Project Implementation Plan
WP 2008
Project Number: IPA-08-03
Project title: Ethnic groups and social inclusion
Countries covered: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo (as defined by UNSCR 1244), former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia
Budget 2008: 130,000 Euro
Project leader: Evgenia Petkova
1. Background
The project addresses a problem which stays on top of both the domestic and EU accession agendas of the Western Balkan countries - the need to build cohesive societies based on reconciliation, non-discrimination and equal opportunities vis-à-vis existing cultural and ethnic heterogeneity.
The ethnic mix in the Western Balkan countries is remarkable: population censuses conducted in Montenegro, Serbia and Croatia in 2000 show that people belonging to an ethnic group different from the “majority” one accounted for, respectively, 57%, 16% and 7.5% of the entire population; in fYR of Macedonia 25% of the population are ethnic Albanians, while 10.6% belongs to other ethnic groups according to the 2002 census; in Kosovo, UNDP estimates that ethnic minorities account for about 11% of the total population; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to data of 1991, Bosniaks (43.7%), Serbs (31%) and Croats (17.3%) are considered to be constituent people, while the share of “others” amounts to 7.6%. The number of ethnic groups encountered in each country is also high - in Serbia there are more than 20 ethnic groups, in BiH - 17, in Croatia – 15, while in Montenegro - 14. The ethnic heterogeneity in the region is to a great extent a historical legacy, yet it has been deepened as a result of the wars in the region in the 1990-ies and this has further contributed to the vulnerability and marginalisation of the different ethnic communities.
Apart from becoming characteristics of the Western Balkan countries, ethnic diversity and divides have also posed new dilemmas and challenges in the quest of the region for political and economic stability, reforms and EU integration. The first challenge has been to re-establish ethnic reconciliation. Cultural diversity and protection of ethnic minorities, being core European values, are enshrined in the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional Minority Languages that have been already signed by the Western Balkan states. Respect for and protection of minorities is also a political criterion for EU accession which the regional countries observe, viable existence of minority communities and their non-discriminatory participation in the society being an explicit requirement of their enlargement packages.
The experience gained from the new Member States and the evidence from the Western Balkan region, however, show that the political and legal frameworks for minority rights protection are a necessary but insufficient condition for their social inclusion and integration. Poverty, long-term unemployment or precarious employment, social segregation and vulnerability are burning issues for the transitional societies of the Western Balkan region in general, yet they affect with particular strength ethnic groups and minorities in these countries. This means that legal provisions in the area of minority rights remain hollow if not accompanied with policy measures for addressing systemically the disadvantages, hidden discrimination and inequalities experienced by the respective groups in education and training, employment, social services, housing.
Viewed from this standpoint, educational deficits and underachievement, as well as skill gaps among vulnerable ethnic groups in the Western Balkan region emerge as one of the effects, but also – in the longer run – a major cause for unemployment, low incomes and/or other multiple deprivations in life, ie for social exclusion. Education and training present therefore a key challenge to sustainable and effective inclusive policies in the ethnically diverse Western Balkan countries that deserves special attention and concern.
As a response to this challenge ETF has initiated the present three-year (2007-2009) project aiming to demonstrate the potential of education and training for fighting social exclusion in culturally heterogeneous societies, as well as to equip the national stakeholders in the Western Balkan countries with relevant skills for developing and implementing long-term, sustainable strategies and measures in the field. The project, on the other hand, is consistent with the demands of the EU for putting the combat with poverty and discrimination in the forefront of accession reforms in the region and will support and re-inforce the implementation of the new IPA instrument at both regional and national level of intervention.
2. Objectives and results
The objective of the project is to enhance the capacity of national stakeholders in the Western Balkan countries to address the social exclusion of disadvantaged ethnic communities through designing and implementing inclusive and ethnically sensitive education and training measures and actions.
