Project leader: ERGO Network

Nr. of the initiative; VS/2020-0028

Nr. of the partnership: VS/2017/0468

 

Under the auspices of CLLD (Community-led Local Development), an initiative to involve local citizens in actively responding to current social, environmental and economic challenges and a promising tool for investigations into Roma inclusion, the Nevo Parudimos Association participated during the year 2020 to four capacity building events.


Nevo Parudimos Association, in partnership with the Federation of Urban LAGs, organized on 23.10.2020 the online information seminar: Implementation of Local Development Strategies on the territory of cities / municipalities with over 20,000 inhabitants POCU O.S 5.1. which was attended by both members of the Romanian LAGs in Romania, the FGU team, representatives of the Ministry of European Funds and the Managing Authority of the Human Capital Operational Program and the Ministry of Development.

The following aspects were agreed during the meetings:

  • Shortening the deadlines for processing requests from urban LAG teams by supplementing the experience within the RIA
  • Unitary treatment of requests for urban LAGs so that there are no differences in the solutions offered / responses for the same aspect reported by two LAGs from two different regions – by implementing a common regulation
  • Shortening the terms for project evaluation and approval submitted by LAGs or proposed for funding by them as pre-selected
  • Conduct regular consultations with urban LAGs in order to address any issues that may arise before they become critical.
  • Organizing capacity activities of both LAG teams and OIR equipment for a better understanding of DLRC principles and easier implementation of local development strategies.
  • The inclusion for the new programming of a budget to ensure the continuity of the activities initiated in the current period and to offer the possibility to other LAGs to implement the strategies they will create.

Nevo Parudimos Association organized two meetings of civil society capacity building and identification of the challenges faced by the Roma communities in Romania – in Craiova (13-14.11.2020) and Oradea (05-06.11.2020), within the partnership made with ERGO Network. At the two meetings, a series of problems faced by the Roma communities were discussed, and a series of recommendations were formulated in order to solve them.

The main part was the underlining of the acute need to react to the phenomenon of exclusion and discrimination, against roma people, a phenomenon that increased during the pandemic.

Among the most pressing problems of the roma people, that were identified we mention:

  • Increasing discrimination against Roma
  • Lack of strong reactions from the authorities to phenomena of discrimination and social exclusion against Roma
  • Much lower access to public services as they moved online during the pandemic – due to a lack of technical knowledge of Roma ethnics, on the one hand, and a lack of equipment to enable them to access online services, on the other hand
  • Lack of organizations / structures / institutions to react promptly and quickly to the phenomena of exclusion and discrimination against Roma
  • Very low level of training of Roma people who have reached public positions and their lack of experience, which has led to increased exclusion and marginalization
  • The increasing occurrence of abuses by state institutions whose victims are ethnic Roma
  • Exclusion of Roma from consultation and decision-making processes due to the relocation of all these processes to the online domain
  • Increasing the number of Roma children who do not attend education because online school is not accessible to them
  • Increasing poverty among Roma communities due to traffic restrictions and inability to perform seasonal work and activities that brought short-term income to the family

The participants in the two meetings made a list of recommendations meant to support the institutions / structures / ministries whose task is to solve them.


Nevo Parudimos, as a member of ERGO (European Roma Grassroots Organizations Network) together with the National Federation of Urban LAGs, organized between 20-22 November 2020 in Brebu, Caras-Severin, a training for local actors and teams of Urban Local Action on the topic of Local Development placed under Community Responsibility (DLRC) and the development of access to funds available through the DLRC program for Roma.

The event was attended by two FGU representatives and two participants from LAG members (individuals or representatives of Roma NGOs or working with Roma within the FGU).

The meeting aimed to promote the implementation of DLRC principles, as well as the application of DLRC principles and objectives in order to increase the capacity of Roma community organizations and individual members in Urban LAGs to positively influence the transparent implementation of local LAGs, local development strategies. and to combat social exclusion.

Disclaimer

This text only reflects the point of view of the author. European Commission cannot be made responsible of the information provided.