Public Policy Research Center, in partnership with the Educational Center Leskovac and Centre for Social Policy as a leading organization, has implemented the project “Supporting municipalities in the promotion of social inclusion through employment of vulnerable and marginalized groups” from October 2015 to March 2017. The project was implemented in 34 underdeveloped municipalities in Serbia, in Sumadija, West and Southwest Serbia.
In addition to the high risk of poverty and material degradation, these municipalities are characterised by low natural growth, high unemployment, extremely poor infrastructure and roads et . These are just some of the indicators of the low living standards of the population of these areas.
During January and February 2016, a survey was conducted in these municipalities about key stakeholders’ capacity in the system of labor market and employment. Preliminary results indicate that local councils for employment don’t have a clear institutional, local government role in most of these municipalities. Local Action Plans (LAP) for employment were also examined to see how they were created and how much they are based on the needs of the community. In half of the local governments, LAPs were created by individuals, without any involvement of experts or representatives of the community. It was also noted that smaller municipalities don’t have a capacity for enhancing social inclusion, mostly because of highturnover of employeesdealing with these issues, or changes in the local governmentmanagement.
However, there are some good examples, such as municipalities of Knjazevac and BelaPalanka, in which local management is very functional and LAPs are producing good results. These municipalities often hire employees with strong personal motivation and previous work experience in both government and non-for-profit sector. In certain municipalities, such as CrnaTrava, Trgoviste, Blaca and Medvedja, “Progress program” is the only source of additional funding and its employees are very motivated to continue its implementation.
National Employment Service branches play a special role in above-mentioned municipalities. Survey respondents indicated that these Services often ignore or sabotage the collaboration in different programs initiated by local governments.
The main objective of this project is to build the capacity of local institutions and increase their capacity to improve the delivery of social services, a better understanding of the needs of vulnerable groups and improve access to social protection, employment opportunities and social inclusion .
Public Policy Research Center in this project carried out activities related to the active employment measures in these municipalities. The project is funded by the The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).