The President of the National Council of the Roma National Minority in Serbia Vitomir Mihajlović noted at the occasion that the Roma were still the most marginalised group exposed to discrimination and stereotypes. “In order to change this, it is important to provide housing for people, access to profit making activities and education," says Mihajlović.
Conference attendees agreed that the way forward requires more active engagement of the Roma community representatives in Serbia in operationalisation of the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma at the national and local levels, and that the civil society organisations who work on improving the situation of the Roma community participate in the preparation of the relevant projects. The Conclusions were handed over to the Government and should serve as input for the development of the Action Plan and the implementation of the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma in the Republic of Serbia 2016-2025 adopted in March 2016.
"The Roma actively participated in the development of the Strategy, an important policy document that directly affects them," Nenad Ivanišević, the State Secretary in the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, said at the conference. He added that the Strategy and the ensuing Action Plan should considerably contribute to improvement of the position of Roma men and women.
The 2005 strategic framework for the inclusion of the Roma community did not have a substantial impact on the daunting challenges in social life of Roma, and Roma children continued to experience severe obstacles in education, leading to high levels of illiteracy, and in turn decreased employment prospects and the overall poor socio-economic situation. The unemployment rates among Roma are estimated at 49%, compared to almost half that number in the general population (27%). The individuals experiencing multi-level marginalisation, such as Roma women or Roma individuals with disabilities, are especially vulnerable. The participatory approach in the development of the new Strategy for Roma Inclusion represented a key milestone on the road to effective social inclusion of the Roma.
The European Union pledged to continue support for improving the position of Roma. Nicolas Bizel, the Head of Operations I of the EU Delegation in Serbia said the EU plans to allocate additional 14 million Euros for projects, which should contribute to building a just and inclusive society. “The projects implemented so far made a significant progress in the inclusion of Roma and could be a good example for future projects. However, there is a lot of work ahead of us in order to reach a satisfactory level of involvement of the Roma population," Bizel concluded.
The European PROGRES Programme and its predecessors – PRO and EU PROGRES, with the financial support of the European Union and the Government of Switzerland, have so far implemented over 50 versatile projects worth over 1.5 million Euros, which directly supported improvement of lives of several thousand Roma men, women, boys and girls. Following the Programme’s methodology on cultivating a two-way communication with the vulnerable communities, these projects were need based and span from infrastructure, water supplies and flood protection school enrolment and free legal aid, to healthcare and social services.
Following the model of capacity strengthening, in May 2016 the Programme published a Call for Proposals for Piloting Implementation of Measures from the Strategy for Roma Social Inclusion at Local Level intended for Roma civil society and organisations that cater to the needs of the Roma community in line with the objectives of the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma.
“With this call we are inviting the representatives of the Roma community in Serbia to be more actively involved in operationalisation of the Strategy for Roma Inclusion 2016-2025 at the national and local levels, while encouraging and enabling civil society organisations who work on improving the situation of the Roma community to participate in the preparation of the projects,” Ana Nedeljković, Social Inclusion and Good Governance Sector Manager in European PROGRES, said.
The first phase of the Call entails submitting a project concept note, which will determine selection of organisations to be trained in project management. The second phase will call upon the selected companies to transform their concept notes into fully fledged project proposals, which will undergo a final selection process before being approved and funded.
While the conference participants concluded that the authorities and institutions in Serbia, at all levels, should prevent discrimination and improve employment of Roma by strict law enforcement, Nedeljković stresses that only through the active participation of Roma men and women on all levels the reduction of inequality and poverty will be achieved. “This Call is the chance for the most vulnerable to get involved and for civil society organisations to learn how to better serve their communities, it’s a huge step forward in the overall implementation of the Strategy,” Nedeljković said.
