Outcome MDA_D_2.1

Parliament and Government adopt and implement legislation, policies, and services that address unpaid domestic and care work and improve income security and decent work for women.

The Outcome was partially achieved withsignificant results attained to the perspective of work done during the SN 2028-2022 towards the legislation, policies and services that addressed unpaid domestic and care work, improved income security and decent work for women. However, in terms of services limited progress was recorded. 300 women and men in the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova (MPs and staffers) have access to childcare service within their place of work, which enable them to reconcile work and family responsibility, manage workload during extraordinary or long sessions in Parliament and overcome barriers to career progressing. The opening of chid service in public sector - happening for first time in the history of Republic of Moldova in 2022- resulted after multi-year advocacy and paved the way tocreate new child spaces in the public sector (underway in the general inspectorate of police) as well as for important legislative amendments. More Women will benefit from income security as t( https://multimedia.parlament.md/parlamentul-a-creat-cadrul-legal-pentru-serviciile-de-alternativa-de-ingrijire-a-copiilor-cu-varsta-de-pana-la-trei-ani-%EF%BF%BC/ ). The law establishes the general framework for functioning of alternative childcare services for children up to the age of 3, it regulates the requirements, tasks and responsibilities of service providers of alternative childcare services, the way of organization and operation and the types of services, as well as the supervision and protection of the beneficiaries of these services. In line with the provisions of the Law, the secondary legislation was developed that implied modifications to the Labour and Education Law, the Tax Codes as well as the Patent law. Following the legislation changes, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection developed a new National Action Plan on childcare with specific objectives and actions to increase enrolment of children in kindergartens and favour increased participation of women in the labor market. Parliament amended the Labor Code in March 2022 to include provisions related to pay transparency. The definitions of the equal pay for work of equal value were introduced, as well as the principle of the transparency of the salary system and obligation of employees to use the evaluation of the functions . To sustain and operationalize the legislative changes and enable increased participation of women in the labor market and reduce the gender wage gap, the Government approved in May 2022 a Roadmap on Women Economic Empowerment (WEE) and established a Working Group tasking the Economic Council under the Prime Minister Office for coordination and monitoring of implementation.( https://moldova.unwomen.org/en/stories/comunicat-de-presa/2022/06/a-fost-lansata-foaia-de-parcurs-privind-abilitarea-economica-a-femeilor). As stated by the president of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Policy and European Integration Doina Gherman “Women’s economic empowerment is crucial for the entire society, representing a women’s right, and, in order to ensure it is respected, we need laws, but also policies and concrete actions. (https://consecon.gov.md/en/2022/05/13/roadmap-on-womens-economic-empowerment-launched/ ) Although a crisis year, 21 women created new and around 90 women (including small producers) expanded their businesses, as a result of their engagement in Accelerator programme and voucher support. Women business owners and small producers increased their resilience to crisis thought trainings and mentorship on business and personal development, pre-accelerator/accelerator programmes as well as by accessing financial assistance through vouchers destinated for services and equipment. About 30 women were employed or passed an internship in an IT company, and other women are using their new knowledge in their current field of work. Over 800 women and girls, including from underrepresented groups, increased their engagement in the ICT sector aiming to impact equality, independence and create better access to economic opportunities, through community and support activities, Women in Online Work Programme, free access to new created IHubs in Balti and Comrat. In line with the Roadmap for WEE, the private sector increased its commitments towards gender equality. 11 companies from Moldova officially subscribed to Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in 2022. CO contribution to these results offered through extensive technical and expert support in the amendment of the legislation, conducted evidenced based advocacy on the need for institutionalization of care, provided policy advice to the Parliamentary Committee on Social, Health and Family as well as to Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, relevant national institutions, CSOs. UN Women managed to partner with UNFPA and UNICEF, to assess the costs of expanding early childhood education and care and its potential impact on employment creation and women labour participation rate. The result of the assessment will be released in 2023 based on the collection of data for cost estimation of childcare and the simulations of their impact on the employment and fiscal revenue effects. Thus, the TOC of the new SN (2023-2027) was established based on the experience gained from the previous SN implementation (2018-2022) as well as lessons learned and country's national priorities

Parliament and Government adopt and implement legislation, policies, and services that address unpaid domestic and care work and improve income security and decent work for women.

The outcome was not achieved during the year 2021. However, important actions and initiatives were undertaken by the Parliament and Government to improve income security and decent work for women in Republic of Moldova. The National Action Plan for COVID-19 Recovery which includes gender sensitive economic provisions and measures was approved by the Ministry of Economy, while the Economic Council to the Prime Minister developed the road map to improve women’s economic empowerment and guide implementation of the National Action Plan for COVID-19 Recovery. UN Women provided gender sensitive recommendations and proposals to the Plan and work in partnership with the Council to keep the gender equality on the policy development agenda. The new appointed Government in July 2021, outlined in its Action Plan equal pay for work of equal value between women and men and flexible work arrangements and amendment of normative framework enabling alternative childcare services. Parliamentary Commission on social protection, health, and family took the initiative to promote the approval of the legislative amendments on alternative childcare services for children aged 0-3. In this respect several rounds of consultations with national relevant stakeholders were held with UN Women and experts support. The Government have a ready draft of the amendments to the Education and Labor Codes which will allow employers to create childcare facilities for their own employees and will be proposed for adoption in Parliament in the beginning of 2022 after advocacy and co-creation work supported by CO. UN Women also partnered with the UNECE on supporting policy dialogue on ways to integrate gender equality and care into policy packages during the response and recovery from COVID-19. A number of 1041 women and girls across the country: rural area 43% and urban 57% and representing diverse groups: 4% people with disability, 5% women survivors of violence, two women leaving with HIV, 23 large families with more than 3 children, 99 single mothers were covered under diverse economic empowerment events and activities. UN Women partnered with the National Organization on SMEs development (ODIMM), Private companies and NGOs to help women to become confident and to find decent work. About 80 new jobs were created thanks to the capacity development support and co-granting of business ideas of 40 young women including from underrepresented groups (47 %) who successfully initiated new business or expanded the existing ones. Over 70% of investment projects were developed in rural area. About 600 women entrepreneurs, in marginalized and vulnerable situation, gained new and improved skills and capacities in starting and running business, finding a job, social media management, personal financial management, etc. as the response to the urgent needs of women and girls exacerbated by the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). 27% of all women enrolled in training launched a new business. 100 women started to promote their products or services and benefits of match making possibilities to develop new partnership. 60 women and girls, including the underrepresented groups, became financially independent and resilient as they have improved knowledge on financial literacy. 30 women-led start-ups enhanced their IT knowledge and digi-tech skills through the second start-up pre-acceleration STEM program. Of these, 15 women entrepreneurs generated their first sales within one month of the trainings; approximatively EUR 10,500 (USD 11,765) and if maintained could yield an annual EUR 126,000 (USD 141,155) in combined yearly income. Also, women from 17 companies applied their acquired skills and knowledge and digitized their businesses with websites and road media sites and advertised their products on e-commerce platforms. Out of 31 finalists of the third pre-accelerator, 58% of the founders can be attributed to a vulnerable group (rural residence, teen, unemployed, solitary mother, victim of family violence). Great skills and performance showed 8 start-ups by achieving the product stage, 6 of them raised their sales amount and the remaining 7 start-ups registered significant growth. Based on the progress to date the theory of change is still relevant as the successful approval and implementation of the legislation, ad enhanced skills of women and girls in need will impact their life and ensure that unpaid domestic and care work is shared, income security and decent work is available.