Around 9 million Roma live in Europe, most of them in Central and Eastern Europe. They face systemic discrimination and severe impediments to development, including a lack of access to quality education, jobs, health care, and housing. This leads to reliance on state assistance, creating a culture of dependency and feelings of helplessness. Roma are also often excluded from political participation and must deal with regular police harassment. In short, they are isolated – politically, socially, economically, and geographically – from the rest of society.

A 2002 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) survey revealed the Romani people’s desire to integrate, rather than assimilate, through increased employment opportunities, improved access to education, and higher levels of participation in government, especially at the local level. What is lacking are institutionalized ways of addressing the underlying ethnic tensions and stereotypes, and the skills and structures to ensure that integration initiatives succeed beyond the short-term.

Over the past 14 years, Partners’ Centers across Central and Eastern Europe have pioneered successful models of Roma integration at the local level. These models empower Roma leaders with participation and conflict management skills, build the capacity of local organizations to advocate for Roma-related issues, create sustainable community structures that foster ethnic conciliation, and expand Roma access to services. The Centers have also revived existing but dormant policies such as the Roma Minority Governments throughout Hungary and Roma Advisory positions throughout the Czech Republic. These efforts have created employment opportunities, resolved housing problems, prevented violence, and serve as foundations for longer-term integration efforts.

Currently, Partners is working with its Centers in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia on the four-year Roma Integration Program (RIP) funded by USAID. This comprehensive program is developing replicable models for Roma integration through a series of initiatives at the community, national and international level. Nine target communities were selected for implementation of the Roma Integration Program (RIP) as a result of a detailed needs assessment conducted by the Centers in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. These sites represent the diversity of the Roma experience and challenges to integration in civil society.

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