General – Page 40 – ERGO Network

RARC is a member of the Slovak Committee for the Prevention and Elimination of Racism

Zuzana Havirova as a representative of ERGO member Roma Advocacy and Research Centre (RARC) recently became a member of the Slovak Committee for the Prevention and Elimination of Racism, Xenophobia, Antisemitism and other forms of Intolerance. The Committee belongs to the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic.

The Committee is the only advisory body of the Government of the Slovak Republic that specifically addresses the prevention and elimination of racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance in society.

The Committee’s main ambition is to be a platform for coordinating activities, defining priorities and guidelines for the development of public policies aimed at the prevention and elimination of racism, xenophobia and extremism. At the same time, the Committee is an appropriate tool for the exchange of information between representatives of the public administration, the self-government and civil society, which will help to solve the issues within the Committee’s material scope.

Roma Advocacy and Research Center became a member of the National Rural Development Network of the Slovak Republic

Roma Advocacy and Research Center became a member of the National Rural Development Network of the Slovak Republic

On 24 May 2017 RAVS ERGO Network, member became an official member of the National Rural Development Network of the Slovak Republic (NSRF SR). NSRF SR associates the organizations and administrative bodies involved in rural development and the implementation of the PRV SR 2014-2020 in the sense of Art. 55 of Regulation (EU) No. 1305/2013 on support for rural development by the EPFRV and Art. 5 principles of partnership and multilevel governance of Regulation (EU) No. 1303/2013.

NSRF SR directly cooperates with the Ministry of Agriculture and rural development of the Slovak Republic (MPRV SR) and the European Network for Rural Development. Through this partnership Roma people will be involved more actively in the implementation of the programs under the Community Local Led Development in Slovakia.

Read more about RAVS activity in Slovak language here

3rd National Meeting of Roma Forum Romania

3^rd National Meeting of Roma Forum Romania

The National Meeting of Roma Forum organized by Nevo Parudimos, as a member of ERGO Network in partnership with Romani Criss, took place from 10-11 May in Bucharest.

The theme of the meeting was „The involvement of Roma NGOs for the Romanian Presidency of the EU in 2019”. More than 30 Roma NGOs participated to the meeting and over 60 people were present during the 2 days. In the same time, officials from the National Roma Agency, the National Roma Contact Point, the National Federations of LAGs, representatives of the Roma Education Fund, the Ministry of Employment and the Central European University gave presentations and talked about Roma issues in open and free discussions.

The main discussions focused on the list of several proposals for the Romanian Presidency of the European Union in 2019 in order to be formalized in the public agenda during the Romanian presidency. These proposals refer to the following important areas: school segregation, the mediation process for health and education and forced eviction of the Roma.

Evaluating with your target group The potential of an inclusive approach to monitoring and evaluation

Evaluating with your target group
The potential of an inclusive approach to monitoring and evaluation

Despite the large and sustained focus of policy efforts to Roma inclusion, results remain limited. Thorough evaluation of programs and projects is crucial to identify reasons for weak performance and should ideally lead to stronger project design.
The current evaluation practice usually leaves out the perspective of the final beneficiaries: their opinions and experiences remain invisible. The experience of ERGO Network and its member organisations is that programme and project evaluations, if they are available at all, often lack depth, fail to address shortcomings and in many cases present an image that does not correspond to the reality of those the project or programme aimed to support. This represents a missed opportunity for achieving structural improvements in policy approaches to Roma inclusion.

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Dives le rromenqo – 8 April International Roma Day

Dives le rromenqo – 8 April International Roma Day

46 years ago, on 8 April 1971, the first World Romani Congress took place in London and paved the way for greater unity of Roma in the world. The Congress declared 8^th April as the International Day of Roma, a day to celebrate and raise awareness about Romani culture.

As much as the day is used to celebrate, we also use it as a day of protest, to raise awareness of the discrimination and exclusion faced by Europe’s largest ethnic minority, from segregation in schools to forced evictions, from hate speech to killings. This is especially important when we hear speeches inside the European Parliament that incite hate against Roma, as happened on 6 April during the International Roma Day debate in the plenary in Strasbourg by MEPs Mara Bizzotto, Angelo Ciocca and Tim Aker. These incidents must be strongly condemned by the European institutions and on national level to make clear that antigypsyism is never and nowhere acceptable.

We should use this day to go out onto the streets to show that we are united in our fight against antigypsyism and in our pride of Romani culture.

For ERGO Network, it is of vital importance that Roma are involved in the mainstream political events around 8^th April and show that they are the main agents of change towards more participation of Roma in society. For the second year in a row, ERGO Network together with TernYpe international youth network invited 40 young Roma activists to Brussels to make their voices heard in the European parliament, and many of them also lead the celebrations and protests on International Roma Day in their home countries. It is great to see this strength and passion of Roma youth who take on the struggle for more dignity and confidence.

We need to follow the aims of the 1^st Romani Congress in 1971 and unite our efforts to strive for equal participation of Roma in society, to be respected as equal citizens with the same rights.

The whole ERGO Network team wishes you a great inspirational Roma day!