Activity report  (July 2004)

 
Background research

The background research was started in March and continued the process well into April. My objectives were to find out about some publications on two topics. The first topic – was about the costs that discrimination imposes on a country’s economy. Most of the studies, unfortunately, in this area had focused mostly on inefficiencies caused by labor discrimination. The second area that I explored was efficiency of public spending in alleviating poverty and racial discrimination. Here again, I could not find too many articles that related directly to my research.

 The second part of the research focused on collecting reports from government agencies and non-government and international organizations on the Roma in Bulgaria. This proved a rather challenging task, as no place seemed to have the reports. For example, I was hoping that NGOs that work on Roma health issues, (including the OSI Bulgaria) would have done some preliminary research and would have gathered reports on the topic that I could photocopy and use. That proved not to be that case, and I spent quite some time, looking for particular reports that I had heard about, and I had to go to the particular NGO to collect it. This “exercise” or report and information collection proved useful, as I had the chance to meet with quite a few individuals working on Roma issues and was able to share my idea with them and get their opinion on data collection and other background studies, or past projects.

Data Collection

As expected this proved to be a very challenging task. The original idea was this to be a too step process. The first step was to estimate what current programs the government had on Roma. The question that needed to be answered was: “How much is the government specifically spending on Roma related programs?” There were several factors that made it too complicated to have a precise answer. First, although nominally, the National Council on Ethnic and Demographic Issues was the coordinating body of all programs, in reality the council did not have a clear picture. There were several strategy and plan documents that described budgeted and projected programs for specific years or periods of time, but the Council could not provide an actual report on what was done. It all remained in the “what was supposed to be done” sphere. Secondly, many of the programs that were included in these programs, were not Roma targeted but rather addressed included areas, schools, or healthcare facilities where there were Roma, as well as Bulgarians. The Council’s own position was that Roma-only program in many instances could prove to be an irritant to the Bulgarians around it, and thus, the programs attempted to embrace all ethnic groups in a region. This made it impossible to pinpoint an exact amount that is actually being spent on the Roma even in programs that are supposedly primarily targeting the Roma. A current effort by the Intercultural Minority…to collect information on all Roma related programs. Lastly, my initial contacts with the individuals pointed to by the Council as coordinating Roma programs in the in three ministries (Education, Healthcare, and Labor and Social Affairs) had little idea and could not provide a list of current programs, let alone past programs.

The second step of the data collection process was to collect data on government spending generally, and to find in what cases an “ethnic component” could be isolated. Here there were several levels of data collection. At the first one, information on budget spending reports was to be gathered. After contacting the ministry of finance, from where I was hoping to collect easily the detailed budgets of all areas I was interested in, I was redirected to request the budget information from each particular agency or ministry I was interested in. I wrote letters to all ministries’ finance departments, requesting this information. These requests fell upon significant reluctance on behalf of ministry officials who are probably afraid to reveal how exactly they spend the tax-payers’ money. It has been already taking two months and I still have not heard from any ministry. I have been searching for contacts but as my NGO works and has connections only with certain ministries it has proved challenging to find the necessary connections to speed up the data-collection process.

The second step was to find out at a local level whether ethnic based data is collected even if the ministry is not requiring it. I conducted a number of interviews with local school and hospital officials, in Sofia, as well as with other contacts around the country and found out that some ethnic data is collected at the local level. This prompted me to request some of the information that I found out was collected from the local offices from the central government branches. Here the opposition to share even available data was very strong. In some instances, for example at the Ministry of Interior, the officials would lie to me that they do not collect ethnic based information. Only after I would point to them exactly what I had found from the lower level institutions, they would reluctantly admit that it exists but it is only for government use. The same issue was encountered even with the National Statistical Institute (NSI). The NSI provided me with statistical data but when asked to include the ethnic component, they would ask me write a special letter to the director of the NSI, requesting particular dimension of the information. This additionally slowed down the process of collecting data.

Methodology

All these hurdles led to a slowdown in keeping with the work-plan and jeopardized the success of the project. For this reason, I decided to shift the focus of my data-source. I decided to rely on The Bulgarian 2001 Integrated Household Survey, conducted by Gallup International and under the auspices of the Bulgarian Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the National Statistics Institute. This survey was extremely detailed and encompassed all questions in the sphere of healthcare, education, and social care that the project seeks to answer. The only sphere not included was the justice and law-enforcement component. Although this survey is all encompassing, its results will be tested against other surveys, as the results from a monthly national household survey for 2001 that Vitosha Research had conducted for the UNDP Bulgaria. Using the Integrated Household Survey would also allow to analyze trends (would be deemed necessary), since similar surveys were conducted in 1995 and 1997.