For the Roma* communities scattered across our region, vulnerable livelihoods and discrimination are everyday realities. While Roma have been resilient, they struggle with poverty and exclusion, and often invisibility.

Despite being one of Europe’s largest minorities, the lack of reliable data on the Roma population omits them from policy making and vital programming initiatives. The recognition of the overarching facts is an honest start, but they lack precision when explaining the deprivations that perpetuate poverty and exclusion. The remaining anecdotal evidence feeds common sense but fails to prompt targeted action and lasting effect.

While we have worked extensively with communities and municipalities in the Western Balkans, we are now turning our gaze towards the Caucasus, specifically Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

We know that populations are larger than estimated, potentially hundreds of thousands more than recorded. The existing barriers to Roma inclusion here have been complicated by different factors, such as the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic. In Moldova and Ukraine, migration and internal displacement has compounded already-existing vulnerabilities of Roma people, many of whom were already in precarious and seasonal employment, with limited access to education, health and housing. In Georgia, though comparatively small in numbers, there are no national or local level policies for Roma inclusion, with little civil society representations.

Roma integration is part of the EU Accession criteria these three countries must fulfill. To develop programming to support these communities, and countries with their Roma agenda, we must understand better and gather more reliable and granular information.

Multi-country Roma survey 

We are putting this idea into practice in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine through a multi-country survey on the vulnerabilities of Roma. Along with our partners at the World Bank and EU, we see an opportunity to build a robust evidence base for Roma inclusion in these countries. 

Big data can spark insights into poverty and inequality that help us discover different patterns on different scales, and adjusting what we measure for multidimensional poverty can help differentiate between "deprivation profiles" of people living in different locations. The evidence base we build on Roma people, through utilizing both quantitative and qualitative surveys, will illuminate the obstacles to social inclusion and foster local, national and international partnerships to initiate dialogue, galvanize action and help monitor the progress made.

We can change what we can measure

The lack of data on Roma men and women in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine undermines arguments for building more inclusive societies. National censuses in many cases do not identify Roma people, and when they do, people can be reticent to report their Roma identities. As a result, substantial disparities emerge between estimates and existing census results. For instance, 2014 national census data from records approximately 9,300 people with Roma identity in Moldova; however, estimates exceed this number drastically with 100,000.

And it’s not just the numbers. The absence of robust data means we also cannot comprehend the country-level socio-economic disparities between Roma people and national averages. These disparities are not just from one factor, but are multi-dimensional – including income poverty, education, employment, health, housing, political and civic participation, discrimination, migration and access to personal documentation. Lack of data on multidimensional deprivations leads to fragmented and ad-hoc actions. What people report in surveys can overcome this, portraying material living conditions that reveal their needs.

But in too many instances, this exercise excludes the voices from the communities. Collecting qualitative narratives elicits nuances that complement survey data, capturing Roma communities’ perspectives missing in questionnaire responses. As narrators of their own conditions, they can reflect the complexity and diversity of their experiences, feelings and perceptions, and tools with which communities can approach social and economic challenges. 

Filling in these voids will not only clarify our vision to see how Roma communities are marginalized; it will contribute to retaining policy and programming attention on these issues and measure progress towards unconditional inclusion. 

Already during the project’s inception phase, we have seen a commitment to addressing the challenge of Roma exclusion.  Our research can be used to define a common agenda for these different actors, synchronizing their efforts along a common thread to the data collection will be its impactful dissemination and utilization. By making data accessible and actionable, we can help local and national authorities drive meaningful change within Roma communities.

Learnings, evidence and data translate into action for better lives 

These surveys on Roma well-being in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine are not a new idea. In 2017, we conducted similar quantitative and qualitative surveys in the Western Balkans, where EU-candidacy also powers policies on Roma inclusion. 

The data highlighted the intersection of socio-economic challenges experienced by Roma and returnees**, since in many Western Balkans countries, returnee individuals are predominantly Roma and in the poorest segment of the income ladder. With a specific attention to this overlap, we collected micronarratives to discern the challenges faced by Roma returnees, providing empirical evidence to guide programming.