Special focus on Roma

Toward Romani integration (www.ecmirom.org)
The situation of Roms has increasingly made the agendas of international organisations, including the Council of Europe, the EU, OSCE, and UN organizations.
Individual states’ policies toward Roms are in turn closely related to the implementation of the relevant international conventions and European Community social and economic instruments for enlargement .

Although views of Roms as a nation have gained in currency among international organizations as well as among Roms themselves, their status in legislation varies from country to country. In some countries (e.g., Finland, Macedonia, Slovenia), Roms receive mention in the constitution, while in others (e.g., Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania) Roms’ status is fixed by a social act. Legislative definitions notwithstanding, policies toward Roms vary from treating Roms as a social group to applying minority rights instruments.

ECMI’s Romani-focused initiatives, which are both practice-oriented research and action-oriented concrete activities, reflect ECMI’s general priorities by contributing to the mainstreaming of social, economic and participation issues of Romani populations. In this manner, ECMI offers a unique combination of Romani-specific approaches and general minority inclusion.

Projects implemented to date
ECMI conducted that first global assessment of the needs of Macedonia’s Romani population in 2003. The research results indicated the necessity of mobilizing Roma experts to work on the integration of Roms in Macedonia. With this in mind, from 2004 to 2006 ECMI’s Romani Expert Groups for Romani Integration developed and implemented projects for the purpose of generating and compiling in usable reports the data necessary to provide a basis for the design of policy designed not only for Roms, but also by Roms.

ECMI’s integrated analysis of the needs of the Romani population in Serbia and Montenegro was 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. Drawing on the 2004 integrated analysis in Serbia and Montenegro, in December 2005 ECMI commenced implementation of the project “Supporting Local Romani Coordinators in the Republic of Serbia��?.

Ongoing projects
ECMI is currently implementing two action-oriented activities focusing on Roms in cooperation with UNDP:
• Decade of Roma Inclusion progress monitoring. In October 2006, ECMI embarked together with UNDP’s Bratislava Regional Centre on an initiative to develop a methodology to assist the national teams responsible for NAP implementation in identifying gaps in the implementation process that could jeopardize realization of the Decade goals, designing adequate responses to keep the implementation process on track, and building national capacities for monitoring and mid-term progress assessment. The pilot phase of this project is expected to run through November 2007.

• Capacity-building with local Romani coordinators in Serbia. Drawing on its work to date, ECMI expects to extend its developed methodology and programme on capacity-building activities with local Romani coordinators and relevant non-Romani local officials to an additional ten municipalities in fall 2007.