SHARE EXPERIENCE, ENCOURAGE INCLUSION

BACKGROUNDBACKGROUND

The Roma minority is the largest ethnic minority in Europe. Ap-proximately 10-12 million Roma live in Europe, approximately 68% (7.5 million) of them in countries covered by the SEE pro-gramme.Despite various of programmes and initiatives targeting them, Roma communities in SEE are still exposed to discrimination and social exclusion. The pre-accession and other EU funds of-fered several financial opportunities for SEE countries aiming at the integration of Roma and other disadvantaged groups, and tackling (mostly separately) the abovementioned main problem areas. However, these subsidies have only partially reached the target groups, or even if they reached them, long-term impact and sustainability of the results was not ensured. At the same time, while effective methods exist across the SEE area, their results and lessons learned are often not adopted by national and EU programming bodies. Successful initiatives are communicated to the policy level in an isolated way, and often do not get sufficient attention and recognition. There is no co-ordinated dialogue between policy/programming bodies and ex-

pert institutions (NGOs) implementing these innovative projects and methods, and as of today the possibilities of bot-tom-up programme influencing initi-ated by NGOs were very limited.Therefore PAIRS partners are approach-ing these challenges in a complemen-tary, transnational manner, preparing concrete measures on the ground by capitalising of each other’s experiences and know-how.

PROJECT OVERVIEW PROJECT OVERVIEW

The PAIRS project aims at collecting those good examples of sectoral and local polices that have served effective inclusion of Roma communities in eight countries, and provides a platform for international exchange of knowledge and expertise in order to facilitate the inclusion of the Roma minorities throughout the region. The treatment of Roma both in the European Union and beyond its current borders has become benchmark of human rights, and actions targeted to the inclusion of these groups. Such inclusion contributes to development because the integration of Roma can release underexploited human-social capital.PAIRS pursues a goal: first, based on in-depth analysis, it gathers the successful but fragmented actions and methods for integra-tion; second, it transfers this knowledge to the national and lo-cal level decision makers which do not reach the critical mass in order to influence national and local level policies and program-ming and which is not appropriately disseminated/transferred; and third, it fosters cooperation with the civil society and other stakeholders in policy design and planning in eight countries.PAIRS partners approach these goals in a comprehensive and transnational manner, and facilitate the up-scaling of working tools in the field by capitalizing on the partners’ experiences and know-how by:

• Elaborating methodologies of existing good practices and programmes in the SEE context which are effective in reach-ing the target group and ensure long term integration of the Roma;

• Facilitating the streamlining of lessons learned from these initiatives to the European and national level program-ming for a better design of Roma integration mechanisms.

MAIN RESULTS OF THE PROJECTMAIN RESULTS OF THE PROJECT

• Existing good practices/methods of integration are identified, analyzed and disseminated in eight countries.

• Elements of good practices are transferred to local and national level through action plans, thus, they contribute to a future scale-up of these solutions in all partner countries.

• Key stakeholders of Roma integration are engaged in policy dialogue and mutual learning, as a first step towards enhanced policies and evidence-based programmes in eight countries.

• A common methodology for selected fields of Roma integration is elaborated.

• EU and national level policy recommendations are formulated on the desirable orientation of funding programmes of 2014-2020 period.

• The PAIRS network sustains the interactive knowledge ex-change and dialogue amongst practitioners even after the project lifespan.

WHO ARE WE?

WHO WE ARE?

The PAIRS partnership involves 18 (11 financing) partners from 8 SEE (5 member states, 2 IPA and 1 ENPI) countries where the exclusion of Roma population represents a high policy priority - Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine.

PAIRS presents a unique mix of stakeholders - local authori-ties, civil society organisations, national level policy makers, development agencies - who can effectively make the first step towards widely utilised, successful integration methods and enhanced, targeted, complex and effective programmes.

WHO ARE WE?

