Format ForProject Active Inclusion & Rights of RomaProgress Women in the Western Balkans 8285-00/2011 Progress Report Report
Austrian Development Agency Zelinkagasse 1010 Vienna Austria phone: +43 (0)1 90399-0 fax: +43 (0)1 90399-1290 [email protected] • www.entwicklung.at For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Project Progress Report Contract No. As at December, 31 2013
Contractor/ applicant Name: CARE Osterreich Address: Lange Gasse 30/4 1080 Vienna Phone, eMail: +43 1 715 0715 47, [email protected] Contact person for the action: Judit Kontseková
Project title: FAIR – For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
Local project partner 1: Name: Association of Roma Women “Better future” Address: Meše Selimovića 85 75000 Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina Phone, eMail: + 38 7 35 298 001 [email protected]
Local project partner 2: Name: Centre for Roma Initiatives (CRI) Address: Jole Pilice bb, Nikšić , Montenegro Phone, eMail: +38 2 67 828 405 [email protected]
Local project partner 3: Name: BIBIJA Roma Women Centre Address: Jug Bogdanova 12/15 11000 Belgrade, Republic of Serbia Phone, eMail: +38 1 11 262 30 99 [email protected] Reporting period: Reporting period: 1.7.2013 - 31.12.2013 Report submitted on (date):18.3.2014 Due date: 28.2.2014 Planned project duration from: Until: December 1, 2011 November 30, 2014 Reallocations:/ Extended until: please refer to the request for no- cost extension
Summary of the project progress For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Narrative description of project progress, particularly with regard to the achievement of objectives, expected results and indicators, monitoring and necessary management measures in accordance with chapter no. 6 of the project document (Monitoring and Evaluation). FAIR is designed in connection with the European Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies adopted by the European Union in 2011. This strategy refers to the position of Roma women and is also relevant for the accession countries. The communication from the commission states that the national Roma integration strategies and action plans should be reviewed to meet the goals of Roma integration. In line with the goals of the European Union, the overall objective of the project is to contribute to the improvement of the socioeconomic situation of Roma women in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) and Montenegro through their active participation in policy-making. These three countries have already developed National Strategies for Roma, within the framework of the “Decade of Roma Inclusion” and their accession process to the European Union. Recent research indicates, however, that these policies are mostly gender-blind and do not adequately reflect the situation of Roma women, who are marginalized not only from majority societies but also within Roma communities. In consequence the project purpose is to strengthen Roma women organizations to promote gender-responsive National Action Plans and to monitor their implementation.
This will be achieved through 5 inter-related results: ER 1: Roma women CSOs have established strong coalitions with non-Roma CSOs in the three target countries in order to promote gender-responsive National Action Plans and to monitor their implementation; ER 2: Increased meaningful participation of Roma women in representative or advisory bodies for Roma men and women; ER 3: Roma women CSOs have meaningfully participated in a process to revise national action plans on Roma inclusion from a gender perspective and in the monitoring of their implementation; ER 4: Best practices on prevention of drop-outs of Roma girls from schools developed, implemented, documented and shared; ER 5: Best practices on community-based initiatives for the prevention of gender based violence GBV and the access to general and sexual & reproductive health care developed, implemented, documented and shared.
The major target groups of the project are three local partner organizations, Roma Women CSOs, from Bosnia and Herzegovina (Better Future), Montenegro (Center for Roma Initiatives – Cri) and Serbia (Roma Women Center Bibija). Another key target group are other Roma CSOs and non-Roma CSOs that are part of the coalitions led by the three local partner originations (see ER1). Furthermore 5.701 Roma women and men are targeted in selected municipalities, where components 4 and 5 have been implemented. The final beneficiaries are Roma women and men in all 3 countries.
With regards to the project progress, below we provide a highlight of the recent developments. A more detailed overview follows after this section structured according to the log frame: ER 1: Project partners continued active and close cooperation with members of the Coalitions established in the framework of the FAIR Project. These three main project partners have been building capacities and maintained activities of Roma Women Networks in their respective countries. Project partners lead activities regarding the visibility and recognition of Women Roma organizations (project partners are members also of other coalitions with other Roma and non-Roma organizations) Women Activism: During the period from 25 November to 10 December the FAIR implementing organizations organized numerous activities as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence (street actions, conferences, public hearing, etc.)
Project partners also took part in important national and international advocacy activities, contributing among others to the CEDAW related shadow reports (representatives of all partner organizations participated in the drafting of CEDAW Shadow Report in their countries that were presented in July 2013 in Geneva). On October 17, 2013 the Belgrade based Roma Women Center Bibija participated For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report at the presentation of the final EU progress reports of the Republic of Serbia with comments about the lack of visibility of problems and needs of Roma women in Serbia.
ER 2: Participation of Roma women in different bodies has been increased. Great success has been achieved on December this year by Snježana Mirković, president of organization Roma girl/Romani ćej Prnjavor (Coalition member in Bosnia and Herzegovina), who has been elected as a member of the Roma Council of Ministers B&H (so that there are now five Roma women in the Council). RWC BIBIJA from Serbia is a member of the Council for Gender Equality Protector of citizens at the Ombudsman formed in April 2012. The Council represents the interests of Roma and other marginalized women. (For further information see: http://www.ombudsman.rodnaravnopravnost.rs) From December 2013 the representative of RWC BIBIJA, Đurđica Ergić, has been performing the duty of the Chairman of the Council for Gender Equality. One of the activities in which she directly participates is monitoring of the implementation of the Law on Gender Equality at the local level and preparation of related monitoring reports. Two workshops on political empowerment were held, which enhanced the capacities of Roma women for further targeted political actions.
ER 3: NAP in Serbia: The Government of the Republic of Serbia has adopted a gender sensitive National Action Plan for the implementation of the National Strategy for Roma Inclusion until January 1, 2015 (June 2013). The NAP for the implementation of National Strategy for Roma Inclusion in Republic of Serbia 2012-2014 was adopted in mid 2013 containing all 13 areas as the previous NAP (2009 - 2011). The new AP is dated until January 1, 2015. Despite the formal achievements introduced into the final veriosn, unfortunately not all areas are budgeted for and there is also a reduction of the funds needed for the implementation of the AP. A further upcoming milestone for advocacy activities is related to one of the requirements of the Decade Secretariat in the context of the EU accession of Serbia. A strategic document on the Status of inclusion of the Roma communities shall be prepared as part of the European strategy 2020. As a reaction, the Office for Human and Minority Rights claimed that they have started with the preparation of a new strategy for Roma population by 2020 and the associated AP 2020. On July 22, 2013 a meeting was held at the Parliament of Serbia related to the monitoring of the National Action plan for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 “Women, peace, security” in Serbia (2010 – 2015). For the first time violence against women was included and discussed as one of the key themes to monitor and highlight (until now the security policy was related strictly to army, defense and national security with no inclusion of topics related to women). The meeting was dedicated to the establishment of coordination and information sharing related to the current work and plans for the supervisory body in charge of monitoring the NAP. NAP in Bosnia and Herzegovina: The NAP in BiH was revised in three areas (health, employment and housing) and was adopted on December 11, 2013 by the Council of Ministers. Representatives of the Ministry for Human Rights and Refugees have started to organize referral meetings with Roma leaders with the purpose of presentation and distribution of the revised AP. Unfortunately, despite all lobbying the revised NAP is not gender sensitive and Roma women are mentioned in one category only – reproductive health. For more details please see Annex 1 NAP in Montenegro: the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights of Montenegro decided that the National Action Plan is to be adopted by April 2014 by the Government of Montenegro. In 2013 CRI already sent a list of recommendations to the National Coordinator, Sabahudin Delić. The recommendations were reviewed and adoption of NAP is planned for March/April. The extent of the acceptance of recommendations is to be seen. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Generic and issue based trainings were held for the members of participating CSOs (5 workshops on EU proposal writing and Gender sensitive budgeting in cooperation with UN Women)
ER 4: Ten small grants of 3500 EUR were awarded in the first Semester 2013 to CSOs participating in the FAIR Coalitions for the purpose of community advocacy actions related to education (workshops with children and parents with special focus on fathers, forum theaters, establishment of inter-sectoral-commission on the municipal levels, film making, etc.). The small grants were implemented in this reporting period. The three main project partners provided assistance to members of the Coalition regarding small grants, in terms of technical assistance and financial management. Project partners provided additional help to the beneficiaries through institutional grants. Through small grants and the activities implemented in this reporting period 99 (54 F/45 M) children were returned to schools (enrolled or re-enrolled school), out of which 70 (39 F, 31 M) children in primary education system and 29 (15 F/14 M) in high schools. ER 5: Ten small grants of 3500 EUR were awarded and implemented by members of Coalitions for community based initiatives for prevention of Gender based violence (GBV) and the access to general and sexual & reproductive health care (workshops with women and girls/with men, forum theaters, film making, etc.). The monitoring of the results is ongoing. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
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Background/ context
Update of the description of the project environment with regard to background and context (see chapter no. 2 of the project document): Description of changes in the project environment with regard to assumptions made (see chapter no. 5 of the project document), possible impact on project design, planning and implementation in terms of being able to achieve the project’s objectives. Montenegro Montenegro is at different stages in the accession process to the European Union, which includes the transformation of the political and macro - economic framework. Montenegro has made progress by adapting to the requirements of the EU framework, as evidenced by the opening chapters of 23 and 24 (on Judiciary and Fundamental Rights and Justice, Freedom and Security) in the negotiations with the EU in December 2013. However, further progress is necessary for the democratization of this country. The Reports of the European Commission regarding the progress in Montenegro regularly point to the multiple discrimination of Roma and Egyptians and to the need for the government to increase its efforts in implementing respective policies. Latest research by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights, Montenegro (CEDEM) on the perception of the public towards ethnic minorities (in December 2013) showed the prevailing negative attitudes in Montenegro against Roma and Egyptians. The results show that half of the population in Montenegro has negative resentments against Roma, and one in five would not want to live with them in the same state. Every third resident would not want to be with them in one neighborhood or have them as a colleague at work place. The current legal provision and strategic document in Montenegro, which deals with the status of Roma and Egyptian women, is the Strategy for improving the situation of Roma and Egyptians in Montenegro from 2012 to 2016. Representatives of the Center for Roma Initiatives participated in the development of this Strategy, the Action Plan for achieving gender equality (PAPRR) 2013-2017 and the National Strategy for Reproductive Health. A representative of CRI is also a member of the Working Group that has been responsible for drafting the latter strategy and related action plans for 2014. Roma and Egyptian activists and members of the Coalition, participated in the work of the Government Commission for monitoring of implementation of the strategy for improving the situation of Roma and Egyptians in Montenegro from 2012 to 2016. Republic of Serbia The strategic documents of Republic of Serbia that direct activities in the field on the improvement of the status of the Roma minority is the Strategy for improving the position of Roma in the Republic of Serbia by 2015 and the National Action Plan for its implementation 2009-2011. BIBIJA, the local partner organization in Serbia actively participated in the creation of the Strategy and the NAP 2009- 2011. At the end of the year 2011 the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights began work on the revision and preparation of a new document for the next period. BIBIJA led the group that revised the NAP area concentrating on the situation of women, and actively participated in several working groups: political participation, antidiscrimination and employment. However, this document hasn’t been adopted due to the elections. In February 2013 the Office for Human and Minority Rights began the revision of the already revised NAP for 2012-2014. BIBIJA was again actively involved, and this time specific themes were also budgeted also for. BIBIJA actively promoted for the inclusion of gender indicators (the introduction of a gender mainstreaming principle) and for the budget to be allocated for measures adopted by the parts of the NAP regarding the status of women. Both requirements were met: thus the achievement of our local partner is that the Action Plan for the implementation of strategies for improving the position of Roma in 2012-14 is gender sensitive and resources for its implementation are determined. The document was adopted on June 10, 2013. During the revision of the NAP (first time in 2011 and the second time in 2013) BIBIJA actively worked on the preparation of working group meetings, convening meetings of the group for the status of women, keeping records and collecting the comments of other members/woman working groups as well as For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report participating in other groups and giving comments for the improvement of measures in other areas regarding the mainstreaming of indicators and measures themselves. BIBIJA participated in developing strategies for prevention and protection against discrimination, which were adopted on June 27, 2013. Monitoring the EU accession negotiations of Serbia are part of BBIBIJA’s activities that began in July 2013 in the coalition of NGOs and SEKO (Sector Civil Society Organizations) mechanisms - these two coalitions will monitor the process of EU accession on the individual chapters. Bosnia and Herzegovina Similarly as in other countries, also in Bosnia and Herzegovina discriminatory behavior and attitudes prevail towards the Roma ethnic minority, particularly against Roma women. In addition, Roma women are exposed to poverty, prejudice and social exclusion and are generally economically dependent on Roma men due to traditional gender roles. Poverty, moreover causes further problems; most prominently early marriage, unwanted pregnancy and high levels of mortality caused by a lack of medical care as a large number of Roma women doesn’t have social, health care and insurance. Roma women living in poverty and who are economically dependent on men are also at a higher risk of being exposed to trafficking and domestic violence. In addition, decision-making processes on matters relevant to Roma and those relevant to women are being carried out without the active participation of Roma women. On July 17, 2013 the Council of Ministers nominated the Minister for Human Rights and Refugees, Damir Ljubić, as a National Coordinator for addressing issues of Roma in BiH for the period 2013 – 2015. The National Coordinator for Roma is involved in the work of the Steering Committee of the Roma Decade 2005 – 2015 and will also plan activities for the BiH presidency of the Roma Decade in the period June 2014 – June 2015. Since 1991 the exact number of Roma in B&H is unknown. According to data from Roma NGOs, in B&H there are currently about 80,000 to 100,000 Roma. Despite these figures the Action plans for housing, employment and health care are developed for a much smaller number and thus a large number of Roma is „invisible" in the areas of support for the realization of their educational, health, housing and other human rights areas. B&H in the period of October 1-15 2014 had its first post-war census. Better Future, in cooperation with the Roma women's network, for that occasion implemented a media campaign named "Where are the Roma in the upcoming census in B&H" supported by the Global Fund for Women. The Campaign lasted from September 16 to October 16 and the project produced promotional material (shopping bags, fliers, t-shirts, badges), two radio jingles and a video. The aim was to raise awareness among Roma on the importance of declaring their ethnicity in the Census. For the purposes of campaign implementation 50 volunteers were engaged and the total number of indirect beneficiaries of the campaign and the people and the Roma community who have benefited from the implementation of this activity is 1,239 Roma households and 4,779 Roma men and women. As part of this initiative, collection of data took place. After the implementation of the campaign in the Roma communities in B&H, Roma leaders took the lead in recording the number of Roma families and members of household, with whom they talked to and who they tried to animate to declare themselves as part of a minority group in the census. More information about the campaign, which was conducted by the Romani women network "Success" can be viewed on the website: www.zrmuspjeh.com.ba
Target group, beneficiaries and local project partner Update of the information regarding the target group, beneficiaries and project partners or rather the structures and processes for project implementation: description of changes and impact on project design, planning and implementation in terms of being able to achieve the project’s objectives
Three Roma women NGOs, Better future from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bibija from Serbia and Centre of Roma Initiatives (CRI) from Montenegro are the local partner organizations. The three respective organizations have been selected due to the excellent cooperation in previous projects and due to their experiences in working with authorities at all levels and with communities as well as their For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report involvement in existing Romani women CSO networks. The Second target group has been defined through the establishment of national coalitions, members of other Roma CSOs and Non-Roma CSOs.
