December 2013 – May 2015
This Project intends to respond to the needs of the informal collectors of diverse types of waste in Macedonia, who live on the margins of the society. Almost ALL of them are Roma. For them informal waste recycling is a common way to earn an income. It is estimated that approximately 5000 are involved in informal waste recycling. The factors that push people into informal waste collection are fundamentally economic. Many poor people, faced with a choice between starving or informal waste collection, choose the latter. 100 % of the target group of this Project Proposal is illiterate; 95 % living in urban areas in the ghettoes placed at lands with non defined ownership in sub standard conditions; lacking access to basic infrastructure and access to social and welfare system. This project intends to enable informal waste collectors to become part of a formal waste management on local level by introducing model developed by municipalities, private/ public utility companies, representatives of employment agencies, Association of Informal Waste Collectors, private recycling companies and civil society. Taking into consideration local policies for inclusion, this Project intends to engage stakeholders on local government level in activities that will lead towards long – term employment of the marginalized Roma in formal recycling sector. This process will be available for other communities and will lead to more effective poverty reduction on local level.
Overall objective: Developing sustainable model for inclusion of Roma informal waste collectors in the formal waste management system at local level that will contribute towards enabling possibilities for them and their families to exercise their basic human rights: employment, education, social and health welfare.
Project target groups: Roma informal waste collectors
Project beneficiaries: Roma informal waste collectors, local governments, public utility companies, recycling industry, Roma NGO’s and other civil society organizations
Location: Kumanovo, Tetovo, Vasilevo

Activities:

• Facilitate the process to establish stakeholder municipal working group consisted of all relevant stakeholders
• Facilitate and foster participation among the stakeholders
• Capacity building of the members of the stakeholder municipal working group focused on development of long-term, sustainable solutions for inclusion of informal collectors on municipal level
• Situation analysis that will provide information on: existing policies on municipal level that could serve as a basis for developing the strategies and action plans of inclusion of informal waste collectors; assessment of municipal capacities; capacities of the public/ private utility companies to absorb new employments; capacities of the recycling industry for absorbing new employments
• Develop and adopt guidelines and Action Plan on municipal level for inclusion of informal waste collectors in the formal waste management.
• Implement awareness campaign entitled “Partnership for inclusion”

Estimated results:

• Dialogue among the stakeholders, civil society and public institutions on local level established in the area of waste collection established
• Capacity of the civil society and public institutions on local level in the area of waste collection increased
• Created guideline how to incorporate the informal waste collectors into formal waste management system.
• Action Plan developed and adopted by Municipal council and public utility company, will contain a detailed description of procedures necessary to formalize the informal waste collectors.