An international conference was held in Budapest on July 1 with government leaders of Central and Southeast Europe endorsing a new approach to reduce poverty among Roma and include them in European society through better education, health care, housing and job opportunities.
The approach includes a ’Decade of Roma Inclusion’ and a Roma Education Fund. The Decade of Roma Inclusion, to start in 2005, will include targets to be agreed over next 12 months. They will likely include goals related to poverty reduction, health, school enrollment and employment. The Roma Education Fund will provide funding to raise the educational status and performance of the Roma. The new education fund, which is expected to take a year to set up, will provide resources for new and innovative approaches aimed at boosting Roma educational opportunities. Hungary’s Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy will lead the task force following up on next steps. Once detailed plans have been agreed, the World Bank will help organize a pledging conference.
The conference brought together an unprecedented range of top government representatives, senior officials from international organizations, and leaders from the Roma community and civil society.
Featured at the conference, the new World Bank report "Roma in an Expanding Europe : Breaking the Poverty Cycle" gauges the depth of poverty among Roma people in Central and Eastern Europe and proposes more inclusive, multi-part policy solutions for grappling with their development challenges. There are an estimated 6 million Roma living in ECA and 7 to 9 million in Europe overall and their numbers are growing fast. This report — one of the first comprehensive socioeconomic studies of Roma people — explores the situation in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, and also draws examples from FYR Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Spain. Employment, education, health care, basic services and social assistance are analyzed, as is the environment for policy development. .
