Where the Paved Road Ends: Regional Disparities and Roma Integration

Hungary’s Most Disadvantaged Micro-regions Program (LHH—Leghátrányosabb Helyzetű Kistérségek Felzárkóztatási Programja) aims to reduce regional disparities. Unemployment is a chronic feature of the most disadvantaged Hungarian micro-regions, education services are poor quality, and the amount of personal debts accumulated by the population has risen exponentially. These problems affect the Roma population in particular, contributing to their segregation and discrimination.

Based on Hungary’s National Development Plan I (2004–2006), the most disadvantaged micro-regions received per capita funding exceeding the national average. However, this additional funding was insufficient for counter-balancing negative socio-economic trends. Moreover, certain micro-regions, settlements, or social groups obtained resources below the average.

In the autumn of 2007, the government designated the 33 most disadvantaged micro-regions on the basis of their economic, social, and infrastructure coverage indicators, and decided that these regions need to be developed through a complex program. Four regional operational programs (ROPs), the Social Renewal Operational Program (SROP), and the Social Infrastructure Operational Program (SIOP) of the New Hungary Development Plan (NHDP) were the primary sources of funding for this complex program.

The data informing the current evaluation was collected from March to October 2010. We selected 15 of the 33 micro-regions embraced by the LHH Program by taking several considerations into account (to form a heterogeneous sample and to capture different levels disadvantaged status). Our research is primarily based on the accounts of the micro-regional actors, who were reached out by a survey and structured interviews. Expert interviews were also conducted with program planners and the central implementing agencies.

This report accounts for the first results of the program as it is premature to examine local impacts at this point. When this research was conducted, approximately half of the projects approved within the framework of the LHH Program received funding notification, whilst half of the projects did not reach this stage, and only a few projects were fully implemented.

The fundamental aim of this evaluation is to record the successes and failures of LHH in reducing regional disparities and improving the situation of the Roma through targeted planning and programming. This analysis is seen as timely: the planning of similar programs for the next development period (2011–2013) is currently in progress in which priority issues of the Decade of the Roma (2005–2015) are also considered. In addition, it is also known that the Hungarian Presidency of the EU and the European Commission will present a European Framework Strategy for Roma Inclusion in the first half of 2011.