Survey of Socio-Economic Status of Roma Community in Macedonia

18 October 2005

The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung presented yesterday, October 17, the results of its survey designed to detect the most serious problems of the Roma in Macedonia and to propose future activities. The Survey was presented by Stephan Denert, Director of FES Macedonia, Eben Friedman, and expert on Roma issues, and Vladimir Bozinovski from the Institute for Democracy in Skopje.

The survey was conducted by the research team of the Centre for Public Opinion and Analysis of the Centre for Democracy, through a series of ten interviews with focus groups established by the Skpoje Roma population.

The research concluded that the Roma population believes that its role in the political processes in the country is insignificant, their knowledge of the decentralization is far from sufficient, the education level remains low, but with an increasing numbers of Roma involved in all levels of education.

The conclusion of the Report on emphasizes the detection of a significant lack of knowledge about the work of the humanitarian organizations with the Roma population, as well as lack of relevant ideas for implementation of donations.