The direct target groups are Roma women and Roma men from selected municipalities, who participate at workshops, seminars and other public events on reproductive health, prevention of gender based violence and on the importance of the education of Roman girls (for a detailed overview please see Tables 6 and 7).
The primary or direct target group includes the member organizations of the Coalition: 14 Roma organizations (“Roma girl” Prnjavor, “Center for mother Consolation” Zenica, “Youth Roma” Vitez, ORI“ Be my friend ” Visoko, “Center for mother HOPE” Kakanj, “Little Prince” Belgrade, “Romani cikna” Kruševac, “Association of Roma” Novi Bečej, “Roma Women's Center Veliki Crljeni” Lazarevac, “Association of Roma Danica” Pančevo, “Roma Women's Center Romnjako ilo” Zrenjanin, “Women REA Network FIRST” (Podgorica, Nikšić, Berani), “NGO ROSE” Berani, Institute for social inclusion Podgorica; 9 non-Roma organizations (“Equality for all “ Sarajevo, “Fondacija CURE” Sarajevo, “Human rights office” Tuzla, Citizens association for the promotion of education of Roma “Otaharin” Bijeljina, “Minority Rights Center” Belgrade, “Law Scanner” Belgrade, Police department Nikšić, Center for social work Nikšić, MNE Women’s Lobby Podgorica); Representatives of institutions at the national and local level: Bosnia and Herzegovina/national level Council of Ministers, Parliamentary Commissions, Ministry of Human Rights and Refugees, Agency for gender Equality, Ombudsmen, Agency for Gender Equality, Gender center of B&H and RS, Ministry of education, Culture and Sports of Middle Bosnia Canton, and local level: elementary schools “Jovan Dučić” and “Knez Ivo od Semberije” Bijeljina, Office for Human and Minority Rights Bijeljina; Tuzla Municipality, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tuzla Canton, Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Tuzla Canton, Ministry of Health of Tuzla Canton, Federal Institute for Statistics, Commission for Protection of National Minorities of Tuzla Municipality, Gender Center, Tuzla University, Pedagogical Institute Tuzla, Center for Social Work Tuzla, Center of Social Work (CSW) Živinice, CSW Lukavac, CSW Gradačac, Živinice Municipality, Police Department Živinice, Police Department Center, PD Srebrenik, Elementary school Živinice, “Podrinje” and “Mejdan”, Roma Council, Vitez Municipality, Center for Social Work Vitez, elementary school Vitez, Police Department Vitez; Zenica Municipality, Center for Social Work Zenica, elementary schools Musa Ćazim Ćatić and Aleksa Šantić, Prnjavor municipality, Health Centers in Prnjavor and Bijeljina, Republic of Serbia/national level Office of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy- Gender Equality Directorate, Poverty Reduction and Social Inclusion Team of the Deputy Prime Minister Office, Ombudsman, Commissioner for Protection of Equality, Ministry of Health, Office for cooperation with civil society, Permanent conference of towns and municipalities, Serbian Parliament, Ministry of Education, Science and Technologic Development, Council for Improvement of Position of Roma and for Decade Implementation and local level: Belgrade City’s Government, Belgrade’s municipalities Zvezdara and Lazarevac, elementary schools “Despot Stefan Lazarević” and “Kralj Petar II Karadjordjević” Belgrade and “Nada Mitrović” Kruševac; Belgrade City’s Government, Belgrade’s municipality Zvezdara, Belgrade’s municipality Lazarevac, Provincial Secretariat for education, management and national minorities, Council for social protection, PS Lazarevac, Office for National Minorities, City municipality Lazarevac, Council for National Minorities, Teacher education college Užice, Teacher education college Belgrade, Center for Social Work, Director of Social Affairs Department, elementary schools “Baroševac”, “Sveti Sava”, “Đuro Sajal, “Vuk Karadžić”, “Nada Popović” and Josif Marinković”, Aranđelovac municipality, Board for Education, PS “Baroševac”. Montenegro/national level Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, Ministry of Labor and Social Care, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Sport and Education, For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report representatives of the Department for Gender Equality and local level: Center for social work Berani, Podgorica Nikšić and “Radomir Mitrović” Berani, “Mileva Lajović Lalatović” Nikšić, and “Božidar Vuković Podgoričanin” Podgorica elementary schools, Center for Social Work Tivat, ES “Drago Milović”, Health Centers Nikšić, Berane, Konik and Podgorica, Emergency center Podgorica. Representatives of international organizations: EU Delegation in Montenegro, UNDP, OSCE, OSCE/ODIHR, EU Delegation in Belgrade, UNICEF, representatives of the US Embassy in Podgorica and representatives of the OAK Foundation, Health Organization, UKID, EDOROM Turkey, FOD BiH, USAID, UNFPA Participants/artists: Roma and non–Roma children participating at the Forum Theaters in Bijeljina, Belgrade, Kruševac, Nikšić, Tuzla, Visoko, Zenica Participants at workshops Roma children and their parents in Novi Bečej, Nikšić, Podgorica, Berani, Visoko, Vitez, Zenica, Veliki Crljeni, Belgrade, Movie artist and presentations: Vitez, Veliki Crljeni,
Indirect beneficiaries Through institutional grant Better Future regularly updated and maintained the website (www.bolja- buducnost.com.ba) to promote the association as well as the implemented activities. During this reporting period (01.01-31.12.2013) the website had 75.696 unique visitors and 2.810 downloads of documents that are on the page. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
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Table1: Total beneficiaries of 3 Local Partner Organizations for the reporting period
No. of Roma General Roma General activitie girls/ population Total Total Activities boys/ population Grand total s/ wome girls/ women men men boys/men service n women Direct support by partner organizations (writing applications, 226 233 63 1 1 234 64 298 mediation between beneficiaries and institutions, etc) Humanitarian actions (delivering school 125 185 44 185 44 229 supplies and food) Workshops ( on media presentation skills, project cycles, 7 71 34 105 juvenile delinquency and addictions) Round tables with institution and NGO 5 101 65 166 representatives Meetingswith institution and NGO 4 2 2 4 representatives Trainings (on strategic planning and local capacitiy 5 45 21 66 building on prevention of trafficing) Street actions 3 1.078 1.000 2.078 Network meetings (established as part of 6 65 5 70 other Projects) Coalition meetings (established as part of 7 30 8 29 the FAIR project) Annual assembly of 1 31 31 associations Additional activities (public hearing on 5 254 178 432 CEDAW report, promotional activities) Total: 391 418 107 1 1 2.081 1.241 3.016
For a disaggregated detailed table with numbers summarizing adults and children please refer to Annex 7 For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Table 2:Total beneficiaries of the 20 small grantees related to ER4 and ER5
General General No. of Roma Roma Total Total Grand Activities population population activities girls/women boys/men women men total girls/women boys/men
Educative 304 2.738 1.244 249 147 2.987 1.391 4.378 workshops/seminars Forum Theatre/actors and 16 216 217 380 51 596 268 864 public Movies/actors and 2 64 58 35 20 99 78 177 public Meetings with parents, representatives of 123 347 362 155 106 502 468 970 institutions and NGOs Round tables with representatives of 2 16 7 12 6 28 13 41 institutions and NGOs Research on views of Roma man on 1 100 100 100 GBV Legal and health 47 307 20 97 0 404 20 424 counceling Street actions 6 28 24 107 83 135 107 242 Press conferences 6 5 1 9 0 14 1 15 Humanitarian actions: School supply distribution 4 25 22 25 22 47 to children and monthly transport tickets Total 511 3.746 2.055 1.044 413 4.790 2.468 7.258 For a disaggregated detailed table with numbers summarizing adults and children please refer to Annex 7 For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Intervention logic
Narrative description of the progress of the expected results and their visible effects and impacts. To what degree has the project purpose been achieved, to what extent have the results contributed to the achievement of the project purpose? 1. ER 1: Roma women CSOs have established strong coalitions with non-Romani CSOs in the three target countries in order to promote gender-responsive National Action Plans and to monitor their implementation 1.1. CARE and partner organizations form coalitions and conduct regular coordination meetings in each country 1.2. Members of the coalition develop priorities for amending the action plans and monitor their implementation, including gender-responsive budgeting 1.3. Members of the coalition develop and conduct joint or individual advocacy activities to promote gender- responsive amendments to the existing action plans and their implementation. 1.4 National coalitions establish cross-border network and organize two regional events
2. ER 2: Increased meaningful participation of Romani women in representative or advisory bodies for Roma and women 2.1 Analyse Terms of References of the bodies in question 2.2 Present good practices from other countries to governments and members of the bodies 2.3 Propose amendments, including quota and discuss them with government representatives and current members of these bodies 2.4 Advocate governments, political parties and institutions to adopt amendments 2.5 Prepare women for and assist them during the work in these bodies structures
3. ER 3: Romani women CSOs have meaningfully participated in process to revise national action plans on Roma inclusion from a gender perspective and in the monitoring of their implementation 3.1 CARE and experts conduct training needs assessment 3.2 CARE conducts training programme on generic skills for Romani women CSOs 3.3 CARE with experts conduct issue-based training programme for Romani women and Government representatives 3.4 Romani women CSOs in each country enter into agreement with the respective government on amending action plans and monitoring their implementation 3.5 Romani women CSOs and government representatives form working groups to develop proposals for amending the action plans/monitoring the implementation 3.6 Romani women CSOs lobby politicians and civil society to adopt and/or implement the amended action plans 3.7 Romani women CSOs develop monitoring plan for gender-responsive implementation of Roma action plans and conduct monitoring activities
4. ER 4: Best practices on prevention of drop-outs of Romani girls from schools developed, implemented, documented and shared 4.1 Identify best practices 4.2 Develop tailor-made approach for each school 4.3 Organise public meetings with students, parents, teachers, community leader, respected Romani individuals, Centres for Social Welfare and organise regular meetings between parents and schools 4.4 Organise workshops for Romani men on education of girls 4.5 Support measures that reduce the drop-out rate of Romani and non-Roma children of primary schools 4.6 Identify Romani and non-Roma children who have recently left school and assist them in returning to school 4.7 Organise awareness raising events at local level, including activities in particular targeting men 4.8. Roma women CSOs document best practices and participate in 2 regional country learning conferences For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report 5. ER 5: Best practices on community-based initiatives for the prevention of GBV and the access to general and sexual & reproductive health care developed, implemented, documented and shared 5.1 Conduct public meetings with community leaders, respected Romani individuals, Centres for Social Welfare, Health Directorate, etc on prevention of GBV and the access to general and sexual & reproductive health care 5.2 Identify best practices 5.3. Organise awareness raising events at local level, including activities in particular targeting men 5.4 Train Romani women and men on prevention of GBV and access to general and sexual & reproductive health care 5.5. Roma women CSOs document best practices and participate in 2 regional country learning conferences For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
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ER 1: Roma women Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have established strong coalitions with non-Roma CSOs in the three target countries in order to promote gender-responsive National Action Plans and to monitor their implementation
Activity 1.1 CARE and partner organizations form coalitions and conduct regular coordination meetings (in each country)
CARE and partner organizations formed coalitions and conducted regular meetings (in each country). The creation of coalitions including different women's, human - and minority rights organizations increases the opportunities for CSOs working on the grass root level to have an impact on policies affecting Roma men and women. Hence, in all three countries of intervention, members of these coalitions have been identified as outlined below. Some of the organizations addressed during the selection process voiced their concerns about their capacities to advocate on national/ regional level. Organizations with stronger capacities have had the lead role in advocating the changes, but at the same time supporting other organizations to be more active on local levels including them in their advocacy activities on national level (working groups) and now some of them are able to interact with institutions at the national level. Increasing the advocacy capacity of partner organizations and coalition members in all three selected countries has been one of the Project's priorities.
