Twenty municipalities which accepted the call for participation with EU and OSCE, clearly stood for the idea of improving the lives of their Roma fellow citizens, the ambassador Michael Davenport said.
Ever since the Strategy for Improvement of the Status of Roma was adopted was adopted, Serbia made significant progress in improving the situation of the said minority, but the Strategy is yet to be implemented, Head of the Office for Human and Minority rights, Suzana Paunović, said today.
On the ceremony dedicated to the establishment of the cooperation between OSCE Mission and local governments on the project of Roma inclusion, Paunović said that this Strategy is not just a dead letter because a great deal was done in order to prepare it.
As an example of the success, she quoted that more than 20.000 Roma citizens were registered within the birth registers and by doing so, they ceased to be legally invisible. She also said, that for the quarter of Roma children were enrolled in schools and that local mobile teams are being introduced, the teams which are composed of pedagogs, health workers and representatives of the Employment service. All of them will work on improving the lives of Roma community members.
Twenty municipalities which accepted the invitation to cooperate with EU and OSCE, celarly stood for the idea of improving the lives of their Roma fellow citizens, Head of the EU Delegation, Michael Davenport, said.
Local governments should take the coordinating role, and along with their partners they should fight marginalization of Roma citizens, he said and specified that they will also work on Roma registering in birth registers, creating the plan for dealing with housing situation and employment issues.
These municipalities are starting new inclusion phase of the Roma into Serbian society because these municipalities are itnroducing important innovations when it comes to improving the lives of their fellow citizens, Head of the OSCE Mission, Peter Burkhard, said.
He said that all of the Roma inclusion aspect will be covered and reminded that in many municipalities there are people working who help Roma excersize their rights. The result of this cooperation will provide a much clearer picture of the on-site situation.
The vicious circle we drew when we started working on this idea is now is now transform into more specific things, Head of the Council for Improving the situation of Roma, Srđan Šajn, said.
He added that he expects bigger responsibility of the local governments and more active participation of Roma in all the areas that concern them and their political activities.
More on the project:
Technical Support for Roma Inclusion project
The project Technical Support for Roma Inclusion, worth €4,8 million, which is funded by EU and coordinated by OSCE Mission in Serbia, supports implementation of the Strategy for Improvement of the Status of Roma situation in the Republic of Serbia. Major partners of the project are Office for human and minority rights, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Policy, Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning, NGO Praxis, Roma Education Fund, Serbian European Integration Office, and the Team for Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction. The project supports improvement of the Roma situation, through 6 components (the components 4 and 6 will be implemented across Serbia, whilst the components 1, 2, 3, and 5 wil be immplemented in 20 pilot municipalities: Bela Palanka, Bojnik, Bujanovac, Knjaževac, Koceljeva, Kovin, Kragujevac, Kruševac, Leskovac, Novi Sad, Odžaci, Palilula, Pančevo, Prokuplje, Smederevo, Sombor, Valjevo, Vranje, Žitorađa i Zvezdara).
1. Basic Rights access – In cooperation with NGO Praxis, the project supports to Roma in getting their IDs, in becoming regular users of the services provided by health, educational and social welfare intitutions, as well as improving their access to basic rights. In addition, legal assistance is provided to 20 pilot municipalities.
2. Mobile team establishment – The project strives to improve the cooperation and information exchange between the clerks in local level institutions of the 20 pilot municipalities, which are dealing with social inclusion of Roma. Mobile teams are composed of municiplity coordinators for Roma issues, pedagogical assistents, health mediators, as well as representatives of the Centers for Social Work and the National Employment Service, which are taking part in trainings and mentoring programs for development of local action plans. With the aim of providing sustainable quality of services in the system of health care, the project will recieve the support of the Ministry of Health for systematization of positions of the health mediators.
3. Capacity building of civil society organizations – Through support and training of Roma and civil society organizations, which are dealing with integration of Roma, the project supports their active participation in the process of development and implementation of Local Action Plans for Roma.
4. Prevention programs aiming to stop abandoning education system – In cooperation with Roma Education Fund, the project supports the Ministry of Education, Sience and Technological Development in establishing and implementing the programs which aim to stop abandoning the education system. Monthly scholarships, mentoring and peer suport are provided.
5. Improving the housing conditions – The project will support the Ministry of Construction and Urban Planning in establishing the information system, which will allow monitoring and improvement of the housing conditions, in Roma communities. In cooperation with republic authorities, municipalities and Roma community, affordable housing solutions will be provided. By creating urban plans and other technical documentation, legalization of Roma communities will be promoted in some of the neighborhoods of 20 pilot municipalities. Housing conditions situation assessment and infrastructural equipment in the neighborhoods will serve as a basis for development of the neighborhoods and objects, which will be financed by European Union and its funds from IPA 2013.
6. Sustainable employment – Aiming to create new possibilities for Roma employment, the firms with a strong potential of employing Roma as well as Roma businessmen will be provided with equipment, mentoring and training.
For more information on the project, you can contact us:
phone: 011 3606 100 | email: tari@osce.org | www.osce.org/serbia
