Launched in 2023, the project was built around a clear ambition to strengthen NBM’s institutional resilience and agility by enhancing their leadership capacities and making organizational learning, knowledge sharing, collaboration, and continuous development an integral part of how the institution works.

Through the project, NBM strengthened its ability to manage and share knowledge and foster a culture of continuous learning. It enhanced leadership and professional capacities across the institution and established stronger knowledge management practices, ensuring that expertise and institutional knowledge are systematically captured, shared, and put to use. Together, these achievements have laid the foundation for stronger organizational performance, greater cooperation, and a more agile and resilient institution - strengthening NBM’s capacity to deliver on its mandate and support Moldova’s path towards EU integration.

Sustainable change is built when learning becomes embedded in the culture of an organization — shaping how people think, how they collaborate, how they share knowledge, and how they continuously improve. In this sense, the NBM LearnOrgLab project ambition was not simply to develop people, but to contribute to the development of an organizational culture where learning becomes a shared value and a natural part of institutional growth. And what we have seen through NBM LearnOrgLab gives us good reason to believe that this transformation is already underway.

„The professional relationships built through these three years - the trust formed between colleagues from different departments, the connections forged with partner institutions across the region, the habit of learning together - these do not expire with a closing project. As our NBM LearnOrgLab project reaches its formal conclusion, we are celebrating the completion of a program, and at the same time, we are recognizing the beginning of a new chapter.” said Anca Dragu, NBM Governor.

The emphasis was not on delivering individual training activities, but on embedding learning into the organization’s everyday practices. The results of the project are visible in the latest organizational culture assessment, which shows significant progress. The findings point to a stronger culture of learning and knowledge sharing, with greater emphasis on collaboration, continuous development, and applying knowledge in practice. The project has helped create a more structured approach to sharing knowledge and developing competencies, while encouraging staff to learn from each other, exchange experience, and apply new knowledge in their daily work.

An important achievement has also been the development of an internal community of learning practitioners, the LIONs, who are helping to sustain and further develop the learning organization approach from within NBM. Also, our community of leadership and management program trainers, which will assure the sustainability of delivering this program to new managers of NBM.
Together, these changes have strengthened NBM’s capacity not only to learn as individuals, but to learn collectively as a team and an institution.

The sustainability of these efforts was also highlighted by Angelique van Haasteren of the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands, who reflected on the project’s lasting value and the role of NBM staff in carrying the work forward. “I was impressed with the results of the project. It will leave a permanent mark not just in the NBM, but also in other institutions that are aligned with the project, such as the Ministry of Finance and the State Tax Service. I would like to thank all the colleagues of the National Bank of Moldova for being the front runners. I hope it will not stop here, and that the LIONs and trainers will continue their work,” she said in a video address.

The closing of NBM LearnOrgLab is therefore not the end of the journey. It marks the transition from a dedicated transformation project to an organizational approach that NBM can continue to own, adapt, and develop, what is assured through the sustainability of project activities. Becoming a learning organization is not about reaching a fixed destination. It is about creating the conditions for people and institutions to continuously learn, reflect, collaborate, adapt, and improve. For a central bank operating in a rapidly changing environment, this capacity is an important part of institutional resilience.

NBM’s experience has also begun to resonate beyond the institution. The concept of becoming a learning organization has been introduced to other public institutions in Moldova, opening the door for the lessons and approaches developed through NBM LearnOrgLab to reach a wider public sector community.

„NBM LearnOrgLab is for the project community a laboratory, where you can try, measure, fail safely and try again and still it is the hashtag from the project logo #LearnShareGrowTogether. NBM LearnOrgLab was never about training alone — it is organizational transformation. It changed our people, who found the courage to share and learn together, our systems, through cross-team collaboration, and our culture, by connecting everyone around a shared purpose. And this journey continues — because sharing knowledge is a process that has no stop. NBM LearnOrgLab will live on. It is not only about becoming a learning organization, it is about changing mindsets, building relationships, creating team synergy and developing together, every day.” said NBM project implementation team.

In his intervention, Ambassador Dr. Robert Kokalj reaffirmed Slovenia’s strong support for Moldova’s European path and its ongoing reform efforts. He underlined the close and friendly relations between the two countries and highlighted the importance of resilient, effective and transparent public institutions. Reflecting on the three-year cooperation between the CEF and the NBM, he welcomed the project’s contribution to strengthening institutional capacity and expertise, as well as plans to continue the cooperation in a redefined format. Ambassador also reaffirmed Slovenia’s commitment to supporting Moldova through development cooperation in its EU accession journey.

For CEF, the NBM LearnOrgLab project represents a significant strategic achievement. As CEF’s first dedicated project supporting a public institution in its transformation into a learning organization, we are committed to continue this path. Public institutions in South East and East Europe need advanced organizational development and reform capability to deliver on their mandates.
“NBM LearnOrgLab shows what can happen when an institution commits to becoming a learning organization and builds the capacity to sustain that change from within. Over three years, the project has contributed to tangible changes in how NBM develops its people, shares knowledge, collaborates, and learns as an institution. For CEF, this has turned our strategic ambition into practical experience and important evidence that investing in organizational development can create lasting institutional capacity and strengthen resilience. It demonstrates that organizational learning can help public institutions respond to change more effectively and continue improving from within,” said Jana Repanšek, CEF Director.

The experience also provides valuable lessons for public institutions across South East and East Europe and beyond. It shows that building a learning organization requires more than new learning activities: it requires vision, commitment to positive changes in organizational culture, leadership, relationships, knowledge sharing, and everyday ways of working.

NBM’s journey can therefore serve as a practical example for other institutions looking to move from a traditional capacity development model towards organizations that are better equipped to learn, adapt, and respond to change.

After three years of working, learning, testing, and developing together, the NBM LearnOrgLab project has reached its formal conclusion. But the real measure of its success is what remains: a stronger learning culture, improved internal capabilities, and an institution better equipped to continue learning and evolving from within.

For NBM, this is the beginning of the next chapter. For CEF, it is proof that its strategic ambition to support public institutions in becoming learning organizations can deliver tangible results. And for the wider region, it is an example of how investing in organizational development can contribute to stronger, more resilient and agile public institutions.

This project was financial supported by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Slovenia through Slovenia Aid and Partnership, and the Constituency Program of the Ministry of Finance, the Netherlands. It also benefited from in-kind contributions from Banka Slovenije, Banque de France, National Bank of Romania, Ministry of Finance, the Netherlands, De Nederlandsche Bank, Ministry of Public Administration of Slovenia, Authority for Financial Markets, the Netherlands, National Bank of Belgium.