The Inclusion Initiative was launched in mid-2017 when the German Organization for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities began collaborating on this project with the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veterans' and Social Affairs, the National Employment Service, the Team for Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction, and the RS Commissariat for Refugees and Migration. The project was initiated with the intention of supporting towns and municipalities of Serbia to develop innovative and sustainable employment solutions for marginalized and less employable population groups, with particular emphasis on creating employment conditions for returnees from EU countries - asylum seekers, Roma and other marginalized social groups. In the first phase, the Inclusion Initiative supported seven towns and municipalities (Pozarevac, Arilje, Sokobanja, Kucevo, Novi Pazar, Becej and Mladenovac) to employ 236 people. Due to the good results achieved, the implementation of the "Initiative for Inclusion", the second phase, continues within the GIZ project "Inclusion of Roma and Other Marginalized Groups in Serbia".
Namely, the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) authorized the GIZ to implement the project "Inclusion of Roma and Other Marginalized Groups in Serbia", in partnership with the Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Serbia as the President of the Coordination Body for monitoring the implementation of the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma in Republic of Serbia for the period from 2016 to 2025. The German Development Cooperation funds will support nine selected projects of towns and municipalities up to EUR 150,000 in this phase of the project - Valjevo, Pozarevac, Sombor, Vrsac, Bac, Kraljevo, Raska, Novi Pazar and Apatin, aimed at creating new employment opportunities for the aforementioned marginalized groups. The proposed projects include, inter alia, the following topics and activities: sustainable agriculture through training through theory and practice for farming, starting one's own business - self-employment, support for the development of social entrepreneurship, training for women workers in jobs like home care for elderly, with a particular focus on Roma women's employment, recycling and procurement of accessories for primary waste selection with training of the unemployed, and preparation for independent business in the collection of raw materials for recycling. All projects include a number of different trainings aimed at employing Roma and other marginalized groups in Serbia.
Contact: Aleksandar Popovic, Project Manager aleksandar.popovic@skgo.org