the former Yugoslav Republic of MACEDONIA

Sharing experiences and good practices among the countries in the region is sought as one of the most useful tools to accelerate development. Working to improve the lives of people, the Government recently adopted the National Strategy for Reduction of Poverty and Social Exclusion which sets priorities and recommendations for achieving progress in the social sphere. An important component in this process is the monitoring and evaluation of the accomplished improvements, where the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy recognized the need to strengthen its capacities and to establish a mechanism for data collection, analysis and data sharing with other institutions such as State Statistical Office, Employment Service Agency or Institute for Social Activities. In line with EU pre-accession requirements the institutions need to identify and develop indicators for monitoring poverty and social exclusion in the country, also known as EU Laeken indicators.

Following these developments and identified needs, MLSP and UNDP organized a study visit to Croatia which was recognized by EU as best practice model country. Eleven representatives from key institutions headed by the Ministry, including Centre for Social Work – Skopje, Employment Service Agency, Association of Local Self – Government Units, Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, Macedonian Platform against Poverty visited key institutions in Zagreb involved in the development and implementation of the Joint Inclusion Memorandum (JIM). This document has particular importance as it sets the priorities in the field of social inclusion in the context of EU standards, being at the same time a pre accession requirement for the candidate countries.

Macedonian representatives met their colleagues from the Croatian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Croatian Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship, UNDP Croatia, Centre for Social Welfare-Dubrava, Croatian Employment Service, Croatian Bureau of Statistics, Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Croatia and Social inclusion experts. These meeting provided them the opportunity to become familiarized with the institutional activities geared towards improvement of the social inclusion issues.

“Not only that we have met a group of highly dedicated people, but we have gained invaluable knowledge of the JIM process, measures related to its implementation and reporting mechanisms used by the Croatian institutions to assess the progress of activities,“ Ms. Irena Todoroska, Head of Social Inclusion Unit at MLSP said following the visit.

The recommendations and best practices shared during the study visit will be integrated in the Standard Operational Procedures Manual for data collection, sharing and analysis, and in the Guidelines for identification of applicable EU Laeken indicators that will be developed within the frames of the project.

This study visit was a part of a broader effort under the project “Monitoring and Evaluation for Better Results”. The experience and knowledge gained in Croatia was immediately shared with a larger group through two workshops organized by UNDP.   The workshops were an opportunity for those civil servants responsible for implementing the country’s social inclusion plan to learn and network,  highlighting the importance of monitoring and evaluating social exclusion issues. The workshop also provided feedback on proposed tools for sharing information across institutions and on the most relevant Laeken indicators for measuring progress towards realizing the goals of the Strategy for Reduction of Poverty and Social Exclusion.

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On 12 October, 2010, the Government adopted the National Strategy for Reduction of Poverty and Social Exclusion. This document is important as it sets ground for policy interventions in the social sphere. MLSP supported by UN Agencies has just started with development of the Operational plan which translates measures and recommendations from the Strategy into actionable projects. The activities from the Operational plan will be starting in 2011.