Mission of CIPM

CIPM is dedicated to the European integration of the Republic of Moldova and promotes the commitment of the country to the democratic values of human rights and rule of law.

Our two priorities

CIPM was founded on 1st of November 2016 with the mission to bring Moldovan citizens closer to European values and economic opportunities. In order to achieve our mission, we focus mainly on education reform and anticorruption reform in the Republic of Moldova. Education shapes the society and defines the future of the Republic of Moldova. Without education reform, Moldova cannot reach its economic potential and cannot strengthen its democracy. On the other hand, anticorruption is an emergency because it blocks advances in every sector, including in education sector, and keeps Moldovan democracy extremely vulnerable.

How we implement our mission

All CIPM projects have addressed two strategic areas: education reform and anticorruption reform. Each implemented project included an advocacy component and involved all stakeholders in the consultation process before and during the projects’ life.

Whenever we identify solutions that need policy changes, CIPM designs a strategy around the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) developed by Paul Sabatier and Hank Jenkins-Smith. We have demonstrated good capacity in reaching out to diverse groups and organizations with which we share core beliefs about policies, thus it became clear to us that the Advocacy Coalition Framework is the best model for CIPM. Therefore, the ACF strategies we follow to coordinate and collaborate with relevant organizations and individuals are:

Coordination with individuals in power who share the same core beliefs

How we’ve applied this strategy in our projects:
  • Within our first project “Smart Diaspora – Quality Education Innovators” funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation in partnership with International Organization for Migration – The UN Migration Agency, CIPM put together a coalition of professional Diaspora individuals in various sectors (e.g. IT&C, nuclear physics, European affairs, engineering, mathematics etc.) who all wanted to contribute to the quality of education system in the Republic of Moldova. Also, at the beginning CIPM coordinated with one key person from the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (ANACIP) who shared our vision to engage professional diaspora members in assessing the quality of educational programs of the Moldovan universities. He championed our project to four other members of ANACIP, including the president of the institution. At the same time, we have reached out to the director of Diaspora Relations Bureau under the Government of the Republic of Moldova. After participating in our workshop, she became a champion of our project raising support at the governmental level. The outcome of our strategy is that ANACIP annually involve Diaspora members from the coalition created by CIPM to evaluate the education programs of the universities from the Republic of Moldova. The coalition of professional Diaspora members has continued to grow since 2016 with the help of Diaspora Relations Bureau under the Government of the Republic of Moldova who replaced us as the main promoter of the coalition.
  • Within the project “EDUIURIS – Legal Education Innovators seeding respect for laws for younger generation” funded by the Netherlands Embassy and the U.S.Embassy in  Moldova, CIPM managed to form a coalition consisting of legal professionals, relevant NGOs (including the most influent non-governmental organization in the field of justice and anticorruption reform – Legal Resources Centre from Moldova – CRJM www.crjm.org), schools and individual directors / teachers. CIPM has applied the ACF strategy of coordinating with individuals in power who share the same core belief according to which the young people need to deeply understand the importance of laws, principles of rule of law and democracy and also the consequences of corruption in our country. We have leveraged the reputation of our coalition members, as well as our contacts, to engage key persons from Ministry of Education Research and Culture, Ministry of Justice, National Anticorruption Center and Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) in the project. The “National Network for Legal Education in Schools” now has 56 members (judges, prosecutors, lawyers, anticorruption inspectors as well as teachers - https://educatiejuridica.md/membri-reteaua-pentru-educatie-juridica/) who strongly believe that young people need civic, ethical, legal, religious, sexual, political education. The coalition is members want to build the future with and for these young people. We want them to stay, live and work in R. Moldova, a country we all remain loyal to. These members were trained by an international expert in legal education, Judge PhD Cristi Dănileț, through intensive non-formal education courses organized by CIPM, where network members get familiar with the teaching methods and techniques of legal education for children and young people. Through this method, coalition members replace legal language and talk with students as friends: they give them examples from their actual cases, they show them motivational videos made by CIPM, they answer their questions and assign them to read and try to understand excerpts from the legal codes. The strategy proved successful, almost all of those in power we reached out to became promoters of legal education within the relevant institutions, further increasing the level of our collaboration. On an exceptional note, the chief director of Anticorruption Education Department within National Anticorruption Agency’s enrolled as a member and publicly championed our project. Based on partnerships with Ministry of Education, the members of the coalition with the support of CIPM now organize legal education lessons in schools and high schools, both from urban and rural areas of the R. Moldova. Until now, we’ve managed to organize more than 50 legal lessons in schools. Moreover, recently the Ministry of Interior has joined the project, involving 20 policemen who will be trained and will hold legal education lessons in Moldovan Schools. This partnership extension is supported by Promo-LEX and EU Delegation in the Republic of Moldova.

