Development Challenges

The Republic of Moldova, a small landlocked country squeezed between Ukraine and Romania, is one of the poorest countries in the Confederation of Independent States (CIS). Since the country's independence in 1991, income levels have fallen, poverty has deepened, the health of the population has deteriorated and access to education has dropped. People living in rural areas are more severely affected than those residing in towns and cities.

Moldova ranks 113 out of 177 countries on UNDP's Human Development Index (in 2004), placing it below many developing countries. The average per capita income, as measured in 2002, was $2,428. About 40 per cent of the population is considered poor, while one quarter live in extreme poverty (for that region, extreme poverty is considered subsisting on less than $2.15 per day). As elsewhere in the region, 70 per cent of the poor live in rural areas. Poverty is also more severe for families with three or more children, for female-headed households and for pensioners living on only one retirement income.

Since 1991, from 360,000 and 600,000 Moldovans – more than 10 per cent of the population – are believed to have migrated abroad for work. Some estimates place the number of migrants closer to one million. Whatever the real figure, the trend is viewed as both a blessing and a curse. Moldovans working in Europe and elsewhere sent home over $700 million in 2004, which amounts to nearly 27 per cent of the GDP. Remittances play an important role in Government efforts to finance its budget deficit. Since Government revenues are derived mainly from value-added and excise taxes, remittances help the country finance essential public services. The downside is that since most of the migrants are young professionals, the quality of the available labour pool is reduced. At the same time, the dependency ratio of dependents to the working age population has increased – from 1.41 in 2002 to 1.74 in 2004.

The Government's top development priorities include revitalizing a moribund economy, dependent on a few agricultural exports (including wine); reducing external debt ($1.6 billion in 2004); raising the standard of living; improving health (particularly reproductive health) and education; and creating jobs, especially for young people (one of every two unemployed persons is under the age of 24). Moldova's main development challenge is fighting poverty, particularly narrowing the gap between rural and urban areas, increasing school enrolment (currently 15,000 adolescents drop out of school and have limited job skills) and improving the health and well-being of mothers, children and adolescents.

UNFPA and other UN partners support Government's efforts aimed at meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the objectives of the ICPD Programme of Action [see First National Report on MDGs in Republic of Moldova]. UNFPA plays a strategic role in assisting the Government to increase access to essential services, such as reproductive health care and family planning, and provide family life education in schools and summer camps.

The country does not have a national population policy, but UNFPA was instrumental in getting the Government to introduce a Law on Reproductive Health and Family Planning in 2001. It guarantees a woman's right to informed choice regarding family planning and access to appropriate reproductive health services.

Compulsory Health Insurance, introduced in 2004, has facilitated access to health services for pregnant women and children. Under this scheme, services aimed at improving the health of mothers and children are free, along with essential medicines. As a result, immunization rates are close to universal and there have been marked increases in the number of births attended by qualified medical staff and in the number of women accessing ante- and post-natal care.