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UNFPA team

Dr. Nigina Abaszada, Resident Representative   
Dr. Nigina Abaszadeh has 20 years of experience in the area of population and development, gender equality, programme management, and policy advocacy. She joined the United Nations Population Fund in 2005 and has served in Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and at the Regional Office in Istanbul covering 17 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Region. She has worked closely with policymakers, private sector, non-governmental organizations and leaders from all sectors to champion women and girls’ rights, including in humanitarian and emergency settings. Prior to joining UNFPA, Dr. Abaszadeh worked for the USAID, American Councils of Education and as an adjunct professor at several Universities.  Ms. Abaszadeh is a Medical Doctor by training. She holds a PhD in Social Psychology and a Master's Degree in Gender and Child Studies from Linkoping University, Sweden.
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Natalia Plugaru, Assistant Representative
Natalia has over ten years of experience in development work contributing to the empowerment of women and young people. Since 2011, Natalia managed the Reproductive Health and Youth component of the UNFPA Moldova Country Programme. Prior to joining UNFPA, Natalia has served the National Youth Council of Moldova, starting as a board member and later becoming the organization’s vice-president. Natalia has extensive experience in advocating for and mainstreaming youth issues into the public policy agenda at the national and European level. In addition, Natalia has worked in civil society in assisting victims of domestic violence and human trafficking, and she has lectured Management at the Balti State University in Moldova. Natalia holds a PhD in Management from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, Romania and a Master of Public Management from the Academy of Public Administration in Chisinau, Moldova. At UNFPA Natalia is leading the programme team in the country office is responsible for UNFPA’s work in the areas of population and development, reproductive health, gender, and youth.
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Eugenia Berzan, Reproductive Health Programme Analyst 
Before joining the UNFPA Moldova team, Eugenia worked for more than 7 years at the Ministry of Health, as head of Foreign Relations and European Integration Department, her portfolio being focused on Health Diplomacy, Protocol, Development Cooperation/ Official Development Assistance and European Integration. Eugenia also worked at the School of Management in Public Health and the National Centre for Health Management from Chisinau, being instrumental in the process of National Health Policy development, as well as the development of health monitoring reports. She graduated the Chisinau State Medical and Pharmaceutical University “Nicolae Testemitanu”, is specialized in Family Medicine and holds a postgraduate Master's degree in Public Health, from Hadassah Hebrew University School of Public Health and Community Medicine from Jerusalem, Israel.
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Eduard Mihalaş, Population and Development Programme Analyst  
Eduard joined UNFPA Moldova after 10 years of leadership experience in civil society. He coordinated the process of drafting the Law on Volunteering, acting as the Executive Director of the Association "Youth for Right to Live". He was elected as a member of the Bureau of the National Youth Council of Moldova (2009) and later as the Chairman (2011) of the Board. In his capacity as Chairman, Eduard launched several initiatives that provided an innovative approach to the youth sector, specifically on the monitoring of local government budgets, institutional development of youth organizations, on the new policy framework in the youth sector and on the cooperation in the Black Sea region. At the European level, Eduard coordinated the Group 4 "People to People Contacts" of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, which launched a new mechanism to involve youth in this forum. At UNFPA, Eduard is responsible for the areas of Population and Development and Gender.
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Ludmila Sirbu, Youth Programme Analyst  
Ludmila has joined UNFPA team having more than fifteen years of working experience in SCOs advocating for sexual and reproductive rights of young people and women, including those most vulnerable.  Starting as a volunteer and peer-to-peer educator on health, she gained valuable experience working later in International Consortium for Medical Abortion and Reproductive Health Training Center. As part of the Reproductive Health Training Center team, Ludmila initiated a new area – promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and girls with disabilities, one of the most excluded groups in the country when it comes to accessing these rights. Ludmila holds a Master in Business Administration from the Academy of Economic Studies in Moldova. At UNFPA Moldova, she is responsible for the effective implementation of the activities in the area of youth development, including youth health education, participation, and leadership.
