Claim and Reality

International conferenceOn the educational situation in (and from) South East Europe

Bonn, 24 and 25 September, 2013

FINANCING AND MONITORING ROMA EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

Nadir RedzepiBoard Member Roma Education Fund

Roma Education Fund» The Roma Education Fund was established as part of

the Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005-2015)˃ Work 14 countries, including in all New Member States as

Decade signatories» REF’s objective is to reduce the gap in educational

outcomes between Roma and non-Roma children» It has three major programs:

˃ Project grants (337 to date)˃ Higher Education scholarships (1000 a year)˃ Policy Development, Advocacy and Technical Assistance

» Total budget around 7 m EUR per year» 18 Staff in Budapest office, 8 staff in country

Roma Education Fund

Everyone – from parents to policymakers – has a role to play in supporting children and youth in their education and development. We encourage governments, corporations, philanthropies, and local communities to support policies and invest in programs that help Romani children to get the best start in life and enable them to successfully continue and complete their educational careers.

Mission

SEE Context

» Bilateral disputes and ethnic tensions, frequent institutional reforms, state (and nation) building process

» Catching-up agenda = copy-paste of EU legislations followed by weak implementation

» Limited resources (3-5% GDP), culturally diverse, politically and institutionally unstable

» Fragile civil society, dependency culture from donor funds; recent focus on EU funds;

REF’s approach

» REF uses funds to:˃Move from projects to policies;˃Scale up effective interventions;˃Go from policies to structural

change at local level;» Increase institutional and human capital

for absorption of EU funds.

Projects per country 2005 to 2012

ALB BULBiH

CRO CZEHUN

KOSM

KDM

LDM

NEROU

SRB

SVK

Int.0

1000000200000030000004000000500000060000007000000

Funds committed by REF in 2005 to 2012(22,9 m. EUR)

Projects per country 2005 to 2012

Albania Bulgaria Bosnia & Herzegovina Croatia

676,144 5,849,865 449,888 772,955

Czech Rep. Hungary Kosovo Macedonia Moldova

879,704 2,487,931 311,057 3,550,676 538,870

Montenegro Romania Serbia Slovakia Int’l

508,204 5,177,952 3,351,751 2,011,634 538,870

Countries: Albania

2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

20000400006000080000

100000120000140000160000180000200000

Funds committed by REF in since 2008 (in EUR)

Countries: Bulgaria

2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

Funds committed by REF in since 2008 (in EUR)

Countries: BiH

2011 20120

20000400006000080000

100000120000140000160000

Funds committed by REF in since 2008 (in EUR)

Countries: Croatia

2010 2011 20120

1000020000300004000050000600007000080000

Funds committed by REF in since 2008 (in EUR)

Countries: Kosovo

2011 20120

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

Funds committed by REF in since 2008 (in EUR)

Countries: Macedonia

2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

Funds committed by REF in since 2008 (in EUR)

Countries: Montenegro

2011 20120

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

140000

Funds committed by REF in since 2008 (in EUR)

Countries: Serbia

2008 2009 2010 2011 20120

50000100000150000200000250000300000350000400000

Funds committed by REF in since 2008 (in EUR)

Successes» Through its programs, REF has trained more than 24,000 teachers

in making school environments less hostile to Romani children. Early School Leaving (ESL) programs reached 78,196 Romani children in 13 countries of Central and South Eastern Europe in the period 2005–2012. Through their activities, REF partners have reached out to over 309,000 Romani parents. More than 49,000 children have been supported with direct enrollment in early childhood development programs, which significantly contributes to prevention of early school leaving at later stages of education. Over 35,000 scholarships were granted to Romani students to complete their upper secondary education through the provision of school-based mentoring and tutoring. In just one example of the positive impact that this can have, 90 percent of students supported with scholarships completed the school year with a grade point average (GPA) over 3.05 in Macedonia.

Beneficiaries of REF-funded projects

Preschool e

ducation

Prev. of e

arly s

chool le

aving

Compl. upper s

econdary

edu.

Tertiary

education

Parental

particip

ation (*

10)

Desegre

gation

Prev. of s

pecial e

du.

In-servi

ce te

acher t

raining

Roma employe

d in pro

jects0

20000

40000

60000

80000

Beneficiaries

Beneficiaries

Grants Program» In 2012, the REF Board approved 50 new grants (of 80

submitted grant applications) in support of the implementation of projects in 13 countries for a total amount of EUR 2,573,810.

» There were 116 active projects in 2012; average project length was about 12 months and average project cost was EUR 53,500. The level of co-funding raised by REF partners in the 50 projects in 2012 reached EUR 1,964,511. Seventy percent of grants were awarded to former REF partners and approximately 30 percent was awarded to new partners. Overall, the average approval rate was 41 percent for 2005–2012.

Projects per country in 2012

ALB BULBiH

CRO CZEHUN

KOSM

KDM

LDM

NEROU

SRB

SVK

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

Funds committed by REF in 2012 (in EUR)

Reimbursable grants» REF’s Reimbursable Grants Program provides support to

Roma NGOs in accessing EU Structural Funds and other associated funds. A monetary advance is provided to organizations that have been awarded grants from EU sources, allowing them to start activities before actual financing from the respective government agencies or the EU is disbursed. As these disbursements are frequently delayed, without REF’s assistance, these projects would not be able to start on time or would face cash shortages, and it would be unlikely that the project objectives would be achieved.

» Until the end of 2012 REF provided reimbursable grants in the total amount of EUR 657,146, thus mobilizing EUR 29,297,130.

Scholarship program» Scholarship Program offers four academic merit-based

scholarship schemes in 12 countries of the Decade of Roma Inclusion (all Decade countries except Spain) as well as in Moldova, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. The four scholarship schemes are:

Roma Memorial University Scholarship Program (RMUSP) Roma International Scholar Program (RISP) Law and Humanities Program (LHP) Roma Health Scholarship Program (RHSP)

Scholarship program

2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 2012/130

500000

1000000

1500000

2000000

2500000

Total amount of higher education scholarships provided (in EUR)

Monitoring » Combining opinion-based (qualitative) and

measuring factual change(quantitative) » Efforts to include all relevant steps and

stakeholders in introducing project/policy adjustments, data collection - measuring soft and hard impact, like developing local partnership, drop out rates, GPA scores, transition from (pre)primary to secondary to tertiary level, number of graduates, etc.

ChallengesIn financing REF activities the foundation is experiencing number of challenges:

» Funding inconsistencies – disabling to provide multiannual support to one cohort for at least four years. Withdrawal of big donors from the region;

» Schools and NGOs focused on short term problems, unable to address underlying causal factors and keep focus on long-term solutions

» In rural and undeveloped areas REF has to incentivize school teachers and address the needs of children in similar situation as Roma in order to avoid conflicts

Thank you!Please visit www.romaeducationfund.org to read more and learn about how to support us.