24 January 2013 The participants of the public hearing on the one year of implementation of the Law on Social Welfare

24 January 2013 The participants of the public hearing on the one year of implementation of the Law on Social Welfare

Thursday, 24 January 2013

Public Hearing on One Year of Implementation of Law on Social Welfare

The National Assembly House hosted a public hearing on the topic: Law on Social Welfare – One Year of Implementation, organised by the Committee on Labour, Social Issues, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction.


The public hearing was opened by Milica Dronjak, Committee Chairperson, and the participants were also greeted by National Assembly Deputy Speaker Konstantin Arsenovic. He reminded the participants that the Law’s goal is to ensure equal living conditions to all population categories and expressed expectation that the public hearing would give useful recommendations for the further implementation of the Law.

The participants of the public hearing were also addressed by Ranka Savic, Committee Deputy Chairperson, and Dubravka Velat, Civic Initiatives Executive Director. Ranka Savic stressed that one of the key problems is the fact that Serbia ranks second by the rate of emigration of young people, educated young people in particular. She also reminded of the problem of the Roma living in extreme poverty.

This was followed by the presentation of the Law on Social Welfare – One Year of Implementation analysis, on the behalf of seven civic organisations. On the behalf of the Civic Initiatives, the participants were addressed by Maja Stojanovic, on the behalf of the Open Club Nis by Jovana Canji Arandjelovic, as well as Robert Kozma of Group 484, Gordana Rajkov of the Centre for Independent Living of Serbia and Nadezda Sataric of the organisation Power of Friendship – Amity. They outlined the key findings of the Report on the results of the implementation of the social welfare measures relating to vulnerable categories: children, youth, refugees and displaced persons. Speaking of the results of the one year of implementation of the Law, all the participants agreed that providing better services and assistance for the most endangered population categories requires a higher degree of inter-sector cooperation. They also gave recommendations for a more successful implementation of the Law at the local level, especially toward improving the provision of social services to the abovementioned categories.

The participants of the public hearing were also addressed by Vladan Jovanovic, social policy expert. He presented the structural and systemic changes arisen from the implementation of the Law as regards a higher degree of communication between institutions and service beneficiaries. He also added that an action plan for the implementation of the Law on Social Welfare is currently being drafted.

Brankica Jankovic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Policy, drew attention to the problem of the elderly who lack any kind of care service in as many as 40 municipalities.

Jelena Markovic, education and human capital development coordinator at the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Team, said that the introduction of an ordinance on transfers would significantly raise the quality of social services at the local level.

As an example of good practice, the representative of the National Employment Service listed the personal assistance project financed by the National Employment Service. He pointed out the problem of unequal allocation of social benefit used by a high percentage of young people fit for work.

At the end, Milica Dronjak, Chairperson of the Committee on Labour, Social Issues, Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction, informed the participants that the Committee would formulate conclusions and recommendations at its sitting, based on the discussion they had completed here and then forward them to all the participants of the hearing.

CONCLUSIONS


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friday, 29 march
  • 9.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Speaker’s Cabinet)

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