Strong links established in 2012 among members of the coalition were maintained also in 2013 through direct meetings and continuous communication between the three main partner organizations and the members of the Coalition in their respective countries. Although not the same intensity of cooperation prevails in all participating countries.The following table provides an overview of the Coalitions established on the national level:
Table 3 Overview of CSOs participating in the project as Coalition members
Coalition member Roma Coalition member Non- Country Local partner in lead CSO, locality Roma CSO
Bosnia and Better Future Better future, Tuzla Equality for All, Sarajevo Herzegovina Foundation CURE, Roma girl, Prnjavor Sarajevo Center for Mothers Human Rights Office Tuzla Consolation, Zenica Citizens Association for the Roma Youth, Vitez Promotion of Education of Roma OTAHARIN, Bjeljina ORI Be My Friend, Visoko Center for Mothers Hope, Kakanj Montenegro Center for Roma Initiatives Center for Roma Initiatives, Police department, Nikšić Nikšić Women REA Network Center for social work, FIRST, Podgorica, Nikšić, Nikšić Berani NGO Rose, Berani MNE Women’s Lobby Institute for social inclusion Podgorica Serbia Bibija Minority Rights Center, Bibija, Belgrade Belgrade Little Prince. Belgrade Law Scanner, Belgrade Romani cikna, Kruševac Association of Roma, Novi Bečej Roma Women's Center Veliki Crljeni, Lazarevac Association of Roma Danica, Pančevo For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Roma Women's Center Romnjako ilo, Zrenjanin
Serbia During the inception period CARE's partner BIBIJA organized 3 Coalition partner meetings in Belgrade in order to plan joint actions of lobbying and advocacy in the areas of education, violence against women, health and political participation of Roma women.
Montenegro CARE's partner Center for Roma Initiatives (CRI) organized 2 Coalition meetings: The first Coalition meeting was organized in Podgorica in late August as part of a two-day seminar. The second Coalition meeting took place in Kolasin after the workshop "Responsible Gender budgeting," which was organized by CARE International in the period from November 20 to 22.The joining of the two events lead to a cost-efficient implementation. In addition, members of the CRI were in constant communication with members of the Coalition and were thoroughly familiar with all the activities that REA Women's Network "FIRST", Institute of Social Inclusion and Montenegrin Women's Lobby implemented in cooperation with other members of the coalition this year.
Bosnia and Herzegovina: CARE`s partner organization Better Future organized 2 Coalition meetings and 1 Roma women's network SUCCESS meeting.
During the implementation of small grants under ER4 and ER5 within the Coalition in BiH, the team of „Better Future“ Tuzla provided technical assistance to the Coalition members; such as explanations on reporting forms that are required for successful implementation of their activities and the efficient spending of resources, financial and narrative reporting, visibility (logos CARE and the Austrian Development Cooperation) and methods of gathering documents for a refund of VAT. In addition, Better Future provided assistance in the preparation of the monitoring plan of activities of these small grants and for the purposes of the Association of Roma girl-Romani Ćej translated a complete small grant application for GBV into English. This intensive coordination between CARE and the partners has contributed and will contribute to the implementation of small grants.
Better future, Center for Roma Initiatives and BIBIJA provided support and assistance to Roma women and men who directly approached them with their struggles in exercising their rights in health protection, social issues and education throughout the project implementation period.
In Sarajevo September 23 coalition members attended the presentation of the CARE report “Evidence of change”, which summarizes the gender related impact of CARE´s work in the Balkans.
Project partners’ participation in other National Roma women networks1: B&H: In order to strengthen the informal Network of Roma Women "Success" in B&H that was created in a former ADC financed project, Better Future Tuzla as the coordinator organized four workshops for members of the network; As part of these workshops they focused on the following themes: the political system in BiH, public speaking skills in media and two workshops on project cycle management (writing projects, monitoring of project activities, financial and narrative reporting). It is essential to point out that for the first time since the establishment of the Roma women network in BiH in 2010, the Assembly of Roma women held a meeting in Zenica on November 28-29, 2013 with the presence of representatives from 21 member organizations of the network. At the Assembly the resolutions and decisions were adopted regarding the upcoming co-ordination of the network for the period 2010 - 2013; the strategy, the constitution of the network (decision making and advisory bodies); Rules of Procedure of the Network "Success"; Membership related rules. Also
1B&H Roma Women network has been formed through the „Empowering Roma Women“ Project implemented by CARE and financed by ADA;the Montenegro Roma Women network has been formed through the „Regional Women Project“ implemented by CARE. Serbia's Roma Women network has been established approx. 8 years ago. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report a working group was designated to monitor and enforce existing regulations proposed by the General Assembly of the Network. October 1-15 2013 BiH organized its first post-war census. To that occasion the organizations gathered in the Roma Women Network "Success" implemented the campaign "Where are Roma in the upcoming census in B&H" encouraging Roma to state their nationality, but at the same time, lobbying for the involvement of Roma men and women as enumerators in Roma communities. The network’s coordinating organization for the next four years (2014-2017) was unanimously chosen to be "Better Future" from Tuzla.
Montenegro CRI is a member of the Roma women network “First” and of three other Coalitions apart from the Coalition established through this project. On December 11, 2013 CRI signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Civil Alliance in Podgorica, with the organizations Niksic Rose, Egyptian Association of Tivat and Podgorica Forum MNE with the aim to improve and enhance cooperation in the framework of the project "Civil Society Monitoring of the Implementation of the Decade of Roma integration of Egyptians and of Action Plans".
Serbia The NGO Bibija is also a part of several networks in Serbia: The Roma Women’s Network held three sessions of the board of directors which was organized by RWC BIBIJA on their premises (September 03; November 04; December 03). As a result of these meetings a strategy for the year 2014 was developed. Roma League RWC BIBIJA is presiding the League and in October 1 -3, 2013 took part in the strategic planning for the League of Roma regarding gender equality issues and health care.
Activity 1.2 Members of the coalition develop priorities for amending the action plans and monitor their implementation, including gender-responsive budgeting (in each country)
BiH: A revised National action plan for employment, health and housing was adopted on December 17, 2013 with no gender responsive measures, regardless of the involvement of Better Future in working groups for its revision and recommending those.
Serbia: Action plan with gender responsive measures was adopted on June 10, 2013. Bibija was actively involved in meetings of working groups.
Montenegro: CRI submitted recommendations for the improvement of the position of Roma and Egyptian women; the final draft of the Action plan is planned to be approved in March/April.
Activity 1.3 Members of the coalition develop and conduct joint or individual advocacy activities to promote gender-responsive amendments to the existing action plans and their implementation
Visibility and recognition for Roma women organizations: Project partners organized and participated in numerous activities during the 16 days of activism against gender violence (November 25 – December 10). Better Future - On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in B&H, and under the campaign of the United Nations "Men united to end violence against women" 16 days of activism commenced, during which the United Nations, together with partner organizations in the NGO sector, implemented a series of outreach activities throughout B&H in order to raise awareness about the different types of violence against women which occur on a daily basis both in our country and around the world. Within the project Better Future supported the implementation of roundtables, street actions, forum theatre and flash mobs in Tuzla, Visoko, Prnjavor, Vitez and Kakanj in order to raise awareness about different types of violence against women with special focus on Roma women. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report http://www.zrmuspjeh.com.ba/index.php/aktivnosti-mreze/mjesec-dana-zenskog-romskog-aktivizma- 2013
INTERNATIONAL ADVOCACY ACTIVITIES Coalition member organizations and specifically FAIR partner organizations - due to their capacity and experiences - are approached by other national and international organizations and institutions working with Roma population and addressing women. The Coalition members are ready to respond to such invitations and are themselves searching for such opportunities, grasping the importance of such liaisons.
CEDAW Shadow Report: The representative of the RWC Bibija participated in 55th session of CEDAW, where also the official National Report of the Republic of Serbia and alternative reports of NGOs were presented. The event took place July 8-26, 2013 in Geneva. The delegation of the Roma women's network consisted of activists, who worked on the preparation of the Shadow Report “Roma Women Speak Out” (please refer to the link for further details). All participants were also part of a training organized by International Women's Rights Action Watch (IWRAW), and this was an excellent opportunity for improving their capacities, but also for advocacy activities and lobbying towards members of the CEDAW Committee. During the 55th CEDAW session, the delegation of civil society organizations from Serbia participated in three working meetings with members of the CEDAW Committee: one session was dedicated to the overall state of women's rights in all countries, another meeting was held with a member of the CEDAW Committee, Dubravka Simunović from Croatia, a third meeting with the main reporting CEDAW Committee in Serbia, with Violet Noembauer. These meetings allowed representatives of the Roma women's networks to present recommendations that are directly related to improving the position of Roma women in Serbia. The Roma women network delegation, in addition to the Shadow report, prepared a set of recommendations that were submitted in print to members of the CEDAW Committee. BIBIJA provided logistical support to all activities.
http://www.treatybodywebcast.org/cedaw-55-session-serbia/ http://www.bibija.org.rs/ http://www.bibija.org.rs/docs/cedaw/SHADOW%20REPORT%2055TH%20SESSION%20SERBIA%20ROMA% 20NETWORK.pdf http://www.bibija.org.rs/romkinje_progovaraju.html
B&H: CSOs of the B&H Coalition participated in writing comments for the alternative CEDAW report for B&H. CARE supported the development of the report specifically in areas related to issues affecting Roma women. The report was presented to the CEDAW Committee in Geneva on July 19, 2013.
Activity 1.4 National coalitions establish cross-border network and organize two regional events
Regional cooperation The project also enables an effective regional coordination of our project partners. During June 2013 Better Future contacted the Center for Social Work Pljevlje Montenegro because of the suspicion of human trafficking of three minor children in Tuzla. Upon intervention it was discovered that two of the three Roma children are children of individuals, who are clients of Better Future. A representative of the Centre for Social Work in Montenegro requested assistance to contact the competent institution of the Centre for Social Work in Tuzla, parents and children, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in BiH. Better future provided technical assistance to these institutions and facilitated their joint actions and in August the case was closed by CSW and the children returned to Tuzla. The investigation by the state institution SIPA (State Investigation and Protection Agency) is still ongoing.
Regional conference: “Education for All” in Podgorica, November 7-8 2013; Over 70 participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Macedonia and Kosovo participated at the conference „Education for All“ held in Podgorica on November 7-8, 2013. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report The conference was organized by CARE International with support of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights of Montenegro and partner organizations involved in the project.
During the two-day event 25 presentations were held in three thematic groups: 1. Status of implementation of Roma Decade Action Plans for Inclusion of Roma men/women with an emphasis on education; 2. Role of different stakeholders in promotion and increase of education of Roma population, with focus on education of Roma girls and women; 3. Role of non-governmental organizations in promotion and increase of the level of education of Roma girls and women.
The recommendations and conclusions of the Conference are summarized as follows:
Recommendations
Regional conference: “Education for All” (Podgorica, November 7-8 2013);
1. Role of public institutions: All participants agreed that public institutions have important roles to play in the increase of the level of education of minorities with special emphasis on the Roma population. All countries committed to the Roma Decade and signed different conventions regulating the increase of educational attainment of ethnic minorities. On the other hand public institutions can play a crucial role in amending legislation and adopting adequate strategies. Regarding the role of institutions in question the following topics were defined: • Research of existing institutional mechanisms (national boards, offices for Roma inclusion, parliamentary committees, etc.) with the aim of defining their roles/responsibilities with respect to education. • It is necessary to adequately map and disseminate existing good practice. • Cooperation with civil society organisations
All participants agreed it is necessary to improve cooperation between civil society and public institutions. The current cooperation has not been sufficient and according to the participants has not been established following real partnership principles,
Institutional capacity building for those working with minority groups and cooperation with non-governmental organizations: Although there is good will and desire for cooperation through certain initiatives and projects, it is still necessary to increase the degree of information sharing and improve the skills of representatives of institutions to work and cooperate with organizations of civil society. The inclusion of representatives from civil society is necessary at the begging of any process from decision making to public relations, reporting etc.
Analysis of existing programs for better outcomes of education of Roma population at all levels (preschool to university): - Adequate analysis of existing educational programs needed in order to be able to provide appropriate recommendations for the improvement of formal educational programs, to promote good practices, and to channel recommendations from the field that could be included in these programs; - Greater level of engagement of schools needed in order to improve regular reporting on drop out rates. Adoption of official decisions on the participation of Roma representatives in implementation of strategies and policies for Roma men and women: Although there is a declared interest of institutions for greater inclusion of Roma men and women in public institutions at all levels there is no such formal obligation. Adoption of obligations to include Roma men and women into the decision making of public institutions or service delivery (school assistants, social workers, health mediators, communitiy workers, teachers, etc.) would favour needs based public policies among others in the field of education. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report
2. Good practice Roma mediators and coordinators: A good model in certain countries in the region are the so called Roma mediators, facilitators or coordinators. This model is in place in Serbia, where prommissing results are attributed to the work of these professionals in different areas; such as education, health, employment. The Conference participants agreed that this model should be developed in other countries and regions with support from international and other donors, but with the commitment of public institutions to take over their employment after clearly defining their role and responsabilities and the related budget for their involvement.
