Capacity-building for Roma civil society and strengthening its role in the monitoring of National Roma Integration Strategies

The EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies called upon Member States to include strong monitoring mechanisms and involve civil society, including Roma organisations, in the implementation and monitoring of the strategies. This includes in particular the production and dissemination of “shadow reports.”

The monitoring focuses on the local implementation of strategies in four key policy areas (employment, education, housing and health), in the fields of anti-discrimination and gender equality and also provides information on the level of involvement of civil society, the use of EU Funds and mainstreaming of Roma inclusion measures under public education, employment, health and housing policies. The shadow reports could provide local knowledge to national and Union policy processes and reflect on the real social impact of government measures.

The project was funded by the Directorate General for Justice and Consumers of the European Commission. The BI was subcontracted by the Central European University (CEU), consortium leader of the project. BI experts were chiefly involved in making shadow reports more convincing and professional as far as segments covering employment and health policy are concerned.