Launch of the Refugee Response Plan 2024 Republic of Moldova

A lot has happened over the last two-years since the full-scale of invasion of Ukraine.

What I am personally always taken by, having worked in humanitarian crisis nearly my entire career, is the near immediate support to refugees, host communities, and government wide system support. This sort of holistic response is not seen very often, if at all.

There are a lot of reasons for this, supportive government and communities, strong national and international NGO’s, and available resources. This was all drawn together through an inclusive approach to communities and towards refugee inclusion – and exceptionally importantly the development of strong partnerships and government leadership.

Humanitarian assistance, development cooperation and peacebuilding are not parallel processes: they are all required to be supported concurrently in order to deliver positive development outcomes for Moldova and to reduce needs, risk and vulnerability of refugees.

While we oftentimes speak of the transition from humanitarian to development programming, from a programmatic sense in Moldova this is much less a transition than how we have all collectively worked from the outset. A commitment to delivering positive development outcomes for Moldova that enables a broader range of opportunities for refugee inclusion.

This also shows itself the inter-linkages between the 2024 Refugee Response Plan, the UN / Government Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, the National Development Strategy ‘European Moldova 2030’, and the Moldova-EU Association Agenda 2021 -2027. Not just at a strategic level, but also at the level of objectives and indicators.

This level of synergy and coherence, so quickly, is not always so easy to achieve, so I would like to thank the many partners who have embraced and supported this approach. I think you all need to be congratulated.

I wish us all success in delivering the Refugee Response Plan, supporting refugee and Moldovan communities and families.