Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

At the conference held on 9 October 2020, the Serbian Government’s Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit presented the research Mapping Social Care Services and Material Support within the Mandate of Local Self-Governments in the Republic of Serbia. In the introductory part of conference, the participants were addressed by Mr Đorđe Staničić, Secretary General of the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities, Ms Dragana Jovanović, Manager of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Ms Mirjana Ognjanović, Head of the Research Department of the Republic Institute for Social Protection, and Ms Sascha Müller, Head of the Governance Domain at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Mapping Social Care Services and Material Support within the Mandate of Local Self-Governments in the Republic of Serbia is a research activity conducted in three-year cycles for the past eight years at the local level in the Republic of Serbia. In this cycle, the scope of the research has been expanded by also including the data on material support provided from the budget of local self-governments (LSG). The key research findings were presented at the conference by Ms Gordana Matković and Ms Milica Stranjaković from the Centre for Social Policy, which conducted the mapping.

The research covered both private and public service providers, and the Mapping provides deep insight into all local-level services and material benefits in the area of social protection in the Republic of Serbia. Furthermore, it enables the monitoring of multiannual trends and the benchmarking of the obtained data and indicators.

The conference, which gathered 20 representatives of government institutions, international organisations and the civil sector, was an opportunity to exchange views on this vitally important topic, which is closely related to SIPRU’s commitment to promoting the use and significance of social inclusion and poverty reduction indicators.

The Mapping was conducted at the initiative of the Government’s Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit, with the support from the Republic Institute for Social Protection and the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities. The research was supported by the Swiss Confederation.