Cristina Malai Turturica 

Ms. Malai Turturica is a results-oriented professional with over twenty-five years of experience  in designing and implementing complex democracy and governance, digitalization, anti-corruption, judicial reform and inclusivity programs in Moldova, Bosnia, Ukraine, and Kosovo.

As the Senior Policy and Strategic Planning Expert for the Moldovan Ministry of Justice, she built the capacity of the Moldova Ministry of Justice leadership and public servants in strategic planning and public policy formulation, resulting in improved quality of policies and legislation.

She served as the Member of the Moldovan Superior Council of Magistracy Selection Committee (as the representative of civil society) overseeing the integrity of the judicial selection process (2016-2017). She co-designed the Road Map of Moldovan Judiciary Digitalization, which served as basis for developing and implementing the Integrated Case Management System, videoconferencing, e-court statistics, and remote trials between 2009-2020.

As Vice President for Technical Direction and Business Development at Millennium Partners, an international development company based in the United States, she provided technical guidance and strategic direction for three programs: the $28.9 mln Global Accountability Program (GAP) with activities in Zambia, Moldova, Armenia, Palau, Kenya, and Hungary, a $10.9mln public services digitalization project in Bosnia, and a $750.000 human rights and inclusivity grant in Moldova.

Ms. Malai Turturica’s technical expertise spans from designing and implementing impactful citizen-oriented rule of law activities, to developing functional reviews and evaluation reports of institutional reforms, policy development, capacity building, and empowering civil society to engage in democratic reforms and promote social cohesion and inclusion. 

She has solid project management experience and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). She was the Chief of Party of a $6.9 million USAID-funded Moldova Model Courts Project and of the $7.5 million USAID-funded Open Justice Project in Moldova, which developed and implemented a state-of-the-art Case Management System for the Moldova Judiciary. She was the Deputy Chief of Party of a $8.2 million USAID-funded Rule of Law Institutional Strengthening Program (ROLISP), where she successfully directed legal institutions’ capacity building and strengthening, and ethics curriculum development. She was the Team Leader for the Moldova Governance Threshold Country Program (MGTCP), a $14.6 million initiative funded by the US Millennium Challenge Corporation. Cristina also led the American Bar Association Rule of Law Portfolio in Moldova, coordinating design of new programs and overseeing grant-making procedures.

In 2008-2016, Ms. Malai Turturica served as the Judicial Ethics trainer at the Moldova National Institute of Justice. She developed curricula and trained 800 Moldovan judges on judicial ethics. She co-authored the Moldova Judicial Ethics Code Commentary and is the author of several international publications on rule of law-related topics. She served as the Legal Analyst for the American Bar Association/CEELI office in Washington D.C. (2002-2003).

Ms. Malai Turturica consultancy assignments include serving as the Senior Court Administration Expert in Kosovo (2017-2020), Senior Court Administration Expert for the EU-funded ATRECO project in Moldova (2016-2017), and International Court Adviser in Ukraine (July 2016, April 2017). She advised the Kosovo and Moldova Superior Councils of Magistrates on using judicial statistics, court performance indicators, Business Intelligence modules and a performance dashboard. She authored the concept of the Kosovo judicial performance dashboard: https://www.gjyqesori-rks.org/performance-dashboard/?lang=en and supported its implementation. She was part of a Working Group in Kosovo that developed CEPEJ indicators and statistical reports for the Court Case Management System. She was a speaker at three IACA international court administration conferences (in 2016, 2017 and 2022).