DGF to Autonomia Foundation

The World Bank announced in July 2000 that it awarded US$496,750 from its Development Grant Facility (DGF) to the Autonómia Foundationin Hungary. The grant supports the "Pakiv" initiative of Autonómia Foundation, targeting income-generation and job creation programs for the Roma population in Central and Eastern Europe. (Pakiv in Romani means trust, confidence, respect).

The World Bank's Development Grant Facility (DGF), was established in 1997 to consolidate the Bank's global and regional grant programs under a single framework. Its budget for the fiscal year that ends in June 2001 will rise to almost US$150 million, US$21 million more than the year before. Recognizing that there is a growing need for multi-country and multi-actor cooperation in a global and increasingly integrated world economy, DGF together with other sponsors (international financial organizations, regional development banks, bilateral donors, UN agencies, foundations, grant organizations, and the private sector) provides over US$1 billion annually to programs that target environmental improvements, anti-poverty initiatives, as well as protection of minority and ethnic rights, alleviation of economic and social consequences of communicable diseases, ethnic conflicts, natural catastrophe. and of financial crisis. (In the Central and Eastern European Countries, beside the Autonómia Foundation, the International Child Development Centre's MONEE network --Monitoring in Eastern Europe -- received a DGF grant to upgrade its monitoring activity. Local experts in regional statistical offices collect and analyze internationally-comparable social welfare data).

The structure of the DGF allows for a renewal of additional funds for the second and third years of the program contingent upon a successful first year program.

The Pakiv European Roma Fund program, launched in 1998, aims at decreasing socio-economic exclusion amongst Roma, while supporting the development of a strong Roma civic leadership. The Pakiv program began with an intensive, year-long trainingfor young Roma from Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and at the beginning of 2002, training participants prepared local project proposals aimed at starting up sustainable community organizing processes, while stimulating new employment and income opportunities amongst local Roma. The result of this was the approval for supporting the project proposals of 15 local NGOs and initiative groups. Later, another project from Slovakia was also supported.

After concluding the training in February 2002, with the organization of an international seminar in Budapest, supported by the Council of Europe Youth Directorate, 15 of the training graduates (5 Bulgarians, 5 Hungarians, 4 Romanians and 1 Slovak) were subsequently contracted to take part in the Community Development Facilitation program of "learning by doing". In this program, they gain practice in capacity building and development of the local Roma groups, overseeing the implementation of the projects, mobilizing additional resources, and serving as civil resource persons in general. During the process, the facilitators received ongoing feedback and mentoring from Pakiv management, and had the opportunity to exchange information and experiences with their co-facilitators in the country and on the international level, in the context of organized meetings and additional training sessions.

In addition to supporting local project, the community development facilitation program, cross-learning amongst participants and the organization of international network meetings and training, the program also involved support for setting up and running operations out of the Pakiv European Roma Fund – registered in Germany, with a regional office in Bulgaria.

The Autonómia Alapitvány (Self-reliance Foundation, since its establishment in 1990 has supported up to 800 income-generation projects in co-operation with registered local Romani organizations. The "founding father," András Biró, who retired in 1996, and the foundation received the 1995 Right Livelihood Award "for resolute defense of Hungary's Romany minority and effective efforts to aid their self-development." He was replaced by Anna Csongor, a long time member of the foundation's management and professor of social work at the ELTE university in Budapest.

Autonómia focuses mainly on initiatives that alleviate the poverty of, and discrimination toward, Roma through the support of income generation projects, especially agricultural activities, such as vegetable garden production, growing watermelons and animal breeding , as most applicants are from rural areas. During the last four to five years, the foundation has supported about 500 local projects (the upper limit for any one grant or loan is $10,000), totaling about $500,000. Support is provided primarily in the form of an interest-free loan and grant, where the ratio depends on the type of activity being proposed. (The more market-oriented activities involve a higher loan percentage, while activities that contribute largely to food self-sufficiency and supplementing low family income, involve a higher grant percentage).

In the early stage of the foundation's development the repayment rate of loans was low. Today, projects are better prepared and an extensive monitoring program has been put in place. Young activists, both Roma and non-Roma, are trained to build trust with the groups submitting proposals. Throughout all stages of a project, they encourage Roma organizations to make their own strategic decisions. As a result, a growing number of individuals in local Roma communities experiment with entrepreneurship.

