would rank much higher in the World Bank’s Human Capital Index, perhaps on par with Central European EU countries.  Moldovan gets its migrants’ remittances, but they contribute with much more to host countries’ GDP.

No SDGs are achievable, nor can the country ensure a sustainable pace of economic growth without adequate human capital. The new Programme will support the country’s commitment to enhance the human capital through maximizing the positive impact of migration.

The country is acutely aware of the situation and its multiple strategic and sectorial policy implications, factoring this into its National Development Strategy. Moldova made it a strategic goal to change the current development paradigm based on a strong reliance on remittances, in favor of a more dynamic model based on investment and on development of goods- and services-exporting industries – while valorizing diaspora’s material and skills input to that end.

Moldova already got the data and analysis by drawing from important IOM-led instruments – such as the Migration Governance Indicators and the Extended Migration Profiles, but now we need to act based on the data – sharing responsibility and benefits of migration in a true partnership spirit.

UN is an important source of complementary expertise, and IOM, as the co-chair of the UN Migration Task Force will work to mobilise its joint and resolute action, under the new Programme and in other initiatives.

Ultimately, the IOM-led new Programme will support the country’s long-term goal to address migration’s demographic, social and macro-economic impact by tackling the underlying development challenges in multiple sectors, enhancing the trust in the Government, and making Moldova a better place, for its diaspora, returning migrants, prospective migrants, but also the local community members. “

Moldova: Leveraging the Positive Impact of Migration on Moldova’s Development Through Improved Policy Evidence and Better Engaged Diaspora.

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For more information, please contact: 

Riccardo Severi, Project Officer - Media and Communications, IOM Moldova 
rseveri@iom.int

Ghenadie Crețu - Migration & Development Program Coordinator 
gcretu@iom.int