Strategies to sustain and scale up youth friendly health services in the Republic of Moldova

As part of a multifaceted effort to respond to the needs of young people more effectively, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Moldova established pilot Youth Friendly Health Centres (YFHC) in 2001. In 2005, after 12 YFHC were set up and implemented, the MOH identified that while they were serving a useful function, four problems remained needed to be addressed - the lack of an operational definition of the term youth friendly health services, the lack of objective data on the added value of the existing YFHC, the low coverage of the existing YFHC and the almost complete reliance on donor agencies for funding the effort. The MOH addressed each of these problems systematically. While challenges still exist, the MOH has taken important steps to ensure that all young people in the country can obtain the health services they need.