Roma - Young and Growing population Roma Non-Roma neighbor comparator Slovakia National Roma Integration Strategy: 320,000 Roma WB findings: Approximately 72,000 Roma households; Estimate growth rate of 1.7-1.8% annually - population will double by 2050. Based on the data used by the National Roma Integration Strategy of January 2012, World Banks estimates 72,000 Roma households. Based on the estimated 1.7% - 1.8% Roma population growth rate, the Roma population is set to double by 2050. SK - Largest employment gap in the region Men Women Closing labor market gap is in national economic interest of Slovakia 3 q Economic Consequences of Labor Market Gap: q Per capita output of Euro 1,417 (est.) among Slovak Roma compared with Euro 12,661 (est.) general population – productivity of poorest 25% versus richest 25% globally q At current levels, government revenues would be 3.1% higher – Euro 725 million annually – if employment conditions were the same q At current levels, Slovak GDP would be 4.4% higher – if employment conditions were the same q In 2012, 13% new labor market entrants in Slovakia are Roma; q most low educated and few job chances: q who will pay for pensions and social services in 2040? q qBy 2050, Roma population in Slovakia will be twice as large q The productivity differential between SK Roma and non-Roma is immense. It is considerably larger than in the countries where a similar study was carried out a year earlier, namely Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. ¨Enrollment among Roma children: very large gap 4 CZ and SK: 3-5 year olds; BG, HU, RO: 3-6 year olds Inequalities start early Extremely low secondary education outcomes Roma Non-Roma living nearby 6 Inequality in early childhood: risk and protective factors for early child development (2011) Walker et al. The Lancet, Volume 378, Issue 9799, Pages 1325 – 1338 ØInequalities in child development begin prenatally and in the first years of life Ø ØThe most effective and cost-efficient time to prevent inequalities is early in life before trajectories have been firmly established Ø ØAction or lack of action will have lifetime consequences for adult functioning Ø Ø World Bank (2012) report “Closing the Early Learning Gap for Roma Children in Eastern Europe” findings are consistent with global evidence. Global evidence: INVEST EARLY in life For full report follow the link below: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/ECAEXT/EXTROMA/0,,contentMDK:23208277~pagePK:641 68445~piPK:64168309~theSitePK:615987,00.html 7 Global evidence: INVEST EARLY in life Cover Walker et al. The Lancet, Volume 378, Issue 9799, Pages 1325 - 1338 PROMOTING ROMA INTEGRATION IN SLOVAKIA 8 POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS q Employment and Social Protection ¨Improve job search incentives qCombine more conditionality – to look for work, participate in apprenticeships etc. - with continued partial coverage after finding employment for a significant amount of time to aid in activating jobless Roma ¨Improve efficiency of job search – better matching of labor supply and demand ¨Intensive job counseling ¨Support interview and job search (soft) skills ¨Develop a jobs platform; Employment offices should partner with actors that know the local Roma communities (community workers, teachers, NGOs, churches) ¤ Roma (15-64) without work: 165,000 in total 15,000 in Western Slovakia 28,000 in Central Slovakia 122,000 in Eastern Slovakia The groups that have the worst chances of getting into employment are also the largest groups: Unemployed = ‘looking for work’: 12,000 shorter-term unemployed Roma 53,000 (very) long-term unemployed (>2.5 years) Inactive = ‘Not working and not looking for work’: 104,000 inactive Roma Employment and Social Protection ¨Improve skills ¨Introduce Subsidized traineeships with companies ¤Integrate with initiatives in other public sectors ¤Social housing construction, housing improvements, and (skilled) public works: involve Roma directly; Roma teaching assistants and mentors (pre-school, compulsory school), Roma health assistants: focus on new secondary graduates, young Roma women especially ¤ ¨Build a system of Second chance education for the school dropouts ¤ qEstablish a knowledge portal of “good practices”, including of municipal activation activities q qCarry out social policy experiments with treatment and comparison groups (e.g. like Danish Employment Authority) to identify the best approaches ¨ ¨ Without improving and upgrading skills, including teaching basic work habits, it is not possible for many marginalised Roma to ever find work. Therefore, as pointed out in the Country Specific Recommendation, building a system of second chance education and short cycle vocational training is key to getting more Roma into the labor market. Employment and Social Protection ¨Continue to provide strong safety net support (e.g. benefit in material need), but… ¨Link benefits with measures that promote health and human capital investments, especially for children ¤Providing conditional subsidies to promote maternal and child health, education completion (pre-school, secondary completion), and housing improvements ¤Require recipients of social benefit to participate in basic financial literacy training, basic training on home improvements, basic training on early childhood education and care, offered by mediators/social workers/NGOs ¤Build on international experiences such as the Chile Solidario program Given long duration of unemployment and low skills of many Roma, inevitably, many current adult Roma (but also non-Roma) will remain dependent on a safety net. They, and