Press conference for launching the activities under the project "Novel Approaches to generating Data on Hard-to-reach Populations at Risk of Violation of their Rights" was held on August 2, 2019. The project - which duration is 30 months - has been awarded a budget of nearly 2 million BGN by the “Local Development, Poverty Reduction and Enhanced Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups” programme, funded by the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 and managed by the Ministry of Education and Science.

The press conference was organized by the National Statistical Institute (NSI) in cooperation with the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). Both institutions are partnering to develop innovative methods of data collection and provision of indicators to reflect hard-to-reach populations, i.e. the groups, that for different reasons have so far remained outside the scope of periodic NSI surveys and analyzes.

The press conference provided detailed information about the project's goals and the expected results. It is envisaged that 15,000 households will be surveyed through "on site" visits, and the data obtained will support the preparation and the analysis of the general census data at the beginning of 2021.

The results of the project are expected with high interest from the representatives of the central and local authorities as well as from NGOs and the scientific community.

The press conference was attended by Ms. Diana Yancheva, Vice-President of the NSI, Ms. Magdalena Kostova, Director of the Directorate for Demographic and Social Statistics and Manager of the above project, and Mr. Andrey Ivanov of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA).