Support to the Delivery of Effective and sustainable social assistance services in Moldova

EveryChild and OPM supported the Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child in Moldova to improve the delivery of effective and sustainable social assistance services, in order to reduce poverty and protect vulnerable groups.

The project worked in two main areas:

1. Reform of the cash benefits system;
2. Reform of social care services;

Project Objectives:

1. Develop, pilot and implement a national system to improve the targeting and delivery of cash transfers;
2. Establish an institutional framework for targeted social care services;
3. Establish SWAp, ensuring that donor support is increasingly coordinated and aligned behind government leadership of the social assistance sector.

The project supported the development of a means-tested benefits system, including legislative and administrative reform and the elaboration of an integrated strategy for the provision of social services at a community level in order to reduce reliance on residential care and improve the efficiency of service provision. The Ministry of Social Protection, Family and Child, with support of EveryChild Moldova (now P4EC) and Oxford Policy Management, launched the reform of the social assistance system, the key elements being the review, development and implementation of governmental policies that would increase the efficiency of social assistance, including the quality of social service delivery.

Cross-cutting themes of the project included support to central administrative processes e.g. the National Development Strategy, sector MTEFs, and decentralisation of service delivery; the strengthening of monitoring and evaluation; the implementation of participatory approaches including a vulnerability assessment with beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of social assistance services; and the establishment of new mechanisms of donor coordination and dialogue, with the intention of moving towards a sector wide approach (SWAp) for social protection during the lifetime of the project.

Result

The most important policies developed in the project, involving the civil society and beneficiaries in addition to the state authorities were the National Strategy for the Development of the Integrated Social Service System, the Law on Social Support, the Law on Social Services, the Referral Mechanism, the Supervision Mechanism, the Regulations of the Social Assistance Service, the Training Strategy for staff employed in social assistance, the Minimum Quality Standards for the Foster Care Service, etc. Most of these were approved by the Parliament, Government or Ministry became operational and implemented.

Implementing party:

• Oxford Policy Management.
• EveryChild Moldova.