Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

Written by: Dragana Jovanović Arijas, Manager of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and Coordinator for the Social Inclusion of Roma

The Government of the Republic of Serbia established the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit in July 2009. The Unit is mandated with strengthening Government capacities for the development and implementation of social inclusion policies based on European good practices and providing support to line ministries in developing and implementing social inclusion policies, with regular consultations with various organizations.

As of 2018, the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit has been implementing its activities under the auspices of the Office of Prime Minister Ana Brnabić. More on the key results, most interesting events, and most inspiring people we have worked with since 2009 can be found here.

The Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia has been implementing the programme “Support to the Improvement of Social Inclusion in the Republic of Serbia” since 2009. We have initiated the implementation of the third phase of this programme in January 2018. Furthermore, the Unit continued the implementation of the programme “From Education to Employment“, with the goal of inclusive and sustainable increase in youth employability in the Republic of Serbia. The above programmes are being implemented in cooperation with the Swiss Office for Cooperation and with the support of the Swiss Confederation during the period 2009 to 2021.

The overall goal of the third phase of the programme “Support to the Improvement of Social Inclusion in the Republic of Serbia” is to contribute to the greater social inclusion of vulnerable groups and the active participation of all stakeholders to ensure an improved quality of life for all. The desired changes listed above have been grouped and formulated under three outcomes, oriented towards implementing parties, and/or final beneficiaries:

• Outcome 1: Relevant national and local institutions are more effective in applying selected principles of good governance (with an emphasis on participation, equality and non-discrimination) when achieving the priorities of social inclusion in accordance with international standards, in public policy areas related to social inclusion (social protection, education, healthcare, employment and housing).
• Outcome 2: Institutions at the local level in target municipalities respond better to the needs of impoverished and socially excluded citizens, and
• Outcome 3: Persons in a state of social exclusion (particularly women, youth, Roma, migrants and persons with disabilities, particularly in rural and extremely impoverished areas) are empowered through the support of their environment to use quality, integrated and inclusive services in the areas of social welfare, education, employment, healthcare and housing.

The programme will primarily be implemented at the macro level, by exerting influence on relevant national public policy and regulatory frameworks. The local level will apply a centralized approach to defining the overall standards for the development of local public policy and regulations, along with the provision of considerable mentoring to a select number of municipalities, with the aim of affecting the creation of local public policy and regulations and providing recommendations for a public policy review at the national level by way of an inclusive public policy dialogue.

On behalf of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit I wish to thank all colleagues who built, improved, and stimulated the further development of the Unit, as well as all our associates (from LIP [1], YEI [2], bloggers [3], Igniters [4]…), encouraging the Unit through constructive collaboration in its continuous effort to improve the social inclusion process in the Republic of Serbia. We look forward to future cooperation with all current and new associates in order to make our society more inclusive.

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[1] LIP – Local Initiatives Programme
[2] YEI – Youth Employment Initiative
[3] Social Inclusion Blog
[4] Belgrade Ignite

(The text originally published as the introduction to the 50^th Newsletter on Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction.)