Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

Photo: CSW Apatin

The conference titled “Presentation of Good Practices: Raising Public Awareness of Social Protection Rights and Services” was organised on 12 December in Novi Sad by the Provincial Secretariat for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality of AP Vojvodina, the Provincial Institute for Social Protection of AP Vojvodina and the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

The goal of the conference was to contribute to awareness raising of the members of vulnerable groups about the rights and services within the social protection system, as well as to present the good practices of the centres for social work operating in the territory of AP Vojvodina (Novi Sad, Stara Pazova, Bački Petrovac, Vršac and Apatin).

Photo: CSW Apatin

Speakers at the conference included Mr Predrag Vuletić, Provincial Secretary for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality, Ms Sladjana Čabrić, Acting Assistant Minister – Department for Family Care and Social Protection, Ms Tatijana Grnčarski, Director of the Provincial Institute for Social Protection, Ms Biljana Mladenović, Deputy Manager and Economic Analyst at the Serbian Government’s Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit , as well as directors and professionals of the centres for social work.

At the conference, Ms Biljana Mladenović presented the data on the population’s awareness of the cash benefits aimed at reducing poverty and their availability. As she explained, the data indicated below-average awareness about the financial social assistance, child allowance, one-off cash benefits and attendance allowance among persons belonging in the poorest quintile of the population, such as those living in households whose heads have no education. The data also revealed diverse local government responses; namely, at approximately the same at-risk-of-poverty rates, various regions of Serbia had considerably different shares of the population covered by financial social assistance.

“In terms of the share of allocations for one-off cash benefits in overall local expenditures, Belgrade allocates approximately the same as the total combined allocations of the poorer half of local governments”, said Ms Mladenović and explained that different allocation levels largely corresponded to the economic power of respective local governments.

The conference, which was attended by more than 50 participants, was organised with the support from the Swiss Confederation.