National Human Development Report 2006: Quality of Economic Growth and its Impact on Human Development

Project title: National Human Development Report 2006: Quality of Economic Growth and its Impact on Human Development;

Implementation period: November 15, 2005 – October 30, 2006;

Funded by: UNDP - Moldova;

Partner: Association for Participatory Democracy ADEPT (Republic of Moldova);

Project goal: Elaboration of the National Human Development Report 2006 highlighting the links between the quality of the economic growth and human development. The NHDR had to be based, stylistically and theoretically, upon the Human Development Reports of UNDP and should serve as a vehicle through which the Government of Moldova, as well as UNDP, will be able to study, identify and prioritize Moldova 's socio-economic and human development needs;

Main activities:

• Collected gender-disaggregated data on economic and human development trends in Moldova;
• Carried out prospective studies, social surveys and desk-research on relevant issues covered in the NHDR 2006;
• Prepared a detailed outline of the NHDR 2006 addressing the quality of economic growth and its impact on human development and presented it to UNDP and the Advisory Board for discussion;
• Considering the Advisory Board comments, prepared a draft of the NHDR 2006;
• Organized two regional conferences (in cities of Cahul and Balti) during which major findings of the NHDR 2006 were debated with regional stakeholders;
• Based on public consultations, prepared and agreed with the UNDP the final draft of the NHDR 2006 ;
• Laid-out and printed the hard-copy of the NHDR 2006;
• Organized the NHDR 2006 launching conference with 100 attendees from Government, donors, financial institutions, NGOs, and media;

Main outputs and outcomes:

• National Human Development Report 2006 “Quality of Economic Growth and its Impact on Human Development”;
• Mass-media kit: Key messages and figures from the NHDR 2006;
• Materials of the National Conference on 21 of November 2006 for launching and discussing the NHDR 2006;
• Results of the Sociological Survey “Peoples' Opinion on the Quality of the Economic Growth and Human Development”;
• Results of two focus-groups on Good Governance and Poverty;
• Analytical studies feeding into the NHDR 2006: “Rural Developments in Moldova”, “Health Sector in 2000-2005”, “Labor Migration from Moldova: myths and facts”, “Assessing the Managerial Performances of the Moldovan Companies”, “Financial Sector and Economic Growth”, “Human Development and Educational Sector”;

Project impact:

The project introduced a new concept in the policy discourse in Moldova - the quality of the economic growth. The NHDR 2006 has drawn attention of the policymakers to the geographical and social imbalances associated with the urban-biased and consumption-based economic growth model. Furthermore, the NHDR 2006 explained the role of good governance for the consolidation of the economic growth and human development and identified the links between the human development and international competitiveness of the country. The NHDR 2006 was quite influential among the economic policymakers, as it objectively identified key economic risks and constraints affecting long-term development and called the political parties to refrain from populist policies while concentrating on the hard reforms in order to profit from the relative economic stability brought about by the labor migration and related transfer of migrants’ remittances.