Serbia: Consultants for the revision of social inclusion and poverty reduction indicators in the area of pensions

Organization: UN Children's Fund
Country: Serbia
Closing date: 01 Sep 2016

Background:

The Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia and UNICEF in Serbia are launching the process of revising social inclusion and poverty reduction indicators, which will provide the basis for enhancing the framework for monitoring the social inclusion and poverty reduction process at the national and local levels in the Republic of Serbia.

In 2008, the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit launched the process of defining a framework for monitoring social inclusion and poverty reduction in Serbia. Consequently, the study “Monitoring Social Inclusion in Serbia” was developed in 2009; the study defined a set of indicators for monitoring social inclusion and poverty reduction in Serbia, based on two pillars: the established European indicators and country-specific indicators.

An extensive consultative process coordinated by the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit in 2008 and 2009 resulted in the common agreement on and adoption of a list of indicators to monitor progress in the area of social inclusion under six dimensions of social inclusion and from two perspectives (the EU framework perspective and the country-specific perspective). The six dimensions of social inclusion used as the basis for reporting to date are:

financial poverty,
employment,
health,
education,
deprivation of basic needs (material deprivation),
social participation.

Following the study “Monitoring Social Inclusion in Serbia”^{^[1]}, which contains an overview of the adopted indicators and provides an insight into the state of affairs in society, two reports on the status of social inclusion and poverty profiles in the Republic of Serbia were prepared.^{^[2]} The indicators used as the basis for reporting to date pertained to the national level only, while the definition and monitoring of social inclusion indicators at the local level was missing.

These activities were conducted in cooperation with the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, which regularly monitors and reports on the level of social inclusion in the country based on the set indicators^{^[3]}.

Further, with UNICEF support, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia introduced the practice of regular biannual updating of the social inclusion indicators in the DevInfo national database, starting from 2013^{^[4]}.

After 2008, further development of indicators continued at the EU level. The need to continue the development of social inclusion indicators that would provide clearer indications of the changes in the status of the overall population, as well as its vulnerable portion, both adults and children, was also identified at the national level. Moreover, the need to measure, with a higher degree of precision and in a timely manner, the effects of measures and activities undertaken with a view to reducing social exclusion and poverty in the country, was recognised as well. One aspect of this need concerned clearer identification of local social inclusion and poverty levels.

The revision of the EU monitoring framework of 2006[5] and subsequent amendments of 2009[6] included the definition of primary or lead indicators and secondary or supporting indicators, while both primary and secondary indicators included defined sets of EU and country-specific indicators. In addition, reporting on overarching indicators and context information was introduced[7].

In the fulfilment of this assignment, the activities in which the Republic of Serbia participates in the capacity of a UN member state in pursuit of the global development goals should be taken into account. In September 2015, upon expiry of the period in which global development policies were guided by the Millennium Development Goals, the UN member states adopted a new global development agenda defined under 17 global Sustainable Development Goals^{^[8]}. The Republic of Serbia committed to aligning its development policies with the Sustainable Development Goals. Through this process, based on the 17 global goals, Serbia will set realistic national targets and define monitoring indicators. This process will be steered by the Government's Working Group formed in December 2015.

This assignment is launched in response to the need for a comprehensive update of the established indicators for monitoring social inclusion and poverty levels in the Republic of Serbia, notably in view of:

the new features in the EU framework for monitoring exclusion and poverty,
the UN framework for monitoring the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the need to cascade the set goals down to the national level,
other international frameworks (OECD, ILO etc.), as well as
the specific needs of the Republic of Serbia in the sphere of monitoring social inclusion and poverty levels, at both the national and local levels^{^[9]}.

In accordance with the Guiding principles for the selection of indicators and statistics^{^[10]} defined at the EU level, the specific objective of this initiative is to set a revised list of social inclusion and poverty reduction indicators, in order that the indicator list would:

better reflect policy effect and impact on social inclusion and poverty reduction, at both the national and local levels,
clearly recognise the importance of each of the proposed indicators and its link to public policies,
facilitate the identification of changes in social exclusion levels within the country and identify changes in social equality and cohesion,
improve the understanding of changes taking place in these areas in the country and affecting the position of women and men, girls and boys living in it, as well as disadvantaged and vulnerable groups,
improve the timeliness, accuracy and availability of statistical reporting in the area of social inclusion and poverty reduction^{^[11]},
exert a long-term impact on improving the statistical foundations of reporting in the area of social inclusion and poverty reduction.

