New, local equal opportunities programmes have been developed for more than three thousand settlements, Minister of State for Social Affairs and Inclusion Károly Czibere, from the Ministry of Human Resources announced at a press conference in Budapest on Thursday.

The equal opportunities programmes were developed with EU financing with the help of the Türr István Training and Research Institute, the Ministry’s adult education and methodology background institution. The project’s budget was HUF 1.2 billion (EUR 3.9m).

The level of complexity of the new programmes is unprecedented: the local programmes are not merely concerned with local governments’ own social institution systems, but also take into account the programmes and achievements of non-governmental organisations and churches, including how they can be incorporated into the various local government programmes.

According to the Minister of State, this mirrors the new, complex method of managing social problems, in which dialogue between different sectors plays an important role.

During the development of the equal opportunities programmes, local governments assessed the situation of the various target groups (people living in extreme poverty, the Roma, children, women, the elderly, people with disabilities), and then developed specific action plans for each target group in cooperation with non-governmental organisations, associations and foundations.

The programmes span a five-year period, but must be reviewed every six months. The Minister of State pointed out that recent years have seen the launch of several social inclusion programmes that grew from grassroots initiatives and “local experiments”.

(Ministry of Human Resources)