EEA/Norway – Page 2 – ERGO Network

Roma Active Albania’s Learning Academy in Durres

Roma Active Albania’s Learning Academy in Durres

The second Learning Academy was organized by our partner Roma Active Albania (RAA) in Durres from 24-28 March 2022. The Academy was organized under the project New solutions to old problems – exchange of new types of approaches in the field of Roma integration, funded by the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation and implemented by Nevo Parudimos association as a lead organization together with its partners from Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey.

It gathered 24 participants from 11 countries from the European Members States, Western Balkans and Turkey.

RAA’s Learning Academy was opened by the Director of Roma Active Albania Mr. Adriatik Hasantari. He welcome the participants and guests who came from different countries and partner organizations.

On the first day of the session, the participants were introduced to each other and the leaders of the Academy explained in detail how the academy program is expected to develop in the coming days. Partner organizations such as, ERGO network Slovo 21, Otaharin, Roma, Zero discrimination, Autonomia, Nevo Paradimos, RARC and Roma Active Albania presented their work and important events of 2022.

The second part of the day was dedicated to proceeding with complaints concerning various EU institutions. This session called “How to file a complaint to the EU” was delivered by an external expert Andor Urmos. At the end of this workshop, based on their knowledge and expertise, each group presented the method on how to follow up and address issues to institutions that are dependent on the European Union. Participants also shared with each other cases when they themselves had filed a complaint to the EU institutions.

This was followed by the Project Management board game. In this game, the participants had to learn the new development method and offer their feedback. Colleagues from Autonomia helped the rest of the participants with their expertise in the field.

On the next day, the program started framing the previous day and the participants started working on the workshop: Mystery Shopping which was related to a creative method to detect and work on Roma issues.

In the second session of the day, the participants learned about advocacy on how to address Roma issues and the exploration of practices, methods, and tools on how to bring new elements to their work.

The fourth day of the program was related recall the game under “Transparency and accountability of CSOs”. It is a game developed by ERGO Network and its partners and translated into several languages. The game brings recommendations on how grassroots civil society organizations should be governed and managed in order to be reliable and accountable. Fulfilling the criteria will bring attention to the organization’s quality work. The set of criteria focuses on governance, financial management and performance. Later on the day was an open space for members to share their skills, knowledge and expertise.

The Learning Academy was closed with a follow-up and evaluation of the meeting.

ERGO Network’s Event on Funding of Bottom-up Approaches-NEWS

Funding of bottom-up approaches:

Ways forward to support Roma inclusion

9 December 2021

On the 9th of December, ERGO Network organized its online round table Funding of bottom-up approaches: Ways forward to support Roma inclusion, in the framework of the project “New solutions to old problems – exchange of new type of approaches in the field of Roma integration”

Over the past 20 years, Roma communities across Europe have seen very few improvements to their living situation, even though many public, private, international, and national funding programmes were aimed at Roma inclusion and empowerment. One of the reasons for the lack of success of such funding programmes is the application of a top-down approach that does not consider the realities and voices of Roma at the grassroots level and comes with a heavy administrative burden. All evaluations of the last EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies acknowledged that Roma communities needed to be involved in project design, implementation, and evaluation to bring changes at local level.

The round table served to launch ERGO Network’s new Analysis of funding for bottom-up approaches to Roma inclusion, shedding light on the importance of bottom-up approaches and assessing funding programmes targeted at Roma inclusion. The event reflected on the challenges identified and provided input on how to improve existing funding programmes.

