1. Case-study No. & Title:
No. 234. Integration of minorities and migrants in the Czech Republic: a practical approach within the context of local government

Keywords

w	Social development
w	Community planning
w	Human capacity building
w	Education
w	Communication
w	Info dissemination
w	Co-existence
w	Interethnic relations

2. Author information
2.1 Author’s Name
Peter Mulder

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Peter Mulder (Chairman občanské sdružení Spolu-CZ)
Spolu-CZ
P.O. Box 651
661 51 Brno-2
The Czech Republic

Tel.: +420-603-843.982 (private)
Fax: +420-5-4524.61.66 (work)
E-mail: peter.mulder@post.cz

2.3 Date recorded
10/03/2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice:
The complete project contains three main kinds of activities: training-courses, study-visits and concrete activities at the local level, involving both local authorities and minorities. The project should lead to the following results:

1)	Increasing the capacity and willingness of local governments to interact with minorities and migrants and to effectuate a policy on minority issues,
2)	Increasing the capacity and willingness of minority groups, especially Roma, to participate in local policy formulation and implementation,
3)	Establishing concrete modes of co-operation between local authorities and local minority groups, especially Roma. The activities to be performed will be described in more detail below.

A national and (Central-European) regional round-table-conference has been planned at the end of the two years project, to disseminate the results to a wider public and to representatives of national governments. Part of the project is also a travelling exhibition about refugees and minorities, directed towards local community development. However, these aspects of the project are beyond the term "Local Level Good Practice, so they will not be described in further detail.).

The following organisations take part in the organisation of the project:

Main partners:
	Union of Dutch Municipalities VNG, The Netherlands
	Education Centre for Local Government FALA, The Czech Republic
Sub-contractors:
	Spolu International Foundation, The Netherlands
	Spolu-CZ, The Czech Republic

3.2 Location:

w	The training takes place in Prague
w	The study-visits are planned to take place in The Netherlands and in one Central-European country (Slovakia or Hungary).
w	The concrete local projects, resulting from the training-process will take place in 5 Czech towns or cities, to be selected during the first year of the project.

3.3 Minority/Target Groups:

Minority:	Refugees and, mainly Roma, minority
Target groups:	Mayors, civil servants and elected representatives in Czech towns or cities with a significant number of ethnic minority groups or refugees
	Roma Advisors and/or Advisors for National Minorities, working within the local governments
	Roma representatives who are actively involved in projects at a local level

3.4 Major Actors Involved

w	Local Government
w	Public Institution
w	National NGO
w	Educational institution
w	Local leaders
w	Others, namely: Roma advisors, working for the local authorities in different municipalities

3.5 Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
The costs of the whole project (including all training-sessions, international study-visits, a national and an international round-table conference, travel-costs, administration etc. are 624,455 EUR for two years, covering all the costs for all the participating organisations. Ten per cent of these costs are financed by the Dutch VNG and the Czech FALA from their own sources. The remaining 90% are financed by the European Commission within the grant-program "European Initiative for Democracy and Human Rights"

3.6 Timeframe
The initiative was first proposed in July 1999, officially launched in September 2000, put into practice in January 2001. It is expected to continue until September 2002

3.7 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
The project is closely related to national-level ethnic policy. Partly pressed by the European Union, the Czech government has approved of a number of steps to be taken, to improve the standards, the approach and the knowledge on the level of local authorities towards refugees and ethnic minority groups (mainly Roma). The Education Centre for Local Authorities is the main partner in providing training for people, working within the local authorities. International, national and local legislation forms an important aspect of the theoretical part of the training-courses.

4. Good Practice Description (1)
The complete project contains of three main kinds of activities: Training-courses, study-visits and concrete activities at the local level, involving both local authorities and minorities. The project should lead to the following results:

1)	Increasing the capacity and willingness of local governments to interact with minorities and migrants and to effectuate a policy on minority issues,
2)	Increasing the capacity and willingness of minority groups, especially Roma, to participate in local policy formulation and implementation,
3)	Establishing concrete modes of co-operation between local authorities and local minority groups, especially Roma. The activities to be performed will be described in more detail below.

I.1. Basic training course "Minorities and Refugees in the Local Government Context"

Module:
	2 x 3 day course (including one case study in a Czech municipality), international study visit and one day final workshop
Target groups:
	1) elected representatives and civil servants of municipalities
	2) managers of municipalities’ social affairs
Number of participants: 25
Content:
w	What is racism and xenophobia;
w	Minorities, foreigners and refugees in the Czech Republic - present situation, history, concept and development prospects;
w	Legislation aspects;
w	Organisations involved in the issue;
w	Differences between cultures that we are and are not aware of;
w	Sociological and psychological aspects of minority and refugee issue;
w	Differences between cultures that we know and do not know;
w	The role of local authorities: challenges, obligations and problems;
w	Presentations of good practices of local authorities;
w	Options of co-operation between different institutions dealing with the issue.
Form:
	The course will be held in one venue where participants from different municipalities will gather. This will create space for making contacts among participants, experts and organisers, which is a significant precondition for later making networks focused on future informal co-operation
Other information:
	Following the training courses a study tour (see paragraph 1.4) will be organised. During the final workshop the whole training programme will be evaluated

I.2. Training course "Roma community in the Local Government Context"

Module:
	2 x 3 day course (including one case-study of a Czech municipality), international study visit + 1-day final workshop
Target groups:
	Roma advisors and social workers dealing with Roma topics
Number of participants: 25
Content:
w	What is racism and xenophobia;
w	Minorities, especially Roma in the Czech Republic - present situation, history, concept and development prospects;
w	Roma community in other European countries (Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania);
w	Major Community in CR;
w	Differences between Roma and Czech Community;
w	Legislation aspects;
w	Sociological and psychological aspects of Roma and majority society common life;
w	The role of local authorities: challenges, obligations and problems;
w	Organisations involved in the issue;
w	Presentations of good practices from Roma and majority society common life;
Other information:
	The course will be followed by a study tour (see paragraph 1.5) and a final workshop to evaluate and close the whole training programme.