The dimensions under which the social inclusion and poverty reduction indicators in the Republic of Serbia are to be revised include:

financial poverty and resource distribution inequality,
employment,
health and long-term care,
education,
social protection and pensions,
deprivation of basic needs (material deprivation),
other welfare indicators, i.e. quality of life and social participation indicators.

Purpose of the assignment:

The purpose of the research is to conduct a research whose results will be used for the purpose of enhancing the framework for monitoring and reporting on the social inclusion and poverty reduction process in the Republic of Serbia**.** The specific objective is to set a list of relevant social inclusion and poverty reduction indicators under the identified dimensions, to be developed and monitored in the Republic of Serbia in the coming years.

For this purpose, a consultant or a group of consultants will be engaged by UNICEF for 4 out of 7 above listed dimensions, namely 1) health and long term care, 2) education, 3) social protection and pensions and 4) deprivation of basic needs.

This ToR is a basis for recruitment of a consultant for the dimension of pensions.

Estimated start Date:

September 2016

Estimated end Date:

30 November 2016

Number of days/months

12 days per dimension

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks

Deliverables

Timeframe

Conduct a more specific consultative process with the professional circles and interested community (minimum 5 meetings)

Report from consultative process

September 2016 (1,5 days)

Perform an analysis of the available social inclusion monitoring indicators and analyses relevant to the interpretation of indicators. Perform analysis of administrative data basis which could be employed in monitoring of social inclusion

n/a

October 2016 (3,5 days)

Prepare a draft narrative report and upon receiving comments from SIPRU and UNICEF Final narrative report according to the set methodology. Prepare a proposal for a list of indicators, accompanied by rationale for each indicator

Draft and final narrative report per dimension with the set of indicators

November 2016 (7 days)

Methodology:

Through this assignment, the process of revising indicators will be conducted using all available knowledge and the already developed reporting frameworks^{^[12]} as the foundation to be built on and updated to ensure improved coverage of social inclusion and poverty issues.

Under each dimension, in addition to the indicators that most directly pertain to the dimension, a set of context information should be developed as well. The context information list is defined in order to explain the indicators of the given dimension better and understand the national context and framework.

In the form of a narrative report, on the basis of the existing framework^[13], the selected consultants are expected to propose methodological improvements including:

o improved reporting modality within the dimension,

o proposal for improving timely availability of indicators,

o proposal for improving indicator accuracy,

o proposal for monitoring the status of social exclusion and poverty reduction at the local level,

o critical review of changes and new features in reporting in the area at the EU level,

o proposal for alignment with selected new features in monitoring at the EU level,

o review of regional initiatives in monitoring the status of social exclusion and poverty reduction,

o proposal for alignment with the framework for monitoring the UN Sustainable Development Goals,

o a particularly valuable contribution is expected in proposing an improved modality of reporting on the status of specific population groups and the population living in severely unfavourable and/or specific conditions, which is mainly uncaptured by the regular statistical coverage (the Roma living in substandard settlements, children involved in living and/or working in the street, persons with disabilities, people residing in institutions etc.),

o proposals for improving the statistical foundations (defining new questions in the existing surveys, new modules in the existing surveys, or defining the need for new statistical reporting^{^[14]}, as well as improvements in reporting on the basis of administrative data).

The narrative report per dimension in the Serbian language should be up to 10 pages in length.

Taking into account the findings of the narrative report, an indicator list should be developed under each dimension (according to the scheme below, to include both context indicators and indicators of the given dimension). As the final step, among all the indicators on the list, those to be considered overarching indicators should be proposed. A maximum of eight indicators under each dimension should be proposed for the overarching indicators set. Of the proposed eight, at least two should pertain to the local level. The number of indicators to be proposed under a dimension is not predefined.

Table 1. An illustrative presentation of a revised list of social inclusion and poverty reduction indicators

OVERARCHING INDICATORS

(the selected “key” indicators under each dimension, up to six from each dimension, may come both from among context indicators and from among direct indicators of the given dimension)

· national and

· local

Financial poverty and resource distribution inequality

Employmet

Health and long-term care

Education

Social protection and pensions

Deprivation of basic needs (material deprivation)

Welfare indicators, i.e. quality of life and social participation indicators

Indicators under each dimension are defined in accordance with the minimum set of methodological criteria for indicator selection, provided below.

Context indicators