National Consultant on estimating economic impact of diaspora beyond remittances

Job Description

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is the leading intergovernmental organization in the field of migration. IOM works to help ensure the orderly and human management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues and to assist the national governments in the development of migration management policies, programs and instruments based on solid evidence and statistics. 

IOM is committed to supporting member states to produce quality, accessible, disaggregated, reliable and timely data which are essential to inform policies, action and public opinion. The importance of data is well recognized and highlighted in multiple international frameworks, and the critical need for it is felt starkly in times of crisis, as the global COVID-19 pandemic has once again demonstrated. 

IOM goal is to improve the evidence base for good migration governance in support of sustainable development, effective humanitarian action and peaceful societies, and to support implementation, monitoring and reporting by relevant stakeholders on their actions in support of relevant international frameworks. To this end, IOM is using various data tools and instruments to collect, analyze, and capitalize on migration-related evidence to support its own programming and to assist states in designing policies and programs that best respond to migrants' needs, capacities, and challenges. These tools include Migration Profiles, Diaspora Mapping, Diaspora Tracking Matrix, Migrant Profiling, Migration Governance Indicators, and others.

Therefore, in order to support evidence-based policy making, in 2010 IOM in cooperation with UNICEF and UNFPA developed a comprehensive qualitative research analysis and carried out sociological analysis research on the needs and specific situation of children and elderly left behind by migration^[1] within EU ENPI funded project “Supporting the implementation of the migration and development component of the EU-Moldova Mobility Partnership”. 

Furthermore, during 2011–2012, IOM mapped the Moldovan diaspora residing in the Russian Federation and in four EU destination countries (France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Portugal) ^[2]. Subsequently, in 2017, within an EU-funded Confidence Building Measures project, the Moldovan diaspora was further mapped in six destination countries (Germany, the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, Portugal, and the Russian Federation). Additionally, a separate diaspora mapping report was issued in 2017, focusing specifically on the characteristics of diaspora communities originating from the left bank of the Nistru River^[3], with an updated diaspora mapping being executed in 2025 covering six destination countries, including the United States and Canada for the first time.

During 2019 IOM in partnership with UNDP executed an in-depth study on the profile of Moldovan labor migrants’ experiences, needs, perceptions and their future plans in six destination countries including Moldova, supplemented in 2020 with a rapid assessment of the pandemic consequences on the vulnerabilities, specific needs and future plans of the Moldovan diaspora and labor migrants in ten main destination countries. Furthermore, during 2020 IOM executed a study on the mobility-driven impact of COVID-19, numbers and profiles of the returning migrants as well as specific vulnerabilities of groups affected by the decrease of remittances. aAn updated study on the profiles of returning/circular Moldovan migrants, foreign labor migrants, and diaspora (foreigners residing on a long/-er-term basis) in Moldova, as well as the specific vulnerabilities of Moldovan children left behind by migrant parents is being finalized in 2025.

Simultaneously, starting from 2012, the GoM in close cooperation with IOM developed and implemented a total of 13 (of which five with IOM support) Extended Migration Profile (EMP) reports which include all available statistical data on migration for the period 2005-2024. 

Furthermore, to help countries assess the comprehensiveness of their migration policies and governance frameworks, the IOM developed the Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) framework, which was implemented in Moldova at the national level during 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021. This enabled Moldovan central public authorities to evaluate national migration policies and institutional frameworks in a structured way and identify areas with potential for further development. 

In the context of the Ukraine Response, during 2022-2024, IOM has deployed several rounds of Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM)[4] Surveys focusing mainly on collecting data on refugees and TCNs from Ukraine, on their displacement patterns, intentions, and needs aim to capture their displacement trends and identify their main profiles, immediate humanitarian needs and intentions.

Additionally, in 2023 a MGI data collection in Moldova have been combined with DTM methodology to develop an innovative approach in the municipalities of Balti and Cahul of the Republic of Moldova producing a joint report which analysis the extent to which migration policies and services available in Balti and Cahul address the needs of migrants, directly from migrants' perspective. Specifically, the evaluation considered the characteristics and needs of Ukrainian displaced population and TCNs and the local migration governance landscape[5]. A new MGI local level assessment is being conducted by IOM in Chisinau municipality, as well in 2025. 

While significant progress has been made there remains substantial work to fully capture the challenges and specific needs faced by diaspora in a changing world, as well as to reflect the multifaceted impact of the diaspora and maximize the utilization of its expertise, which is particularly crucial in the context of the EU accession process of the Republic of Moldova.