Among its many activities, Autonómia has organized the Romany Entrepreneur Training Project, an eighteen-month program to provide intensive training for Roma leaders to help them become for-profit and nonprofit organizational managers. (About 30 percent of the program's former students have established their own ventures.)

In addition, Autonómia established the first legal defense bureau for minorities in Hungary. It has also been active in pursuing court cases and assisting Roma in protecting their legal rights. This initiative has been replicated on a broader scale in the Regional Romany Program (EUROMA). Financed by the European Union and administered by Autonómia, the program provides training, legal advice, and communication services to Roma self-help organizations in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. In Hungary, Autonómia expects to establish the first Roma radio station. The foundation also cooperates with the European Union, providing technical assistance to its microproject scheme in Hungary under the Phare Democracy Program.

Pakiv European Roma Fund Graduates – one year later

Following the completion of the Leadership and Management training course the participants returned to their home countries to carry out local needs analyses in their communities and to prepare local project proposals aimed at starting up sustainable community organizing processes, while stimulating new employment and income opportunities amongst local Roma.

Out of the 19 young Roma who completed the course in February 2002, 16 submitted quality project proposals based on the discussions and needs of the local Roma groups, and employing participatory and empowering methods. These 16 persons (5 Bulgarians, 5 Hungarians, 4 Romanians and 2 Slovaks) took part in the community development facilitation program, where they were responsible for facilitating the capacity building and development of the local Roma groups, mobilising additional resources, monitoring the implementation of local projects, and serving as civil resource persons. One person works as a local project director, rather than a facilitator, since her project was supported at a later date. The role also served as a practical, "learning-by-doing" training method, so that successful participants could gain concrete experience practicing community organising and empowerment methods with local Roma communities. During the process, the facilitators receive ongoing feedback and mentoring from Pakiv management, and had the opportunity to exchange information and experiences with their co-facilitators in the country and on the international level, in the context of organised meetings and additional training sessions.
Therefore, this international network is still working with and further developing the capacities of 16 from the total 19 graduates, while providing direct project support to local Roma community development processes.

Unfortunately, it was evaluated that the other 3 persons did not meet the necessary standards for further, direct cooperation in the context of our programs. In particular, the "Pakiv" standards include adequate levels of professional development and responsibility, the ability to employ needs-based, participatory methods with local Roma, and to carry value-driven leadership qualities. Nonetheless, the investment was not considered a wasted one. All 3 are working on Romani-related issues in the context of activities carried out by local Roma NGOs or self-governments in their countries.

To summarise, in the context of ongoing Pakiv programs the 16 facilitators have been transferring their skills to local groups of Roma, predominantly youth. This is done through facilitation activities of everyday training and mentoring in civic organising, needs-based planning for community development (such as organising household surveys), project management, fundraising and the organisation of training sessions for NGO development and strategy building amongst different local Roma groups and NGOs in the countries.

In addition to activities in the context of Pakiv programs, the effects of the Pakiv training and community development experiences can also be seen in the other activities of the former trainees, where they are using their new skills. In this sense, the Pakiv trainees have started to fill a gap of missing human resources amongst the Roma community in various programs concerning Roma. Since completing the training in February 2002, graduates have been involved in the following programs and activities:


Research, reporting, publications

· Research and report writing assistants in the preparation of the Open Society Institute (OSI) - EU Accession Monitoring Program Reports – 2002 (Ion Goracel – Ro, Judit Bari – Hu)

· Researchers for the OSI Institute for Educational Policy country reports (Florin Nasture – Ro, Gabor Daroczi – Hu)

· Roma community interviewers/researchers for the European Roma Rights Center reports on sterilization of Romani women in Slovakia, and housing discrimination in Hungary (Viola Horvathova – Slo, Bela Racz – Hu)

· Organiser of Roma community household surveys in Tiszavasvari for a sociological study of the Hungarian Scientific Academy. (Szilvia Rezmuves – Hu)

· Co-author of a book called "Biblikane teksturenqo kidipen and-i Romani chib – Biblical paragraphs in Roma language", and publisher of a monthly Baptist newsletter in Romani language (Florin Nasture – Ro)