Interdisciplinary local mobile teams: One of the initiatives which arose from the conference is a suggestion that within institutions as one of the necessary mechanisms with support of different donors (UN Women, UNDP) “mobile teams” are fomed. So far their work was sporadic, with very little interest from the government. It has, however proved to be a good model in some local communities and could serve as a basis for the creation of a sustainable institutional model. These teams (exist only in some communities) but could be involved in processes of strengthening communication among stakeholders in the field but also as a good “tool” for the monitoring of process/progress. Roma could be part of these teams increasing the degree of inclusion of Roma in decision making processes.
In order to develop appropriate strategies and projects it is necessary to analyse examples or positive practices in the region in order to use them as positive models at all levels.
3. Cross – sectoral cooperation All conference participants agreed that it is necessary to initiate and improve existing cooperation at all levels through cross-sectoral joining of the following stakeholders: - Relevant Roma representative bodies - Centers for social work - Non-governmental organizations - Police departments - Ministry of internal affairs - Ministry of education Cross-sectoral cooperation should be a condition for public decision making, drafting of strategies and action plans or other relevant documents and for allocating funding on inclusion measures. - Different monitoring processes can be provided through cross-sectoral cooperation in order to identify good practices and problems occurring in the area of education; - Civil society institutions can offer control mechanisms; - Networking between representatives of government and non-government institutions should be more strongly enhanced; - Commissions to monitor drop outs
4. Distribution of local funds An important conclusion from the conference is a topic related to the distribution of existing funds intended for the support of education of Roma population with an emphasis on Roma girls and for this purpose it is necessary: - To define priorities regarding certain areas through public discussion; - Establish mechanisms for transparent spending of these funds (public calls, commissions for fund allocation).
5. Iniciatives of non – governmental sector Non-govermental organizations play an important role in increasing the of level of education of Roma men and women. Views presented at the conference showed that non-governmental organizations are well positioned to achieve sustainable results given their field presence, participatory ethos and expertise.Thus this work should be continued but with greater support from state institutions and commitments from their side.
The participants defined the following possible initiatives that could be realized through numerous projects, and this conclusion can serve as a guideline in the design of new project proposals: For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Employment of parents which would provide an incentive to send children to school; Lobbying and awareness raising campaigns among Roma population Support political participation of Roma especially Roma women Active work with parents; informing, supporting Establishment of a council of Roma parents or the inclusion of Roma in Council of parents on school level Monitoring of Government and other institutions regarding implementation of AP Lobbying for inclusion of Roma representatives in governmental institutions Work with local community groups in order to inform, educate, and mediate Service Community Centers that serve as a one stop shop for social support, community and educational activities and employment related councel point, etc. Networking of non-governmental sector in achieving greater impact and efficiency in launching lobbying initiatives.
6. Using media in promotion,information and education: All conference participants agreed that the role of the media in promoting different information, attitudes and initiatives about education of Roma population is insufficient and more efforts are necessary(whether it's about starting an initiative through various projects or memorandums of cooperation): Suggest and design different media informative and educative campaigns; Suggest and design different lobbying campaigns. For more details please see Annex 2 For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report
ER 2: Increased meaningful participation of Romani women in representative or advisory bodies for Roma and women
Bosnia and Herzegovina: For the first time in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina on December 17, 2013, a Roma women was selected as a member of the Roma Board and now five (5) Roma women have been appointed to the Roma Board, the advisory body to the B&H Council of Ministers. The Board that consists of 22 persons includes 11 Roma and 11 non-Roma representatives from various state ministries. Following the initiative made by the Roma Women's Network SUCCESS – 4 women have been appointed to represent respective ministries, which increased the number of women on the Board to 8 – representing a 35% gender ratio – as guaranteed by the B&H Gender and Election Law. The Board is chaired by a Roma woman member of Better Future, Indira Bajramović.
Serbia: Gender Equality is the core issue that BIBIJA has been dealing with since its establishment. Participation in working bodies of different institutions is one of its main, permanent activities. Ms. Azra Beriša, is a permanent member of the Gender Equality Commission of the Municipality Zvezdara, Belgrade, while Ms. Đurđica Ergić is a member of the Gender Equality Council of the Republic of Serbia Ombudsman.
Montenegro: In Montenegro bodies currently advocating for Roma related policies hardly include any Roma women, resulting in a lack of consideration of gender-related policies affecting Roma women. Hence, our local partner, Center for Roma Initiatives (CRI), has organized a number of meetings with governmental and non-governmental bodies.
October 4 – 6, 2013 Istanbul Turkey Fana Delija, a representative of CRI, participated at the Roma forum aiming for information sharing on the position and situation of Roma in each country, as well for opening up of possibilities for joint activities and cooperation. Fana Delija is a member of the board for Roma from the Balkans. October 22 – 24, 2013 in Skopje Fana Delija, a representative of CRI, participated at the regional conference on political participation of Roma and Egyptian women.
Regional workshops on political participation of Roma women
Empowerment activities for Roma women in the political sphere continued during this reporting period, thus two regional workshops on political participation were organized:
August 16 – 18, 2013 on Jahorina for 17 participations (7 from Republic of Serbia, 4 from Montenegro, 6 from B & H).
Topics of the workshop were advocacy, campaign and the building of influence in the community. Prior to the workshop, they were sent a form for the campaign to reflect and in accordance with the set objective to write, in a few lines, a campaign with minimal financial resources in their community which was previously impossible for them to implement. A goal also set in accordance with personal ambitions, for example if they wanted to become a part of a body, commission, etc. or for some more general goals.
December 13 - 15, Brčko 13 participations (8 from the Republic of Serbia, two from Montenegro, three from B & H).
Topics of the workshop were: public speaking - prepare shorter introductory statement to the audience, the public media; exercise recording and analysis statement, exercise of organization of media conference, simulation of television shows. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Four women participated at all four political participation workshops, and eight women participated at three workshops. They have been offered to reflect on their political campaigns and to send their proposals out of which some will be supported with additional advices and skills.
For more details please see Annex 3 For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report ER 2: Increased meaningful participation of Roma women in representative or advisory bodies for Roma men and women;
Table 4 summarizes the results achieved in previous reporting periods.
Table 4 RWOs cooperation and participation in representative or advisory bodies
Country Local Cooperation with public Research/ No of Date/reporti No. of partner institutions Analysis promotional ng period lobby/advocac in activities y meetings charge held their contents BiH Better Institutions/national level: Gender Analysis 2 round Actual Future / - Ministry of Human of the tables period Bolja Rights and Refugees membership, Buducno - Council of National Book of rules st Minorities of the and activities of Parliamentary Assembly the B&H Council 9 meetings held of BiH of National 1 round table Previous on advocating - Council of National Minorities, period different issues Minorities of the Council of 1 press affecting Roma National Assembly of National conference for improvement the Republic of Serbian Minorities of the of their position2 National Minorities FB&H and - Council of the Council of Federation of Bosnia National and Herzegovina. Minorities of the - Federal Institute for National Statistics. Assembly of the Republic of Institutions/local level: Srpska. - Tuzla Municipality - Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tuzla Canton - Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Tuzla Canton - Ministry of Health of Tuzla Canton, 4 TOTAL Montene Center Institutions/national level: Analysis of the Actual No activities in gro for Roma - Ministry of Health capabilities of period this reporting Initiatives - Board for Gender the Committee period Equality Parliament of for gender Montenegro 1 round table Previous 4 meetings held - Department for Gender equality within period on advocating Equality the Parliament of 2 public different issues - Ministry of Human and Montenegro for discussions affecting Roma Minority Rights more effective for improvement 3 - Institute for public health representation of 1 press of their position conference - Institute for Statistics of rights and Montenegro interests of - National Council of Roma and Egyptians. Roma and Egyptian women Institutions/local level: - Nikišić municipality and municipality’s assembly - Clinical health center Podgorica.
4 TOTAL Serbia Bibija Institutions/national level: ”Interaction of Actual No activities in Office for Human and Women´s CSOs period this reporting Minority Rights and institutions period
2 Discussing, lobbying and advocating for: social welfare for endangered Roma women in Tuzla, prevention of children begging, political participation of national minorities in local level, promotion and protection of national minorities, reorganization and reestablishment of Council of Roma, Census and inclusion of Roma population as enumerators, BiH presiding the Decade. 3 Discussing, lobbying and advocating for: prevention of early marriages and education of RE children, planning activities and defining priorities for Decade presiding of Montenegro, double discrimination of RE women, election rules in the Council of National Minorities. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Office of the Government in local 1 round table Previous of the Republic of Serbia community” period Ministry of Work Employment and Social Analysis of the Policy rules governing Gender Equality the advisory Directorate bodies for gender Poverty Reduction and equality: Social Inclusion Team of the Deputy Prime Minister Office of the Government of the Republic of Serbia Ombudsman Commissioner for Protection of Equality Ministry of Health Office for cooperation with civil society Permanent conference of towns and municipalities EU Delegation in Belgrade . Institutions/local level: Belgrade City’s Government Belgrade’s municipality Zvezdara Belgrade’s municipality Lazarevac
1 TOTAL For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report
ER 3: Roma women CSOs have meaningfully participated in the process to revise national action plans on Roma inclusion from a gender perspective and in the monitoring of their implementation
Activity 3.2 CARE conducts training programme on generic skills for Romani women CSOs Two trainings on generic skills were held in the first Semester of 2013 in Belgrade May 31 – June 2, 2013 and June 21 – 23, 2013. The training focused on project proposal writing targeting EU calls.
Activity 3.3 CARE with experts conduct issue-based training programme for Romani women and Government representatives
Coordination with UN Women on Training on Gender Responsive Budgeting
The overall purpose of the trainings was to contribute to the strengthening of the capacity of Romani women CSOs and members of Coalitions to actively participate in the process of the revision of the NAPs, by including a gender sensitive component.
Since one of project’s expected results is to ensure a meaningful participation of Romani women CSOs in the process of revision of NAPs from a gender sensitive perspective and in monitoring of their implementation a total of five workshops have been held in the given reporting period with assistance of the United Nations Agency for Empowerment of Women (UN Women) Sub-regional Office for Central & South Eastern Europe. Recognizing the potential synergies of joint initiatives, the two projects agreed to jointly support the training on Gender Sensitive Budgeting for the members of the Coalitions of Roma Women CSOs in Serbia and Montenegro (a basic and first level) in August 2013. The training for the members of the Coalition in BIH had already been provided by Care International in July 2013.
During the reporting period, in agreement with representatives of partner organizations, the following trainings and workshops were held:
1July 12 – 14, 2013; Teslić for Coalition in B&H Seminar on Gender Responsive Budgeting with participation of 13 representative from the following organizations: WRA “Better future”, Tuzla – 2 members; Center for mothers “Hope”, Kakanj – 2 members; Center for mothers “Consolation”, Zenica – members; Roma Youth, Vitez – 2 members; Romani girl, Prnjavor – 2 members; Citizen Association Youth Roma Initiative “Be my friend”, Visoko – 2 members; CURE Foundation – 2 members.
The seminar lasted three days. The aim of the seminar was to introduce participants / members of the Coalition to gender responsible budgeting as an important theme in their future work. The content of the seminar was: gender equality, gender and economics - budget development and equal opportunities, the importance of the Budget, the process of making, reporting and monitoring a budget; GRB examples and lessons learned by others; gender SWOT analysis, identification of problems and needs.
2. August 26 – 27, 2013; Belgrade, Coalition in Republic of Serbia at workshop Gender Responsive Budgeting level I participated 14 representatives of following organizations: Association of Roma, Novi Bečej – 2; Romani Cikna, Kruševac – 2; Little Prince, Belgrade – 3 ;Center from Minority Rights, Belgrade – 1;Roma Women Center Veliki Crljeni, Lazarevac – 1;Bibija, Belgrade – 2 ;Romnjako illo, Zrenjanin – 2; Roma Association Danica, Pančevo – 1 member. 3. August 28 – 29, 2013; Podgorica, Coalition in Montenegro Workshop Gender Responsive Budgeting levelI with 11 participations of:CRI Nikšić – 2 ;NGO “Ruža” Berani – 1;FIRST Ulcinj - 1;PU Nikšić – 1, Center for social work Nikšić – 1;Montenegro Women lobby – 1; Institut for social inclusion Podgorica – 4 members. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report 4. November 01 – 03, 2013; Terme Vrujci, Coalition in Republic of Serbia Workshop on Gender Responsive Budgeting, level II with participation of 17 representatives of t he following institutions: Association of Roma, Novi Bečej – 2 members; Romani Cikna, Kruševac – 3 ;Little Prince, Belgrade – 2,Center from Minority Rights, Belgrade – 2 ;Bibija, Belgrade – 3 ;Romnjako illo, Zrenjani – 2;Roma Association Danica, Pančevo – 1 ,Law scaner Belgrade – 2. 5. November 20 – 22, 2013; Hotel „Bianca resort” Kolašin, Coalition in MontenegroWorkshop Gender Responsive Budgeting II with 7 participations: CRI Nikšić – 2 ;FIRST Ulcinj - 1 ;PU Nikšić – 1;Center for social work Nikšić – 1 Montenegro Women lobby – 1: Institut for social inclusion Podgorica – 1. For more details please see Annex 4
The above mentioned workshops were structured based on the preparation process analysis showing that the vast majority of participants were not familiar with and have not had any previous training neither on budget management in general, nor on the GSB and that they were not familiar with budget management processes in their countries. Most of them have never analysed budgets or participated in their preparation and only a few participants (mostly senior CSOs staff) were familiar with policy making and strategic planning processes, and have practical experiences in applying this knowledge in the process of revision and/or producing national and/or local Roma action plans.
