Financing of services and decentralization

1. Financing of services and decentralization ASSESSMENT OF THE REFORM OF THE CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA June, 2007 Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

2. Budgeting and financing Affected by: • The (central) role of MoLSP in planning and decision making • Not subject of a single unit, but fragmented under many, 3 of the 10 Departments involved with different capacities in policy making and planning of the child protection, (Department for Social Protection, Department for Child Protection and Department for Equal Opportunities • Department for Social Protection - in charge for planning and decision-making regarding the measures of prevention, non-residential and residential forms of protection and the right to social assistance (for the population in general and children in particular) Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

3. Cross sectoral cooperation on national level • Establishment of temporary working groups based on shared membership • Lack of official inter-ministerial protocols in place to guide planning and decision making in formalised and specified manner • Same on local level • Preparation of protocols for collaboration between relevant stakeholders/Ministries, the MoLSP and the CSWs - one of the priorities of the MoLSP for the future Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

4. Strategies and action plans that guide planning and decision making, direct and indirect relevance: • National Action Plan on the Rights of Children in the R. Macedonia 2005-2015 exists – paper based document • Poverty Reduction Strategy (2002), National Strategy for Equalisation of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in R. Macedonia (2001), the Strategy for Employment (2006-2010), National Action Plan for Employment for the period 2006-2008, as well as the Strategy for Fight against Trafficking in Human Beings and Illegal migration in the Republic of Macedonia (2006), the National Action Plan for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Illegal Migration in the R. Macedonia (2006), and the Action Plan for Combating Trafficking in Children in the R. Macedonia (2006) • National strategy for fight against domestic violence – in preparation Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

5. Lack of monitoring and evaluation mechanisms: • impedes the attempts to track down implementation of the envisaged strategic objectives • development of Strategies that would subsequently serve as a basis for operationalisation of concrete steps Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

6. Budgeting and financing • Material assistance for children and families : • regulated by : the Law on Social Protection and the Law on Child Protection • reforms in both Laws,regarding the administration of the social assistance benefits - initiated by the SPIL project supported by the World Bank loan • reforms regarding the entitlement to social assistance allowances (Law on Social Protection) and reforms in the rights to child supplements (Law on Child Protection) Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

7. - reforms originate from the practice and the need to advance the protection of specific vulnerable categories of children (i.e. social assistance for children coming out of age) or to make child supplement benefits available to the most needy families (targeting of child supplements) Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

8. Social assistance benefits, average monthly amounts and number of beneficiaries in 2006: • Social financial assistance: 64.749; 2.154 den. (35 €) • Personal assistance allowance: 21.499; 3.390 den. (55 €) • Permanent financial allowance: 4.988; 3.046 den. (49 €) • Wage allowance for shortened working hours due to care for disabled child: 42; 6.590 den. (107 €) • One-off financial allowance: 1.139; 2.080 den. (34 €) • Financial assistance for children coming out of age (18-26)893.567 den. (58 €) Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

9. Assistance to families with children: • Regulated within the Law on Child Protection: • child supplement • special supplement • assistance for newborns • participation in covering expenses for protection, education, rest and recreation of children in public institutions for children or seasonal resorts Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

10. Key reforms relate to: • the introduction of the upper limit for the amount of the child supplement • introduction of the system of calculation of the financial assistance for the newborn depending on the average monthly income of the applicant • the new Law on Child Protection anticipates reforms in the system geared towards more equitable distribution of the rights (especially of the right to child supplement and participation) towards the poorest families and children with the highest risk of social exclusion. Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

11. Social assistance benefits - reforms towards "means-testing" • The Social Protection Implementation Project (SPIL), supported by a World Bank loan, (2004 – 2008) ,initiated the most significant changes in the domain of: • improved administration and targeting of the social financial assistance • The objectives of the SPIL for Macedonia: • to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of social protection system through improved administration • long-term sustainability of the pension system • improved targeting and administration of cash benefits Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

12. Component 2 of this project comprises: • support for the policy framework for streamlined, cost effective and better targeted cash benefits, • implementation of local social planning and deinstitutionalization of social work services, • establishment of inspection, supervision and quality assurance functions, • information management systems and IT capacity strengthening • Reform processes concerning social assistance, largely associated with the synchronization of the Macedonian with the EU legislation, and through the method of coordination, with the other systems as well Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

