The project aims to contribute to fighting discrimination that Roma face in accessing public services (such as social services, employment services or public housing) through developing, piloting and disseminating methods of data collection that can be easily implemented by NGOs and used to monitor discrimination in a regular and systematic way.

During the project three grassroots NGOs, Amalipe (Bulgaria), ROMEA (Czechia) and Autonomia Foundation (Hungary) will obtain evidence on discrimination that Roma face in accessing public services, using the method of mystery shopping (situational testing). Subsequently, the NGOs will use this evidence in mediation/advocacy activities with public service providers with objective to reduce barriers of Roma’s access. Methodological support will be provided by the Budapest Institute and by the Central European University.

The project will develop methods of mystery shopping in public services both accessed via online gateways and personal contact with providers, will work on piloting the methods and the capacity building of NGOs to use these methods on their own, and disseminate the results in the national policy context.

A methodology of data collection and guidelines on its use will be published (in English and in three national languages), also trainings will be organized for NGOs on how to use the methodology. The results will be summarized in three national reports in national languages including the findings of the analyses of collected data; and in a policy brief on improving Roma’s access to public services (in English and three national languages).

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC 2014-2020) under the grant agreement No. 881903.