As a result of the first round of training, participants gained the basic knowledge of policy development, strategic planning and budgeting processes, gender mainstreaming and gender policy analysis, and finally, the concept and importance of GSB, including an overview of the main tools for gender budget analysis and examples of practical experiences in introducing GSB.
These trainings also provided participants with the basic skills for conducting gender analysis, which they could use in the process of revision of NAPs. Since the participants’ evaluation results have shown their great interest in continuation of the training program to cover in more details the areas of budget management in general, GSB tools and budget advocacy, as well as to include more practical exercises, an additional round of trainings was held for the Coalition members in Serbia and Montenegro.
Recommendations for applying skills on GSB in 2014
The following recommendations have been developed for the 2014 GSB related activities of the Coalitions: In order to apply in practice the knowledge and skills gained at the training and to directly contribute to improvement of Roma women’ position in their countries, the two Coalitions in Serbia and Montenegro are recommended to conduct gender analysis of selected budget allocations for NAP implementation over the next year. This analysis could theoretically relate to any or all of budget allocations for support to NAPs in one country (i.e. budgets of one or all government levels, such as state or municipal level; budgets of one or all relevant institutions; budgets for a specific area such as education or employment, or for all areas; allocations on specific or all budget lines within a selected budget(s) etc.). Given the complexity of analysis and capacities of partner CSOs, selection of specific budget(s) or area(s) is recommended. The gender budget analysis should be conducted in the first half of 2014, so that its results and recommendations can be incorporated in 2015 national budgets and revised NAPs. Coalitions should lobby and advocate for these recommendations at the time of producing 2015 draft budgets and budget proposal. Action plan for this initiative with specific activities and deadlines should be produced. Care International should provide technical support to Coalitions in conducting this analysis through possible additional training and mentoring throughout the process. This may be in For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report form of additional workshops, online support etc. This will ensure the quality of analysis and also the sustainability of results of this and the previous trainings. For the purpose of this analysis, the Coalitions with support from Care International should establish better cooperation and working relations with relevant government institutions. This in particular concerns the institutions/municipalities that finance NAPs from their budgets, as well as those that could potentially finance NAPs. Important partners are also Ministries of Finance/municipal authorities and gender mechanisms at different levels. Strong relations with these stakeholders are important not only for conducting this specific gender budget analysis, but for future activities related to NAPs in general. Coalitions should also seek assistance from other donors in the process of lobbying and advocating for recommendations of gender budget analysis. Apart from providing technical assistance, the donors should also facilitate and support the advocacy initiatives.
Training on M&E based on recommendations from mid-term evaluation
Following the recommendations of the evaluator regarding development of better monitoring for the activities especially small grant activities, we organized three workshops (Belgrade -September 18, Podgorica - September 20, and Sarajevo -September 23-24) on monitoring and data, which needs to be followed preparing the monitoring tables for use. Three different tables were developed: 1. One for educational grants, 2. One for GBV grants and 3. One for the partner organizations financed by institutional grants
During their reporting period it became clear that additional efforts need to be invested in education about monitoring therefore additional workshop will be organized.
Activities 3.4/3.5/3.6/3.7 related to Romani women CSOs involvement with respective government on amending action plans, forming working groups and monitoring their implementation
Table 5 NAP revision by RWOs - results achieved
Country Local partner Contribution Status of Responsible No of Date in charge of other NAP body meetings CSOs BiH Better Future Revised and Revision: 3 December adopted, no GM Ministry of 11, 2013 measures Human Right included even and Refugees though they were through UNDP advocated project Adoption: Council of Ministers 4 TOTAL Montenegro Center for Coalition Recommendation Office for 1 September Roma members creation for NAP Human and 12-13, provided, 2013 Initiatives Minority adoption of Rights revised NAP planned in Municipality March/April 1
LAP for Young in Nikšić – September recommendation 11, 2013 s provided For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report 2 TOTAL Serbia Bibija Revised NAP 1 June, 2013 Office for Human and Minority Rights
4 TOTAL
ER 4: Best practices on prevention of drop-outs of Roma girls from schools developed, implemented, documented and shared
During the previous period the Call for Project Proposals has been advertised by CARE in March 2013 to Roma members organizations of the Coalition. 12 project proposals were received and 10 organizations (four from Bosnia and Herzegovina, two from Serbia and four from Montenegro) were awarded with small grants of value of € 3.500,00 per grant. Four out of ten contracts were annexed due to an assessment of the organizations that they need more time to fully implement their activities. For more details please see Annex 5
Organizations covered with their activities 14 municipalities (BiH: Vitez, Tuzla, Lukavac, Živinice, Zenica and Visoko, Serbia: Lazarevac, Belgade – Čukarica municipality, Novi Bečej, Kruševac, Užice and Belgrade; Montenegro: Podgorica and Tivat) involving 12 elementary schools (BiH 10, Serbia 5, Montenegro 2) in those municipalities and 2 colleges (Serbia 2).
Local mechanisms to prevent school drop-outs
Activity 4.1 Identify best practices Activity 4.2 Develop tailor-made approach for each school and Activity Activity 4.3 Organise public meetings with students, parents, teachers, community leader, respected Romani individuals, Centres for Social Welfare and organise regular meetings between parents and schools In all three countries and municipalities included in projects there is no established system or even a protocol of actions in cases of school drop-outs. Most of the actions are left to individuals or Roma organizations, but due to a lack of cooperation among institutions, those individuals can do little unless they find allies. Therefore, through small grants four organizations, three from BiH and one from Montenegro, established cross-sectoral commissions (one organization from BiH formed three cross-sectoral commissions in different municipalities resulting in total number of seven established commissions), signed four MoUs and developed and signed protocol of scope of work. - In BiH cross sectoral commissions are established in: Živinice, Gradačac, Lukavac, Visoko, Zenica and Vitez and members of those local commissions are representatives of: Municipality, Center for Social Work, Police department and Roma association/grantee in each locality. - In Montenegro the commission is established in Podgorica and members of the commission are representatives of: Center for Social Work, Red Cross, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, Secretariat of Social Affairs, Roma Council, Educational inspection, Police, 3 primary schools and Ombudsman. Members of the Cross-sectoral Commissions agreed on joint cooperation and joint actions to be taken in cases of children missing school or drop outs. Representatives of institutions are aware of the problem and are willing to cooperate with other institutions to react and take actions in individual cases and also to develop a protocol of actions in case of drop outs. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
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Results achieved in all three countries Total number of 31 interventions regarding children and their schooling in all three countries: Centers for Social Work 21, Police 2, City municipality Lazarevac and Provincial Secretariat for education, management and national minorities 7, mayor of Social Affairs Department 1. Total number of people included in the activities 4.239 out of which 1.923 Roma girls/women and 1.467 Roma boys/men.
Grantees in all three countries organized total of 285 activities, where the following institutions were involved: BiH: Vitez Municipality, Center for Social Work Vitez, elementary school Vitez, Ministry of education, Culture and Sports of Middle Bosnia Canton, Police Department Vitez; Zenica Municipality, Center for Social Work Zenica, elementary schools Musa Ćazim Ćatić and Aleksa Šantić; Commission for Protection of National Minorities of Tuzla Municipality, Tuzla University, Elementary school Živinice, Center for Social Work Živinice, Police Department Živinice, Police Department Center, PD Srebrenik, Center for Social Work Tuzla, CSW Lukavac, elementary school Podrinje, CSW Gradačac, ES Mejdan, Pedagogical Institute Tuzla, Ministry of Education and Science, Culture and Sports Tuzla Canton, Ministry of internal affairs Tuzla Canton, Živinice Municipality. Serbia: Provincial Secretariat for education, management and national minorities, Council for social protection, PS Lazarevac, Office for National Minorities, City municipality Lazarevac, Council for National Minorities, Teacher education college Užice, Teacher education college Belgrade, Center for Social Work, Mayor of Social Affairs Department, ES “Baroševac”, “Sveti Sava”, “Đuro Sajal, “Vuk Karadžić”, “Nada Popović” and Josif Marinković”. Montenegro: Center for Social Work Tivat, ES “Drago Milović” and “Božidar Vuković Pogorčanin” Podgorica
Workshops for parents and specifically for fathers organized, prevention and measures to reduce drop-outs implemented
Activity 4.4 Organise workshops for Romani men on education of girls Activity 4.5 Support measures that reduce the drop-out rate of Romani and non-Roma children of primary schools Activity 4.6 Identify Romani and non-Roma children who have recently left school and assist them in returning to school Activity 4.7 Organise awareness raising events at local level, including activities in particular targeting men It is important to highlight that Roma live in patriarchal families and therefore fathers are the ones who decide on the education of their children, especially for Roma girls. Therefore 54 workshops in all three countries were organized at which 435 Roma fathers participated. Workshops were directed to raising awareness on the importance of education for children and aimed at changing the For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report opinions and attitudes of the fathers, informing them on rights and obligations in the schooling system and presenting them a positive example of an educated Roma girl. The majority of targeted Roma parents are uneducated themselves and they hold doubts regarding the education of their own children since Roma communities are affected by high rate of unemployment and opportunities of employment for Roma appear slim even in the future. As a response educators demonstrated possibilities of girls contributing to the development of discussions and creating positive attitudes towards girls’ education. Awareness raising activities organized, targeted parents, teachers and institutional representatives. Among others the creative model of Forum theaters and movie presentations was implemented. A total number of organized activities reached 174 with 3.299 individuals participating (2.075 women and 1.224 men).
Roma parents were given information on the importance of education of their children (specifically girls), but, since this is one of very few projects targeting fathers, there is a need for further follow up activities and continued work with parents on the community level.
Through small grants and the activities implemented in this reporting period 99 (54 F/45 M) children were returned to schools (enrolled or re-enrolled school), out of which 70 (39 F, 31 M) children in primary education system and 29 (15 F/14 M) in high schools.
Results achieved in Montenegro - Additionally, through voluntary activities CRI visited Roma communities indentifying 18 children (11 F/7 M) ready to go to first grade. The list was delivered to the primary school and the children were enrolled. Cooperation has been established with the school with regard to the drop out of children. - Therefore, a total of 117 (65 F/52 M) children was enrolled and/or returned to schools. - For more details please see Annex 6 - CRI through their activities supported 78 girls with school supplies. Also , Members of CRI implemented necessary actions in the field with the target group. Home visits in Roma and Egyptian families and interviews with parents were conducted, cases of non-attendance of compulsory primary education of Roma and Egyptian children were dealt with;
Activities implemented resulted in the following recommendations: Women RAE Network FIRST from Montenegro organized 2 seminars (July 7 and 8, 2013) with 24 fathers and 1 mother on the importance of education for children and recommendations were: 1. Better cooperation with local authorities regarding the employment of Roma parents 2. More active role of parents in socialization of children 3. Better cooperation and trainings for teachers on progressive pedagogical methodologies (multicultural education, work with parents, child centered pedagogy, inter-disciplinary cooperation with other professionals, such as psychologists, social workers, etc.). 4. Regular workshops with parents including those informing and advising parents on how to obtain personal documentation (as they are lacking those) on their rights and obligations by laws, on traditional prejudices, and more workshops on importance of education of children. 5. Inclusion of Roma population in decision making processes and bodies (e.g. school boards). These recommendations were shared with relevant institutions, NGOs and Roma community. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
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Results achieved in Bosnia and Herzegovina Six cross – sectoral commissions were established in Visoko, Vitez, Tuzla, Živinice, Lukavac, Zenica. 47 children were supported to stay in school by delivering school supplies and transportation tickets in BiH through small grants. Creative forms of awareness raising were promoted; a movie was produced, which proved to be an important a tool for education of young Roma women. Also a Forum Theater screenings was organized that are powerful for highlighting problems related to education and discrimination of Roma children.
WRA “Better Future” from BiH organized a round table on August 27 in Tuzla with representatives of institutions, local and international NGOs and individuals, and the conclusions of the round table were: 1. Protocols on cases of drop outs will be developed. 2. Greater support and engagement of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of Tuzla Canton should be sought for 3. An establishment of Center for child beggars should be initiated. 4. A local action plan for education of children should be developed. 5. A cross sectoral commission in Tuzla should be established.
Table 6 direct target group for small grant for education (ER4)
TOTAL FOR ALL THREE COUNTRIES
Grantees Grantee Grantees Total number of grants from 10 s from 4 from 4 2 awarded: Montenegro BiH: Serbia: :
General No. of Roma General Roma population Total Total Grand No. of Activities activitie girls/ population boys/men girls/ women men total institutions s women boys/men women
Workshops with parents 54 490 435 6 6 496 441 937 7 on education
Workshops with teachers and institution 106 912 518 95 51 1.007 569 1.576 18 representatives
Forum Theatre 12 72 73 361 42 433 115 548 4
Forum Theatre - actors 28 13 12 8 40 21 61 For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Meetings with parents and institution representatives with the purpose ofinformation sharing and 109 332 348 118 95 450 443 893 30 establishment of cross sectoral commissions, etc.)
