Policy & research

This report is one of the project’s main outputs and brings together national practices identified by the project partners—Klimaka (Greece), Cairde (Ireland), CESIS and CooperActiva (Portugal), and Sastipen (Romania)—as well as European and transnational practices considered relevant to the prevention of early marriage and early motherhood in Roma communities. The practices analysed vary considerably in nature, encompassing educational programmes, intercultural mediation, health promotion, peer support, participatory research, collaborative governance, the strengthening of Roma organisations and the development of public policies. This diversity represents one of the report’s main strengths, demonstrating that prevention does not depend on a single methodology but rather on the articulation of complementary responses operating at different levels of intervention.

Rather than presenting a catalogue of initiatives, this report seeks to identify the factors that make a practice particularly promising in this field and to explore elements that may be adapted and transferred to other national or local contexts. The comparative analysis shows that the most robust responses combine inclusive education, access to healthcare services, intercultural mediation, community participation, knowledge generation, the leadership of Roma women and participatory governance, in line with the most recent policy directions of the European Union and the Council of Europe for promoting the equality, inclusion and participation of Roma communities.

This synthesis was prepared within the framework of the Erasmus+ project “Roma Influencers – Breaking the Circle of Early Marriages and Early Motherhood in Roma Communities”. It draws on the national policy recommendation reports produced by the project partners in Greece, Ireland, Romania and Portugal, following the methodological orientations established for Work Package 3, Activity 3.4.
The document identifies the main common findings, structural challenges and policy priorities emerging across the four national contexts, while highlighting country-specific approaches and recommendations. It adopts a rights-based, intersectional and community-centred perspective aligned with European frameworks on Roma inclusion, children’s rights, gender equality and anti-discrimination.

By engaging Roma women in a unique co‐design education and research process, this study aims to identify barriers to accessing care faced by this minority community and understand their experiences of maternity services to enhance equity, accessibility and cultural responsiveness in maternal healthcare.

This study outlines the co‐design approach taken to engagement with women from the Roma community to capture their experience of maternity and neonatal care in Ireland. The findings of this study will be used to assess the relevance and completeness of measures of quality and safety of maternity care in capturing these experiences.