This report was prepared by Kristine Langenbucher, Marius Lüske and Judd Ormsby, in the OECD’s Directorate for Employment Labour and Social Affairs under the supervision of Theodora Xenogiani (team leader). The section on Active Labour Market Programmes in Chapter 5 was prepared by Nicola Düll (Economix Research) and the literature review of barriers Roma face to labour market participation in Chapter 2 was prepared by Todor Todorov (University of National and World Economy), both acting as intellectual service providers to the OECD. Statistical assistance was provided by Dana Blumin and editorial assistance by Lucy Hulett.
The report was produced as part of the project Reforming the Existing and Designing of New Measures for Activating Inactive Persons and their Inclusion in the Labour Market in Bulgaria. This project is being carried out with funding by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) and in co‑operation with the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (under framework delegation agreement REFORM/IM2020/004). The co‑operation with Maria Petrova, Anna Delibasheva and Teodora Bahchevanova from Bulgaria’s National Employment Agency (NEA) and with Elisa Gómez Alemán and Simone Marino from the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Structural Reform Support has been instrumental for the project and the report.
Large parts of the report are based on information and assessments received from stakeholders in Bulgaria that the OECD team and the European Commission met during virtual fact-finding missions in November 2020 and March and April 2021. These included representatives from the NEA, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Social Assistance Agency (SAA), the General Labour Inspectorate Executive Agency, the National Agency for Vocational Education and Training, the National Statistical Institute, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Confederation of the Independent Syndicates in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association, the Bulgarian Red Cross, the Confederation of Labour “Podkrepa”, the Bulgarian Industrial Association, the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, and representatives from private employment agencies in Bulgaria. The report also benefited from fact-finding missions and focus groups conducted by Todor Todorov with a variety of stakeholders in November 2020 and February 2021 (stakeholders included representatives from the SAA, district and municipality offices from the Montana region and the towns of Lom and Valchedram, regional and local labour offices of the NEA in the Montana region, as well as youth activators, youth mediators, Roma mediators, caseworkers, and employers across various places in Bulgaria).
This report benefitted enormously from the collection and sharing of administrative data held by the NEA. Support with interpreting the structure of this data provided by NEA (especially Ivo Ivanov) was instrumental for the completion of this work.
Comments on earlier versions of this report – through an online workshop in September 2021 and in writing – greatly benefited the report. Comments were provided by the NEA, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Elisa Gómez Alemán from the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Structural Reform Support, as well as by Stefano Scarpetta, Mark Keese, Matija Vodopivec, and Anne Lauringson at the OECD.