Belgrade, May 21st, 2019

The Ministry for European Integration (MEI), together with the line ministries and other sector relevant institutions, is in the process of developing a new multi-annual planning document up to 2025. The document aims to contribute to more effective planning of public policies within nine sectors (Justice, Home Affairs, Public Administration Reform, Competitiveness, Human Resource and Social Development, Energy, Transport, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development), that underpin the economic development and help Serbia to comply with the economic and political criteria for EU accession. It is a national policy-driven document guiding the allocation of external funding towards the implementation of national strategic reforms. The major focus in development of the document was to draft the sector Situation Analysis containing a comprehensive sector overview and assess the current situation in the sector, to provide evidence-based rationale for the choices made in setting the course for international development assistance to support national reforms.

Following the partnership principle applied throughout document preparation process and in the context of HRSD sector Situation analysis finalisation, MEI and leading sector institutions (the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Health) organised the HRSD Sector Working Group meeting in order to present and instigate discussion with the donor community on the content and main features of the HRSD Situation analysis. The following donor representatives attended the SWG meeting: UNICEF, OSCE, Embassy of Japan, French Embassy, European Commission, EU Delegation in Serbia, KfW, GIZ, German Embassy, UN Women.

The meeting was held on 21st May 2019, in the Palace of Serbia premises, gathering the representatives of national institutions within education, social, employment and labour and health sectors and the donor community. The MEI explained the purpose, scope and the process of development of the new multi-annual planning document up to 2025, including the presentation of the state of play related to the international assistance coordination mechanism and proposal for improvements and future functioning of the SWG mechanism.

The leading sector institutions concentrated on presentation of the current state of play in the sector, main challenges and needs and elaborated on the identified HRSD sector priorities and measures which shall mainstream the international assistance investments in the sector up to 2025.

Representatives of the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit briefly presented the 3rd National Report on Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2014-2017.

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