Movies 2 54 50 35 20 89 70 159
Movies - actors 10 8 10 8 18
Humanitarian actions: School supply distribution to children 4 25 22 25 22 47 and monthly transport tickets Total: 287 1.923 1.467 627 222 2.550 1.689 4.239 59 For more detailed info per country please see Annex 7
Even if considerable efforts were invested to gain quantitative evidence by adjusting the monitoring framework, and even if all grantees worked closely with school(s) representatives, only few of them were able to collect some data on Roma students due to limited access to that kind of information.
Best-practices on education of Roma children
Activity 4.8. Roma women CSOs document best practices and participate in 2 regional country learning conferences
The following models of best practices were documented throughout the FAIR project: Forum theaters –Roma and non-Roma children actors, having the possibility to work closely together giving them a chance to get to know each other better realizing that children are children regardless of their nationality. Children themselves are presenting problems to the wider public raising awareness and discussions on discrimination, differences and feelings behind that injustice. Workshops with parents with focus on fathers – few projects focus on fathers to discuss the matter of education of Roma children and specifically girls/their daughters, early marriages and related traditions. These workshops should be broadened to brothers of those young; Work with Father spokesmen/role models– fathers, who´s views favor Roma girls´ have to be recognized as potential positive role models in their communities. Those fathers who were often married and had children as teenagers themselves, want something different for their children. These spokesmen have proven to be very helpful during the workshops since they are also from the community and reach other individuals easier. Cross – sectoral commissions –Commissions should be established with relevant local institutions participating together and which with common efforts aim at tackling problems of education, intervening when necessary and sharing information. Specifically Centers of Social Work, Schools, Police, Child protection and welfare centers are part of these structures. Elementary School “Mejdan” – This school in the Tuzla canton achieved great success of enrolling Roma children and maintaining good attendance rates due to the following efforts: free school books, after school activities and continued cooperation and work with Roma parents. Those schools that are For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report able to implement progressive achievements, should be included into trainings, where they could pass on their experience to fellow teachers. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report
ER 5.Best practices on community – based initiatives for the prevention of GBV and the access to general and sexual & reproductive health care developed, implemented, documented and shared
The Call for Project Proposals on community – based initiatives for the prevention of GBV was advertised by CARE on July 3, 2013 to Roma member organizations of the Coalition. 11 project proposals were received and 10 organizations (four from Bosnia and Herzegovina, two from Serbia and four from Montenegro) were awarded with small grants of value of € 3.500,00 per grant for 9 organizations and one was granted € 7.000,00 since two organizations from nearby towns applied together with joint activities. For more details please see Annex 8
Small grantees directly targeting Roma communities resulted in participation of 1.336 Roma women and 291 Roma men (total of 1.627) participated in educative workshops sexual and reproductive health care as well as gender based violence prevention.
Municipalities/towns included in the activities were: - Bosnia and Herzegovina: municipality of Visoko, Vitez, Bijeljina, Prnjavor and Vukosavlje, - Serbia: Resnik/Belgrade, New Belgrade/Rukovica, Lazarevac, Aranđelovac, Valjevo, Novi Bečej, - Montenegro: Nikšić, Podgorica and Berane in Montenegro.
Total number of interventions for all three countries: - Centers for Social Work was 14, - Police department 6, - Health Centers 55 and - local governance in Serbia: 1
Activity 5.1 Conduct public meetings with community leaders, respected Romani individuals, Centres for Social Welfare, Health Directorate, etc on prevention of GBV and the access to general and sexual & reproductive health care
Local mechanisms to prevent GBV In BiH 3 cross sectoral commissions have been formed; Visoko, Prnjavor and Vukosavlje. Small grantee from Visoko has used the cross-sectoral commission formed for prevention of drop-outs including the representatives of Health Center and Center for Mental Health for the purpose of combating GBV. Prnjavor and Vukosavlje are newly formed commissions with representatives of the Police, Health Centers, Centers for Mental Health, Center for Social Work and high school representatives.
Prevailing reporting standards on GBV 5 organizations collected partial or full statistics on how many cases of GBV have been reported, disaggregating information on women from general population and Roma women. The overall conclusion is that number of reported cases of violence has decreased in year 2013 compared to year 2012. Municipality Prnjavor in year 2012 40 cases were reported none of which were Roma, and in 2013 again 40 women reported the violence out of which 2 Roma women. Lazarevac municipality Serbia, in year 2012 there was 155 reported cases of violence out of which 5 Roma women, and in 2013 157 reported cases out of which 11 Roma women. In Nikšić, Montenegro in year 2012 79 reported cases of violence against women out of which 15 Roma women and in 2013 137 reported cases out of which 18 Roma women. It is indicative that more Roma women reported violence in year 2013 due to raising awareness of Roma women on violence, their awareness, which institutions to turn to and the feeling of empowerment resulting of the FAIR projects and similar other initiatives. Thus For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report they increasingly report violence, even though they live in closed communities, such as Roma communities where violence is not recognized as violence but unfortunately rather normal.
Intervention logic with regards to community – based initiatives for the prevention of GBV and improving SRH
Involvement of health professionals: An individual approach as well as an approach through workshops was used, where doctors explained the need and importance of medical examinations to make Roma men more supportive of their female family members to access health care. Medical check-ups for improving SRH: Some of the Roma men supported women going to the doctors and the idea of women taking care of themselves which resulted in 419 Roma women to whom access to health care was provided: legal and health counseling 307 and 109 Roma women were enabled to directly access reproductive and sexual health care, the data show that 49 Roma women now have free access to health care (40 Roma women verified their health documentation and 9 Roma women were registered with their primary health physician which was previously denied due to lack of capacities). For 45 women a pap- smear test or ultrasound was done, mammogram exam was provided to one Roma women, 14 Roma women were provided with additional tests and one of them was sent to additional medical examinations.
- Awareness raising events were organized in all three countries with a total participation of 512 men and women at 16 events (six street actions, four forum theaters and six press conferences). - 18 public meetings were organized (round tables and meetings) with total participation of 118 men and women. In addition, in BiH, YRI “Be my Friend” from Visoko in Bosnia and Herzegovina conducted a research regarding violence with the participation of 100 Roma men in Visoko Roma communities. The results showed reasons for concern, since only 47 out of 100 considers a slap as a violent act, and only 51 think that throwing an object is violence, (49 respondents related violence with pushing/71 punch with a fist/85 kicking, pulling or beating).
Activity 5.2 Identify best practices
Some of the organizations documented models of best practices related to fighting GBV: Forum theaters – Roma youth used acting to show the situation on gender based violence. This proved to be an important tool for raising awareness in the communities, FAIR is involved in. Interactive workshops –Medical professionals were invited to discuss topics related to reproductive and sexual health and violence. The format was suitable to create a safe environment for the participants to share their views. Many were informed for the first time about their rights and possibilities in situations of domestic violence.
Activity 5.3. Organise awareness raising events at local level, including activities in particular targeting men
Involvement of the local partners in GBV related fora/events Serbia BIBIJA actively continued its activities fighting violence against women and therefore participated in the meeting on November 21, 2013 in Belgrade on violence against women organized by the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Policy as well as regional conference held on November 25, in Belgrade on combating violence against women in Serbia. During 16 days of activism they organized a performance on the Republic Square in Belgrade which was the beginning of a campaign against violence against women and for the implementation of laws foreseeing prosecution of offenders. The campaign was called "I am singing ... ". Representatives of Bibija advocated for the ratification and implementation of the Council of Europe Convention CAHVIO (Istanbul Convention) and had a public For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report hearing December 3 held at the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia on the subject of national implementation recommendations of the CEDAW Committee and the Council of Europe Convention CAHVIO (Istanbul Convention) and presenting recommendations for Roma http://www.parlament.gov.rs/Committee_on_Human_and_Minority_Rights_and_Gender_Equality_Organises_Pub lic_Hearing.20523.537.html
On of the activities was a round table on December 9 in Belgrade where a RWC BIBIJA representative (member Commission for Gender Equality city municipality Zvezdara Belgrade) spoke of "Four-year experience in the application of the Protocol on Cooperation between the institutions in cases of domestic violence".
Montenegro - November 29, Coordinator CRI Fana Delija was one of the presenters at the round table organized in Niksic on the topic of violence against women and the importance of prevention. The round table was organized by the Municipality of Niksic with participation of the relevant representatives of local governments, local institutions and local NGOs. - On December 6-7, the CRI project team participated in the seminar which was organized by the Ministry for Human and Minority Rights, Department of Affairs of gender equality. The seminar was entitled "Legal mechanisms to combat forced and contracted child marriages". The aim of the seminar was to strengthen mutual cooperation in the fight against forced and contracted child marriages, with special emphasis on RE population. A Representative of CRI, Fana Delija, was one of the speakers at the seminar. - CRI representatives Regularly participated as members of the working group for the development of the Strategy for Reproductive Health. As a result of the eight meetings of the working group in the framework the Reproductive Health Strategy2014-2020 was developed.
Researches encountered difficulties in the field since men were reluctant to speak about this sensitive topic which indicates that work with men needs to be intensified and of long term scale. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Table 6 direct target group for small grant for education
TOTAL FOR ALL THREE COUNTRIES
Total number of grants Grantees Grantees Grantees from 10 4 4 2 awarded: from BiH: from Serbia: Montenegro:
No. of General General Roma Roma Total Total Grand No. of No. of Activities activitie population population girls/women boys/men women men total institutions NGOs s girls/women boys/men
Educative 144 1.336 291 148 90 1.484 381 1.865 31 17 workshops/seminars
Research on views 1 100 100 100 of men on GBV
Round tables 2 16 7 12 6 28 13 41 7 4
Legal and health 47 307 20 97 0 404 20 424 3 4 counceling
Meetings with institution 16 15 14 37 11 52 25 77 9 2 representatives and working groups
Street actions 6 28 24 107 83 135 107 242
Forum theaters 4 116 131 7 1 123 132 255 4
Press conferences 6 5 1 9 0 14 1 15 1 2
Total: 226 1.823 588 417 191 2.240 779 3.019 51 For more detailed info per country please see Annex 9 For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report
Advocacy Activities: During the reporting period, the CARE Project Manager and representatives of partner organizations participated at numerous meetings, conferences, public events. September 05, Tuzla - Participation at the conference Economic empowerment of women: “What do women work in Bosnia and Herzegovina?. Representatives of Roma associations from Bosnia and Herzegovina, including the co-organizer Better Future Tuzla were participating. October 23, Sarajevo attended the presentation of the Report on the progress of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2013 , Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges for the period 2013 to 2014. November 13th, on Jahorina Conference " Young men as allies in ending violence : activism to the transformation of masculinity " - working with young me on the promotion of gender equality , non-violence and healthy lifestyles . November 14, Sarajevo - Conference on Gender sensitive budgeting. Challenges and Prospects in B&H results and prospects. The Conference was organized by UN Women in the framework of a project that promotes gender-responsive policies in Southeast Europe ( funded by ADC). December 10, Sarajevo Presentation Special report on position for the Roma in BiH, organized by the Institution of Human Rights Ombudsman of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Members of Better future active participation: September 5-8. Pristina, OSCE, Conference related to the Project the Best practice for Roma Integration September 23-37. Borovez, UNFPA; Advocacy and Resource mobilization for national partners working with Roma communities. October 4-6. Turkey, meeting on the occasion of the establishment of the Balkan Union of Roma, October 22-24. Skopje, OSCE, the purpose of the meeting was to share good examples of Roma between local governments and NGOs in the Western Balkans
Members of CRI active participation: March 11 – 14, in training in Skopje , as member of the Working Group for the preparation of the Strategy for Reproductive Health 2012 -2020 ; 03 - 05 May 2013 , representatives of CRI , as a member of the Delegation of Montenegro. All nine countries in the region participated in the Balkan Roma Forum, which was organized by the organization EDR in order to exchange information on the status and situation of the Roma in each country and discuss the fields of joint action and the possibilities of establishing cooperation ; October 04 - 06. The forum in Istanbul/Turkey aimed at sharing information about the situation of Roma in each country , as well as at discussions on areas of common interest and possibilities of establishing cooperation. The representative of CRI, Fana Delija entered the Board of the Balkan Roma Forum. October 22 – 24, Regional conference on the political participation of Roma and Egyptians in Skopje. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
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Project results/ project status Table 1 Current status of implementation 1.1.2013-31.12.2013
Intervention logic Indicator as planned (target) Status as at 31.12.2013. Deviations/ comments/ observation
Overall Objective Data on socio-economic situation of Romani women in target countries in particular in the municipalities addressed by the intervention To contribute to the improvement of the socioeconomic situation of Romani women in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Montenegro (CG) through their active participation in policy-making
(Changes of) Assumptions No changes of Assumptions
Project Purpose By the end of the project, capacities of No change of Romani women CSOs, including for Assumptions gender budgeting for NAPs, have been strengthened To strengthen Romani women organisations to promote By the end of the project the presence of gender-responsive National Roma women issues on the political Action Plans and to monitor agenda has increased their implementation Number of newly included gender mainstreaming measures per Roma- For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report related action plan in each country
Number of newly introduced gender- disaggregated and gender-responsive indicators in the Roma-related action plans in each country
By the end of the project, changes in policy implementation due to monitoring results have taken place
Governments’ decisions on adoption of revised, gender-responsive action plans
By the end of the project, changes in policy implementation due to monitoring results have taken place
By the end of the project governments have adopted revised, gender- responsive action plans.
