New EIDHR funded project

Indicators for Social Inclusion in Housing

As of January 2012 the Delegation of the European Union in Skopje through the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) has selected another HFH Macedonia project for funding over the next 12 months. The overall objective of the project named Developing Indicators for Social Inclusion in Housing is to support the implementation of the National Strategy on Alleviation of Poverty and Social Exclusion by developing reference indicators in order to measure the progress in the process of social inclusion.

The project will be implemented on both national and local level, with specific focus on two municipalities: Bitola and Shuto Orizari. Both municipalities deal with some of the worst examples of social exclusion worth analyzing: the Bair neighborhood in Bitola being a prototype of an ethnically segregated ghetto, while Shuto Orizari is an example of neighborhood with overcrowded dwellings. The case studies that are expected to illustrate the exclusion and serve as basis for developing the necessary indicators that are to measure the progress with the inclusion will involve relevant ministries: Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Ministry of Local Self-government and the Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning, CSOs working on social inclusion, local governments and representatives of the local Roma communities, with a special focus on fair representation of all key stakeholders.

Besides creating reference indicators for drafting policies in the field of social inclusion in the housing sector, this project will also create platform for the voices of the socially excluded and marginalized groups to be heard, along with providing the setting for potential partnerships between public institutions and local CSOs.