During a public event held on International Day for Protection of Children, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection launched the National Programme for Child Protection for 2022-2026. The document sets out the objectives and priority actions for the next five years, which aim to strengthen the social protection system of children in the Republic of Moldova, in order to respond promptly and efficiently to the needs of each child.

The event was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, development partners and civil society organisations who participated in the elaboration of the Programme and who will further contribute to the implementation of the actions stated in the policy document.

The Programme’s primary areas of intervention are good governance in the field of child protection, reducing the number of children in institutional care, preventing and combating violence in all environments and forms, alternative care and assistance provided to families for the prevention of separation. These areas were defined following an extensive consultation process, in which the civil society, international organisations, public authorities and institutions with competence in child protection took part. Moreover, in the participative process of elaborating the Programme, more than 8000 children were involved.

The compound interventions established in the Programme tackle each problem at the levels of normative framework, mechanisms of determining the services to be provided to each category of beneficiaries, complex investments in human resources, who needs to be trained and motivated to act efficiently for the protection of each child in difficult situations, social norms, which shall not tolerate any form of violence and child exploitation, novel and potent approaches to the monitoring and evaluation of interventions in the area of child protection.

The goals of the new policy document stem from the “Good times for Moldova” Activity Programme of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, and fit with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on connecting the system and public policies on child protection to the needs and ever-changing challenges that children face, with a view to realising their rights and best interests.

The three major objectives of the Programme are: enhancing the child protection system, so as to enable it to respond promptly and efficiently to each child’s needs, backed by an increase in the expenditure share allotted to family and child protection; ensuring that adults and children show zero tolerance towards any form of violence against children; ensuring that children grow in a secure and protective family environment, which guarantees their wellbeing.

The specific objectives refer to the establishment of mechanisms for prompt and efficient interventions of the protection system based on each child’s needs, by:

– creating an automated information system and a set of national institutionalised indicators to optimise data collection in the field of child protection;

– ensuring the high qualification of human resources, through training programmes approved by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection;

– increasing the population’s level of awareness and responsiveness to any form of violence against children;

– guaranteeing the accessibility of leisure services and programmes for all children aged 3-17;

– setting up specialised services for psycho-social assistance and rehabilitation for children involved in acts of violence, in conflict with law or children with deviant behaviour;

– improving parents and families’ capacities for raising and looking after children, through access to parent education services and programmes;

– offering the necessary support to families with children in risk situations, to prevent separation;

– consolidating alternative family-type care services;

– reintegrating children from residential institutions in families or family-type social services;

– assisting communities and children, so that they can fully benefit from the partnerships for child wellbeing between public authorities and civil society.

The National Programme for Child Protection is supplemented by an Action Plan containing 72 actions, with monitoring indicators, implementation costs, lead time and responsible institutions determined for each action.

Most actions will be carried out and monitored by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. Additionally, other authorities with competence regarding child protection, like the Ministry of Education and Research, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Justice, the State Chancellery and local public administration authorities, development partners, civil society organisations will contribute to the implementation of the Programme.

The new policy document is intended to ensure the continuity of the previously undertaken measures and to tackle current issues in the child protection system.