Alleviating the impacts of the pandemic on Hungarian minorities

To alleviate the impacts of COVID-19 policies, many initiatives have been developed by civil society organisations – NGOs, local governments, or citizens. A team of national researchers from the RESISTIRÉ project has collected and highlighted a set of particularly relevant initiatives in 27 European countries and in Iceland, Serbia, the United Kingdom and Turkey. The initiatives currently cover eight specific domains: gender-based violence, the labour market, the economy, gender-pay and pension gaps, gender care gaps, decision-making and politics, environmental justice, human and fundamental rights.

This societal initiative has been collected by: Agnes Kende.

COVID-19’s impact on the workplace: different repercussions on different minorities

In Hungary, WeAreOpen partnered with Amnesty Magyarország, Bagázs Egyesület, Háttér Társaság and Salva Vita Alapítvány to produce a report on the impact of the pandemic on minorities in the workplace.

“What can employers do? COVID-19 Impact Report on Women, LGBTQ+, Roma & Disabled People” is a collaborative project aiming to demonstrate the different impacts the pandemic is having on different minority groups, including among employees. The report includes useful information, resources and concrete tips for employers on how to handle specific situations.

To get an overview of the scope of inequalities during the pandemic, each participating non-profit organisation focused on one subject, relying on years of experience and expertise ; Amnesty International Hungary provided information on gender equality and the role of women in domestic and care work, Háttér Society shared their expertise on LGBTQ+ inclusion, Bagázs Association provided insights on Roma communities in Hungary, and Salva Vita Foundation
focused on the challenges faced by disabled people because of social distancing and remote work.

A collaborative process

Participating organisations are disseminating the final report jointly: they are sharing it with the more than one thousand employers belonging to the OPEN Community, and making it available for all on their websites and social media channels. They hope that, by highlighting some of these insights, they can help companies and organisations ease the negative effects of the pandemic on diverse employees and communities.

The report is a first step in the right direction: the partners now encourage all organisations, companies and experts to join the project and contribute their own ideas, stories, best practices etc. and inspire others.

WeAreOpen is a non-profit organisation that creates campaigns with a coalition of businesses to promote diversity and inclusion for millions, and helps companies become more open by offering services, workshops, talks and consulting.

Click here to access the full report