The Roma Initiatives Office invites interested nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to apply for funding to advance the rights and integration of Roma. More than two decades after the start of the transition to democratic institutions and market economies in Central and Eastern Europe, there is a consensus that there has been no major breakthrough in achieving the integration of Roma. For some Roma, the situation is even worse than before, with many new challenges in terms of the financial crisis, increased social tensions, rising anti-Gypsyism and Roma policies that generally lack clear funding commitments, realistic time-frames, reliable ethnically-disaggregated data, and indicators to measure progress. The current advocacy approaches and capacities of Roma organizations and citizens groups have had limited results. This is compounded by a lack of renewed vision, weakened civic activism, brain drain, and little or no public recognition of the critical voices of Roma. At the same time, there is also cause for hope. The situation of Roma is more visible than ever. There is no longer any doubt that it presents the major human rights challenge for Europe today. Also, among Roma civil society, there is a critical awareness of the need to move forward in a new way. Roma civil society has started identifying the major challenges and lessons learned from the previous twenty years.
Eligibility
NGOs registered in the following countries are eligible to apply: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Spain.
While we wish to support quality projects in all eligible countries, the Roma Initiatives Office plans to allocate the majority of its resources for this call in its current focus countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia.
Budget
The current call has no restrictions as to the amount of support for a given project. In the concept paper, applicants should provide a minimum and a maximum budget estimate for completing the project. Overhead (administrative) costs should not exceed 10% of a project budget.
Deadline: 19 March 2013
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