I.3. Training course "Minorities and Refugees in the Local Government Context"

Module:
	Duration: 1 x 2 days
Target groups:
	follow up course for the participants from the previous project Minorities and Migrants in the Context of Local Government
Number of participants: 25
Content:
w	New developments in the minority issue;
w	New developments in the refugee issue.

I.4. Study visit to the Netherlands (I)

Module:
	one week
Target groups:
	participants of Basic Course "Minorities and Refugees in the Local Government Context"
Content:
w	Minorities and migrants in the Netherlands: general description of the issue
w	Policies towards minorities and migrants in Dutch local authorities
w	Implementation of the policy on minorities and migrants in Dutch local authorities
w	Debates between Dutch local authorities and citizens on the issue of minorities and migrants (with special attention to the influence of media)
w	EU standards and practices
w	presentation of training skills to work with minorities

I.5. Study visit to the Netherlands (II)

Module:
	1 week
Target groups:
	participants who have passed the training course "Roma Community in the Local Government Context"
Content:
w	Roma in the Netherlands: general description of the issue
w	The policy towards Roma in Dutch local authorities
w	Implementation of the Roma policy in Dutch local authorities
w	Debates between Dutch local authorities and citizens on the Roma issue (with special attention to the influence of the media)
w	EU standards and practices
w	presentation of training skills to work with minorities

I.6. Study visit to a country in Central Europe
Based on the outcomes of the training course, a selection will be made out of Hungary, Slovak Republic or Romania. Municipalities in these countries have already formed working groups including minorities or they have developed other models to interact with minorities and migrants.

Module:
	one week
Target groups:
	participants of follow-up course "Minorities and Refugees in the Local Government Context".
Content:
w	Minorities and migrants in Hungary/Slovakia Republic/Rumania : general description of the issue
w	Comparisons with other Central European countries
w	The policy towards minorities and migrants in Hungarian/Slovak/Rumanian local authorities. Debates between Hungarian/Slovak/Rumanian local authorities and citizens on the minorities and migrants issue (with special attention to media influences)
Other information:
	This group of participants took part in a fellowship to the Netherlands in the framework of the previous project in which these topics were already considered

I.7. Handbook for local government officials and councillors
In the course of this project a practical manual will be developed, dealing with best practices, concrete guidelines for municipalities, comprehensive overview of legal conditions, list of relevant municipal policy documents, research overview and a list of addresses of relevant organisations. This handbook will be distributed among Czech municipalities with more than 2,000 inhabitants, because these local authorities are dealing most with the issue of minorities and migrants. An additional number of copies will be sent to NGOs that participated in this project. Regarding international organisations involved, a summarised version in English will be published.

II.1. Workshop "Local Government and Interest Representation"

Module:
	2 days
Target groups:
	Roma representatives
Number of participants: 25
Content:
w	Position of local government in the national context
w	Municipal finances
w	National and municipal services towards individual citizens: registration, official documents, permits and financial assistance (social security, welfare, relief benefits, subsidies)
w	Forms of interest groups and self-help groups and their methodologies
w	How to develop a strategy for an interest group
w	How to communicate with local authorities

II.2. Dissemination of project experiences and practical information on local government practices to Roma population
Roma representatives who have passed the workshop "Local Government and Interest Representation" are enabled to spread new knowledge and experiences to their backing groups. During the workshop priorities will be defined and SPOLU will facilitate these activities afterwards by:

w	distribution of information in booklets
w	advisory meetings to answer specific questions from Roma population

III.1. Bilateral Pilots between Czech and Dutch municipalities and acknowledged minority groups
Within the framework of twinning relations, projects will be formulated and implemented. It is envisaged to build up preconditions and to apply new work methods for interaction between minorities and migrants. Special attention will be paid to innovative policy and methods to involve minorities, esp. Roma in tangible, small-scale projects. Elected representatives and employees of the Czech municipalities will be trained within these pilots as well.
The cities will be selected according to the following criteria:

w	Existence of a twinning or other partner relation with a Dutch municipality;
w	Existence of minority community (either Roma or migrants)
w	Existence of a refugee Camp or other facility dealing with minority issues.

Selected municipalities will be consulted and pilots will be formulated within the inception phase of the project. Within the context of the VNG programme "Municipal Co-operation with Accession-States" some plans have already been developed. It is anticipated that five bilateral pilot projects will be selected for support.

1) This text has been based on the Terms Of Reference (T.O.R.) of the project "Integration of Minorities and Migrants in the Czech Republic: A Practical Approach within the Context of Local Government". The complete T.O.R. haven been written By Ms Katrien Oudenaerde, project-co-ordinator for the Dutch Union of Municipalities VNG.