The aim of the publication is to provide decision-makers, professionals, and the wider public with a comprehensive analysis of the obstacles to active inclusion of recipients of financial social assistance, and to present a set of evidence-based recommendations. It is intended for representatives of the relevant ministries, Centres for Social Work, the National Employment Service, units of local self-government, civil-society organisations, and researchers working on social policy. The publication starts from the premise that social policy should be seen as an investment in human capital rather than as a cost, and that without reform of cash benefits all other activation measures remain structurally limited.
The analysis is based on a review of the applicable legal and strategic frameworks, official statistics, and reports of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, the Republic Institute for Social Protection, the State Audit Institution, the National Employment Service, and the European Commission. The findings were supplemented by the experience gained in implementing the activity “Pathways to Work: Strengthening Social Inclusion in the Context of Work and Employment,” jointly delivered by UNFPA in Serbia and IDEAS. The process included consultations and training with representatives of more than forty Centres for Social Work and direct cooperation with units of local self-government.
The recommendations in the publication operate at four interconnected levels: optimising the financial-social-assistance system to improve adequacy and incentivise activation; strengthening the capacities of Centres for Social Work as the carriers of social-inclusion measures; establishing binding cooperation between the social-protection system and the employment system; and empowering units of local self-government to design measures tailored to local needs. The proposed solutions can serve as a basis for amendments to legal acts and by-laws, for planning institutional capacity-building programmes, and for introducing dedicated budget lines for active inclusion at the local level.
The publication was prepared within the programme “PRO — Local Governance for People and Nature,” jointly implemented by the United Nations agencies in Serbia (UNOPS, UNICEF, UNFPA, and UNEP) in partnership with the Government of the Republic of Serbia and with the financial support of the Government of Switzerland.
Milanović, M. (2025). Od socijalne pomoći do ekonomske samostalnosti: Mapa puta za aktivnu inkluziju u Srbiji. Centar za istraživanje i razvoj društva IDEAS, Beograd.
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