Citizens’ Association Atina’s comment on the Draft Social Protection Strategy 2019-2025 

In May 2019, Citizens' Association for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and All Forms of Gender-Based Violence – Atina submitted its comments on the Draft Social Protection Strategy 2019-2025 to the Republic Institute for Social Protection. The Ministry of Labor, Employment, Social, and Veteran Affairs announced in April 2019 a call for consultations on the drafting of the Social Protection Strategy for the 2019-2025 period. The process of drafting the Strategy for Social Protection 2019-2025 was launched in April 2018 at a national conference held in Belgrade and it was supported by the project Support to the Development of Regulatory Mechanisms of Social Protection, funded by the European Union (EU) through the IPA 2013 financial instrument. More information about the conference itself, and the participation of Citizens’ Association Atina, can be read via the following link: http://www.atina.org.rs/sr/pokretanje-procesa-izrade-strategije-socijaln...

 

Citizens’ Association Atina submitted five key suggestions that are considered of particular importance and that should be recognized by this Strategy.

 

1. A special suggestion for the development of this document is related to the recognition of certain groups of population who are particularly vulnerable. Accordingly, this document should list particularly vulnerable (sensitive) groups that are left out of the draft document: victims of human trafficking, victims of violence, women and children; children victims of various forms of exploitation, as well as migrants (asylum seekers), migrant children and especially unaccompanied children.

 

2. Numerous researches show that victims of human trafficking are in need of a complex preventive intervention, but also of measures of active social inclusion, psychological empowerment and overcoming of trauma, provision of safe accommodation, support for participation in court proceedings, monetary compensation, economic empowerment (professional training and employment) and other services and programs that can accelerate their recovery. In this regard, Association Atina considers that the Strategy’s focus on vulnerability lies solely on the risk of poverty, and should also encompass risks of violence and exploitation, given the current situation in the society and ongoing developments.

 

3. In the part referring to the number of identified victims of human trafficking, data on the number of victims listed in the Strategy is generalized and out of context, and fails to provide enough information to understand the phenomenon. It is necessary to further clarify why the number of victims increases, who are the victims, who is mandated to protect them, and, finally, what is the strategy of their social protection in the period covered by this document, i.e. what are the key directions of action in the next six years.

 

4. The most important suggestion of Citizens’ Association Atina for the development of this document is that it should contain a clause that licensed services provided by civil society organizations are equal to the services provided by institutions established and managed by the state. Also, this document should contain information on social welfare services provided by civil society organizations, in particular data on licensed service providers, types of services that are provided, number of beneficiaries of those services, how the services are financed, and what is the continuity (experience in providing services). It is extremely important to highlight licensed services provided by civil society organizations (such as assisted housing for victims of human trafficking provided by Association Atina since March 2018) as they do represent a part of the system.

 

5. In the part related to social protection services under the mandate of local self-governments in Serbia, which states that these services are underdeveloped and insufficiently accessible, there is a lack of data on the financing of local services provided by licensed service providers from the ranks of civil society organizations, number of beneficiaries of these services, as well as an evaluation of the quality of services provided. It is therefore necessary to add the part referring to the financing of social protection services provided by licensed civil society organizations (that are currently not being financed from the budget) and an accessible evaluation of the quality of services provided.

 

In the current Law on Social Welfare (2011) Article 64 stipulates that social welfare services under this law “provided by the Republic of Serbia, an autonomous province, or a local self-government unit, that are in demand and cannot be provided in the necessary scope by a social welfare institution established by the Republic of Serbia, autonomous province, i.e. a unit of local self-government, are to be procured from the licensed provider of social welfare services through a public procurement procedure for social welfare services, in accordance with the law regulating public procurement, this law and the regulations adopted for their implementation”. In Article 65 of the above-mentioned Law, the contracting authority referred to in Article 64, paragraph 1 is the ministry mandated for social welfare, i.e. the autonomous province authority and the local self-government unit mandated for social welfare. The call for submission of offers for the provision of social welfare services is published in accordance with the law regulating public procurement. Competent authorities of two or more local self-government units may announce a joint call for the submission of offers for the provision of services referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article in order to provide the services more effectively. A public procurement contract is concluded between the service contractor and the selected social service provider and it is mandatory to regulate the manner of payment, monitoring, and the duration of the provision of social welfare services, as well as the manner of reporting and terms of termination of the contract. Social welfare services provider that has been granted a license for the provision of social welfare services, and with whom the contract on public procurement of services referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article has been concluded, has the status of an authorized provider of social welfare services. Article 66 states that the procuring entity is obliged to provide the highest quality and the most economical provision of social welfare services through public procurement. The contracting authority is obliged, in the sense of paragraph 1 of this Article, to select a service provider capable of providing the service under the most favorable conditions, in accordance with the best interest of the beneficiaries and the prescribed standards.

 

 

Citizens’ Association Atina’s team, May 2019, Belgrade