The main recommendations of study are:

General

All strategic and planning documents on Roma inclusion need to be public
Donors need to consider weak local governance
Beyond consultations. Implement participatory research methods for needs and strategic development
Detailed approaches with implementation plans, not general guidance, and concepts
More resources, funding, and human capacity, for community-led approaches

European Union

Any ESIF funds being managed by local municipalities should use a community-led and participatory approach
Good governance support should be highly recommended with any funding managed by local municipalities
Desk Officers, Managing Authorities, and NRCPs need specific guidance on what is CLLD and how to implement them
EU needs a detailed plan that defines the concepts of participation, empowerment, and bottom-up approaches and how to ensure they will be implemented
Monitoring Committees should be more independent, transparent, have representative from Roma community

National Governments

There should be a defined Roma inclusion budget with corresponding implementation plans, indicators, and monitoring system
Go beyond Monitoring Committee requirements
Develop a strong cooperation with RCM
Mainstream project need specific Roma inclusion targets
Conduct campaigns with local governments and community members on the importance of Roma inclusion to reduce the barrier of bias and antigygpsism

State Development Agencies

Develop approaches and priorities outside of the EU agenda
Should have public and detailed documents on their approach to Roma inclusion
Mainstream social inclusion strategies need details on how they ensure the impact on Roma inclusion
Longer-term investments that use community-led and participatory approaches
Shift the priority of their investment from bilateral cooperation to more focus on setting inclusion agendas

Intergovernmental Organizations

A new long-term and collaborative initiative to be develop with a focus on community-led, participatory, antidiscrimination, and empowerment approaches
Develop agendas based on their organizational values not EU or other institutional agendas

Private Foundations

Increase transparency in their funding approaches and strategies for Roma inclusion
Implement measures with the goal to test alternative approaches that can be shared and scaled
Larger portion of funding should go to supporting community organization’s operational and human capacities. Especially, core funding.

The full research report will be officially launched at the beginning of 2022.

The conference was very well attended with over 70 participants, and it brought together ERGO Network national members from the grassroots level in many European countries, as well as other national practitioners, private donors, European civil society organisations, EU policymakers from the European Parliament and the European Commission, and other stakeholders.

If you attended this event, or watched the recording, don’t forget to let us know what you thought about it by filling in this evaluation form. Thank you!

See more:

Agenda of the event
Full recording of the Facebook livestream
Visuals provided by 500 markers.

For more information about this event, please don’t hesitate to contact us: info@ergonetwork.org

#BottomUpFunding

This event is kindly supported by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.

The project “New solutions to old problems – exchange of new type of approaches in the field of Roma integration” is funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.

ERGO Network’s Event on Funding of Bottom-up Approaches

Funding of bottom-up approaches:

Ways forward to support Roma inclusion

9 December 2021, 10am – 12pm, Online

Join us in our discussion on bottom-up approaches to funding for Roma Inclusion!

Background

In the past 20 years, Roma communities across Europe have seen very few improvements to their living situation, even though many public and private, international, and national funding programmes were aimed at Roma inclusion and empowerment.

One of the reasons for the lack of success of such funding programmes is the application of a top-down approach that does not consider the realities and voices of Roma at the grassroots level and comes with a heavy administrative burden.

All evaluations of the last EU Framework for National Roma Integration acknowledged that Roma communities needed to be involved in project design, implementation, and evaluation to bring about change.

This now needs to be translated into better funding programmes and regulations of public and private donors, including using more national resources for smaller projects, a prioritization of bottom-up approaches, and more support for Community-Led Local Development (CLLD).

With this event, we aim to raise donors’ awareness of the importance to give more support to bottom-up approaches, to finally improve the living situation of Roma communities on local level.

Objectives

The main findings and recommendations aim to kick-start a debate with policy makers, donors, and civil society on how to design more effective funding programmes that can lead to a real change for local Roma communities.

Participants

The conference will bring together EU policymakers from across the institutional spectrum, donors, ERGO Network members, civil society from the grassroots level, as well as other relevant EU and national stakeholders.

Find the agenda here
Register here

We’re looking forward to counting you among the participants, so that together we can build positive, sustainable, evidence-based policy solutions that work!

#BottomUpFunding

This event is kindly supported by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.

