Future of work in Cluj-Napoca: a long term and a common strategy

One of the key goals of the project, “Future of Work,” is breaking the spiral of poverty in Pata-Rât.

A few kilometres from Cluj Napoca in Romania, around 2500 people live in this slum, one of the biggest in Europe. More than half of the inhabitants are children.

A long-term inclusion strategy is the one chosen by all the people involved in this project.

Ovidiou Cimpean is State Secretary in the Romanian Ministry of Investments and European Projects and Project Manager of Cluj Napoca Future of Work. He explained to us what they do.

“In our hub, we have many projects financed, not just by Europe but also by Norway.  We focus on housing for the residents of Pata-Rât, finding new jobs for their parents, but very importantly, we also focus on the education of the children and young people of Pata-Rât.  We are now in the second stage of some important programmes that we are developping in the area and I think that together, with “Future of Work,” we will be able to change their destiny in the near future.

I think it’s very important to have a strategy and to follow it, in order to be very coherent in your actions and public policies. Furthermore, it’s crucial that when you carry out your plan, you involve everyone from the local environment, in order to ensure that you are doing the right things.

 Cluj-Future of Work is a good example, because we had a big consortium with ten stakeholders in the city. We had various people from the private sector, the cultural sector such as NGOs, and Cluj-based cultural centers as well as people from universities.”