MAKING IT WORK TOGETHER

29

&ORVLQJ WKH JDS )RXQGDWLRQ VXSSRUW IRU 5RPD HGXFDWLRQ

While the spotlight these days is on Europes growing Muslim population, its largest minority group gets relatively little attention. The Roma Education Fund (REF), which has been working since 2005 to help young Roma get integrated into national education systems, hopes to signicantly reduce the Romas perennial marginalisation. Set up within the framework of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2015, and supported by its co-founders, the World Bank and the Open Society Institute, and a host of national governments, REF also receives funding from a group of foundations. Although this support is fairly modest, foundations provide important added value to the Fund and can help close the funding gap faced by REF as it works to close the educational gap in outcomes between Roma and non-Roma. Hywel Ceri Jones, Policy Director of the Network of European Foundations (NEF), calls REF a real attempt to empower the Roma people by providing a more focused policy and funding framework that they can take full advantage of. NEF has brought together a group of foundations under its umbrella to provide collective support to the Fund. For the 2005-2009 period, the NEF group has committed 900,000 euros out of the total REF budget of 28,775,831 euros. It has a seat on the REF Board, putting it in a good position to inuence Fund policies. Christian Petry, Executive Director of the Freudenberg Stiftung, represents the NEF group on the Board and chairs the NEF Steering Committee dealing with the Fund. For the rst time there really is a comprehensive approach to the Roma riddle, says Petry regarding the Fund. The idea of foundation involvement in REF was rst incubated as a project in an EFC interest group (now part of the EFC Diversity, Migration and Integration Interest Group) and received the support of the EFC Governing Council. Petry, whose foundation is a member of the group, was mandated by it to approach NEF to help make the idea a reality. This led to the project being spun off to NEF. Four of the ve members of the NEF group supporting the Fund are EFC members. The Fund supporters include the Evens Foundation, the Freudenberg Stiftung, the Barrow Cadbury Trust, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Remembrance and Future Fund. is taking it seriously, stresses Petry. Working within Action Plans gives REF access to top ofcials in the Decade of Roma Inclusion countries. This is certainly an added value. Its opened the doors, notes Jones.

Two-way street
Alexandre Marc, Director of the Roma Education Fund, sees such networking as a two-way street. He considers it one of the three main benets that foundations bring to the Fund, along with experience and, of course, funding. The foundations supporting the Fund help it gain access to NEF and its partners, as well as EU institutions and other key actors.

A school with integrated education of Roma and non-Roma children in Hungary

Perhaps the most distinctive aspect of REF is that it works within the context of national government and EU policies towards the Roma. The precondition for operation of REF [in a given country] is that there is a National Action Plan [for Roma Inclusion], that the government

At the same time, REF enables foundations to inuence government policy because it has access to public ofcials at the highest levels by having the World Bank and important bilateral donors on its board. So its also in their interest they wouldnt have as much

EFFECT | summer 2007

European Foundation Centre | www.efc.be

30

MAKING IT WORK TOGETHER

access to governments if they were just running [their own] programmes, says Marc. There are things that foundations bring to us andthings we can bring to foundationswe bring a lot of different actors together, so we have convening power. Moreover, REF can magnify foundations impact in this area. This scaling-up element is very important [for] an organisation like ours, adds Marc. According to Marc, foundations can help ll a growing funding gap with regard to Roma issues. While bilateral government aid is rapidly decreasing, there is a widespread assumption that

to attract more foundations to its REF group? And given that most funders are in Western Europe, should the Fund expand to the West? Its our aspiration to bring others on board, but we dont want to jump, cautions Jones. Before we try to attract other European foundationswe need to have a better picture of how the Fund is working, so that we can convince others of the strategic importance of the Fund in bringing about strategic change. The best time for such stocktaking, says Jones, will be a meeting planned for December 2007 to review REFs progress.

Roma integration, and is carrying out comprehensive country assessments. She adds that every three months REF sends monitoring missions to the eld to check on its projects. 75% of our projects are completely on track, says Marc. Westward expansion is a possibility, but governments must have an Action Plan in place, as noted above. The big distance between Roma family culture and formal education systems is the same across Europe, as Petry points out, so the West could learn from what is being done in Central and Eastern Europe. It is worth noting that the majority of Europes Roma are now in the EU. What would Marc tell a foundation interested in Roma issues? First, there are very interesting projects that are ready to be funded; second, you need to work in dialogue with national governments; and third, most issues that foundations deal with (e.g. education, health, human rights) are serious concerns for the Roma, so dont forget the Roma when working on these issues. The Roma tend to be neglected, but REF is trying to change that with the help of foundations and other actors. In April 2007, REF organised a major conference on Roma education in Budapest in collaboration with the Hungarian government. It was attended by the Hungarian prime minister, the EU commissioner for education and culture, education ministers and other high ofcials from the Decade countries, REF donor organisations, and a range of experts. In the words of Christian Petry, the Roma felt that they had been taken seriously." Nyegosh Dube, EFC For more information, go to: www.romaeducationfund.hu

REF programme ofcer Beata Olahova visiting a Roma settlement in Slovakia

EU Structural Funds are lling the gap. But this is not true. The result is that the Roma are falling in between the cracks, says Marc. Moreover, EU funds are difcult to use as they lack exibility, making it a challenge to direct these funds to Roma at community level.

More partners
Given the current modest level of foundation support, is NEF seeking

The evaluation process has in fact already begun. The rst year was the year of starting the programme. Now we have 70 projects. This year is the year of evaluation, explains Marc. Vivien Gyuris, responsible for partnerships and donor coordination at REF, notes that the Fund is already producing very substantial research and policy advice, including a study in Hungary showing the economic benets of

EFFECT | summer 2007

European Foundation Centre | www.efc.be