The specific results of the project activities will be:
· Identification of elements of good practice for the inclusion of ethnic minorities through education and training policy measures in EU Member States (in particular the new ones) and Western Balkan countries
· Dissemination of the elements of good practice to feed in the IPA programming cycle at regional level (centralised programming by the European Commission) and at national level (decentralised programming by the national authorities)
· Capacity building of national actors – through policy learning and exchange of practices – to address the specific needs of ethnic groups through education and training measures
· National strategies for social inclusion through education and training and action plans for their implementation developed in a number of selected Western Balkan countries
· Generic lessons learned on the integration of ethnic groups and minorities into mainstream society which may be applied in other regions of the world.
3. Scope
· Project approach
The project is designed as a capacity building and policy learning exercise for the key stakeholders in the countries of the Western Balkans. Based on the approach of social learning and constructivist theories that stress the importance of interaction, communication and dialogue with relevant others for learning, the project will aim to establish learning platforms – within and across the countries – to reflect on the causes for the poor educational and training outcomes of vulnerable ethnic groups, the risks these entail for cohesion and prosperity of societies in general and the remedy actions that could be undertaken. As a major input for the debate in the learning platforms the project will provide examples of good practices from the EU Member States, as well as from the Western Balkan countries themselves. Exposure to the experience of neighbouring and other countries is expected to trigger the policy learning process, cross-national comparisons to serve as starting points for policy-makers to better understand the situation and problems in their own countries, as well as to look for eventual solutions by observing similarities and differences across diverse national and cultural settings.
The examples of good practices for combating social exclusion through education and training will be discussed and analysed in the learning platforms with the aim of understanding the underlying major principles and processes, the success factors and the facilitating/inhibiting conditions for their implementation. The stakeholders participating in the policy learning, on the other hand, will bring in the process their local knowledge, culture, values, policy priorities and experience from the specific Western Balkan context. By mixing personal and impersonal (institutionalised) knowledge, by providing opportunities for sharing, communication, reflection and assessment of this knowledge within a community of peers, the project will not only promote the constructing of new policy ideas and measures but will also ensure their better local ownership which is a major prerequisite for their subsequent successful and sustainable implementation.
The role of the ETF in this capacity building and policy learning exercise will be to facilitate the process – to provide a forum and environment for learning (advisory groups, workshops, seminars), to offer initial “food for thought” (study on elements of good practice in the EU Member States and in the Western Balkans), to promote collaboration with experts in the field (international and local consultancy inputs). In doing so the project will build upon expertise developed through previous or current ETF projects in the fields of policy/peer learning and social inclusion and in particular on (i) the work on social inclusion done with the new Member States in the period 2000-2002, also including a study on the access of Roma to education, training and employment (“Current practices across Europe to assist the inclusion of Roma/Gypsy population through education and training and employment opportunities”, 2000) and (ii) the study on “Access to education, training and employment of ethnic minorities in the Western Balkans”, 2005.
The project will benefit from the experience of the Council of Europe in the region, especially during its initiation and launching stages. Later on, co-operation with the World Bank and UNDP, aimed at establishing synergy with their activities in the Western Balkan countries will be sought. Partnership with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights will also be established in order to take on board up-to-date findings and considerations with respect to issues of ethnic minorities in an EU context. The project will take into account as well any relevant conclusions coming out from the cluster on “Social inclusion and access to education” established under the EU Education and Training 2010 Programme. Finally, the project will follow and contribute, if appropriate, to any events taking place at European level and touching upon the issues of social inclusion, ethnic minorities and education and training.
The project will be implemented in four distinct, though inter-related phases.
Phase 1: Fact-finding and identification of gaps (2007). The aim of this phase is to identify and document (i) the current situation of ethnic communities in the Western Balkan countries with regard to social exclusion and access to and participation in education and training, (ii) the reasons why some ethnic groups have weak education and labour market achievements, and (iii) the impact of education and training reforms that the Western Balkan countries are implementing on the social and economic status of ethnic communities. During this phase the studies made by ETF in 2005[1] will be updated, taking into account also the outcomes of the research conducted by other international organisations, in particular UNDP and the Council of Europe. Based on this work, by the end of 2007, ETF will identify a couple of regional countries with articulated divides between ethnic groups in social and economic terms and/or with environment conducive to reforms, so that the project could target them in 2008 and 2009.