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Irina Lipcanu, Communication Analyst
Irina joined the UNFPA team as Communication Officer in 2017. She has more than ten years of experience in the UN System, working with various UN agencies on media and communications, promoting child and adolescents’ rights, inclusion and equality issues and human rights agenda. Her recent professional experience includes high-level technical advice to the Ministry of Education in promoting vocational education reform agenda as part of EU-related projects. Irina holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Communication, State University of Moldova. At UNFPA Moldova, she is responsible for managing the advocacy and communication activities.
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Diana Selaru, Operations Manager
Diana has over 13 years of progressively responsible administrative and project management experience. Before joining UNFPA in 2010, Diana worked for the United Nations Development Programme in Moldova (UNDP Moldova) within several Projects performing a variety of specialized activities related to financial administration and procurement management, Human Resources and knowledge sharing to newly employed project assistants. Diana holds a Master’s degree in Financial and Banking Administration. At UNFPA she is in charge of operations, including finance, procurement, human resources, security, UN common services and premises, programme and office management.
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Alexandru Rusu, Administrative Associate
Alexandru has 10 years of experience in administrative assistance/interpretation, having worked for various projects (EU/US Embassy/UNDP/IOM). Before joining UNFPA, he worked for EUBAM in Field Office Otaci as an Administrative Assistant/ Interpreter for almost 6 years. Alexandru holds a Bachelor's degree in Philology and a Master's degree in Economic Sciences. At UNFPA Alexandru is responsible for travel arrangements, human resources, procurement, financial and asset management, logistics and general administrative tasks.
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Victoria Dochițcu, Programme Associate 
Victoria brought to UNFPA Moldova over 12 years of experience in the NGO sector. She worked for leading NGO International Center for Women Rights Protection and Promotion Center “La Strada”, specialized in preventing human trafficking and informing the population about safe migration, preventing domestic violence, commercial sexual exploitation of children and promoting child safety on the Internet. Working as Manager of the different projects in the related above issues, she also supported the implementation of the State Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the State of Israel (relates to employment opportunities for vulnerable groups). Victoria graduated from the State Pedagogical University of Moldova, Psychology Department and holds a Master’s degree in Management. At UNFPA Victoria is supporting the implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation of the Reproductive Health/Youth component of the UNFPA Country Programme.
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Ruslan Bojoc, Driver / Messenger
Ruslan graduated from the Transport College from Chisinau and the Technical University of Moldova. Ruslan has extensive work experience as a driver. Before joining the UNFPA team, he worked at UNDP.

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Violeta Prepelita, Project Officer, "Cervical Cancer Prevention Project"
Violeta Prepelița has extensive experience of more than 10 years in project assistance, being involved in projects implemented by the Ministry of Health, funded by international donors such as the European Union, World Bank, Japanese International Cooperation Agency. Violeta started her career in 2005 as an assistant in the Food Security Programme. Later she worked as Head of International Relations Department within the Sanitary Veterinary Agency, establishing bilateral relationships with national and international partners, gaining experience in developing evaluation reports, action plans and other necessary for the institution's activity documents. From 2011, Violeta was hired by the Ministry of Health within the Capacity Assessment and Modernization of the Republican Clinical Hospital Project, and later she continued her activity within the projects implemented by JICA in the field of improving medical care services and management of medical devices.
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Ion Donea,  Project Manager, "Strengthened Participation and Civic Engagement among Young People in Moldova” 
Ion has more than 16 years of experience in the field of youth development. During 2010-2019 he held the position of Head of Youth Department in various ministries (Ministry of Youth and Sports and Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova), but the administrative career was started earlier as a youth specialist at Cahul District Council in 2005. Ion Donea has also experienced working in civil society organizations being involved in projects implemented or financed by EU, OECD, USAID. 
