The Roma population in Bosnia and Herzegovina – an ethnic minority group – are socially excluded and tend to be more exposed and vulnerable to certain environmental issues and hazards because of discrimination. They tend to live in informal settlements in areas that are environmentally degraded, polluted, or prone to floods and landslides.

SEI Research Fellow Claudia Strambo’s work as part of BiH ESAP 2030+ project team  was on including the voices and concerns of the Roma people in developing Bosnia and Herzegovina’s environmental strategy and action plan, was challenging. Some experts and stakeholders in the project felt that social inclusion, despite being strongly interconnected with climate, fell outside of their mandate of environmental protection. Other stakeholders felt that they lacked the tools and capacity necessary to implement equality, social equity, and poverty measures in the strategy and it was unclear who should be tasked with their implementation.

These are valid concerns given the lack of framework or good practice examples including marginalized groups in environmental strategies. However, this does not exempt public officials from the responsibility to include marginalized communities in strategic planning. To get stakeholders on board, the project team worked with key actors within the Romani community, as well as organizations and institutions working on minorities’ rights, highlighting the need for and the value of contributions that disadvantaged groups can provide in developing a new environmental strategy, successfully including some Roma concerns in the new strategy.