PROJECTS - Centre of Public Employment Services of Southeast European Countries

Short description: Overall objective: to support socio-economic development and upgrading living standard in Southwest Serbia Specific objectives: -to strengthen local self-government in all municipalities in order to provide better services and enable easier access to public services; -to enable migrants in Southeast Serbia to participate in entire social and economic life of the region and contribute to the development of broader community and integration of Serbia into EU; -to improve the overall socio-economic situation by implementing strategic priorities at municipal and regional level (financed by municipality or through national/international investments). Expected results: -Better access to public services enabled and adequate support the development of local social policy action plans based on already formulated social policy/strategy; -Establishing and testing of pilot advisory service for citizens carried out; on-site services of centres for social work improved, as well as the services of Service Centres; -Technical assistance to the Ministry of Education provided as to formulation and institutionalization of procedures for obtaining and validation of school diplomas, additional lessons of Serbian language for Roma population and returnees, and organization of trainings for teachers (approach to inclusive education); -Enrollment of 150 especially vulnerable (Roma) children in selected schools supported; support provided to schools as to organization of literacy lessons for adult Roma population; -Standard labour market research conducted (according to ILO standards, including data distribution by ethnicity and gender)); -Employer survey conducted, including questions about required skills and attitudes towards employees of various origin and ethnicity (including returnees)); -Recommendations for employment development policy in Southwest Serbia identified (based on the results of labour market research and employer survey); -NES supported in active labour market measures rendering (support to employers and workers whose needs have been identified by labour market research) (ALMM will include vocational training, on-job training, job fairs, subsidies for beginners; a part of ALMM participants will be from the families of returnees, vulnerable groups, internally displaced persons and women; -Study/research on discrimination at workplace conducted among marginalized groups, results of research published and measures for discrimination reduction defined; -Socio-economic analyses revised and research on citizen satisfaction with public services conducted (key migration issues were identified, as well as different extents of satisfaction / depending on gender, ethnicity and migration status); -The existing municipal plans for sustainable development reconsidered, as well as social policy plans and action plans for children; the scope of adequately resolved migration questions was defined; -Grants for research on migration policy provided (with the emphasis on Southwest Serbia); practical policy recommendations formulated; the results of research published and promoted.