During his career he contributed to the development of cooperation between public authorities and civil society organizations, he participated in the development of different public policy papers in the field of youth and other related fields. Ion Donea was part of different international organizations and bodies: he was the appointed expert of the Republic of Moldova within the European Steering Committee for Youth (CDEJ) and the Joint Council on Youth (CMJ) at the Council of Europe (2012-2019); member of the Board of Coordination of the Partial Agreement on Youth Mobility through the Youth Card within the Council of Europe (2014-2017).
 
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Olga Gordila-Bobeico, Project Officer, "Joint Fund for developing youth centers and strengthened participation and civic engagement of young people"
Olga joined the UNFPA CO team as Project Officer, specifically on the Youth component, having more than twelve years of work experience in civil society. Her recent professional experience includes the management of the educational and youth development projects within the Foundation for Advancement of Moldova. She gained valuable experience in civil society development and Advocacy being part of the national and international councils and platforms for the Eastern European Region. Olga is a co-author and contributed with her expertise to the development of different studies and national researches in the field of intercultural dialogue (2011), education for active citizenship (2015), youth activism in Moldova (2017), etc.Olga holds a Master's Degree in Management of European projects from the Academy of Economic Studies. Within the UNFPA Moldova CO she is responsible for the effective implementation of the Joint Fund for the development of the youth services for the youth, including those most vulnerable.
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Irina Dragutanu, Communications and Outreach Assistant, "Joint Fund for developing youth centers and strengthened participation and civic engagement of young people"
Before joining the UNFPA Moldova team, Irina accumulated more than 12 years of experience in Public Relations in several projects and organizations in the Republic Moldova. Her portfolio included the development and implementation of public relations and communication campaigns funded by an international organization such as the EU Delegation, UN Women, UNDP, as well as governmental: Ministry of Education, NAC and others. As a PR consultant within communication agency, has been involved in implementing communication strategies for private companies and international institutions in the Republic of Moldova, promote sensitive issues, social impact reforms, and others awareness public campaigns. Irina graduated State University of the Republic of Moldova, licensed in Public Communication and she holds a Master's Degree in Public Administration, at the Academy of Public Administration.

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Luminita Arama, Project Assistant, Population and Development Portfolio
Before joining UNFPA Moldova Team, Luminita worked for over 5 years at the Competition Council of the Republic of Moldova as the Head of Foreign Relations and European Integration Unit. Her professional portfolio included implementation of EU and World Bank Projects with the aim to promote a competitive environment, monitoring the state aid schemes provided by state for region development and the alignment of national legislation framework according to Association Agreement Republic of Moldova – European Union, Chapter X, which foresees the elimination of anti-competitive barriers and improvement of business and investment climate in Moldova.Luminita graduated State University of the Republic of Moldova, Faculty of Political Science and she holds a Master's Degree in Economics, University “Dunarea de Jos” Romania, town Galati.
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Aliona Cristei, Project Officer, "Gender and Generations Programme"
Aliona holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the State University of Moldova and a Master's degree in Sociology from the same university. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work. Professionally, Aliona is a researcher and has more than 10 years of experience in conducting sociological surveys. Before joining UNFPA, Aliona worked as a researcher at the Institute for Public Policy, evaluating and monitoring public policy in the social field and drafting analytic reports. Also, Aliona has been working as a lecturer at the State University of Moldova since 2007, where she teaches courses on migration, general sociology, as well as courses on research methods. She has worked on several reports in collaboration with the UNDP and UNICEF. In 2017 she becomes a member of Pool of European Youth Researchers.
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Igor Condrat, Project Officer “Improve availability of administrative data for tracking the progress of the ICPD agenda in the framework of SDGs"
Igor comes from the health sector, where starting with 2010 he led the National Health Accounts Unit, and in 2014 he was promoted into the position of the Deputy Director of the National Center of Health Management. Starting with 2016 he was the National M&E Coordinator of the National HIV/AIDS and STI Programme. Igor holds a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree and has experience in the assessment of the health information system in the Republic of Moldova, data analysis and interpretation, and he was a national consultant in various WHO, UNAIDS, World Bank and GIZ projects. Igor is a father of 3 children.