An Equal Opportunities Programme will be one of the entry conditions for any settlement taking part in competitive domestic- and EU-financed tender schemes. For the preparation of such programmes local governments—in response to requests from them—were granted an extension to the deadline, now 1 July 2013, due to the newly accepted amendment to the Act regulating this issue. Compared to the previous formula, a new element has been installed into the system: professional help will be granted, free of charge, in the preparation of appropriate Equal Opportunities Programmes through an equal opportunities mentoring network established by the Türr István Training and Research Institute (TTRI) [Hungarian: Türr István Képző és Kutató Intézet, TKKI], which is the background institute of the State Secretariat for Social Inclusion, Ministry of Human Resources.
On the basis of the Act on Equal Treatment and the Promotion of Equal Opportunities, local governments accept a local Equal Opportunities Programme for up to 5 years, and may be granted tender subsidies only if they have an appropriate and operative Equal Opportunities Programme. The shift in the original deadline in the Act from 1 November 2012 became necessary because in the range of public services that most affects the target groups (e.g. public education, healthcare) the ongoing changes in the persons of the maintainers mean the scope of duties for local governments are also changing, which has an influence on the long-term preparation of action plans (five-years in length), and the precise definition of the measures in question. With this—in response to the request from local government bodies—the new deadline, 1 July 2013, has been indicated in the recently published amendment.
The local Equal Opportunities Programme is prepared and supervised by the appointed civil servants of the local government authority. In the preparation and supervision of their programmes local governments may now request the expert service and preparatory courses provided by the TTRI, free of charge, through the equal opportunities mentoring network. The training courses are due to be launched this autumn, and to be realized in a number of stages.
In the local Equal Opportunities Programme, the local government authorities prepare an analysis of current social, educational, employment, healthcare and housing status of disadvantaged groups in society—and in the community—and create an action plan for the complex management of these problems. The local governments prepare their programmes within a framework of harmonized principles in order to follow and monitor in an appropriate manner at a national level the change in status of the target groups (those living in extreme poverty, the Roma, elderly people, women and handicapped people) and the completed or ongoing measures. The local governments publish their programmes and send them to the TTRI. The Institute publishes each program on its website.
More information on the programs and the services of the TRRI will soon be available from www.tkki.hu.
(kormany.hu)
