Supporting INclusive development of community-based long-term CARE services through multi-stakeholder participatory approaches
InCARE
European countries face the formidable challenge of providing adequate, affordable and sustainable support to their ageing populations. Socially innovative approaches are required in order to manage the inherent complexity of LTC systems and respond to such challenges in a flexible but coordinated fashion at all governance levels.
InCARE will contribute to the development of a coherent and coordinated approach to the development of LTC policy and care services at local and regional level. It will work towards establishing socially innovative and participatory decision-making processes that allow for iterative and adaptive learning and will bring together policy-makers, care service providers, researchers and care users from six European countries. Three socially innovative long-term care service pilots will be implemented In Spain, Austria and North Macedonia.
Feasibility Study for the programme “Reforming child protection systems: strengthening children’s rights”
SOSCV_Feasibility Study
Child protection systems in the Western Balkans and Eastern Europe have witnessed a series of important reforms over the past decade. The deinstitutionalisation process (i.e. transitioning from institutional towards family- and community-based service provision) started in most of these countries, followed by a social care service reform which concentrates on developing alternative care services. The education sectors are being reformed as well in order to accommodate children with specific educational needs into the mainstream schools (e.g. children with disabilities). The provision of appropriate forms of childcare shifted from the national level to the local and regional levels. Local authorities try to cover the needs by developing community-based services, but the process is slow due to a lack of sustainable funding, low capacities at the local level, and a lack of procedures and mechanisms for service delivery.
Situation Analysis of children and adolescents in Croatia
SitAn UNICEF Croatia
The Situation Analysis of children’s rights and wellbeing is a flagship product designed to inform policy dialogue, partnerships and interventions to improve the lives of children. It is an assessment and analysis of the country situation, with respect to children’s rights and critical issues affecting their realization. The Situation Analysis is a crucial part of the child rights monitoring (CRM) framework and represents a key UNICEF programmatic output that helps focus on knowledge gaps related to inequities and child deprivations. The Situation Analysis will inform policy dialogue and child-focused policy advocacy to make an important contribution to accelerating the achievement of child-related goals with equity.
Updated review of the performance of Western Balkan economies regarding the European Pillar of Social Rights
Western Balkan EPSR
Although these countries are not yet EU Member States it is important to monitor their achievements and reform efforts of social rights as candidate and potential candidate countries. This is particularly important given the challenges those countries face, including an aging population, challenges in the labour market, poverty, etc.
The European Centre was engaged as the international expert organization in the reviews prepared in 2018.
Bridging the gap between legislation and practice in the posting of workers
POW-BRIDGE
The action proposed studies the gap between procedures (legal basis) and practices (experiences) in posting rule enactment, identifies challenges and develops and shares effective ways of addressing these challenges for posting companies and implementation agencies. It particularly investigates how the Directive interplays with other EU and national legislation in terms of social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law. The geographical scope of the action includes: Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Serbia, and North Macedonia.
Posting of third country nationals
Mapping the trend in the construction sector
The Con3Post project is set up to explore the growing phenomenon of recruitment and posting of third country nationals (TCN), most notably from the Western Balkans, non-EU Eastern Europe and North African regions, to work as posted workers in the EU construction sector. Experts and key stakeholders from seven carefully selected EU Member States that represent a mix of TCN sending (Slovenia, Poland, Italy) and receiving countries (Austria, Finland, Belgium, Estonia) are brought together to establish transnational cooperation, share information and conduct empirical research to outline current challenges, future scenarios and possible strategic responses to the far-reaching yet largely unexplored consequences/implications of this persistent trend.
Albania working life country profile
AWLCP
Albania working life country profile aims to prepare the country profile and provide an overview of the processes, actors and trends in the fields of industrial relations and working conditions in Albania.
Posting of workers in Eastern Europe
EEPOW
The two-year project aims to proactively address the issue of posting of workers at its pre-accession stage by assisting Eastern European countries, especially the four candidate countries Albania, FYROM, Montenegro, and Serbia, in implementing the Directive already before it gets into force, and by assisting in the prevention of social dumping, i.e. the use of cheap labour, to minimise associated risks for workers. It aims to do so through research, peer reviews and workshops involving stakeholders from the candidate countries and 4 EU member states, namely Austria, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia.
Integrated case management for employment and social welfare users in the Western Balkans
Contribution to the project 'Promoting inclusive labour market solutions in the Western Balkans'
The project aims to improve labour market governance through expansion of institutional capacities of Public Employment Services (PES) and Centres for Social Welfare (CSW) to develop integrated support and outreach to individuals at risk of exclusion in the Western Balkan economies.
Support for better social services for the most vulnerable groups in Kosovo
In 2009, the responsibility for delivery of social and family services was transferred from the central government to the municipalities. To support the process of decentralization, a strategy was developed in 2012 to be implemented in 2013–2017.