Change beliefs through data, research and data exchange

How we’ve applied this strategy in our projects:
  • Within the project Anti-bribery management system as a tool to increase quality in health sector funded by RoAid Agency under Ministry of External Affairs of Romania, the CIPM team has conducted an exhaustive research about the quality of medical services provided by Moldovan hospitals as well as the perceived level of corruption at the entire medical system of Moldova. The results of the research were compiled in a policy report named Radiography of corruption in the medical system of the Republic of Moldova. The policy report came to support the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection in developing public policies to improve the quality of medical services through providing detailed information regarding the performance of services delivered in Moldovan hospitals according to the perception of patients. Moreover, the study highlighted the need to implement more ambitious anti-corruption policies by transposing ISO standards on quality management and anticorruption. The conclusions and recommendations of the study were presented in a national conference which was attended by relevant stakeholders: Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, representative of the National Anticorruption Center, directors of the largest hospitals from Moldova, NGOs on health and mass-media. The outcome of our project is that the Municipal Clinical Hospital Sfîntul Arhanghel Mihail in Chișinău, with the support of CIPM experts, has started the implementation of the international standard ISO 37001- Anti bribery management system that contributes to reestablishing the focus on patients, to introducing performance measurements which will lead to the improvement of the quality of care and to quality system improvements. The implementation of the standard will have positive effects on patient safety and the health care institutions will deliver a satisfactory level of medical services. More than that, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection has become our partner in designing a national project that aims to create a division within the Ministry with the role to enforce the implementation of the international standard ISO 37001- Anti bribery management system at the level of all Moldovan hospitals. This project idea was already agreed for implementation and we have applied for funding at the Ministry of External Affairs of Romania.
  • Within the project “Enhancing the role of Civil Society, Academia and SMEs from EaP countries in the implementation of European standards” funded by the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum Re-granting Scheme, CIPM together with its partners, Georgia’s Reforms Associates (GRASS) and Group for Strategic and Security Studies in Ukraine, published a comparative report that analyzed the process of the transition from Soviet (GOSTs) to European standards and identified policy recommendations for a smooth transition. One of our policy recommendations was to involve Universities and VET institutions in the European standardization. In this respect, CIPM has organized a national conference with the participation of the relevant stakeholders, including the director of the Institute of Standardization in Moldova under the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure. In this conference we advocated for the national information campaign in universities and VET institutions about the benefits of standards and standardization activities and procedures aiming to introduce EU standards in curricula. CIPM provided support to ISM for establishing partnership agreements with 9 education institutions (3 universities and 6 VET institutions) and together with ISM representatives we organized 9 information sessions “Benefits of European standards for Moldovan economy” that aimed to inform 1,000 students about the benefits of EU standards for a sustainable and inclusive economic growth. As an outcome, professors from 3 universities and 6 VET institutions are using our teaching guide as support for courses to teach students about European standards instead of the old curricula focused on soviet GOST standards.

Change public opinion through mass-media, social media and demonstrations

All CIPM projects have mass-media coverage aiming to increase awareness of our vision and to increase number of partners. The most popular projects for national mass-media campaigns were:
  • EDUIURIS – Legal Education Innovators seeding respect for laws for younger generation is a project funded by the Netherlands Embassy and the U.S. Embassy in Moldova that had over 20 mass-media appearances, both online, radio and TV channels (Moldova 1, TVR Moldova, Radio Chisinau, Vocea Basarabiei etc). More than that, CIPM conducted an online campaign on social media (https://www.facebook.com/educatiejuridica.md and https://www.facebook.com/center.for.innovation.and.policies/) to reach more beneficiaries and partners. As an outcome of the public and TV presence of this project, we increased the number of partners and more schools joined the coalition.
  • Anti-bribery management system as a tool to increase quality in health sector project funded by RoAid Agency under Ministry of External Affairs of Romania has benefited mass-media coverage as follows: 2 TV appearances (TVR Moldova and Noroc TV) and 5 online media articles (Realitatea, Evenimentul Zilei, Radio Chisinau, ISO 37001 Publication and Info Prim-Neo www.ipn.md). The outcome of the mass media coverage is that more hospitals from R. Moldova expressed their interests to become our partners in implementing the international standard on anti-bribery and quality management systems.

Tools

CIPM uses the following tools for implementing our advocacy strategies:
  1. Directly contacting members of the Government or of the Parliament through email and official letters or establishing consultation meetings. Our messages are constructive and always address the main social issues with a long term view. Example: mass migration of young professionals;
  2.  Organizing events (round tables, Chatham House events, forums/summits, national conferences, thematic groups working in cafe workshops) with invitations towards key decision makers and civil society organizations;
  3. Social media campaigning and public awareness on radio and TV;
  4. Coalition building for crowdsourcing policy making (public policies on education);
  5. Expert opinion papers (policy briefs with policy recommendations, whitepapers and blue papers) with cross-industry consultations (education, business environment, public administration, civil society).

Funders