If the diversity of countries’ ethnic composition is taken into account as a selection criterion, then Montenegro (56.8% of population belonging to minority groups) and FYROM (25% Albanians and 10.6% belonging to other minority groups) stand out as priority countries for the project in 2008-09 period. Besides, fYR of Macedonia is a candidate country and Montenegro – a potential candidate country which will ensure representation of both types of countries in this more advanced stage of the project. Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the other hand, given the complexity of its ethnic composition and institutional setting, also provides a unique and challenging environment for the implementation of the project and also deserves consideration.
An international expert group – with an advisory role – will be established, consisting of experts from each Western Balkan country, representatives of international organisations and of the European Commission (DG Enlargement, DG EAC and DG Employment). The expert group will have a mixed profile of researchers, policy makers and practitioners who will offer different perspectives to the project topic and will support the project team by bringing in-depth experience and knowledge of the region and by providing advice for contextualising and tailoring project’s activities and outcomes, so that they could better fit countries’ considerations and realities. The group will be convened at regular intervals during the life of the project for consultation purposes.
Phase 2: Identification of elements of good practice (2007). The goal of this phase is to map, analyse and take into account the experience of inclusion of ethnic minorities through education and training measures gained in EU Member States (in particular the new Member States that have acceded the EU with the last two enlargement waves of 2004 and 2007) and Western Balkan countries. The EU has funded a number of projects for the inclusion of ethnic minorities (in particular Roma) in the new Member States. The Western Balkan countries have been recipients of EU and other international and bilateral foreign assistance for projects on the inclusion of ethnic minorities. Finally, the regional countries themselves have developed policies and measures that might have had a positive impact on the relative position of ethnic minorities in the education system and the labour market. All the above initiatives can offer a wealthy source of information on the effectiveness of different actions that can be a valuable input for the design of future EU and/or nationally funded policies and measures. Therefore a study will be carried out that will take stock of good practices in the EU and Western Balkan region that will be used as a major learning tool at the later phases of the project.
Phase 3: Feedback to the European Commission (beginning 2008). The results from the previous two phases will be reported to the European Commission in the beginning of 2008 with the objective of supporting the Commission’s cooperation with the candidate and the potential candidate countries from the region. The main observations and conclusions that have come out of the in-house analysis and the consultations held with the expert group (phase 1), as well as the findings and recommendations of the study on the identification of the elements of good practice (phase 2) will be summarised and presented to the Commission. Besides, on the basis of the outcomes of the study on elements of good practice, ETF will develop and submit to the European Commission a proposal for regional intervention in the area of social inclusion and promoting the access of ethnic communities to education and training as an input to IPA multi-beneficiary programming process.
Phase 4: Capacity building of national actors in a policy learning context (2008-2009). The results of the study on the identification of elements of good practice will be disseminated in all the regional countries. In FYROM and Montenegro, which will become focus/case countries for the project at this stage, the results will be discussed in depth with policy makers with the purpose of assisting them to design their own actions for improving inclusion of vulnerable ethnic groups through education and training. To that aim an advisory group will be established in each of the selected countries bringing together key stakeholders: policy-makers, experts from public institutions and NGOs, representatives of ethnic minorities, academicians. The objective of the advisory group will be to assess the country’s present approach to the inclusion of ethnic minorities through education and training and to develop proposals for future action. The group will function as a policy learning platform, its work will be facilitated by an international and a local consultant, participation in its meetings of policy-makers from EU Member States (identified via ETF Governing Board members) with a successful track record of inclusive education and training policies will also be sought.