Social Development of the Mining Communities Scheme – Stage II (SDSCM) is one of the sub-components of the Project “Closure of Mines, Environmental Restoration and Economic and Social Regeneration” (2007-2010) initiated by the Ministry of Economy.

The project was intended to restructure the mining sector and socio-economic regeneration in areas affected by the closure of fines and has several components in turn divided into subcomponents. SDSCM is part of the “Socio-economic Regeneration” component and compared to stage I, carried out until 2005 through the scheme of the same name, it addresses a wider area of ​​mining communities (19 counties). The experience of the previous phase was used to improve the working procedures so that the intervention responds as well as possible to the current specifics of the problems.

The beneficiaries are not only the (former) miners and their families, but also the rest of the community, equally affected by the restructuring of the mining sector and for which no specific development measures have been initiated.

Despite alternative funding opportunities (Phare, SAPARD, other European funds) the demand for projects was high (422 projects), so many eligible and feasible projects submitted to RSDF were rejected due to exceeding the funding capacity from the budget, allocated to the scheme.

Period: 2006 – 2011

General objectives

• socio-economic regeneration
• citizen involvement in community development
• increasing the local capacity to initiate and manage local projects

Beneficiaries

• mining communities affected by the restructuring of the profile industry (rural and urban)
• disadvantaged groups (rural and urban)

Value of the scheme: 22 million USD

Donors

• BIRD (repayable loan granted to the Romanian Government represented by the Ministry of Finance)
• contribution from the state budget

Partial results (March 31, 2011)

• 132 communities supported (facilitated) to prepare projects
• 202 small infrastructure works financed (of which 141 completed)
• 25 small businesses started (of which 24 functional)
• 18 community social services created/developed (all provide services to beneficiaries)
• 670 members of funded communities trained in project management (average 3 people from each project)
• over 123,000 people directly or indirectly benefit from the effects of the funded projects.

Impact

According to the results of the external evaluation carried out by the Gallup International Organization at the time of the approval of the first projects (March 2008):

• 73% of the members of the funded communities stated that the project initiated in their community is useful or very useful.
• FRDS is most often associated with the attributes: professionalism, transparency, consulting, openness, help.

Consult:

• Contractors for the execution of works i pentru execuţia lucrărilor
• Presentation of the projects

“People will understand that we have to go on private initiatives and that you can no longer sit and wait for help”(beneficiary).