Hungarian National Roma Platform

ended

Objectives The project aims to enable the Roma National Contact Point, that is, the Deputy State Secretariat for Social Inclusion, to implement the objectives set out in the National Social Inclusion Strategy (the “Strategy”) in the framework of cooperation using common efforts, as widely as possible with the involvement of the decision¬makers at all levels of the public administration, experts, the representatives of civil organizations, churches and other stakeholders. Activities In Hungary, the national consultation forums linked to the Strategy (Roma Coordination Council and Inter¬ministerial Commission for Social Inclusion) were brought into being by 83 inclusion roundtables at the district level. Their duty is to carry out the tasks outlined in the local equal opportunities programmes (”HEP”), drawn up by the local self-governments situated in the area of the given district, with the participation of the target groups and create a district-level cooperation based on the principle of subsidiarity, as well as to reinforce each other. The local equal opportunities programmes provide for measures aimed primarily at women, those living in extreme poverty, the Roma, the elderly, the disabled and children. Nevertheless, in order to facilitate the development of cooperation not only at the district level, but also at the next level of public administration, namely, the level of the counties as well, county inclusion forums must be established. With the introduction of this missing step, we can establish a connection, namely, a “bridge” between the district-level and the nationwide collaborations. Our objective currently is to establish further county inclusion forums in each of the 4 counties of Hungary, where the Roma are overrepresented (Nógrád, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, Békés, Csongrád Megye), with the intention to subsequently establish such forums in all counties in the country based on the experience gained. The backbone of the county inclusion forum is the Roma Coordination Council (just as before) which was set up in 2011, its main function is to be the advisory and consulting board for the policies of inclusion. The Council - in this project - will work closely with the county inclusion forums. This will make the national consultation procedure complete. Type and number of persons benefiting from the project The county inclusion forum directly involves civil members delegated by the county inclusion roundtables operating in the area of the given county. The project will have an indirect impact on the professionals involved in the design, implementation and monitoring of the Strategy, the decision-makers participating in the integration of the Roma, civil organizations, the Roma population, as well as the citizens of the country and the European Union. Expected results With this project we initiate that process which will contribute for evolving the county level consultation system of the social inclusion. We consider it to be particularly important that through the fields of the Strategy we involve such experts and organizations with which we had have no occasion to cooperate in available consultation forums before now. The further 4 county inclusion forums will make the content of the Strategy more transparent and facilitate the management of any possible shortfalls and problems which may arise. The work of the forums will contribute to the improvement of the social consultation and follow-up system of the Strategy by allowing access to the problems, difficulties and best practices which occur locally, but are not or are less known to the central decision-makers. Type and number of deliverables to be produced In the course of the implementation of the project, a national conference will be held, where the invitees (professionals from the central public administration, the delegates of all county self-governments of the country, participants from the district-level roundtables, representatives of civil