13. Services • Service purchasing based on the principle of pluralism introduced (Law on Changes and Amendments on the Law on Social Protection (65/2004) refers to: • possibilities for citizen's associations (NGOs) and individuals to become service providers • besides NGOs, individuals and legal entities, as well as the units of local self-government may establish institutions for social protection (except for CSWs or institutions for protection of children and youth with educational, social, and behavioral problems), and day care centres • This was introduced to upgrade the quality of services in the domain of social protection through the introduction of the competitiveness in this domain Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

14. Reforms towards service purchasing are evidencing progress: • financial means set aside annually from the MoLSP budget for service purchasing • in 2006, the MoLSP set aside 1.000.000 denars (16.129 Euro) and opened 2 tenders: 1) for establishment of National SOS Line for Victims of Family Violence (project implemented by the NGO Union of Women's Organisations) and 2) tender for 1 National SOS Line for Drug Abuse • available funding for service purchasing is gradually improving: for 2007, the amount set aside for service purchasing tripled to 3.000.000 denars (48.387), 4 tenders are already opened Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

15. budgeting on the basis of programming expenses: • CSWs are obliged to prepare annual programmes (which are mostly formal in character and are necessary for the purpose of budget planning) and monthly programmes for social assistance • introduction of a budget circular which CSWs have to fill in and submit it to the MoLSP • Purpose of the change : to facilitate budget planning at the central level, as filling in budget circulars is not based on any actual assessment of needs, but rather based on approximations of the required monthly funds to cover social assistance entitlements envisaged in legislation Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

16. Considerable changes in budgeting are required for more flexible and joint financing of reforms : • the system does not allow for inter-sectoral transfers. Each Ministry, including the MoLSP prepares budget proposal for the following year, which is submitted to the Ministry of Finance. Proposals are then adopted by the Government and enter in Parliament procedures, although most often the budgets in the proposed amounts are not approved. In cases when budget shortages appear as a result of implementation of reform measures, rebalancing of the budget is undertaken, and these re-budgeting requests are usually accepted Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

17. Transferring of financing Decentralization process in social protection: • Initiated in 2004, carried out in parallel with the decentralisation process in R. Macedonia in general • Mainly refers to municipalities' possible role as a funder and service provider of a variety of social protection services (residential and day care services) • Still not taking place in practice due to lack of administrative and financial resources at municipal level Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

18. Relationship between CSWs and municipalities: • CSWs are obliged to administer municipal social protection programmes, but their role in planning is not envisaged within the legislation, although in practice this may be the case • Both CSWs and municipalities may establish mechanisms to ensure additional funding for these programmes • However, these developments are yet to take place Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

19. Next steps: • Overcoming of current fragmentation in planning and decision-making under the responsibility of several departments towards unified policy making, through integration of child protection accountability into a singe department within the MoLSP • Enhancement of inter-ministerial cooperation through official protocols developed by the relevant Ministries • Enhancement of capacity building for development of strategic objectives and effective monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for follow-up of their implementation within the MoLSP through staff training Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

20. Updating of the working methodology applied by the Commission for Cooperation with the NGO sector in the domain of announcing specific tenders • Identification of areas where NGOs services could best fit within the system of child protection based on needs assessment of the actual gaps in services • Continuation of the rising tendency of the annual budget set aside from the MoLSP for service purchasing with the NGO sector Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

21. Encourage municipalities to enter the social protection arena through : • supporting activation of the local NGOs • promotion of the engagement of individual professionals in the social service provision • utilisation of the existing infrastructural objects in the municipalities (for non-residential forms of protection in particular), as well as • provision of concrete assistance in the development of the Local Social Protection Programmes to municipal personnel Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

22. Decentralisation of existing day-care centres DCCs and short-term protective shelters (STPSs) through selection of pilot municipalities - the process of fiscal decentralisation should be used for identification of municipalities that seem to have financial and administrative capacity to manage them • Additional binding elements should be in place to regulate the relationship between CSWs and municipalities at the local level (i.e. the role of the CSWs in planning and development of development programmes) • Joint training in fund raising, to encourage CSWs and municipalities to ensure additional funding for the local development programmes Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia

23. Within the development of the role of the municipal organs for addressing social protection needs of citizens, MoLSP, Ministry of Local Self-government (MLSG) and municipalities, could analyse the possibilities and practicalities around the eventual transfer of the administration of all financial allowances from the CSWs to separate department within the municipalities Suzana Velkovska, Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, Republic of Macedonia