Romani Expert Groups for Romani Integration
Republic of Macedonia
Building on the findings of the needs assessment, this project seeks to increase Roms’ level of integration into the society of Macedonia as a whole by equipping them with the resources needed for playing an effective role in a democratic society based on the rule of law as well as for participating successfully in a competitive labour market. To this end, the project will establish all-Romani Expert Groups in the four core areas. These Expert Groups will design and conduct research which they deem important as a foundation for concrete policy measures to remedy Roms’ comparative disadvantage in the core areas.
The activities of the Expert Groups will generate data useful for the design of policy aimed at remedying Roms’ comparative disadvantage in the four core areas, with coordination among the Expert Groups facilitating both the prioritization of problem issues and the development of an action plan to address those issues. Additionally, the activities of the Expert Groups promise to result in synergies with other initiatives (including the development of a government strategy supported by the Project on Ethnic Relations and the World Bank’s Decade of Roma Inclusion) which will make the whole resulting from them jointly greater than the sum of its constituent parts.
Toward Regional Guidelines for the Integration of Roms
Serbia and Montenegro
The integrated analysis of the needs of the Romani population in Serbia and Montenegro is ECMI’s second needs assessment with Roms and was commissioned and financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Designed on the basis of a needs assessment methodology already employed successfully in the first global assessment of the needs of the Romani population in Macedonia, the analysis in Serbia and Montenegro was designed with the intention that the report resulting from it could serve in turn as the basis for Sida’s work with Roms in Serbia and Montenegro. Like ECMI’s activities with Roms in Macedonia, the underlying aim of the needs assessment in Serbia and Montenegro was to increase Roms’ level of integration into the society of the Union as a whole by equipping them with the resources needed for playing an effective role in a democratic society based on the rule of law as well as for participating successfully in a competitive labour market.
For the purposes of the analysis in Serbia and Montenegro, three core areas were designated: migration, employment, and civil rights. The choice of core areas reflects both ECMI’s background research and Sida’s Country Strategy for Serbia and Montenegro. As a result, the core areas designated for the analysis in Serbia and Montenegro differ from those chosen for the needs assessment in Macedonia. As in Macedonia, for each core area attention was given not only to the situation of the Romani population in general, but also to the position of Romani women in particular.
Toward Regional Guidelines for the Integration of Roms
Republic of Macedonia
Commissioned and financed by Sida in June 2003, ECMI conducted the first global assessment of the needs of Macedonia’s Romani (‘Gypsy’) population from September to November 2003. Following on extensive background research and consultations with local stakeholders, the assessment was divided into four core areas: education, health, civil rights, and employment. For each core area, attention was given not only to the situation of the Romani population in general, but also to the position of Romani women in particular.
The needs assessment was designed with the intention that the evaluation report resulting from it could serve in turn as the foundation of a strategy aimed at increasing Roms’ level of integration into the society of Macedonia as a whole by equipping them with the resources needed for playing an effective role in a democratic society based on the rule of law as well as for participating successfully in a competitive labour market.