While this is commonly accepted and even features prominently in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (specifically, under its Objective 19), there remains a scarcity of data on the contributions that transnational communities make to sustainable development. Though figures on remittance flows are calculated at the national and international level these only capture a small fraction of the multitude of ways in which migrants and diasporas impact their countries of origin and residence. This lack of data on other types of contributions has had a direct impact on States’ ability to develop evidence-based policies. With an ever-increasing number of governments adopting diaspora engagement policies, the general scarcity of data means decision makers have little evidence on which to base and monitor their strategies and programmes, which often end up overly focused on remittance flows due to their prominence in analytical literature.

IOM deems to support national governments to address this important gap with the pioneering work encapsulated in a developed guidance document “Contributions and counting - guidance on measuring economic impact of your diaspora beyond remittances”.[6] This work relied on broad-based consultations with national and international experts and practitioners and was well-received when it was presented during the International Forum on Migration Statistics in Cairo in January 2020. Designed to be as practical as possible, the guidance is meant to provide real-world solutions for governments to amend their existing data collection methods to recognize the contributions of their compatriots abroad. 

As a seminal work, IOM recognizes that this is just an initial step towards filling the information void that currently exists. In this way, this work focuses only on capturing and counting economic contributions of transnational communities, since these are more easily quantifiable, and most countries are already regularly monitoring the flow of capital and goods in and out of their borders. We know, therefore, that there is still a lot of work to be done to be able to fully capture the multifaceted impact of migrants.

Against this backdrop, in 2022, within the framework of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) funded, the Global Program “Making Migration Work for Sustainable Development” (Phase III)” , (hereinafter the Project), under which UNDP and IOM supported the Moldovan government to harness the development benefits and reduce the negative effects of migration for host and home communities, migrants and members of their families by supporting the assessment of the existing data collection systems as well as development of tools to measure the economic contributions of diaspora beyond the remittances in several area such as the incoming tourism, capital market, and real estate. This was an initial step towards filling the information void that currently exists on capturing and counting economic contributions of transnational communities. 

Against this backdrop, within the framework of the Joint UN Moldova Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund Programme (MMPTF), titled “Leveraging the Positive Impact of Migration on Moldova’s Development through Improved Policy Evidence and Better Engaged Diaspora,” and implemented jointly by IOM, UNDP, UNICEF, and WHO, IOM aiming to support the Government of the Republic of Moldova, to advance the development and pilot-testing of innovative methodologies and tools to estimate the economic impact of diaspora beyond remittances. 

This involves incorporating new and relevant indicators which better capture the economic contribution of diaspore to specific sectors such as tourism, capital market, and real estate. 

The overall objective of this consultancy is to support the design and pilot-test innovative tools to systematically collect data on contributions of transnational communities to sustainable development beyond remittances of the Moldovan diaspora/labour migrants.

To support the achievement of the overall objective, the selected national consultant will:

• Adapt to the Moldovan context the relevant data collection instruments included in IOM’s Guidance document on capturing data on diaspora economic contributions beyond remittances.
• Support the pilot-testing of the selected prioritized data collection tools by concerned agencies/institutions on contributions of Moldovan diaspora/labour migrants to sustainable socio-economic development of Moldova beyond remittances by: 

1. Review and update the assessment of the current data collection instruments relevant for estimating the economic impact of diaspora beyond remittances, engage the stakeholders, and propose amendments to the data instruments/frameworks.
2. Supporting the development of a ToR for an IT company to amend and deploy the relevant digital data instruments for capturing data on diaspora economic contributions beyond remittances, so as to test them in the Moldovan context.
3. Collect and compile the relevant results of pilot-testing in a report on the diaspora economic contributions beyond remittances.

Under the overall supervision of the Chief of Mission, and the direct supervision of the Migration and Development Programme Coordinator, the consultant will be responsible for providing effective and efficient support as described above, within the framework of the UN Moldova Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund Programme (MMPTF), titled “Leveraging the positive impact of migration on Moldova’s development through improved policy evidence and better engaged diaspora”, implemented jointly by IOM, UNDP, UNICEF, and WHO.

Responsibilities

Category B Consultant is hired to provide the bellow deliverables, according to the proposed timeline:

Management arrangement: The Consultancy and its tasks hereunder shall be performed during 15 January 2026 – 31 August 2026, starting the day of the contract signing, the Consultant will be given up to 24 working days to carry out the entire assignment. The fee will be paid to the Consultant in 2 (two) instalments as follows: 

-      Instalment 1 upon completion of the Deliverable 1 and 2

-      Instalment 2 upon completion of the of the Deliverable 3 

Note: The 24 number of working days have been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of the assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables approved by the IOM, shall be the only criteria for International Consultant’s work being completed and eligible for payment/s.

Qualifications

Required Skills

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