At OldCom, one of Moldova’s most famous shoe manufacturers, production has transitioned from low-value technical and work footwear, to fashionable, modern shoes, but the people and processes in the factory struggled to keep up with demand. Until recently, all of OldCom’s products were conceptualized and sketched by a single designer, and materials were cut by…
The Moldova Competitiveness Project (MCP) SMART program (Streamline Manufacturing, Accountability, Resource efficiency and Transparency) supports large factories to assess risks, enhance productivity, and improve occupational health and safety. This results in more jobs, good working conditions, and salaries up to twice the national average for the thousands of women these factories employ. This is significant…
Iulian Gulea, a Young Moldovan programmer, came across the issue of how employers were struggling to connect youth with jobs, and vice versa. From that problem emerged the idea for an app that he developed with recruitment expert Eugeniu Girla, combining their expertise to create their startup GAUS. This app leverages Moldova’s expertise in Artificial…
Svetlana Arabadji, director and owner of the RiDiager apparel company based in Comrat, Gagauzia, envisioned her business as a good quality workplace providing decent salaries for rural women. This in turn would result in strong returns for her business: quality production with a lower turnover of seamstresses, and higher productivity. This vision is in alignment with the USAID- and Sweden-funded Moldova Competitiveness Project’s (MCP) strategy to enhance the…
The USAID-supported Sindh Basic Education Program (SBEP), and its partner group the Pakistan Reading Program, endeavored to increase reading scores of 450,000 children in grades 1 and 2 in the province by 2019, among other goals. One of the ways this was achieved was through an activity within the SBEP Program, the smaller Sindh Reading…
With assistance from USAID’s Coastal City Adaptation Project (CCAP), two Mozambican cities are committing to taking proactive steps to adapt to climate change and pre- vent devastating ecological effects. CCAP is targeting Pemba and Quelimane to shift from a reactive to an adaptive approach. In Quelimane, municipal government leaders and the community work side by side to…
Since the USAID Moldova CEED program began working in the textile and apparel (T&A) sectors in 2005 through implementation of CEED II in 2015, there has been an ongoing initiative to move Moldovan textile and apparel companies to higher-value-added FOB, private, and own-label product schemes. Advancement to higher value-added manufacturing has been the key to sustainable, long-term competitiveness in the…
Moldova’s IT sector has been seen as a catalyst for economic development with opportunity for quick growth, but assistance was needed. The sector suffered from poor infrastructure, an inexperienced labor force, and was in need of improvements to management practices. USAID’s CEED and CEED II activities have shown that the more Moldova invests in its…
The USAID Georgia Primary Education project (G-PriEd) actively supports the Ministry of Education’s initiative to engage parents in their children’s education. G-PriEd, together with the Ministry, recognizes that the earlier in a child’s educational process parent involvement begins, the more powerful the effects. G-PriEd has prepared a number of resources to extend the learning that…