Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

The International Conference “Investing in Children – Benefit for All Children”, with guests from 21 European countries, organised by the Network of Organisations for Children of Serbia (MODS), Eurochild, the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia (SIPRU) and UNICEF, was officially opened on 12 October, in Deputy’s Club in Belgrade.

At the opening of the conference, where international experiences and examples of public budget allocations were presented with the aim of reducing poverty and social exclusion of children, the importance of aligning public financial resources with policies and legislation affecting children was highlighted. The conference emphasised Serbia’s commitment to fighting child poverty and meeting the United Nations development agenda.

On that occasion, Slavica Đukić-Dejanović, Minister without portfolio responsible for demography and population policy, and the Head of the Council for the Rights of the Child of the Government of Serbia, highlighted the role of the Council for the Rights of the Child as a mechanism for coordination that would allow for cooperation within the process of monitoring and improvement of policies aimed at children.

“The most cost-effective social goal is investing in children. We have prepared measures and laws that will represent key contribution in that direction. We are working on the revision of the Strategy for Encouraging Birth; soon we will enter the Draft law on financial support to the family with children into the parliamentary procedure. We are developing a national mechanism for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals, and I am sure that the fight against poverty, as well as improvement of health, education and gender equality,  will be in our focus”, said Minister Đukić-Dejanović during the opening of the conference.

The Minister of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, Zoran Đorđević stressed that the Government of the Republic of Serbia fully accepted and implemented the policy of supporting children from the youngest age through different programmes for children and their parents or legal guardians. He added that the provision of minimal financial security to the family with children was ensured by the Republic of Serbia primarily through the implementation of the Law on Social Protection and the Law on Financial Support to the Family with Children, as well as through the protection of the rights of the child, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and all accompanying domestic and international legislation. Furthermore, he added that Serbia was fully committed to the most important investment in the country’s future – investing in the early development of children.

The Deputy Director of UNICEF, Severine Leonardi, pointed out that the Government of the Republic of Serbia was clearly committed to the well-being of children and invested in various types of monetary benefits and services that affected children directly or indirectly. However, the structure of the budget still did not fully reflect these investments and did not provide a full insight into the details. Therefore, UNICEF calls for the government to define the methodology for the better monitoring of child-related investments and create the basis for budgeting that is tailor-made for children.

The Manager of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia (SIPRU), Ivan Sekulović, said that it was necessary to know how much was allocated for children and families with children and what the structure of these investments looked like, bearing in mind the poverty of children and families with children in Serbia which was above the average.

“This is the only way to improve investment efficiency and advocate greater child support. Opening of existing administrative data, information networking and improvement of programme classification, in particular Programme 11- Social and child protection which at the moment does not indicate expenditure for children in a sufficiently clear way, while conducting a comprehensive analysis of financial allocations for children, are the activities for which the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic Serbia will continue to provide support in the coming period”, Sekulović explained.

The conference concluded that it is necessary to intensify the work on the implementation of the UN Objectives for Sustainable Development (where the fight against child poverty is at the forefront), improve the monitoring and evaluation of the financial allocations for children and families in Serbia (whereby international experience and methodology can be used), develop services in the community that will support families, especially families at risk of separation, as well as that services which will be available and financial support to families and children living in poverty require wider scope.

Source: zadecu.org