Social innovation for employment in Botevgrad, Bulgaria

With support of the ROMACT, the Bulgarian city of Botevgrad successfully implemented a project named "Adaptation and Implementation of Social Innovations for Employment of Marginalised Groups through Public Procurement" in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland. The project was funded under the procedure “Transnational Partnerships” of the Operational Program “Human Resources Development” 2014 – 2020.

The common transnational objective of the project was to learn how to create work placements for people far from the labour market with very low education and professional experience by applying employment criteria in public procurement.

It was achieved through exchanges of experience during thematic workshops organised by the partner organization, as well as capacity building of municipal staff involved in the public procurement process.

On the other side, the project also focused on working with the Roma community in Botevgrad (using the labour, health and educational mediators) on how to tackle the recruitment challenge for people who are far from the labour market but also on the adaptation of the social criteria in public procurement in order to integrate and re-integrate individuals into the labour market in Botevgrad. Information session about newly opened opportunities based on the social criteria in public procurement were also organized for people from vulnerable groups.

More details for the project results can be found in the Evaluation Report and in the Report with analysis of the results of the public procurement, available in Bulgarian and English.