Backstopping of the Roma Settlement Component: SORAE-Project (Social Justice for Roma, Ashkali and Egyptians) and previous project cycles
Location
Kosovo
project period
2013–2025
Phase 3: 2026 - 2028
client
HEKS/EPER Swiss Church Aid
Services provided
Consultancy
Partner organisation
National and local authorities and the communities in informal settlements (mainly ethnic Roma minorities) are supported to improve housing conditions for low-income families, to develop adequate social housing solutions and to desegregate Roma-Mahalas and to facilitate access to public services, infrastructure, formal land titles and job opportunities.
Background
The Swiss aid organisation HEKS and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation SDC and the local NGO partners VoRAE and EHO are spearheading the improvement of housing conditions of the Balkan’s ethnic minorities (especially the Roma), since the end of the Yugoslav wars. The joint efforts, expanded over several countries and is currently focusing on Kosovo. Skat supports the project since 2008 with expertise on participatory settlement development and affordable housing.
Objective of the project:
To improve the living conditions and social inclusion of ethnic minorities (mainly Roma) by
· Introducing of strategies for inclusive upgrading, transformation and desegregation of informal/substandard neighbourhoods to national and municipal housing and urbanisation and housing policies
· Building of capacities among the Roma community and municipal officers
· Piloting participatory settlement upgrading processes and adequate affordable housing and settlement transformation
These objectives are part of a larger programme for social inclusion of the Roma community, that includes legal and educational outcomes, which Skat did not actively support.
Policy advice and tools
Skat’s experts provided strategic and technical advice to local municipalities, the project implementation team and key stakeholders from the civil society on how to design a participatory approach for inclusive settlement transformation. Jointly withkey-stakeholders from the public and private sector, Skat developed tools for upgrading and rezoning informal settlements and to implement housing upgrading and neighbourhood transformation projects with a maximised involvement of the target community.
Housing and Settlement Design
In collaboration with community representatives and local architects, Skat supported and/or lead the design process for affordable and social housing and the upgrading of existing houses. Skat, its client and its partners developed housing designs that can be implemented by municipalities within the framework of social or subsidised rental housing, as well as solutions for the owner-driven housing upgrading or new constructions, built by local SMEs.
Skills building
Builders from the target community are trained and enabled to conduct large parts of the construction work required to upgrade their settlements and build or extend their homes and income generating facilities. This has contributed significantly to the cost-effectiveness of the intervention and to the sustainable improvement of the community’s livelihoods.