By the end of the project the number of Romani women in leadership positions in representative and/or advisory bodies has increased.
By the end of the project, school drop- out rates and number of cases of gender based violence in target communities has decreased at least by 50 %
By the end of the project, cooperation between Roma and non-Roma CSOs is strengthened
(Changes of) Assumptions Not Applicable For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Expected Result 1 By the end of the project, functioning 3 Coalitions Established 4 and Coalition ties Not Applicable coalitions of CSOs are in place maintained through one national coalition meeting organized in each country B&H and Montenegro as well as in providing of continuous assistance Roma women CSOs have by e-mail and phone communication in all three established strong coalitions countries. with non-Romani CSOs in the three target countries in order to promote gender-responsive National Action Plans and to B&H: At least 6 Romani CSOs and 3 B&H: 6 Romani CSOs and 4 non-Romani CSOs monitor their implementation non-Romani CSOs are members of the are members of the coalition coalition Montenegro: 4 Romani CSOs and 3 non-Romani Montenegro: At least 4 Romani CSOs CSOs are members of the coalition and 2non-Romani CSOs are members of the coalition
Serbia: At least 5 Romani CSOs and 3 Serbia: 4 Romani CSOs and 2 non-Romani CSOs non-Romani CSOs are members of the are members of the coalition coalition
Coalition members organized and participated in By the end of the project, the visibility different events (TV and radio shows, round and recognition of Roma women CSOs tables, thematic sessions, street actions, have improved launching initiatives) increasing their visibility as well as recognition. Coalition members join other coalitions in which they actively participate.
Number of advocacy activities per In all three countries coalition members country to promote amendments participated in working groups for development of NAP focusing on their gender sensitivity. Actions taken to participate in monitoring of implementation of NAP.
International advocacy activities implemented. Cross-border network established
4 For more details please see table 1 in this document For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Cross-border network established.
Major activity planned Current status as at 31.12.2013.
1.1 CARE and partner organisations form coalitions and conduct regular 2 national meetings held: coordination meetings (in each country) B&H – Sarajevo; February 2 – 3, 2013 Montenegro – Podgorica; June 11, 2013
1.2 Members of the coalition develop priorities for amending the action 3 national Coalition meetings held in each plans and monitor their implementation, including gender-responsive country developing priorities and measures for budgeting (in each country) improvement of NAP
1.3 Members of the coalition develop and conduct joint or individual Coalition members advocated, promoted and advocacy activities to promote gender-responsive amendments to the lobbied gender responsive amendments: Serbia existing action plans and their implementation adopted the measures; Montenegro coalition submitted the recommendations, adoption is due mid 2014; BiH has not adopted the recommendations.
1.4 National coalitions establish cross-border network and organize two Cross boarder network established regional events 1 cross boarder meeting held: Bijeljina, February 21 – 22, 2013
Expected Result 2 By the end of the project, leadership 32 Roma women interested in political skills of 22 Roma women have improved participation
30 Roma women filled out questionnaire Increased meaningful regarding political participation developed by the participation of Romani project team to determine current political women in representative or participation of those women and to help to set advisory bodies for Roma and the targets. women 4 workshops on political participation organized for Roma women, designed to improve By the end of the inception phase, a For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report common definition of meaningful their leadership skills. participation has been found and targets set. Meaningful participation of women CSOs accomplished in development of different At the end of the project, an increased important documents through participation in percentage of Romani women are working groups. members in advisory boards/councils and representative structures for Roma One young Roma women appointed as the (and other minorities) and Gender President of Youth Council of Vitez equality at local and central level. municipality.
At the end of the action an increased 5 Romani women, members of FAIR CSOs percentage of Romani women holds became members of the most important decision-making positions in the above advisory board in BiH – Roma board; one of mentioned bodies. them is presiding the board.
Major activity planned Current status as at 31.12.2013.
2.1 Analyse Terms of References of the bodies in question
2.2 Present good practices from other countries to governments and 1 regional presentation of good practices for members of the bodies all coalition members; Bijeljina, February 23-24, 2013
1 good practice presentation from Serbia (Lazarevac) to representatives of institutions and other organizations in BiH; Tuzla, June 11, 2013
4 Regional workshops on political participation organized:
Sarajevo; April 23-26, 2013 Bijeljina; June 21-23, 2013 Jahorina: August 16-18, 2013 Brčko: December 13-15, 2013
2.3 Propose amendments, including quota and discuss them with Coalition members held meetings with government representatives and current members of these bodies representatives of important institutions discussing issues regarding representation of For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report 2.4 Advocate governments, political parties and institutions to adopt Roma women in different government bodies and amendments respecting quota of women representatives and proposed the measures during their work in 2.5 Prepare women for and assist them during the work in these bodies working groups and/or bodies they are engaged structures in.
Expected Result 3 At the end of the project, the capacity of Project partners/Coalition members participated in Roma women CSOs to participate in the revision of NAP in all three countries; their revision of action plans and/or the capacities have been increased by organizing: monitoring of their implementation has Romani women CSOs have increased meaningfully participated in process to revise national By the end of the project 9 generic and 9 7 generic (Gender sensitive budgeting and action plans on Roma issue-based trainings have been held project proposal writing for EU) and inclusion from a gender perspective and in the 2 issue based trainings (monitoring and project monitoring of their proposal writing) held. Results of the trainings for implementation project proposal writing are 3 developed project proposals (Serbia). By the end of the project at least 30 participants report better understanding of the issues trained
By the end of the project, understanding of gender-responsive budgeting and its Participants now better understand the topics they relevance to the NAPs has increased were trained on. The understanding of gender – among Romani women CSOs and sensitive budgeting extensively increased. government representatives
At the end of the project, the awareness of government representatives on Numerous meetings organized raising awareness Romani women’s rights has increased of issues affecting Roma women.
After one year, the number of newly Advocating for inclusion of gender mainstreaming included gender-targeting and gender measures in revision of NAP in all three countries; mainstreaming measures as well as Serbia adopted the measures; BiH has not. gender-disaggregated and gender- For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report sensitive indicators per Roma-related action plan in each country has increased
At the end of the project, changes in policy implementation due to monitoring results have taken place Coalition members introduced to comprehensive monitoring. After 1 year, a monitoring plan is in place and 4 projects per country are being monitored
Major activity planned Current status as at 31.12.2013.
3.1 CARE and experts conduct training needs assessment Completed in current RP
3.2 CARE conducts training programme on generic skills for Romani 7 generic trainings held 2 on Project proposal women CSOs writing for EU and 5 on Gender Sensitive Budgeting which increased their skills for 3.3 CARE with experts conduct issue-based training programme for understanding the GM measures and its Romani women and Government representatives implementation.
3.4 Romani women CSOs in each country enter into agreement with the For amendment of action plans coalition members respective government on amending action plans and monitoring their participated in working groups in their respected implementation countries.
3.5 Romani women CSOs and government representatives form working Monitoring is not yet set as a mechanism, so, groups to develop proposals for amending the action plans/monitoring the coalition members are developing proposals and implementation possible activities (Serbia). Additional capacity building is needed.
3 workshops held on monitoring basics (one in each country)
3.6 Romani women CSOs lobby politicians and civil society to adopt Lobbying has been done in all three countries. and/or implement the amended action plans For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report 3.7 Romani women CSOs develop monitoring plan for gender-responsive implementation of Roma action plans and conduct monitoring activities
Expected Result 4 10 small grants awarded to Roma organizations (3500 Eur each),
Number of municipalities involved in the project Best practices on prevention Number of municipalities and schools was 14 covering 12 elementary schools and 2 of drop-outs of Romani girls participating in action colleges from schools developed, implemented, documented Gender-disaggregated data on number and shared and percentage of Romani pupils in each grade of schools per year has been collected until EOP in the target municipalities
Number of interventions by Centres for Centers for Social work intervened 12 times, Social Work (CSW) and police while the Police Department 2
At least 16 public meetings held for at 109 public meetings held with 893 participants least 800 participants 435 Roma men participated in 54 workshops At least 300 men participated in organized for parents workshops 174 different awareness raising events organized At least 16 awareness raising events (workshops, forum theaters, movies) carried out
At the end of the project, best practice models for reduction of school drop-outs have been documented and shared
At the end of the project, Romani parents are more supportive to girls’ Roma parents are more supportive to girls’ education education and best practices documented
Major activity planned Current status as at 31.12.2013. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report 4.1 Identify best practices 10 small grants awarded to Roma organizations, members of the Coalition.
109 public meetings organized including Cross – 4.2 Develop tailor-made approach for each school sectoral commissions established for joint actions and meetings with parents with school representatives
4.3 Organise public meetings with students, parents, teachers, Project partners promote education of Roma community leader, respected Romani individuals, Centres for Social children, implement activities addressing this Welfare and organise regular meetings between parents and schools issue.
435 Roma men participated 54 workshops on importance on girls’ education
Establishment of Cross – sectoral Commissions, 4.4 Organise workshops for Romani men on education of girls meetings with institutions, meeting with parents, especially fathers, visit to Roma communities and Roma families, distribution of school supplies 4.5 Support measures that reduce the drop-out rate of Romani and non- 117 children returned to school Roma children of primary schools 174 different raising events organized (workshops, forum theaters, movies) 4.6 Identify Romani and non-Roma children who have recently left school Roma Women organizations participated at and assist them in returning to school regional conferences 4.7 Organise awareness raising events at local level, including activities in particular targeting men
4.8. Roma women CSOs document best practices and participate in 2 regional country learning conferences
Expected Result 5 At the end of the project, best practice models for prevention of GBV and access to health care have been documented and shared Best practices on community- based initiatives for the At the end of the project, Romani men For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report prevention of GBV and the and public authorities are supporting Roma men and health centers supportive of access to general and sexual Roma women’s access to health care Roma women’s access to health care & reproductive health care developed, implemented, Annual number of reported cases of Number of reported cases decreased, number of documented and shared gender-based violence in the target Roma women reporting violence increased communities decreased due to raising awareness.
Number of interventions by Centres for 14 interventions by Centres for Social Work and 6 Social Work and police by police
At least 22 public meetings in each 18 public meetings in all three countries country 118 persons participated in public meetings At least 1,000 persons participated in public meetings 16 events held
At least 22 awareness raising events held 1.865 men and women trained on sexual & At least 500 women and men trained on reproductive health care sexual & reproductive health care 100 men participated in “male-specific” awareness At least 500 men participated in “male- raising activities specific” awareness raising activities 419 women assisted to access health care At least 220 women assisted to access health care raising activities
Major activity planned Current status as at 31.12.2013.
5.1 Conduct public meetings with community leaders, respected Romani Participation in working group for development of individuals, Centres for Social Welfare, Health Directorate, etc on the Strategy for Reproductive Health 2014 – 2020 prevention of GBV and the access to general and sexual & reproductive for Montenegro; Strategy has been adopted. health care 16 public meetings and 2 round tables with Roma representatives and representatives of institutions
5.2 Identify best practices 16 awareness raising events For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report 5.3. Organise awareness raising events at local level, including activities 1.336 Roma women and 291 Roma men trained in particular targeting men on 144 different workshops/seminars
5.4 Train Romani women and men on prevention of GBV and access to Roma Women organizations participated at general and sexual & reproductive health care regional conferences
5.5. Roma women CSOs document best practices and participate in 2 regional country learning conferences
(Changes of) Assumptions for No changes of Expected Results and Assumptions changes, if any For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report
Monitoring, Project management (difficulties encountered, management measures)
Difficulties encountered during project implementation and management measures applied to solve the problems, e.g. changed project environment, target group, local partner organization and other local parties involved and/ or other difficulties encountered that have led to a change in project planning. Lessons learned as a result and how they have been taken into consideration for further project implementation. Status of implementation of recommendations made by ADA and/ or the respective Coordination Office (e.g. EIA and gender assessment, external project progress analysis). Documentation/ publications/ visibility: what activities have been carried out to publish project results and lessons learnt
Better Future - There were no changes to the implementation of the project, amendments in relation to the proposal or any obstacles or difficulties during implementation. Monitoring was done through sending regular periodic narrative and financial reports with supporting documentation to CARE, through joint meetings and field visits by CARE including an institutional monitoring table.
ADC visibility was fully respected. All calls, memos, publications, promotional materials, brochures, project documents contained the ADC logo in clearly visible place (on the cover page or title). Also on the official website of the Association (www.bolja-buducnost.com.ba) ADC logo was displayed.
