Breaking Roma Poverty Cycle in Serbia and Montenegro

1
Breaking Roma Poverty Cycle in Serbia and
Montenegro

• Budapest, June 30-July 1, 2003

2
Legacy

• 79 Roma didnt finish elementary school
• 81 Roma has never had a legal employment
• 61 Roma live without sanitation

3
Priorities

• Education
• Poverty Reduction
• Decent Housing

4
Education

• Pre-school education for our Roma children
• Vocational education curricula teach real skills
• Roma assistant in every pre-school class, and in
  lower grades of primary schools
• Increasing number of the Roma teaching staff
• Affirmative action in the next 10 years (5
  enrollment quota in high schools and universities
  with scholarship support)

5
Education

• Anti-discrimination courses to be included in all
  school and health care institutions
• A national department in the Ministry to overhaul
  Roma education, including desegregation officers
  

6
Poverty Reduction

• Access to micro credits in support of SMEs
• Training Start your own business
• Special attention to young Roma in training and
  teaching new skills through employment
  institutions
• Craftsmanship workshops
• In kind (equipment) support for household
  businesses

7
Poverty Reduction

• Tax exemptions for a certain period of time
• Affirmative action in employing Roma in civil
  services
• Monitor and evaluate

8
Decent housing

• Registration of illegal houses
• Improve slum settlements up to basic European
  standards
• Involve municipalities in urgent resolution of
  living conditions for Roma IDPs from Kosovo

9
Decent housing

• Harmonize legislature dealing with forced
  resettlement from Western Europe and Kosovo with
  international standards (no resettlement without
  prior warning and make an attempt to settle
  people in the country of their origin)
• Pass the legislature which will oblige the state
  to provide housing for refugees and IDPs

10
Keep our identity

• Training teachers in multi-cultural context and
  include Roma cultural material in the curriculum

11
Dont help us without involving us

• Roma representatives were actively engaged in
  drafting National Strategy for Roma Integration
  by MNEC and National Strategy for Roma Education
  by MOES

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Where do we want to be in 2015?

• Education 0 illiteracy 100 attending grades
  0-8 50 attending grades 9-12 10 attending
  universities
• Poverty 40 employed 60 with regular income
  20 private SME entrepreneurs