Albania

• Malteser Helps in Albania - main activities focused on medical and social field in the districts of Shkoder; Malesi a Madhe, Puka and Lezha, in-terested to support the Roma popula-tion in the region. • TEULEDA - Local Economic Development Agency, Shkoder - local economic development agency, found-ed by the PASARP programme of UN-OPS. • Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities rep-resents the central government in Al-bania. The main areas of activity are: design legislation and policies regard-ing employment, vocational train-ing, social protection for vulnerable groups (children, women, disabled persons, Roma minority, elderly peo-ple, migrants etc.), providing and pro-tecting working environment.

Bulgaria

• Foundation Open Society Institute - Sofia - non-governmental organization, working actively for the extension and guaranteeing of the in-violability of civil freedoms and the respect of fundamental human right. • AMALIPE Center for In-terethnic Dialogue and Tolerance - leading Roma organization that works for equal opportunities and integra-tion of Roma in the Bulgarian society. Amalipe plays central role in organ-izing Roma civic movement and advo-cating for Roma integration. • National Council for Coop-eration on Ethnic and Integration Is-sues - coordination and consultation integration policy planned and real-ized by the government, methodologi-cal support to the district and munici-pal councils for cooperation on ethnic and integration issues and monitoring of implementation of the policies for integration of Roma.

Hungary • Hungarian Maltese Char-ity Service - the largest NGO and a key cooperating partner of Hungarian government agencies, and it has a sub-stantial role in transforming policies into practice. It has 15 years of experi-ence in using EU and other financial instruments aimed at supporting and integrating disadvantaged and mar-ginalized groups and individuals. • Ministry of Human Re-sources, Office of the minister of state for social inclusion - the main respon-sibilities are: promotion of social in-clusion of disadvantaged and Roma people; preparation and implementa-tion of national strategies; planning of the national and co-funded social inclusion programs.

Italy • Ce.A.S. Centro Ambrosiano di Solidarieta ONLUS - non-profit or-ganization with thorough experience in managing and finding solutions for the problems of, youth, women, Roma and other vulnerable groups. • Municipality of Ferrara, In-ternational Relation Department and the Social Services & Immigration De-partment work in close cooperation in order to promote sound policies in the fields of social inclusion of vulnerable groups, European cooperation, and ex-change of good practices. • Opera Nomadi - promotes training and social inclusion, educa-tion and vocational education in Gipsy communities.

Romania

• Impreuna Agency for Com-munity Development - non-profit NGO founded in 1999 to preserve and assert Roma identity through research and the dissemination of studies, as well as through the elaboration and implementation of national social pol-icies aimed at Roma. • National Agency for Roma is a national public authority governed by public law, set up in 2004 to ensure the complementarities of various pub-lic policies initiated at national and international level targeting Roma people, and to coordinate and monitor their implementation.

Serbia

• Housing Center, Housing Development Center for Socially Vulnerable Groups - non-profit, NGO, aiming to improve the living condi-tions of socially vulnerable groups and support to their social integration and independence.

Slovakia

• Kosice Self-governing Re-gion - implemented many pro-Roma projects aimed at education, health, migration, employment. • ETP Slovakia - Center for Sustainable Development - main mission is lifting disadvantaged Roma families out of poverty. • Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Re-public is liable for all national policies related to social exclusion, in particu-lar with respect to segregated and sep-arated Roma communities.

Ukraine

• Malteser Charity Organiza-tion in Beregovo Region - worldwide re-lief agency of the Sovereign Order of Malta for humanitarian aid with the status of a non-governmental organi-zation.

Financed for a total amount of 1.828.420,00 €, PAIRS is one of the strategic projects connected to the Priority Axis 4 ‘Development of transnational synergies for sustainable growth areas’ of South East Europe Transnational Cooperative Pro-gramme for tackling crucial problems affecting metropolitan areas and regional systems of settlements.

Project start date / end date2012-10 / 2014-09

Contacts:

Laszlo Moravcsik, PAIRS Project Manager, moravcsik.laszlo@maltai.huDenitsa Sacheva, PAIRS Communication Manager, denitsa33@gmail.com

www.pairs-see.net

Photos by:Radostin Manov Alexander Dimitrov Luba Vladkova