their children, will continue to need basic support. Education: early learning and care ¨Increase access to quality pre-school, moving towards age 3, and improve home parenting: ¨Inform parents on benefits of preschool and reach out to them (hire recent secondary graduate (Roma) as teaching assistants) ¨Construct pre-schools in selected communities lacking access to pre-school nearby – use updated Roma Atlas (2013) to identify ¨Incentivize poor parents: (continue to) provide subsidies to poor parents if children regularly attend preschool; ¤Address the current systemic error where the parental allowance for families with infants can push some of these families just above the subsistence minimum, making children of pre-school age ineligible for the subsidies in the current system ¨ ¨Strengthen home parenting (with support of recent secondary (Roma) graduates) Introducing early childhood and pre-school education as of the age of 3 (or for a transition period at least as of the age of 4) for all children is arguably the most important initiative the government could take. If well designed and carried out, It will have impact on jobs in the specific localities as well as provide critical medium to long term benefits of equipping Roma children with skills and knowledge they need to succeed later in life. Apart from building/adapting sufficient facilities for the Roma kids to attend, it is important to carry out education campaigns in Roma settlements informing the parents about the benefits of early childhood education. Also, it is necessary to provide support to parents at home, and financially incentivise poor parents to send their children to pre-school education. This initiative fits well with the thematic objective “social inclusion and combatting poverty” for the programming of the next generation of structural funds 2014-2020. The European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund can be programmed together to invest in this initiative and ¨Promote integrated regular primary schooling for all by: ¨ ¨Investing in early childhood education ¤Pre-school builds foundation for primary school and reduces special school enrolment ¨ ¨Supporting vulnerable pupils through teaching assistants and mentors ¤These can be recent secondary Roma graduates (has been found cost-effective in other settings) ¤ ¨Providing educational support and opportunities outside regular school hours; after school and summer programs ¤As a result of short schooling days, Slovakian children typically spend very little time in school, and this is to the detriment of disadvantaged children ¤Extended hours compensate for lack of out-of-school learning opportunities ¨ ¨ ¨ Education: basic education level Approximately 21,000 Roma children aged 3-5 (7,000 in each age) are not in pre-school. ¨Promote integrated regular primary schooling for all ¨Address very high placement in special education ¤Remove financial incentives to municipalities to attract special school pupils ¤Make parents better informed decision makers on special education choice ¤Staff should be redeployed and trained to provide special services in an integrated setting; Training needed also for all school staff, the curriculum at the university should be modified ¤Build more on international experience and expertise – e.g. from the European Agency for the Development of Special Education ¤ ¨ Education: basic education level This is a particularly sensitive area in Slovakia. The system of testing very young children (and not in their mother tongue) as a basis for streaming them to school for mentally handicapped children has a pernicious impact on the ability of large portions of the Roma population to have any marketable skills and be able to participate in the labor market. Such systemic testing and streaming kids to these special schools exists at such scale only in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. To have any long lasting impact on the Roma integration it is critical to overtime decrease the number of placements in these school. Slovakia has a high primary enrolment, but few schooling hours and results are very low for Roma (e.g. PISA or subsequent secondary completion). 36% report being in all or mostly Roma class. 12% of Roma pupils are reported to be in special schools; Special schools are expensive and hurt learning and labor market chances for pupils not in need; Roma children placed in special education can do well in regular classes if provided with appropriate support – 2011 research conducted by the Roma Education Fund among Slovak and Czech Roma in the United Kingdom. ¨Address very high early (secondary) school leaving ¨Invest in early childhood education – pre-school and home parenting build the foundation for later learning ¨Promote integrated regular primary schooling for all – if pupils do well in primary, they can do well in secondary ¨Provide after school learning support – Roma teaching assistants/mentors ¨Address early school leaving financial incentives – instead of providing a labor activation allowance to unemployed youth without secondary education, provide a bonus to vulnerable youth completing secondary education; proven successful in other context (in Colombia also reduced early pregnancy) ¨ Education: secondary education Nearly 4 in 5 Roma pupils do not complete secondary education. It is critical to overtime significantly reduce this figure. There are a number of examples globally how to design a system of incentives to complete secondary school. ¨A. Focus on Upgrading Existing Slums ¨ ¨ 1.Facilitate legalisation of existing land / housing qProvide technical assistance to municipalities to support legalisation qTake advantage of housing allowance as the “carrot” … qProvide low interest loans to Roma households to purchase titles to land qUse Housing allowance as a payback mechanism of loan qExample: Ostrovany municipality and ETP microloan-savings program ¤ ¤ 2.Provide training on home and energy efficiency improvements qExample: “Sharpen your skills” by ETP/Habitat for Humanity qMake participation in the training a condition for receiving the housing alllowance 4. 