Sociometric laboratory

Profile

The Sociometric laboratory was founded on November 19, 2015 with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation. It represents an IDIS Viitorul platform for analysis, monitoring and evaluation of public policies in the social field.

A team of local experts, in partnership with specialized foreign institutions perform applied research and develops techniques for measuring national programs in the social sector. The main areas that are investigated relate to eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities and gender equality, social security system and the welfare state, the labor market and migration, demography trends, education reform, language policies and integration of national minorities, social aid, public health.

Mission

  • Analysis, assessment and monitoring of public policies in the social field, respecting the principles of fairness, rationality and efficiency of public money;
  • Testing different methods and techniques for assessing the national programs of the welfare sector (education, health, social aid, employment, gender equality, etc.);
  • Providing training to organized groups to use modern tools of analysis and research of social issues, for creating competences in public policies analysis;
  • Promoting alternative policies in the social sector, helping decision makers willing to implement the country's obligations under the Association Agreement with the Republic of Moldova to the European Union, to the modernization of the welfare system and prevention of future crises;
  • Creating productive partnerships with research centers and institutions interested in the quality of government decisions in the social sector.

Objectives

  • Increased capacity to integrate universities in the laboratory work on issues of social policy research and analysis;
  • Developing training and research capacities of students and young professionals through interdisciplinary and interactive programs carried out in the laboratory;
  • Increased analytical performance and interaction with demographic and sociological research centers in the country and abroad;
  • Expertise and evaluation of social policies;
  • Prevention of market and the Government failures;
  • Consulting with the public and decision makers;
  • Effective interaction between society and the Government;
  • Identifying optimal and complex solutions;
  • Reactions to Government interventions;
  • Educating the community in validating decisions;
  • Modernization of the social sector.

Research priorities

  • Poverty at the reproductive age;
  • Economic security for the elderly;
  • State violence against the elderly;
  • Family poverty;
  • Natality and training to employed women;
  • Generational discrimination of women;
  • The elderly in the labor market;
  • The state's economic abuse

Beneficiaries

Students enrolled in bachelor, master and doctoral studies. Policymakers and different social actors.

Advantages

  • Researches of the Sociometric laboratory are developed based on advanced analytical methodologies;
  • Laboratory develops the opportunity to interact with policy-makers and technical teams from different institutions;
  • Laboratory provides students and young professionals to the possibility of improving professional skills, interpersonal and conceptual skills of analysis and synthesis of the social field.

Activities

Impact analysis and synthesis

December 18, 2015 – "Indexation of pensions - subtleties of the system or economic abuse of state!?"The study is an analysis of the current pension system, in terms of safety, economic justice and fundamental human rights, making a synthesis of some discriminatory calculations in the system. According to Valeriu Sainsus, the current pension system is fragile, its problems are related to changes made in 1998-1999, which caused some form of social segregation, social pensions being calculated uniformly for some categories. In this way, academia and the health care representatives came to the level of people in need, while the police, judiciary, civil servants and senior officials came to the most privileged system distributive policies, and the peasants, agricultural workers - below the poverty level.

December 18, 2015 – "The impact of the social economy in Moldova on the prospects for sustainable development of the country". The study addresses the issue of the welfare of the whole society. The author, Dorin Vaculovschi presents a tool widely used in developed countries, the social economy model that contributes to the economic development of a country. According to the author, there is still more work to increase understanding, awareness and public confidence in the social economy sector. The first step in this process would be the rehabilitation of public confidence and full understanding of the social economy.

December 11, 2015 – “Sustainable financing solutions of the health system in Moldova”. This study aims to contribute to improving the policy of the health system in Moldova by promoting and supporting efficiency in the health system. The aim is to present, in a summary document, viable solutions to health system financing, solutions resulting from various researches and analyzes that have been made in recent years and have been analyzed and proposed by experts.

December 9, 2015 –„Family policy in conditions of demographic crisis: gaps, confusion and dilemmas”. The study is an analysis of family policies. According to the author, family policies in Moldova require restructuring measures and values to overcome the demographic crisis currently facing our country. The combined impact of poverty, illegal migration and insufficient investment in the social sector has weakened the ability of families to raise and care for children, causing increased number of children with special needs, children without parental care, abandoned children, homeless, abused, neglected kids, and children in conflict with the law. The number of children and families requiring special assistance is constantly growing. The current public system of social protection provides partial solutions.

November 19, 2015 – "The study of policies for reducing poverty in Moldova". The author, Ph.D. Iatco Mariana, reviews the main national strategies and programs adopted to reduce or mitigate the extreme poverty. Although the Moldovan government targets a global indicator of extreme poverty removal of about 149,000 citizens (20%) of the total poor population by 2020, the measures undertaken this year affected by political instability and economic decline are anaemic. The author proposes a series of actions to be taken by the state in order to boost the implementation of the National Development Strategy "Moldova 2020".

November 19, 2015 – "The impact of employment policies on the labor market situation in Moldova". The author, Ph.D. Dorin Vaculovschi, attests that "the situation on the labor market does not improve, despite the triumphant reports of the NEA" (National Agency for Employment). Young people are the group most severely affected by the recession, and remittances which supplied a certain level of stability of the national economy are the second year in a freefall. A revival of the informal sector and a tendency of stagnation of economic sectors with high productivity are observed.

Surveys

December 22, 2015 – Citizens' perception of the social situation. The research is carried out by CBS – Axa experts, Ion Jigau and Vasile Cantarji and assesses the citizens’ perception on health services, which was developed from 3-10 December in an omnibus survey, on a sample of 1123 people in 12 administrative units, excluding the Transnistrian region. According to the authors, Moldova's medical system is facing a double challenge. On the one hand, medical institutions have a lack of the budgetary support, on the other hand, health policy instruments are not fully known, nor accepted by the population. Thus, a significant percentage of the population don’t have health insurance policy (31.8%), most of them young people. Only 36.6% of those surveyed believe that health care is "satisfactory" and only 26% of respondents consider them "cheap and accessible”.

Working with students

Regular workshops with students and young professionals in social sector analysis and key trends, as well as initiation in analysis strategies and critical thinking are held within the Sociometric laboratory.

Partners

  • Friedrich Ebert Foundation
  • Hanns Seidel Foundation
  • CBS-AXA
  • Moldova State University, Faculty of International Relations, Political and Administrative Sciences
  • Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova