Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

SeConS Development Initiative Group and the Foundation for the Advancement of Economics FREN presented the new Platform for Monitoring of Social Situation in Serbia MONS (www.mons.rs), which will deal with the most important socioeconomic topics on the local and global level, both those that are and those that are not currently in the centre of attention of the public. With the MONS platform, SeConS and FREN are enabling all decision makers, the academic community, civil society organisations and the media to follow current global trends and the effect they have on Serbia. MONS will present one socioeconomic topic on a quarterly basis, to be analysed comprehensively by experts, using relevant and reliable sources of information.

At the launch of the platform and the first number of MONS “Inequality Surge and the Consequences for Social and Economic Development and Stability,” it was emphasised that the large increase in inequality has negative consequences for the economic growth and social stability.

According to the MONS platform, the leading causes of high-income inequalities in Serbia are low volume and quality of employment, the education system that fails to undo the effects of socioeconomic inequalities, and which, in some segments even intensifies them, as well as inadequate tax and social policy. As the answer to the question “how to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor which hinders the development of Serbia”, MONS authors suggest improving policies that contribute to greater employability, such as education policy, lifelong learning and active employment policies. In addition, more progressive taxation of income and better support for the poor should reduce the income gap between the richest and poorest citizens.

The launching of the platform was supported by “PERFORM”, a project of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) implemented by HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation in collaboration with University of Fribourg.

Source: secons.net