4. Housing: focus on lower cost incremental housing solutions that reach many Currently the Ministry supports approximately 290 new social housing units PER YEAR. This is a relatively expensive policy measure that reaches very few. 290 new houses is less than the natural annual increase in population of Roma households with informal housing condition. Estimated 21,000 Roma families suffer from very poor, informal housing conditions. Only about half of Roma households have indoor sanitation, while 90% of nearby non-Roma families do. 25% of Roma households reports irregular or no collection of solid waste, while non-Roma comparator is 5%. Inefficient and costly heating: reliance on wood. Lack of energy efficiency of the structures, leading to large utility bills the families cannot afford. 40% of Roma, app. 29 000 families, live in segregated settlements, with inadequate or non-existent basic infrastructure and social services. It is therefore important develop a mix of approaches – hence „incremental housing solutions” -- combinign the upgrading of existing slums with providing better housing. The current program costs the government a lot while bringing benefits to few. ¨ A. Focus on Upgrading Existing Slums (continued) ¨ 4. 4. 3.Provide incentives to save for home improvements qSavings-microloan programs for home improvement qUse housing allowance as incentive tool; qTo pay back microloan for home improvement (link loan to housing allowance) qRequire savings contribution qProvide housing allowance bonus if people save for home improvement investments q 4.Support families reduce utility (and other) debts qProvide financial literacy training qPre-paid and metered utility (gas, electricity, water) ¤ Housing: focus on lower cost incremental housing solutions that reach many ¨B. Helping Poor Families Move Into Better Houses ¨ 1.Utilize existing homes in integrated areas: qMake use of vacant housing in integrated areas (rent or ownership) qRaise awareness and solidarity in order to serve housing mobility qFocus first on families from most segregated settlements ¨ ¨2. Social housing construction scheme as last resort: qSocial housing cannot be instrument to serve all needy b/c of cost qApply it selectively, dispersed, and in integrated areas qSupplement with social work q ¤ Housing: focus on lower cost incremental housing solutions that reach many Health: improve effective use of health system ¨Strengthen Roma Health Mediator (RHM) programme ¨Scale up the RHM programs to reach ALL Roma settlements ¨Evaluate the RHM programs for best results: where can the RHM programs be further strengthened? Example: ¤Effective, and efficient, use of existing health services ¤More targeted to children: counseling on early childhood development and child growth and nutrition ¨Consider linking RHM with social protection benefit system ¤Example: vouchers to poor families to participate in pre- and post-natal check-ups, link to vaccination records, and counseling on early childhood development and nutrition ¨ Many Roma i) Experience extremely poor living conditions (incl. limited access to piped water and sanitation); ii) Have unhealthy lifestyle (incl. poor quality diet, heavy smoking (also women), and little physical exercise; iii) Are not making effective use of available health services (e.g. delay early diagnosis and treatment). This brings much higher expenditure to the government compared to scaling up the Roma Health Mediator programme. RHM has been tested in Slovakia and has proven very well received by the Roma communities and very effective. It can and should be scaled up and with minor adjustments introduced in all Roma settlements. Apart from health and public health benefits, it will provide employment opportunities to Roma, especially Roma women. These translate into: Poor health status and low life expectancy (comparable to African nations rather than EU life expectancy) Inefficient and thus costly use of available health services Financial Literacy and Inclusion ¨Building financial literacy among Roma has many benefits qImprove financial literacy through basic training qLink with social benefit system – e.g. require recipients of Benefit in Material Need to participate in training ¨Improve access to financial services with a focus on access to savings and savings facilitation qElectronic government-to-citizen payments qProvide incentives for targeted savings; e.g. Saving for housing improvements, saving for secondary education qLink targeted savings with social benefit system Only 29% of Roma household in Slovakia have a current account, compared with more than three quarters (77%) of the general population. In fact, only very few Roma households *8%) have any savings at all, and even less households save in formal bank accounts. In many countries, the government successfully increased financial literacy and inclusion among its vulnerable and excluded groups of population (e.g., the well known Bolsa Familia programme in Brazil). A key step is a well designed system of electronic government-to-citizen payment of various benefits and transfers, where the government incentivises