Project is funded by European Climate Initiative (EUKI-GIZ).
This project supports the participation of marginalized Roma communities in Central Europe´s green transition via research and bottom-up sustainable social innovation. It aims to provide MRCs from five pilot localities in Hungary and Slovakia equitable access to resources and opportunities via a holistic approach to sustainable development.
One of the main challenges we face is the question of how to facilitate the inclusion and participation of disadvantaged groups in the transition processes. To achieve this, we must determine how we can improve Roma living standards whilst simultaneously decreasing their environmental burden.
Main outputs:
1. Municipal Strategies for Sustainable Development
Given the absence of local capacities and the importance of policy planning for successful local development, Comenius University provides its expertise to help organise consultations with municipal officials.
2. Pilot Actions: Innovative Sustainable Solutions
This output includes the development and implementation of innovative, community-based sustainable solutions in selected municipalities (Košice – Luník IX, Ostrovany, and Veľký Krtíš). These pilot actions focus on:
- Establishing local energy and environmental social enterprises based on comprehensive business plans to boost sustainable employment and address energy poverty.
- Carrying out energy audits and, based on their recommendations, supporting self-help reconstruction works of residential buildings – including insulation, minor renovation, and other efficiency-improving measures.
- Introducing and expanding prepaid (credit) systems for electricity and water, which improve consumption control, reduce household debt, and encourage more responsible resource use.
- Implementing locally grounded nature-based solutions that combine environmental improvements with community engagement.
These activities are co-designed and implemented in cooperation with local Roma communities, municipalities, and technical experts to ensure long-term ownership and sustainability.
3. Interdisciplinary Research and Action Teaching and Learning for sustainable Development of Marginalized Roma Communities
Teacher trainings are undertaken in selected schools across the five municipalities led by representatives from RESDI in Slovakia and Hiszako in Hungary. Following teacher trainings, RESDI and Hiszako aim to launch a National Student Environmental Project Competition in which students from five pilot schools can submit a locally grounded environmental project. The plan is to continue annual basis.
This output includes the design of environmental curricula for municipal schools. Comenius University leads the design of university course centred on the Green Transformation in Central Europe’s Roma Communities.
4. Establishment of an Aarhus Platform for Roma Communities
In September 2025, Comenius University hosted the UNEP affiliated Science for Carpathian’s biennial Forum Carpaticum conference where the official launch of the Platform was announced. The Aarhus Platform will be a crucial mechanism through which policy proposals for the inclusion of marginalized Roma communities within the Green Transition can be discussed and created.
To achieve the objectives of the project, we propose a multi-pronged approach. We believe this will contribute to addressing socioeconomic and environmental challenges faces by facilitating the implementation of more sustainable energy sources in housing, the development of an environmental education curricula and capacity-building.