Members of the CRI in the current period performed continuous monitoring activities of REA Women's Network "FIRST" and of the Institute of Social inclusion, which implemented small grant projects. The project team of CRI exercised daily monitoring of all activities of the organization through observations, monitoring, regular meetings, oral and written communication with persons responsible for the implementation of specific project activities, analysis of the results achieved in relation to the planned activities, regularly prepared narrative and financial statements on the achievements of all projects. Implementation of quality monitoring has contributed to the reputation and credibility of the organization to be promoted with both institutions at the local and national level, and with international organizations and NGOs. The reputation and credibility of the organization, as well as the results achieved through CRI implemented projects have contributed to additional funding. And due to the achieved credibility and the creative approach CRI received applications for internships from four persons through a program of employment implemented by Montenegro government and employment agency. CRI - In addition to the above figures over 20 media appearances, two press conferences and one public roundtable at the American corner in Podgorica took place, where representatives of CRI talked about the activities and status of Roma and Egyptians in Montenegro. Bearing in mind that they are transmitted through the media at national level, we believe that as a cumulative effect of about 70% of the total population of Montenegro (of 620,029) are now familiar with the problems faced by Roma and Egyptian in Montenegro as well as the activities of the Centre for Roma Initiatives to improve their position and integration in Montenegro society. For more details please see Annex 12 For more details please see Annex 13
Evaluation
In case evaluation measures have been carried out during the reporting period please provide a short summary, including relevant findings and recommendations. In case no evaluation measures have been carried out during the reporting period, please indicate the date when they will be carried out and what the actual state of preparations is. How will the evaluation results be taken into consideration for the further project implementation? The mid-term evaluation was carried out by the evaluator, Ms. Ana Popovicki Capin, who is an experienced regionally active consultant in the field of cross-sectoral public policy analyses and an For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report evaluator of gender programs with local and international organizations. The evaluation covered the first year and a half of project implementation, from Dec 1, 2011 through May 31, 2013 with the aim to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the progress of the FAIR Project, to summarize lessons learned and to provide recommendations for further action. Since the evaluation was finalized in July, we are able to report here not only the findings on positive achievements and recommendations, but also CARE’s and partners actions undertaken during the last six months in order to address the stated suggestions for improvement. For full evaluation report please see Annex 14 Positive achievements - The mid-term evaluation report positively acknowledged the intensive strategic planning and needs assessment in the inception phase, which has built a sound base for the project implementation. - The report highlighted that one of the local partners claimed during the evaluation that ‘this project is changing politics’. Changes related to Roma leaders were recognized, which have been elected or appointed to decision-making bodies, and thus became more visible and recognised as positive role models5. As planned, the National Action Plans (NAPs) were reviewed in all three countries with the contributions from our local partner organisations and the formed Coalitions. The CSOs also influenced the CEDAW reports, where their expertise on the problems, needs and rights of RAE Women could feed into the final formats. Nevertheless there are several political external factors out of the reach of the project management that limit the efforts to get the NAPs fully adopted. It requires a considerable political will that these strategic documents will be taken seriously, will be budgeted for and thus also implemented. CARE, its local partners, and the national Coalitions of NGOs are nevertheless active on several levels to influence public policy thus in certain areas considerable achievements have been achieved.6 There are a number of initiatives underway to address the inclusion of Roma women in decision-making bodies. - The creation of Coalitions and the political activism is an additional impetus for the visibility of the local partners and other CSOs. Thus there is a clear contribution that rights of RAE Women are subject to a more visible public debate! (One of the most successful examples is the early marriage campaign in Montenegro during the month of Roma Women Activism March 8-April 8, 2013) - A wide range of coordination processes have been initiated/undertaken, particularly with institutions involved with Roma girl’s education on different administrative levels. And an increased number of interventions have happened to bring Roma girls back to school. Although there is no systematic data on the national level, the project partners are collecting data from schools and municipalities. This proves to be a challenge after all, given the small scale support provided to the CSOs and their related capacities. - Also the capacities of the CSOs have been strengthened in several dimensions. Even if some of our local partners, have considerable experience with political participation, some of
5 „Through FAIR,4 Roma women in BiH have been elected to the Roma Board and one of them is Head of the Roma Board, an advisory body for the BiH Council of Ministers (state level), one woman in Serbia has been elected to the gender-equality council of the Ombudsman’s Office and one woman in Montenegro has been elected to the Commission for Monitoring of the Implementation of the Strategy for REA in MNE.” (For further information see the Mid-Term Evaluation Report)
6 In addition to the evaluation report, we would like to highlight that in Serbia the NAP related budget was adopted in July 2013. This accomplishment was unknown to the time, when the evaluation was conducted, thus it doesn´t appear in the evaluation report. No progress has been achieved yet by the governments on the NAP budgeting in BiH and Montenegro. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report them have been gaining additional skills, while they are present in the public advisory and decision making bodies.
o By networking they are empowered to be more visible in the public.
o They are opening ‘difficult’ topics, like Roma girls dropping out of school, forced marriages etc.
o The Forum theatre has been promoted throughout the networks to share the good practice model. o And finally the capacities of CSOs especially in finance management have been enhanced.
Recommendations from the evaluation and steps undertaken to address them - The evaluation report highlighted that it would be important to define with bigger accuracy some of the indicators, especially those related to the recognition of best practice in education. The team recognized some challenges in terms of an efficient monitoring system that would better aggregate data from the high number of stakeholders involved. As a response on that shortcoming, an intensive effort was made to re-design the existing system in order to better serve the implementation (to measure in a coherent way drop-outs, attendance, parents´ participation in different support and educational events, involvement of public stakeholders and to evaluate change in time). The results of these efforts are presented in the table above. - Given the shortcomings related to M&E, it has to be acknowledged that CARE does well in building the capacity of partners; nevertheless some of the small grantees do not have the skills and capacities to monitor and collect data from the field. Also given the small financial support, they have limited time resources to devote to this task. In this period CARE organized workshops and will continue to do so to address this problem with the involvement of CSOs. Related to the two recommendations the CARE project team has received assistance from CARE Austria’s Project Officer in terms of suggestions for improvement of the monitoring system. As a result, excel tables were created for each of the small grants series and the institutional support grants for partners to enable a unified way for collecting and summarizing quantitative data. CARE’s gender coordinator, project manager and officer have visited the partners to discuss the process and expected results and partners suggestions were taken into consideration in creating the revised system. The draft versions were distributed among the partners and tested for understanding and accuracy. This new system is being used for summarizing the data for this report and CARE is planning to conduct a joint feed-back session with the partners in late February to clarify certain points that still seem to be differently understood and handled by some partner organizations. In spite of a smart table design with the minimum requirement of technical knowledge on the part of partners, clear instruction and hands-on assistance provided, it is evident that the lack of technical skills in some organizations still presents an obstacle in timely and accurate collection. The overall opinion is that the updated monitoring data collection model is a helpful tool not only for CARE’s reporting purposes but also for a more comprehensive and easier data collection for partner organizations that might be used for their other activities as well as monitoring on organizational/program level. - The evaluation also identified a problem with a lack of feedback from the local partners on the composition of Coalitions that are to be led by them. As an answer on this CARE will jointly reassess the functioning of the Coalitions and departing from the grassroots perspective will facilitate a better coordination. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report In order to improve this practice, a point was made to address this matter during each monitoring visit of the project team to partners as well as jointly discuss the progress of the coalition work in joint regional workshops and meetings. The fact is that there are no funds available for the Coalition meetings exclusively, but that the Coalitions in all three countries are functional and active. - In Montenegro, the membership is stable and the coordination meetings have been held on a regular basis as a part of the small grants (education and GBV) implementation, where all of the Coalition members are involved in and work as a team. - In Serbia the Coalition work is also focused on practical joint work with a stable membership. The Coalition members have decided amongst themselves who will apply with what to small grants call for applications. They have mostly used CARE’s meetings and workshops to have Coalition face to face meetings and have applied jointly for several other calls for proposals. The members have also been active in agreeing upon and coordinating roles and responsibilities in lobbying for the adoption of the revised National Action Plan as well as in organizing actions for the 16 Days of Activism in 2013. - As far as BiH is concerned, the members of the Roma Women Network that are Coalition members use every opportunity to meet and plan joint activities as well as decide about organizations to apply for certain calls for proposals. However, it is evident that two NGOs (one from Tuzla, one from Sarajevo) that are not the network members have been less engaged in the work of the Coalition. - One of the findings of the Mid-term evaluation was that the project design and the several parallel topics (political participation, education and combating GBV) are too ambitious in the framework of one project of this size and duration. As the envisaged approach departs from the idea that a holistic and coordinate project implementation is needed to address multiple- discrimination of RAE women, it remains to be seen at the final evaluation stage, if the claim of the evaluator will be confirmed. (The component on GBV is planned to be implemented in the remaining period.) As described above, in the narrative report, ten GBV and health small grants are in the implementation phase and there are ten more to be awarded in the next period. The CARE project team has the project design and the dynamics of implementation in mind while coordinating activities that are to contribute jointly to the expected objectives set. - The report addressed also the involvement of fathers in the workshops, in order to shape their awareness on girls/women rights and education. Although it was acknowledged that this has been an important initiative, the evaluator recommended to better define the methodology for addressing and defining the rules, how fathers/parents are selected and approached. To respond to this point, the project team, will try to draw lessons learned across the countries with the participation of the local partners and CSOs. All of the partners involved recognize the need for increased involvement of Roma men in both education and GBV/health related activities. Although each local partner adjusts their approach to the local context and opportunities, this evaluation comment has been brought to partners’ attention and will be considered in the following phase as well. - The evaluator has also recommended a closer coordination with UN Women BiH team, especially in the areas of introducing Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) at the local level 7. The CARE team has already coordinated with the UN Women regional team in terms of exchanging skills and knowledge by engaging their experts into delivering training to the FAIR
7 Reference was made on UN Women expertise and knowledge products, especially the new GRB textbook to be published in September 2013. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report participants on Gender Sensitive Budgeting for the start. Other opportunities of cooperation will be explored. CARE project manager has had a series of meetings and discussions with the UN Women BiH representatives which resulted in their expert on Gender Sensitive Budgeting to deliver four training sessions to partner organizations in Serbia and Montenegro free of charge.
Sustainability
According to chapter no. 7 of the project description CARE has built upon existing coalitions and networks that create a base for advocacy and awareness raising for Roma and Women NGOs. Some of them were established in former CARE projects and continue to be operational, involving key stakeholders into the liaison with public policy makers. The Coalitions proved to be crucial to effectively mobilize female Roma leaders in drafting, commenting and adapting key strategic documents related to the Status of Roma in the three countries and on Women´s Rights. These networks and their representatives have been strengthened and trained in selected topics, specifically in political participation and gender sensitive budgeting, thus enabling them to further advocate for a sustainable change. The capacity building targeted also the operational skills of the coalition members, thus enabling them an improved quality of project implementation, reporting and monitoring their activities.
On the local level, good practice examples were exchanged on mechanisms, how to enhance education of Roma children and girls specifically. The so called cross-sectoral local committees were established that coordinate to prevent and fight drop-outs of Roma girls. This institutional model shall be strengthened to be able to effectively commit to the above aim of raising the educational level of our beneficiaries. Some of the National Action Plans adapted reflect upon gender related issues (specifically in Serbia and in Montenegro), thus first steps were taken to introduce a strategic framework for policies that would respond upon the needs of Roma communities and especially to those of Roma women and girls. It remains to be seen if political will enables further progress.
During the reporting period the main representatives of partner organizations were active and applied for further funding acquired knowledge during writing project proposals for funding: RWC Bibija received funding for : - Open Society Foundation : "The mobilization of the Roma community in monitoring the implementation of human, minority and women's rights", December 2013 - March 2015; - Open society Foundations, Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma (MtM): „Building capacities of Roma Women CSO members for access to national and EU funding opportunities“, October 2013 – October 2014. - Applied for EIDHR project, passed the technical part of the application, waiting for the final decision.
ARW Better future received funding for: - "Support for Roma women work network" (April 1, 2013 – April 30, 2014) is supported by the Open Society Fund BiH in the amount of 35,204 BAM. - "Core support for the Better Future and support to Roma Women's Network" with the OAK Foundation. The duration of this grant is the period March 2013 - December 2015 years and the amount of funds that we received for this period was $ 150,000 or $ 50,000 per year. - Thanks to the Global Fund for Women and their support in the amount of $ 25,000 we bought a company car for the association. - Thanks to Better Future activities that were implemented as part of an institutional grant managed funds are provided for the implementation of activities of the Roma Women's Network for the year 2014. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report CRI received funding for: - Continuation of the "Action against forced and early marriages in the Roma and Egyptian" (The U.S. Embassy in Podgorica) - the period November 2013 - April 2014, which was approved by the Democratic Commission (€ 17,176)
Perspectives
Changes and adjustments necessary with regard to the following reporting period (see chapter no. 6 of the project document) Detailed project plan and budget for the following project year if stipulated by contract.
The recommendations provided in the Mid-term evaluation report were reflected upon and measures were taken for improvement. See chapter Evaluation for a summary of provisions. Changes envisaged are related to the request for a No-cost extension period of three months. Please refer to the letter with the official request for budget amendment and to the related revised budget. For Active Inclusion & Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans
8285-00/2011 Progress Report Annexes of the progress report List of annexes to the activity report Annex 1 –Revised National Action Plan BiH Annex 2 - List of participants at the conference Annex 3- ADC political participation 2013 Annex 4 - Workshop PCM-Trainings on generic skills for Roma women Annex 5 - Small grants 2013 Education Annex 6 –Enrolment of children in Schools Annex 7 –Education monitoring table detailed Annex 8 - List of small grant for education recipients by country and locality Annex 9 - GBV monitoring table detailed Annex 10 –CARE small grant monitoring activities Annex 11- Photo Center for mother Success Zenica,B&H Annex 12 – Visibility materials and media Annex 13 - Final Evaluation Report Annex 14 - Audit report
Request next disbursement
Summary project Amount approved so Amount presented Remaining budget budget (relevant for far for verification as at accounting) due date according to contract 888.800 Eur 197.168,44 Eur 304.493,42 Eur 387.138,13 Eur
Request for disbursement for the next accounting period: nA