For Active Inclusion and Rights of Roma Women in the Western Balkans (FAIR II) Project Grant Number 8285-00/2015 Project duration is 36 months, from November 1, 2015 to October 3, 2018 Baseline Assessment Report Funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and CARE Austria Implemented by CARE International, Balkans Developed by: Zvjezdana Batkovic, Regional Gender Program Coordinator CARE International, Balkans December 2016 Table of Contents Executive Summary..................................................................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction and Background ................................................................................................................. 3 2. Purpose and Scope.................................................................................................................................. 4 3. Process and Methodology....................................................................................................................... 4 4. Key Findings ............................................................................................................................................ 5 General Local, National and Regional Level Socio-Economic Data .......................................................... 6 ER1: Roma women and girls are empowered to exercise their rights to education, health and to life free of violence through targeted community-level assistance. ............................................................. 8 ER2: Local inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms involving CSO and institutional stakeholders are established and strengthened to support the social inclusion of Roma communities. ......................... 14 ER3: National networks of Roma and non-Roma women organizations are capacitated to influence and monitor implementation of policies related to Roma women´s rights and gender equality on local and national levels and actively engage into accountability mechanisms. ........................................... 17 ER4: Targeted Roma women organizations are strengthened to become active players in networking on regional and European level with Roma and non-Roma peer organizations and relevant institutions. ........................................................................................................................................... 30 5. On the Process ...................................................................................................................................... 32 6. Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 33 7. Annexes ................................................................................................................................................ 34 1 Executive Summary The FAIR II project is being implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia and Montenegro by CARE and three established local Roma women lead civil society organization and presents a continuation and upgrade of CARE Balkans focus on empowering Roma women and girls to become agents of change in their families and communities, but also contribute to improved structures and practices addressing women’s rights and social inclusion, on national and regional levels. The intention is to impact directly lives of at least 7,000 people, mainly Roma women and girls and men and boys in 27 Roma communities in the three target countries through a wide range of mutually intertwined and reinforcing activities. This assessment is an initial information base, but also a set of recommended actions to be addressed by the project team, partners included, and as such used as a tool for monitoring project’s progress and effectiveness. It is expected that Roma women and girls end up being more empowered to exercise their rights to education, health and to life free of violence through targeted community-level assistance. Through small grants/community level actions partners will work in 17 schools with more than 10.000 students, with over 1.800 or 17% being Roma. In addition, there are 30 Roma/Egyptian women identified and included into activities focused on finishing education and/or learning a useful skill that would increase their employability options and chances. At a total of 12 locations in all three target countries, where approximately 5800 Roma women and girls live, almost 800 or about 15% will be reached through series of awareness raising and educational workshops on changing attitudes and practices towards general health and in particular reproductive health.. The rights and access as well as the quality of service provision in the areas of education and health will be addressed as well as the rooted discriminatory attitudes of government institutions and professionals interpreted as ‘tradition’ through improved communication and mutual understanding. Further, at 19 locations Roma adult and young men are being targeted in different ways and engaged in learning about all types of violence, health consequences of violence, gender equality and new, healthier and more functional attitudes and behaviors. The targeted locations are home to 6400 Roma men; about 1500 of them will be included into project interventions or 23% of the total male population (adults and youth). The project has already engaged 34 peer-educators and nine mediators have assumed their roles to assist the partners with the community level work. A total of 22 representatives make up Coalitions in the three project countries, committed to improve policies and awareness on needs and challenges Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities are facing, presenting a mix of Roma women/Roma and non-Roma CSOs, individual representatives, Roma women networks and government representatives. Furthermore, partner organizations take part in 15 inter- sectoral CSO or government lead groups addressing the project related issues at certain localities while there are 19 partner representatives sitting in 42 local and national-level advisory, policy or decision- making bodies. CARE and partners should continue strengthening the regional exchange and learning among project countries, partners and other stakeholders as well as focus more directly to exploring the relevant European level events, networking options and partnership that might contribute to the project’s overall impact in the region. 2 1. Introduction and Background This project is a continuation and a built-on of ‘For Active Inclusion and Rights of Roma Women’ (FAIR) project, implemented for three years and also funded by the Austrian Development Cooperation, which ended February 28, 2015, in same project countries with the same project partners. The project is being implemented by CARE International Balkans and three local Roma women lead civil society organizations- as partner organizations, one from each target country: The Association ‘Better Future’ is a partner from Bosnia and Herzegovina and acts as a Coordinator of the national Roma Women Network called Success; in Montenegro the key partner is ‘Centre for Roma Initiatives’ and also a Coordinator of the national Roma Women Network called ‘The First’. ‘Bibija’ is the partner organization in Serbia and has a reputation of the strongest Roma women advocacy organization there with a strong support of other active members of the Roma women network of Serbia. During that project a total of over 15,000 people were reached in three countries (in 34 towns and municipalities and 31 Roma settlements) by CARE and 17 Roma and 9 non-Roma NGOs/CBOs. Out of the total number of direct beneficiaries 2/3 were women and 1/3 men; over 70% were Roma and the rest non-Roma representatives. The FAIR II project’s overall objective is improved socioeconomic situation of Roma women/households in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro in the target localities. The project purpose is focused on Roma women NGO´s capacities being strengthened to address national and European level strategies and interventions related to Romani women’s rights and social inclusion of Roma communities. CARE and its partners intend to accomplish this by implementing a wide range of activities leading towards tangible change at the individual, local and national levels with the involvement of civil society organizations and government representatives and institutions reflected in the following four mutually reinforcing expected results (ER): ER1: Roma women and girls are empowered to exercise their rights to education, health and to life free of violence through targeted community-level assistance; ER2: Local inter-sectoral coordination mechanisms involving CSO and institutional stakeholders are established and strengthened to support the social inclusion of Roma communities; ER3: National networks of Roma and non-Roma women organizations are capacitated to influence and monitor implementation of policies related to Roma women´s rights and gender equality on local and national levels and actively engage into accountability mechanisms; ER4: Targeted Roma women organizations are strengthened to become active players in networking on regional and European level with Roma and non-Roma peer organizations and relevant institutions. The major target groups of the project are the three local partner Roma women organizations: one from each target country; at least 10 national Roma women network members (as organizations and individuals) that will be involved in the