Finance Background to this section Return to the Finance list This section will emphasise waht appear to be practical approaches to programme and project funding structures for Roma investment geared to employment and income generation on a sustained basis. The other aspect of Roma finance, known as the "Gypsy Business" is an unethical, immoral and criminal activity founded in racial discrimination and financial greed and this practice is covered in the section Discrimination section of this site. Funding Structures The financing structures applied in the area of Roma development, have been a disaster. Because of the broad ignorance and internal prejudices of many people, some of whom feel they are "helping", there is a view that the Roma are a "social problem". This has justified a large array of mainly useless "initiatives" which are largely concerned with giving an expression of "support" which is not sustainable in any useful way. By sustainable we mean, first of all, in financial terms. Most Roma-related projects only survive if there is some future budget for that activity in the form of a grant or a ridiculously "soft" loan. The projects are almost never designed to be self-sustainable. By that we mean earning sufficient money on the market so that the project becomes independent of future assistance. This section will expand on this issue and we will report on field data collected by the Agricultural Development Foundation (now a division of SEEL Systems Engineering Economics Lab, UK) in Hungary and containing specific proposals on how to transform Roma funding into a proactive force for development.