Through the Memorandum of Understanding, the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Protection and Elderly Persons is appointed Programme Operator for the programme "Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Promoting Work Life Balance", with a budget of € 4,519,478.

The objectives of the Programme are:

• Strengthening the bilateral relations between the Donor States and Romania related to the issue of mainstreaming gender equality and promoting work life balance. The strengthening of the bilateral relations is a general objective of the programme, therefore it aims at establishing and strengthening the relations between the project promoters and the organizations in the Donor States, in the field of mainstreaming gender equality and promoting work life balance.

• Improving the work life balance. Through the programme, we aim at increasing the education and care services for the children aged 0 to 3, as well as the social services for children with disabilities aged 0 to 7. The purpose of this intention is to improve the work life balance.

• Raising awareness regarding the gender equality issue. The objective of the projects is to identify compact Roma communities and to organise meetings groups with their representatives, in order to present them data and information regarding the advantages and disadvantages of women's participation to the labour market and to the social life,

Indicators of the programme:

• Organizing 14 Workshops or seminars to debate on gender equality issues;

• Establishing 14 care and education centres for children aged 0 to 3 and social services for children with disabilities aged 0 to 7;

• 350 children will have access to the social services in specialized day care centres.

• 70 Roma children will have access to social services in specialized day care centres.

Main target group of the programme

1. Families with children aged 0 to 3 and/or disabled children aged 0 to 7 in the geographic areas where the demand for social services related to this group is much higher than the supply

2. Roma population in compact communities in large cities.

3. Employed population (employees of the public institutions, of enterprises, of NGOs, liberal professions, etc)

4. Unemployed persons looking for a job.

Eligible applicants.

The following entities can submit proposals:

1. Local public authorities at county level, established on the basis of the Law no 215/2001 regarding public administration, as amended.

2. Local public authorities at town and city level, established on the basis of the Law no 215/2001 regarding public administration, as amended.

Information regarding the call for proposals and the grants:

The following minimum and maximum amount shall apply to individual projects, to be funded in the frame of the programme:

• Minimum amount: € 170,000

• Maximum amount: € 360,000

One open call will be launched for the projects, while for the bilateral fund one rolling call will be launched.

For more information on the programme "Mainstreaming Gender Equality and Work Life Balance" please send an e-mail to: implementareproiecte@mmuncii.ro, stefania.andreescu@mmuncii.ro or florindragomir@mmuncii.ro, or visit our website www.mmuncii.ro.