Project Summary:

The Swiss-UNDP Project “Resilient and inclusive markets in Moldova” aims to contribute to the promotion of integrated approaches to inclusive and sustainable local economic development and employment creation, targeting both local population, as well as returning migrants and refugees.

UNDP Moldova will further advance the successful local economic development (LED) interventions by scaling up the focus from local to (micro)-regional, while at the same time leveraging revenue generation, strengthening business support services and value chains to increase the competitiveness of local economy, retention of human capital and facilitate local socio-economic development.

The strategic goal of the project is to enhance the SMEs-based sustainable economic development and promote equal access to decent work at the local and (micro)-regional levels, targeting both local populations, as well as returning migrants and refugees. 

Objectives:

• Policy and institutional frameworks create an empowering environment for inclusive and sustainable economic development in the targeted economic sectors;
• Local/regional communities including private sector representatives, meaningfully cooperate in cluster formats to enhance value chains and improve their economic opportunities;
• People of Moldova, especially women, youth, returning migrants and refugees, benefit from improved economic opportunities in the pilot micro-regions.

Expected results:

• 4 system changes contribute to improved economic opportunities at the local level;
• 15 communities from the Republic of Moldova will improve their local business support services and will offer more complex and adapted revenue opportunities via regional development initiatives engaging the private sector and community members, including the diaspora and refugees;
• Three regional micro-clusters will develop with the Project direct support, full-fledged investment attraction packages and implement innovative business development initiatives (such as SMART specialization, structural transformation, and value chain upgrade);
• At least 105 LPA representatives and private sector stakeholders will benefit from improved skills, knowledge, attitude, training and experience (SKATE) on integrated local development, regional specialization, access to finance, and local investment attraction;
• At least 360 Moldovan citizens and residents (of which at least 50% women, 30% youth and 25% returning migrants) will have new or better employment at the local level;
• At least 18,750 Moldovan citizens and residents (of which at least 50% women) will benefit from increased living conditions, as a result of the project’s level interventions.

Accomplishments:

• 2 system changes contributed to improving economic opportunities at the local level;
•  24 communities from the Republic of Moldova improved their local business support services and offered more complex and adapted revenue opportunities engaging the private sector and community members, including the diaspora and refugees;
• Three regional micro-clusters were institutionalized with the project direct support. Full-fledged investment attraction packages and innovative business development initiatives (such as SMART specialization, structural transformation, and value chain upgrades) have been developed;
• 146 LPA representatives and private sector stakeholders benefited from improved skills, knowledge, attitude, training and experience on integrated local development, regional specialization, access to finance, and local investment attraction;
• 3 value chains (one per each micro-region) have been defined and assessed (via diagnostic analysis, stakeholder analysis and market research within each micro-cluster);
• 6 functional business partnerships established and initiated for implementation during 2023-2024 (two public-private and four private-private).