Transcript Building on Roma culture of self-employment to expand employment opportunities

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Building on Roma culture of self-employment to
expand employment opportunities
Lessons from France and Albania
« Roma in an expanding Europe : Challenges for the future »
Conference, Budapest June 29 - July 1, 2003
1. Comparison between Roma in Eastern and WesternEurope
- Common features :
Specific administrative regulations
Social rather than economic treatment
Income generating activities
rather than entreprise creation
Objective : to survive not
to make profit
Roma
Specific culture and way
of life in opposition with
traditional education
Rejection by local population
Poverty, dependency on social aid
missing future
1. Comparison between Roma in Eastern and WesternEurope
- Specific features
East
• Roma
• Sedentarized population
• Working in industry
or agriculture,
now unemployed
West
• Sinti, Kales, Roma
• Travelling population
• Minimum income
+ traditional income
generating activity
2. What is the challenge?
- A double trade-off between :
Autonomy
Non profit values
or
Market economy
Social aid
Temptation to exist by choosing autonomy in a market economy
3. How to support Roma’s entrepreneurship?
- Example of individual lending for travellers (ADIE, France)
• Small loans af increasing amount, allowing the travellers to increase
their turnover, and be able to pay social insurance
• Administrative assistance to register their activity
• Business training and support services provided by permanent staff
and volunteers
• Close connection with Roma associations
- playing an advisory role in the selection of clients
- creating social pressure on loan recovery
Adie, France : distribution by gender
Women
30%
Men
70%
Adie, France : distribution by age
46-55 years
20%
>56 years
4%
<26 years
10%
26-35 years
37%
36-45 years
29%
Adie, France : distribution by status
Unemployed
4,30%
RMI : 87,4 %
Adie, France : distribution by education level
professional
diploma 2,7%
secondary school
1,5%
vocational training
4%
illiterate 18,5%
reading and writing
72,7%
Adie, France : distribution by principal activities
Gardeners 3,1%
Fun fair pedlars 3,1%
Chimney sweepers
3,8%
Chair-menders 1,5%
Other 3,7%
Building trade artisans
4,1%
Scrap
merchants 4,6%
Street vendors 76,1%
4. Results :
• Total loans disbursed : 2000 loans
• Number of active clients : 500
• Repayment rate : 94%
• Operational sustainability : impossible (cap on interest rates)
• Social impact : Even if the registration process is slow, showing the
difficulty of a cultural as well as of an economic change, at the end,
income generating activities are transformed in registered enterprises.
Possibility of adapting the system for the Roma in Central Europe :
• A good chance of success, in cooperation with Roma associations
5. Example of the Village Credit Funds, Albania
Poverty alleviation project in mountain areas based on :
• Allocation of a credit fund to the village, (usually about 1/3 of the
potential demand)
• Election of a Village Committee in charge of allocating and
recovering the loans
• If the loans are not entirely reimbursed, credit distribution is
suspended
• People waiting for loans put pressure on those who don’t
reimburse on time
6. Results :
• Number of districts : 8
• Number of Village Credit Funds : 73
• Number of savings credit cooperatives : 92
• Total number of loans disbursed since 1993 : 30 000
• Number of active clients : 7 000
• Repayment rate : 99%
• Operational sustainability : 78%
Possibility of adapting the system to Roma villages in Central Europe :
• The « village bank » model could well work in Roma villages
in Central Europe.
• Its success would depend on the adjustement between the skills
of the Roma community, their access to local resources and access to
market.
• The programme would require business support services
including market support.
In both cases,
Introduction of Internet could :
• Help young people to maintain their culture by transforming them
into « virtual travellers »
• Open access to news markets (ex : Bosnia refugee women
developping fashion knitting with design support)
7. Expected Impact of microcredit development
• Reduction of dependency on loan sharks
• Economic and financial autonomy
• Better integration in the society
• Creating a future may be an incentive for education
but
• Need to protect group cohesion and culture
8. Recommendations
1 - Open access to credit combined with business development
services and basic vocational training
2 - Review regulatory obstacles to the development of income
generating activities and to the mobility of Roma
3 - Launch an Europe wide information campaign to change the
vicious circle of discrimination and exclusion