Roma Education Fund - Improving Education Strategically

Access to quality education is crucial for reducing poverty and inequality, and is a stepping stone to steady employment and leadership for people all over the world.

It’s no different for the Roma. Education was considered by many experts to be the most important element of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, and as a result, the Roma Education Fund was launched as an offshoot of the Decade in July 2003.

The fledgling fund set up shop in Budapest in 2005, but it faced several challenges from the outset. It was registered as a Swiss Foundation and thus did not have access to European Union funds. With pledged funds from the Open Society Institute and staff from the World Bank and OSI, international donors had a difficult time distinguishing the REF from the Decade.

However, the REF was recently registered as a Hungarian Foundation, making it eligible for EU funds. With a permanent director and a growing Roma staff, REF is making its goal of ensuring quality education for all Roma a reality.

In October 2005, the REF announced its first round of grants to Roma nongovernmental organizations. But grants alone won’t cut it. REF leadership realized that developing comprehensive strategies with national governments was an essential aspect of improving education. Without a plan for the future and a sound understanding of how education relates to other problems Roma face, such as unemployment and poor housing, isolated grants to Roma NGOs are unlikely to succeed.

“REF is trying to ensure that we don’t just fund a lot of disparate projects with no connection to each other,” says Judit Szira, a senior advisor at the organization. “National and local governments, NGOs, and donors must all work together.” To guarantee a strategic approach, at least at the local level, all NGOs applying for future grants must work in cooperation with the local government, she points out.

In order for the fund to succeed, a tailored approach is necessary.  "We have to remember that each country is very different, and a blanket approach will not work," says Alexandre Marc, the director of REF. "Our strategies range from flexible, where it is easier to introduce solutions in schools, to more complex, in which the entire education sector must be restructured." 

While education strategies vary by country, REF emphasizes particular prerequisites for quality Roma education, including desegregation—which means no "special schools"—and using preschool as an entry point to reinforce the importance of education from a very early age. The REF also hopes to bring more multicultural teaching materials into classrooms, which is important not only for the majority population, but also for the development of a proud Roma identity.

It is too early to tell what impact the REF's grants and strategic dialogue with governments have had. However, the fund has already greatly expanded its mandate and is venturing into new territory, including working with the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest to bring cases to the European Court of Human Rights.

Critical to REF’s survival is outside recognition of its staff as experts on education, which will ensure continued funding from governments. Recently the organization was invited to a UNESCO meeting based on its work on multicultural education, proof that REF is indeed making its mark.