financial providers by subsidizing opening of accounts and developing savings habits. Use monitoring and evaluation to improve targeting, learning, and program results ¨Take advantage of the Slovak poverty map (regardless of ethnicity) being produced and the Slovak map of Roma communities to improve targeting of inclusion programs ¨Bi-annually expand the EU-SILC survey to include extra households from the poorest communities in Slovakia. EU Structural Fund can cover the Euro 250k (est.) ¨Ensure that the programs being financed have results frameworks in place that clearly define inputs, activities, outputs, and impacts ¨Institutionalize program monitoring and impact evaluation, and build a ‘municipal best practice’ knowledge platform ¨ As part of another engagement with the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Family -- on reform of social benefits -- the World Bank will produce a poverty map of Slovakia. (The Bank is preparing such maps for all new member states of the EU at the request of the European Commission.) The map can be a very useful tool to programme and target both infrastructure and social/human capital investments to where the poor and vulnerable in fact live. The chronic lack of ethnically segregated data – to inform policy makers – can be realtivelly easily overcome by developing a booster on the annual EU SILC survey to oversample (sufficient to do every other year) and target the marginalised communities. At low cost, this would provide robust data to the government on a systematic basis. As part of the overall integrated approach to Roma inclusion, the structural funds can pay for the development and deployment of this survey instrument. Impact evaluation is a very effective method, used globally, to pilot and test various approaches and then adjust them along the way to reach the best results. It needs to be set up at the beginning (with treatment and control groups) and accompany project/programme implementation. Good news: financing for Roma inclusion available in next programming period (2014-2020) ¨Slovakia can use large financial support from the EU ¨ ¨In 2014-2020 period bigger emphasis on Roma inclusion ¤thematic objectives (MS can choose out of a menu of 11 objectives in line with the “Europe 2020” strategy), with Social Inclusion as a mandatory theme; ¤ex-ante conditions which will be the pre-requisite to EU funding; ¤Partnership Agreements between the Commission and the Member States ¨Programming of ESF and ERDF together for Social Inclusion and Combatting Poverty One of the key messages in the Communication on EU Framework for National Roma Integration Strategies is for member states to use structural funds to a much greater degree and more efficiently for Roma inclusion. This is true for the current programming period already, and will become much more so in the future. Good news: financing for Roma inclusion available in next programming period (2014-2020) ¨Important to programme ESF and ERDF together ¨Either at Operational Programme or Priority Axis level, ESF and ERDF investments ought to be combined ¤To allow integrated programming in same communities, linking hard and soft investments ¤To invest in cross sectoral policies ¨One managing authority (intermediate body) in charge of overall programming and implementation ¤Linking body that pursues inclusion policies with managing structural funds for inclusion ¤ In the previous programming periods, it was not possible to combine ESF and ERDF investments in one Operational Programme, let alone in one Priority Axis. This caused inefficiencies and led to lesser impact especially in areas where linking soft and hard investments is a key ingredient to success. Roma inclusion is such an area where no infrastructure build up (housing, schools, community centers, et.c) could succeed unless accompanied by training, mediation, social work, courses for parents, etc. The existing set up of a horizontal priority MRK with the mandate for local comprehensive strategies has proven too complicated and ineffectual. The design for the next programming period should be rethought, taking advantage of the ability to combine ESF with ERDF, Also the programming of the rural development fund should be informed by an overall strategy of Roma inclusion and invest, where appropriate, in its goals. It is important to have one place/body which is in charge of the overall strategy and design of integration policies be also in charge of the structural funds investments. Good news: financing for Roma inclusion available in next programming period (2014-2020) ¨Efficient use of EU funds requires capacity ¨Urgent need to strengthen capacity ¤To design and monitor inclusion policies across sectors and ministries ¤To develop programmes combining ESF/ERDF resources ¤To design projects at a local level ¤To implement projects on the ground ¨Take advantage of large TA funds to invest in the above (4% of total SF allocation) Capacity needs to be significantly strengthened at all levels, from policy making to implementation of projects on the ground. The sizable allocation of technical assistance under the structural funds can be deployed to finance that. Office of the Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities has started developing the necessary capacity. It has prepared the National Roma Integration Strategy in a professional and consultative manner. This capacity should be captured, maintained and built upon, regardless of who will politically oversee the Office. Discontinuity in people and policies in the past one of key reasons for the current dire state and exclusion of many Roma.