The Global Schools Forum has published a case study on Moldova’s National Programme for Childcare Services. The National Programme is a strategic response to a set of interlinked structural challenges that risked undermining Moldova’s social and economic progress. These include persistently high child poverty, low enrolment in early childhood education for children under three and limited avenues for women to re-enter the workforce. These pressures had been further intensified by the ongoing Russia–Ukraine war, with Moldova now hosting the world’s highest per capita population of Ukrainian refugees, most of them women and children.
One key success has been the opening of the first family-based crèche by a Ukrainian mother, signalling that refugee families can be integrated into the childcare sector as a means to earn a livelihood. Another significant milestone has been the opening of the first childcare centre by two male caregivers, breaking traditional gender norms and contributing to a broader understanding of the childcare sector as an inclusive space.