The Moldova Social Investment Fund (MSIF) today celebrates 23 years since its founding. From this perspective, the Director of MSIF, Iurie Chiorescu, told TRIBUNA, what these 23 years have been like for the institution he leads.
"Initially, the MSIF was created as a Project of the World Bank and donor countries in order to contribute to the implementation of Moldova National Development Strategy by empowering poor communities and their institutions in managing priority development needs. Subsequently, by changing the Statute, the “Moldova Social Investment Fund” was reorganized into a Public Institution. The basic factors that contributed to the elaboration and development of the MSIF Project were not only the socio-economic decline of that complicated period at the end of 1990s, decrease of life quality indicators and the impoverishment of the considerable part of the population, especially in the rural areas and small towns, but also the decrease of the moral spirit and the level of population involvement in the process of changing the community environment. From the perspective of development policies and strategies of the Republic of Moldova, the PI "Moldova Social Investment Fund" is considered an effective mechanism for changing the attitude and behavior of the population in communities in increasing social activism and community solidarity, as well as in improving life quality of population and vulnerable groups by increasing their access to improved social services", Chiorescu said.
According to him, target groups of beneficiaries of the PI MSIF are constituted by the population from rural and urban communities, people with disabilities.
„PI MSIF contributes to development of organizational capacities of these groups and to increase of the responsibility for all activities in the community by their direct involvement in the process of identifying their urgent needs, implementation of subproject proposals and ensuring sustainability. PI MSIF is also a mechanism assisting communities to learn new concepts of local government. Community actors (LPA, non-governmental organizations, beneficiary associations, etc.) learn different ways of working with the community, such as: involving the population in decision-making, ways to identify priority issues, strategic planning, monitoring project implementation, maintaining and ensuring the sustainability of renovated objects, financial management, institutional development of local public administration and non-governmental organizations. PI MSIF collaborates with the beneficiary communities on partnership principles. The role of PI MSIF is to support financially in the amount of 70% -85% of the cost of subproject proposals and to facilitate and monitor community groups wishing to implement subprojects. The community is responsible for preparing subproject proposals, collecting the investment of at least 15% of the cost of the subproject proposal, organizing competitions to select the contractor and technical manager, monitoring the implementation of subprojects in the community and signing payment documents, ensuring the sustainability of renovated social infrastructure. By promoting the development of social partnership at community level, PI MSIF contributes to the development of the capacities of community institutions, ensuring the observance of transparency and participation principles and, as a result, to the sustainable development of the community”, the PI MSIF Director pointed out.
Iurie Chiorescu also said that, “the PI MSIF activity is aimed at the implementation of social and socio-economic infrastructure subprojects in order to contribute to:
- ensuring access to improved social services by renovating kindergartens; constituency schools, educational complexes school - kindergarten; sports schools; sports halls in schools, etc.
- ensuring access to improved socio-economic services through the construction/extension of water supply systems with drinking water; construction/extension of sewerage systems; works on arranging recreation areas in communities; paving pedestrian sidewalks; installation of street lighting systems.
- subprojects aimed at the protection of the environment through the construction of water purification / water treatment systems; construction of treatment plants; carrying out activities to combat soil erosion in public territories (planting trees, organizing terraces on slopes, digging drainage channels), etc.
- subprojects aimed at the efficient use of energy by conserving thermal energy in public buildings; promoting alternative energy resources, implementing technologies for use of renewable energy resources, etc. ”
Being asked what are the most important achievements of the institution, Iurie Chiorescu mentioned that so far from various sources of funding with the support of PI MSIFabout 4320 subprojects in 1130 rural and urban localities have been implemented.
„At the moment PI MSIF manages the implementation of 266 subprojects financed from the financial sources allocated by different donors:
- within the Technical and Financial Assistance Program granted by the Government of Romania for preschool institutions in the Republic of Moldova - at the moment we manage the financial sources from tranche III in the amount of 3 mln. euro intended for the renovation/equipping of 246 kindergartens.
- at the final stage is the implementation of the Phase II of the "Social Infrastructure and Energy Efficiency" Project, financed by the German Development Bank "Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau" (KfW) in the amount of 2 mln. under German Financial Cooperation with the Republic of Moldova; funds a dedicated for 25 subprojects.
- The “Education Reform in Moldova” Project, financed by the World Bank and implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, in which PI “Moldovan Social Investment Fund” is responsible for the implementation of the component A.2 of the Project, is in full swing, and which provides for the renovation and modernization of 17 constituency schools. 4 of which are finalized, 11 - are under construction, 1 - at the tender stage and 1 - in the process of drafting the technical documentation.
- financial resources from the State Budget in the amount of 5 million. lei last year and 5 mln. for the year 2020 for the renovation of bathroom units in schools we have allocated.
The year 2020 is a very complicated one from the perspective of the epidemiological situation in the country and around the world. The state of emergency imposed restrictions, due to which construction sites of renovated objects have a special working regime. It is complicated for contractors to work in such conditions, but nevertheless we cope with the challenges, we have a positive dynamic at all sites. We are currently at the stage of evaluating sites that will be renovated and/or equipped for funds from the grant provided by the Romanian Government, in the near future tenders for over a hundred sites will be announced. At the same time, we hope that the epidemiological situation will improve, so that we can continue working in a normal regime", he stated.
Speaking about future plans, Iurie Chiorescu said that the Fund is a public institution with financial autonomy. "This means that the sustainability of the institution depends a lot on the existence of the implemented projects. But, given the experience of the MSIF team, good results, appreciated by international donors, we hope that many programs currently funded (by the Government of Romania, the German Development Bank KfW, the World Bank) will be continued by implementing many projects that contribute significantly to the quality of life of the population in rural and urban localities, creating access for different social strata to improved social services", concluded Chiorescu.
Andriana Cheptine
