Roma Integration 2020 is a project implemented in the framework of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC). It builds on the achievements of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015 initiative, and is in line with the EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies and the EU accession process. While these processes established the basis for public policies, institutional arrangements and dialo
gue on Roma issues, impact on Roma remains limited. Roma still face social exclusion and discrimination leading to lack of education, chronic unemployment, limited access to healthcare, rudimental housing, limited access to essential services and widespread poverty. The reason is found in the isolation of the issues of Roma from mainstream public policies, budgeting, public service institutions and administration, and exactly this reason is addressed by the Roma Integration 2020 project. The objective of the Roma Integration 2020 is to contribute to reducing the socio-economic gap between the Roma and non-Roma population in the Western Balkans and Turkey and to strengthen the institutional obligations of governments to incorporate and deliver specific Roma integration goals in mainstream policy developments. In line with this, Roma Integration 2020 aims to assist national governments to integrate Roma specific policy measures into: (1) mainstream socio-economic policies and public service delivery; (2) national budget planning and service delivery processes. Roma Integration 2020 project activities include:
- direct assistance and technical support to governments to set up institutional arrangements to coordinate, consult, implement and report on Roma issues;
- public dialogue forums on Roma issues;
- policy clinics offering continuous support, specific consultative meetings and trainings and written policy recommendations on policy formulation, prioritizing, mainstreaming, budgeting and monitoring;
- regional policy workshops to boost the aforementioned activities with exchange of promising practices and to ensure regional coordination in line with the EU accession process;
- annual assistance to reporting and reviewing of reports in line with the EU reporting;
- participation at EU organized meetings and processes related to Roma issues;
- streamlining Roma issues with the core work of RCC;
- visibility and coordination activities, including high level and task force meetings, as well as regular publishing of bulletins, maintaining of a website and publication of monographic study based on the project achievements. The Roma Integration 2020 participants are the IPA II beneficiaries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo , Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey. The project is co-financed by the European Union and the Open Society Foundations, and implemented by the RCCs Roma Integration 2020 Action Team based in Belgrade.
