Danish Refugee Council (DRC) office in Mitrovicë/a has accomplished field activities of comprehensive RAE study in two RAE settlements in Mitrovicë/a- Roma Mahalla and Dy Korriku/Sitnicko Naselje.

Within the project Support to Roma Ashkali and Egyptian Communities in Mitrovicë/a, DRC’s long-standing goal has been to contribute to the stabilization of the RAE communities residing in the two neighbourhoods – in other words, to support making their integration into Kosovo’s socio-economic structure actual and sustainable. In order to do this, gathering reliable data is fundamental from several viewpoints. Firstly, despite its substantial experience with RAE communities in Mitrovicë/a (and beyond), DRC strongly feels the need to consolidate all information that can be collected directly from community members in order to tailor its activities to their expressed needs, ensuring thus their participation in the design phase and their ownership over all choices. Secondly, being able to collect accurate data, disaggregated by age, gender and disability, will constitute a powerful tool for the empowerment of the local authorities and NGOs that will become progressively responsible for all activities through the hand-over process. Finally, being able to compare first-hand data collected at the beginning and at the end of a project is essential to guarantee high standards of transparency and accountability towards beneficiaries and donors.

Accordingly during August/September 2014 period the data collection exercise took the shape of a survey comprising household interviews and focus group discussions that were preceded by a workshop aimed at the development of data collection tools and training for surveyors. The survey was performed by a pool of eight (8) local surveyors (four (4) females and four(4) males) recruited on the grounds of the familiarity with interviewing techniques and data gathering methodology acquired during extensive training undergone in the framework of their engagement in a Kosovo-wide household survey organized by UNICEF in 2013.

Household interviews were designed to allow the collection of information directly from individual families. DRC considered it necessary to meet each family so as to give them the chance to have a voice on all aspects of their life, other than for the sake of thorough data gathering also in order to ensure that all residents of the two neighbourhoods could feel they were directly providing their contribution – an essential step towards their empowerment. It was hence decided not to apply sampling methods, but to involve all the over 300 households.

The data collection exercise comprised different steps and aspects that jointly led to the achievement of its purposes, and was finalized on September 19, 2014. A full report will be published by the end of the year.

With funding from Sida, represented by the Embassy of Sweden in Pristina, Danish Refugee Council Kosovo continues its work in Roma Mahalla, MItrovicë/a and started the implementation of the 4-year Project: ‘SUPPORT TO ROMA, ASHKALIA AND EGYPTIAN COMMUNITIES IN MITROVICË/A’ in 2014.
The Project aims to contribute to the stabilization and integration process of Roma, Ashkalia and Egyptian women, men, girls and boys in Mitrovicë/a by providing the tools and support necessary for members of the RAE and vulnerable members of the majority community to improve their future opportunities in education, employment and civic participation in a multi-ethnic Kosovo.

For more information, contact the Mitrovicë/a Field Office