The Project Generation Facility II was concerned with Slovakia’s regions with the greatest number of municipalities with Roma communities: Banska Bystrica, Presov and Kosice. In terms of socio-economic status, these regions have had the highest unemployment, lowest average wage and highest number of persons receiving social benefits. PGF II Project therefore free of cost helped municipalities, towns, entrepreneurs and NGOs to prepare quality projects for Structural Funds and other European grant opportunities acquirement. The only requirement for writing the project was the willingness to do projects for the benefit of all citizens, including Roma. The program was communicated nationally as “We and the Roma, the Roma among us: free consulting and project preparation for municipalities” and paid regard to several goals and tasks to fulfill: The first phase of the project was communication through local media outlets with the aim to inform a broader range of actors. After the promotion of the project official information sessions took place for chosen municipalities. Priority municipalities were those with the most significant need for project assistance or those where there was significant political will to address socio-economic problems of the Roma community. Materials (info leaflets) including information about the conditions and possible eligible projects beneficial to the Roma were the output of the information sessions. The last step of the first phase was capacity building of representatives of partner municipalities within which trainings in Project Design and Project Implementation were held in each region. The aim of the second phase of the project was the actual project writing and preparing for partner municipalities whereas SGI, PiN and KZRSR provided consultants and supervisors that participated in the project preparation. In this phase, some municipalities could benefit from co-financing of preparatory work for infrastructure projects or programming documents. This supplementary funds program was conceived as a motivational tool to entice municipalities to participate, where appropriate. In case the projects of local municipalities were successful and they received Structural Funds or other European grant opportunity, PGF II team in the third phase would provide continuous support and mentoring to partner local governments.
