Interventions

25. September 2020.

Evaluation of Anti-discrimination Interventions: Results of the Cross-country Focus Groups Analysis

Focus group analysis results from five countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, France, Ireland) prepared by our partners from the University of Limerick.

Executive summary

• The main aim of the research presented in this report was to identify and evaluate prejudice and discrimination intervention methods in five countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, France, Ireland). The focus groups were conducted to assess whether and how interventions have the potential to improve intergroup relations and encourage societal change. Overall, we aimed to formulate a systematic overview linking social psychological theory with grass-roots practices in interventions to prevent prejudice and discrimination.
• Based on our research, it seems that a soft approach, aiming to have long term effects appears to be the best way to reduce discrimination and prejudice.
• Raising awareness needs to be one of the most important goals of the interventions as it can trigger chain reactions that modify the behaviours of participants. This goal can be achieved through education, history teaching, class discussions and exposure to literature that includes positive Romani characters.
• One of the most important recommendations is continuity. No intervention can have lasting impact if it is implemented only in a short amount of time, the goal should be to offer continuous support to the participants that received a training, to monitor the activity of teachers, and support them in overcoming the challenges they face, and to also implement the intervention in multiple stages. If it is not possible, NGOs could create short term interventions that aim to have long term effect: for example donating books to schools which include Roma characters or promoting discussions about discrimination during the history classed. Both these examples have the potential to continue having positive effects even after the intervention has finished.
• Another important recommendation for the NGOs could be to maintain at least a core team that runs the interventions, so that they are able to accumulate experience and improve their strategy. Also, as stated in the previous section, evaluating the impact of the intervention using a proper before and after methodology should be a goal of further interventions.

Read the full report here. 

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