The Decade for Roma Inclusion (2005-2015) is a major transnational initiative to secure improvements in the economic and social position of Roma. The Decade has participation from eleven States: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. It is supported both financially and technically by several international organizations, including the founding members the World Bank, Open Society Institute, UNDP, Council of Europe, and the OSCE; the European Commission joined subsequently. Romani leaders are also participants in the Decade institutions. The OSI has funded the creation of “Roma Civic Alliances”, which are national coalitions of Roma and pro-Roma NGOs in five of the Decade countries (Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia). Several regional Romani organizations are also engaged, including the European Roma and Travellers Forum, the European Roma Information Office, the ERRC and the Roma Education Fund, the latter developed specifically in the context of the Decade. An institutional structure to oversee the Decade has been created, including an International Steering Committee in which governments, international organizations and Roma organizations participate; a Secretariat in Budapest; and an annually rotating Presidency held by participating States. Decade Action Plans have been drafted by each State and each participating State is required to, inter alia, “Ensure […] the financial commitment necessary for the implementation of the national Action Plans”.⁹⁴

Substantively, the Decade focuses on four sectors - education, employment, health and housing - as well as three cross-cutting issues - discrimination, poverty and gender. The focus sectors correspond with targets for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The Decade can be understood as a regional effort to achieve priority MDGs for Roma.

Romani actors have been closely involved in the monitoring and implementation process. A key principal of the Decade is ‘for Roma, by Roma’ with a view to maximizing their role in all stages of the programme of work. In addition to the participation in the International Steering Committee, Romani NGOs have produced an evaluation of progress to date in the Decade. The first report, Decade Watch: Roma Activists Assess the Progress of the Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005-2006, was published in 2007. The report is a good monitoring tool (even with the methodological difficulties presented by low levels of data on Roma) and provides detailed information on the progress each State has made institutionally and in terms of policy and programmes on each of the four priority areas of the Decade. States are ranked according to their performance in implementing the Decade’s objectives and this ranking is made publicly available. However, additional monitoring tools evaluating outcomes and impacts of programmes and projects are needed to make objective statements about the progress of Roma inclusion.