The 2014-2020 Roma Strategy in the Republic of Macedonia (hereinafter the Strategy) represents a continuity of the previous strategy that covered the period from 2005 to 2015. This Strategy has been transposed into four action plans2 referring to the same number of priorities as identified in this national strategic document.
The implementation of the Strategy and the National Action Plans is within the competence of the line ministries and in accordance with the priority areas, Nevertheless, a significant part of the identified and expected results set out in the plans are activities that have been or were to have been implemented by the civil society organizations.
The monitoring and the scope of realization of these plans according to the Strategy have been defined to be within the competence of the working group of the Government, that is, the National Coordinating Body for Implementation of the Roma Strategy, as a structure that is to monitor and direct the implementation of the strategies and the policies for social inclusion and integration of Roma.
With regard to the budgetary implications on the budget of the Republic of Macedonia, these same four line ministries (Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of Education and Science and Ministry of Health), as well as the Minister without Portfolio who is in charge of the implementation of the Roma Strategy (as a National Coordinator) with earmarked funds from the Budget of the Republic of Macedonia, to implement a budget subprogram entitled Support to the Implementation of the Roma Strategy. For certain budget users there are additional subprograms that are within the priorities (such as the Ministry of Education with the subprogram Project for Support of Secondary Education for Roma, Subprogram for Construction of Low Income Housing Apartments of the Ministry of Transport and Communications, etc.). The absolute value of the budgets of the subprograms varies from one year to another, however with an upward trend relative to the absolute value of the allocated funds. The sources of financing are the basic budget account of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as donations.
In conditions of a systemic lack of adequate performance monitoring systems (both in terms of budgeting – performance budgeting and in the implementation of performance measurement), it is necessary to establish a system for monitoring the level of implementation of the Strategy, that is, the achievements and the outcomes.
Hence, the two partner organizations, the Center for Economic Analyses (CEA) Skopje and the Institute for Research and Policy Analyses – Romalitico, supported by a grant from the Open Society Institute Foundation in cooperation with Roma Initiatives of the Open Society Foundation, drew up this report as an overview of the achievements in 2017, that is, the implementation from both operational and budgetary perspective, by updating with data and information that were missing during 20017.
The purpose of this report is to provide a perspective and an overview of the implemented measures from the national strategic documents in 2017, to exchange them with the stakeholders and to refer to possible directions for improvement in conformity with the citizens’ requirements and priorities.
Secondary and primary data were used in the collection of information and data for the drafting of this document. The secondary data and information used in this document are mainly based on the strategic documents and the National Action Plans, as well as documents published and made available by the competent ministries. The primary data are collected by means of interviews with the representatives from the competent institutions that are/were members of the NCB, as well as by means of information collected with a Request for information of public character and via EARM.