Save the Date: Funding of bottom-up approaches

SAVE THE DATE: Funding of bottom-up approaches: Ways forward to support Roma inclusion

9 December 2021, 10-12 am

Please save the date for another insightful online conference organized by ERGO Network, discussing the importance of better funding for bottom-up approaches to Roma inclusion. The event is part of the project “New solutions to old problems – exchange of new type of approaches to Roma integration”, funded by Iceland, Lichtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.

In the past 20 years, Roma communities across Europe have seen very few improvements to their living situation, even t hough many public and private, international and national funding programmes were aimed at Roma inclusion and empowerment. One of the reasons for the lack of success of such funding programmes is the application of a top-down approach that does not consider the realities and voices of Roma at the grassroots level and comes with a heavy administrative burden.

All evaluations of the last EU Framework for National Roma Integration acknowledged that Roma communities need to be involved in project design, implementation and evaluation in order to bring about change. This now needs to be translated into better funding programmes and regulations of public and private donors, including using more national resources for smaller projects, a prioritization of bottom-up approaches and more support for Community-led local development (CLLD).

With this event, we aim to raise donors’ awareness of the importance to give more support to bottom-up approaches in order to finally improve the living situation of Roma communities on local level.

Objectives

The event will serve to launch ERGO Network’s new Analysis of funding for bottom-up approaches to Roma inclusion, shedding light on the importance of bottom-up approaches and analysing funding targeted at Roma inclusion. The main findings and recommendations aim to kick-start a debate with policy makers, donors and civil society on how to design more effective funding programmes that can lead to a real change for local Roma communities.

Participants

The conference will bring together EU policymakers from across the institutional spectrum, donors, ERGO members and civil society from the grassroots level as well as other relevant EU and national stakeholders.

More information about the agenda and registration will follow soon. For questions, please contact ERGO Network Policy Officer Carmen Tanasie (c.tanasie@ergonetwork.org).

ERGO Network’s Learning Academy

ERGO Network’s Learning Academy

From 8-12 September, the partners in the project “New solutions to old problems – exchange of new type of approaches in the field of Roma integration” came together in Varna (Bulgaria) for a “Learning Academy” to exchange and learn new skills and knowledge on topics that were identified by the participants for improving their work at local level.

After the participants got to know each other and were introduced to the Academy programme, Zuzana Havirova from the Roma Advocacy and Research Centre (RARC) in Slovakia delivered a workshop on “how to manage and become a good manager at work”. on the group then had the chance to learn more about fundraising from our external expert Biljana Lalic, Funds Development Manager of the European Green Party. The main objectives of both workshops were to build organizational knowledge and management capacity of ERGO Network members, as well as to learn to better diversify sources of income for their respective organizations, and ultimately grow their financial resilience.

The second day was opened by ERGO Director Gabriela Hrabanova with a „Leaders´ vision “workshop, reflecting on how to be a charismatic leader in order attract and gain the trust of the staff and community.

The second part of the day was dedicated to “community organizing” through a workshop delivered by Marina Tota from the European Community Organizing Network, with the aim to develop participants’ capacity to engage communities in campaigning for the implementation of Roma inclusion policies at local level. At the end of the workshop the participants were able to plan and organize a campaign at local level, to identify and connect leaders andi to organize and to apply community organizing in their local projects.

Our last day started with a workshop on“Visual facilitation “, where the team of 500 markers taught participants how to use graphic cues when facilitating meetings. The participants learned how to use drawings and words to make visual presentations and to take visual notes that will help them to make their advocacy target group remember their proposals.

As of the exercises of the visual facilitation workshop the participants visualised their understanding of discrimination and social exclusion, which will enable them to better present the concept of antigypsyism to the public.

The Learning Academy was a great opportunity to bring for the first time the partners from the project “New Solutions to Old Problems” together face to face together after 18 months of online meetings, and to elevate the spirit in the network to implement the next steps in the projects and really find new solutions for old problems.

The Academy is funded by the European Commission through the EaSI programme of DG EMPL and is part of the project New Solutions To Old Problems – exchange of new type of approaches in the field of Roma integration”, funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Regional Cooperation.