CEDEM's representatives, Dženita Brčvak (project coordinator) and Maja Ćorović (financial manager), held meeting with representatives of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, NGO Young Roma NGO and civil engineering expert regarding the implementation of local development project Improvement of the integration of Roma and Egyptians in Herceg Novi.
The aim of the meeting was to evaluate current activities and research progress of the housing needs of Roma and Egyptian population residing in this municipality, which is implemented under the Project.
This project is implemented by CEDEM, Municipality of Herceg Novi and Young Roma NGO and funded by the Open Society Institute from Budapest. Recognizing the importance of the role of local governments in the implementation of social policy, and the importance of collecting timely and accurate information for the development of local policies for social inclusion, the project team has started development of the research methodology for housing needs of Roma and Egyptian population in this municipality. Bearing in mind that the housing issues cannot be solved only by editing the settlements or their displacement, but by the well-planned and coordinated institutional action that must be based on sound data and specific measures of economic, social and urban policy, this project aims at the development of local housing study as a strategic framework that should serve the municipality's efforts to develop high-quality and applicable strategic framework for future interventions in the area of inclusion of Roma and Egyptian community.
Implementation of this project has shown how effective cooperation between NGOs and local government can be, if there is a genuine willingness on both sides. The local project team consisting of experts from various fields, led by fellows from NGO Young Roma, obtained significant information from the field that will be used to produce high quality and analytical report. Together with representatives of the municipality and civil engineer, and under the supervision of CEDEM, the team obtained the data that will be the cornerstone of local housing study, which will further enhance the goal to which we all aspire - full social inclusion of Roma and Egyptian community.