Evaluation of innovative employment programmes for Roma in six Eastern European countries

The goal of the ‘Changing Discourses, Changing Practices: The Roma as Human Resource’ project was to test innovative employment programmes tailor-made to the needs of disadvantaged Roma non-employed. The initiatives included a variety of interventions, ranging from on-the-job training through support for self-employment projects to setting up a complex search-and-matching procedure for disadvantaged jobseekers. These small-scale pilot projects were designed and implemented by local NGOs (in co-operation with local public institutions) in six Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia). 

The project was coordinated by the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta (HCSOM), and was financed by Interreg Europe. The role of Budapest Institute in this project was mainly the development of methodological guidance for the project partners on the design of quantitative evaluation and data collection, as well as cost and gains analysis of the pilot projects. BI also carried out the quantitative evaluation of the pilot project implemented by the HCSOM in the town of Pécs (Hungary). Finally, BI wrote a report on how to assess the potential benefits from scaling up these local pilots to a nationwide level.