Best Mayors for social inclusion

The Mayors with the best social inclusion practices, especially for Roma, will be awarded, and they will have an opportunity to cooperate and to upgrade their municipalities in The network Mayors Making the Most of EU Funds for Roma Inclusion Network (MERI). The initiative for this network is to Open Society Institute (OSI).

With the purpose to consider and determine a methodology for selection the best Mayors, as well as the future members of MERI, OSI organized a workshop for the representatives from NGOs and institutions from Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and Monte Negro, held in Budva, Monte Negro. The representatives from Macedonia were: Macedonian Center for International Cooperation MCIC and Initiative for social changes InSoC from Skopje, Mesecina from Gostivar and Institute for community development ICD, Tetovo.

The participants on this workshop were introduced with the announcement and the methodology for awards nomination for the best Mayors in Europe, including Roma. The nominations will be in a form of case studies for around ten identified municipalities with best practices. The workshop participants informed about the municipalities with the best practices for Roma inclusion and prepared examples of case studies (one per country). The practices were in the areas of education, employment, health, housing and public services, from the countries included in the Roma Decade.

For the best practices, a short film will be make, and the Mayors nominated with the best practices will be invite at the First MERI Conference, planned to be held in October in Budapest, under the EU Commission patronage. It’s expected, this Conference to be attended by over a 300 European Mayors and local self-government representatives.