Country Support Team

Roma-targeting employment project in the Eastern Slovak city of Presov (Šariš Region), which combines the concept of the social enterprise with the idea of activation. Realized by the Slovak Government Office in co-operation with UNDP and several Slovak organisations, the project “Feder Dzivipen” (hereafter FD) has been financed with resources from the European Union´s EQUAL programme. 

The goal of the project is to improve the employability of the Roma ethnic minority in Slovakia by analyzing barriers on the labor market and by supporting Roma entrepreneurs. The specific goal of this is to develop and test an innovative method to integrate the long-term unemployed Roma into the labor market and to trial the social enterprise. The scheme will be developed and tested based on UNDP experience in the  CEE countries. The scheme will provide new credit opportunities for Roma entrepreneurs (particularly self-employed persons) to start up small businesses. During the project, model business plans will be developed for Roma business start-ups. An integral part of the project will be the dissemination of results and recommendations throughout Slovakia and other EU member countries.

Office of the Slovak Governmental Plenipotentiary for Roma Communities