MINELRES: Annual_report "Roma Integration in Bulgaria - 2006"

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Original sender: Amalipe <amalipe@mail.bg>


Annual report �Roma Integration in Bulgaria � 2006� prepared by Center
�Amalipe� was recently published. It concerns the main trends in Roma
integration process from January to December 2006 with accents on
education, social policy, living conitions, connecting EU accession with
Roma integration and gender equality. Special attention is paid to
institutional an normative framework for Roma integration at national,
regional and local levels. 

Deyan Kolev, George Bogdanov, Maria Metodieva, Teodora Krumova and Boyan
Zahariev are the repor authors. The report combines results from
permanent monitoring of the daily activities of certain national
institutions with results of field survey about the state of Roma
integration in 17 municipalities all over Bulgaria realized by Center
�Amalipe� and 8 other Roma NGOs. The monitoring of the activity of
central level institutions (such as National Council for Cooperation on
Ethnic and Demographic Issues, Ministry of Education and Science,
Ministry of Labour, and so on) provides information about the real input
of resources (funancial and human ones) and about the really implemented
activities for Roma intregration by the side of institutions concerne.
It indicates also the main tendencies of the governmental policy for
Roma integration as well as the changes in it. The field survey reveals
the real outputs, outcomes and impact of the activities unertaken by
central institutions. It reveals also the main trends in Roma
integration at local level without matter whether they are results of a
deliberate policy or of a random and unguide process. 

The main conclusions about the Roma integration process during 2006
outlined within the report are:

- Roma integration has not been steered by the documents designed to
manage it and adopted by Bulgarian government (we called them �Roma
strategies.�* In practice everything significant, that happened with the
Roma integration in 2006 was undertaken outside of the engagements
towards the so called �Roma strategies�;

- was marked by a significant decrease of the efforts towards the
integration of most of the institutions. The debate concerning the
integration was taken years back that put into manace even the few
things achieved during the previous periods;

- in 2006 the efforts for Roma integration continued to follow the
scheme inherited from the previous years: symbolic actions without
additional financing from the state budget (with the only one possible
exception: co-financing under the PHARE program) and without the
additional engagement of new human resources The year of 2006 did not
show the presence of serious political will to change the designate
scheme.

The report ends with concrete recommendations for converting Roma
integration into a straightforward and policy-oriented process as well
as for including the Roma community as a partner and an active
participant in the Roma integration process. The recommendations are
directed to the institutions of executive power, to the Parliament, to
the Prsident and to the Roma NGOs. In their totality the recommendations
form a basis for building consistent strategy for converting Roma
integration into one of the main public policies in Bulgaria. 

The Report can be downloaded from the web-page of Center "Amalipe" at:
http://www.amalipe.com/en/index.php?nav=publications 

Copy of the report could be obtained after request to the following
address:

Center �Amalipe�, p.o.box 113, Veliko Turnovo 5000, Bulgaria

or to e-mail address: center_amalipe@yahoo.com 

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* We call with this name the Framework Program for Equal Integration of
Roma in the Bulgarian Society, the Action Plan for the Decade of Roma
Inclusion, the Strategy for Educational Integration of Children and
Students from Ethnic Minorities, the Health Strategy for People in Non
Equal Position, Belonging to Ethnic Minorities and the National Program
for Improving Living Conditions of
Roma.

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