Support to sustainable community-based social services and inclusion policies at the local level

Support to sustainable community-based social services and inclusion policies at the local level is a three-year project financed by the European Union within the IPA 2020, with a total value of 6.5 million euros. The contracting authority is the Ministry of Finance - Sector for contracting and financing EU programs, the responsible ministry for project implementation is the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs, while the Standing Conference of Towns and Municipalities (SCTM) is in charge of project implementation.

Implementation of this project will create conditions for improving the quality and scope of social protection services and encouraging the inclusion of vulnerable and marginalized groups, especially the Roma population at the local level. This will contribute to improving the effectiveness of social inclusion policies in order to encourage equal opportunities and the active participation of women and men.

Planned activities are aimed at the realization of the following goals:

Objective 1 - Improved legal, financial and institutional mechanisms for sustainable planning and implementation of social protection at the local level

The first group of activities is focused on horizontal support to the social protection system at the local self-government level (support to all LSGs in the Republic of Serbia). In the framework of these activities, and in cooperation with the line Ministry, Provincial Secretariat for Social Policy, Demography and Gender Equality and the Republic and Provincial Institutes for Social Protection, work will be performed on the development of standards, methodologies, and models which would serve as a basis for a more intense and balanced development of social protection services in LSGs.

This objective envisages SCTM professional support for at least 20 local governments for the establishment or improvement of the local social protection system. The support will be implemented in accordance with the methodology of the municipal support package that SCTM has developed and applied for many years. Five of the 20 supported local governments will gain additional support for the development of "new mechanisms", i.e. specific aspects of the social protection system.

Selected local governments will have the opportunity to have financial support for financing one (or more) selected, necessary social protection services, with a focus on services that contribute to deinstitutionalization and are particularly important for the quality and further sustainability of the social protection system. Moreover, a large number of planned activities will include all towns and municipalities in Serbia, with the aim of additional capacity building, networking and raising awareness in the process of establishing and improving social protection services.

Objective 2 – Improved implementation of local measures and mechanisms for Roma inclusion

Activities under this output are focused on further support to the social inclusion of Roma in local communities. In line with the already developed mechanisms and sustainable policies, the planned support would follow up on the achieved results from previous programmes (IPA 2016, IPA 2012, IPA 2013 and IPA 2014) and would be focused on improving the status of Roma in local communities through the implementation of priority measures provided by the Strategy for Social Inclusion of Roma in the Republic of Serbia 2022-2030

The project will support the establishment of new coordination bodies and mobile teams in 10 selected local self-government units, the development and co-financing of 20 annual operational plans for the work of mobile teams and the development of 20 new local action plans for the social inclusion of Roma population, the construction and piloting of a model of inter-municipal cooperation, the establishment of a mobile team for the inclusion of Roma - an innovative and integrated service of social protection at the level of LSGs.

In the process of supporting and improvement of local measures and mechanisms for Roma inclusion, a series of capacity-building, networking and awareness-raising activities will be implemented in order to support all local self-government units in Serbia that deal with Roma inclusion.

Objective 3 – Improved quality of social protection services and Roma inclusion measures at the local level

Support to towns and municipalities with the aim of developing social protection services and active inclusion within the third objective will be focused on the implementation of local projects within the grant scheme. The support is intended for the implementation of strategic priorities in local communities, i.e. the development of local social protection services. The emphasis will be on services that support de-institutionalization as a strategic goal of reforms in social protection, the social protection system and, to a lesser extent, further support for measures for the social inclusion of Roma at the local level.

Through the implementation of this grant scheme, social services and inclusion mechanisms in local communities will be further improved, and the capacities of towns and municipalities, as well as other relevant actors for the development and implementation of projects, will be additionally strengthened.

Contact person: Željko Krnetić, head of SCTM Information Service and Advisor for project communications  (zeljko.krnetic@skgo.org).