· Author of two newspaper articles on Roma in Hungary (Szilvia Rezmuves – Hu)

· Research Assistant in the National Health Development Center. Recently, appointed to the Department for International Roma Programs in the Prime Minister's Office (Gabor Daroczi – Hu)

Project, program coordinators

· International study visit coordinator for the National Non-profit Association Hungary, supported by the Hungarian National Employment Foundation (Szilvia Rezmuves – Hu)

· National co-ordinator (volunteer) for a health project on sex education in Hungary, sponsored by International Planned Parenthood Federation, along with the Hungarian Family and Woman Defence Council. (Bari Judit – Hu)

· Workshop organiser for an OSI sponsored meeting on governmental policies on Roma in Hungary (Bari Judit – Hu)


Trainers, advisors, community development workers and volunteers

· Community facilitator and NGO trainer in the context of programs involving 12 multiethnic communities from Transylvania, amongst others, organised by the Resources Centre for Roma Communities in Romania (Ion Goracel – Ro)

· Trainer for Allavida Foundation, which was formed in 2001 by Charity Know How and Alliance magazine – UK (Ion Goracel – Ro)

· Advisor to Roma political interest group in Northeast Hungary before the local elections. (Bari Judit – Hu)

· Advisor to Roma Self-government in Tiszavasvari, and volunteer in the Partners Hungary program for the Tiszavasvari area, which includes 6 towns and villages (Szilvia Rezmuves – Hu)

· Advisor to the Roma Self-government in Hidas and volunteer consultant for South Somogy County Representative organisations and other NGOs in the region (Imre Balogh – Hu)

· Participant in the Roma Parliament initiative (informal representative council) in Bulgaria (Toni Tashev – Bu)

Representation and participation in meetings, conferences, training courses

· Representative of Hungarian Roma at the release the EU Accession Monitoring reports in Denmark, and guest lecturer in Danish high schools (Judit Bari – Hu)

· Representative in front of donors and ministries (all countries)

· Participants in conferences on government policies toward Roma and minorities (all countries)

· Participants in the European Peer Training Organisation (Brussels)' human rights training of trainers and country program development (Gabor Daroczi – Hu, Bela Racz – Hu)

· Participant in a study tour on non-governmental organisations and local authorities in Scotland, and the country representative offices of Hungary and Scotland in Brussels (Gabor Daroczi – Hu)

· Mediators of placement and scholarships for Roma University students (Marian Guga – Ro, Florin Nasture – Ro)

· Mediator (conflict resolution) between local authorities, Roma community and electricity officials in Blagoevgrad (Miglena Mihailova – Bu)



Continuation and starting of university studies

Of the 5 Pakiv trainees who froze their university studies in order to participate in the training program, 4 returned to their studies in 2002. In addition, another 3 trainees passed exams and started university studies after having completed the Pakiv training. In total, out of the 16 the program is continuing to work with, 13 are enrolled or have completed university studies.


Continued involvement of former trainees in Pakiv program activities – 2003

In the context of Pakiv European Roma Fund programs during 2003, formal working relations with most of the former trainees will continue in the following ways:

They will continue their ongoing work with local Roma groups and organisations (facilitation, advising, fundraising), therefore maintaining strong links with the grass-roots realities of Roma communities.

In addition to this, former trainees will serve as national co-ordinators, trainers and mentors in a second round of Leadership and Management training for a core group of young Roma. The training will involve the same elements as the first two years, such as English language, NGO management and community development theory and practice. However, this second round will be more national-level based, allowing for more participants, less expenditures and a more integrated approach involving both training and direct community organising experiences concerning income-generation and employment-related projects.

In developing further the skills of the core group of young Roma, the programs will also focus more on gaining concrete practice with national level networking, public policy monitoring and advocacy work. In doing so, participants will develop strong lobbying skills and groups for the advancement of human rights and improvement of Roma-related policies and their implementation. The approach of linking the everyday problems and experiences of the grass-roots level with the national level advocacy and lobbying activities will help to bridge the gap between local Roma communities and national policy-making.

Finally, in maintaining the uniqueness of Pakiv's regional span of activities, organization of international networking and training will be continued in view of gaining needed skills and providing a forum for the co-ordination of international lobbying and campaigning actions for Roma human rights and development.