News

Experts from DG EMPL of the European Commission, deputy-ministers on labor and representatives of the governments of Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, representatives of municipal power and Roma NGOs took part in the workshop “Social inclusion in rural areas”. It took place in Sofia on September 27 and 28. The workshop served as mid-term review of the project “Promoting social inclusion of young people in marginalized rural communities” implemented by AMALIPE Center for Interethnic Dialogue and Tolerance (Bulgaria), National Roma Centrum (Macedonia) and Liga pro Europa (Romania) within PROGRESS program of the European Commission.  

The first day of the workshop brought together Bulgarian decision makers  from the national and local level with  representatives of Roma NGOs, community moderators from the Community Support Centers (CDCs) and social partners. They discussed the implementation of the project in Bulgaria with emphasis on the work of CDCs and community moderators, forecasts for the demand side of the Bulgarian labor market and ways the new Human Resources Development OP and Rural Areas Development Program could answer the identified needs. During the discussion certain conclusions appeared:

- more strategic approach is necessary:  subsidized employment programmes for unqualified workers are important to cover immediate needs but rather strategic is to invest also in education, VET (vocational education and training) and LLL (life-long learning in order to prepare Roma youth for tomorrow labor market;

- rural development is more that agriculture development: it includes development of services and institutions in the rural municipalities, raising the quality of life as well as the entire topic of social inclusion as stressed Walter Wolf from DG EMPL of the European Comission;

- the community development perspective and the Community Support Centers in particular are of crucial importance for the Roma integration process and for the rural areas development: strong support for the CDCs was expressed by City Council Chair of Dolna Banya Municipality and the Deputy Mayor of Radnevo Municipality as well as by representatives of municipal administration in all municipalities where Amalipe has established CSCs. They also shared that Municipalities can be a valuable promoter and ally for Roma inclusion, in particular, if the national administration provides the necessary funding and support such as the Roma moderators institutionalised in CSCs;

- it is time to make the integration process more structured: defining main types of “integration interventions” with methodology and financial standard as well as envisaging resources (in HRD OP and RADP) for applying the integration interventions was claimed by Amalipe chair Deyan Kolev. The CSCs are example of such an inter-sectorial integration intervention. Deputy minister Zornitza Roussinova expressed support for the idea and stated that HRDOP in the next period will back up Roma integration initiatives that follow an integrated approach;

- within the present period the engagement of Rural Areas Development Program to Roma integration and to social inclusion in the rural areas in Bulgaria seemed rather problematic. Significant change is necessary;

- support for the implementation of project “Promoting social inclusion of young people in marginalized rural communities” as well as confidence in the work of Center Amalipe was expressed by all national institutions present and by the experts of the European Commission. Kiril Kyriakov from DG EMPL stated that it is quite rare European Commission experts to attend technical workshops and the fact that 2 EC representatives take part in this meeting indicates confidence in Amalipe work and in the model promoted by the project;

- the social partners and the local business could and should be engage in the Roma inclusion process. Mr. Boni Bonev, chair of Bulgarian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce stressed that Roma NGOs should be more active in involving the employers and entrepreneurs. “The cycle should end in the real economy”, stated Mr. Bonev

The morning of the second day was dedicated  to the state of the art of the Macedonian and Romanian partners.  Mr. Ibrahim Ibrahimi, Deputy minister of labor and social policy presented the situation with Roma inclusion in Macedonia.  Mr. Asmet Elezovski, Chair of the National Roma Centrum explained about the project implementation in Ilinden Municipality. His observations were supported by the community moderators and the school principal of Miladinovtzi school. The project implementation in Romania was presented by Katalin Szikszai from Liga pro Europa and by Rodica Sardu, community moderator in Glodene. Their main conclusions stressed the importance of community work at grass-root level for the entire process of Roma integration.

In the afternoon, a site visit was organised to the municipality of Dolna Banya, one of the four locations in Bulgaria where CSCs were established and the social experimentation project is implemented. The participants visited one of the Roma neighborhoods, The Community Support Center and social institutions in the town. They discussed with the local Roma leaders and with the municipal administrations how the project is implemented and what the results are. Both sides expressed strong support and engagement for continuing the activities undertaken. The municipality is starting process of preparing Municipal Roma Integration Plan (as required by the National Roma Integration Strategy) and the CSC will play central role in the process

On the third day the project partners discussed the project implementation during the second year. Preparing standardized curriculum for the community moderators training and activities as well as advocacy activities for ensuring the CSCs sustainability will be the key accents for 2013.