FES Dialogue SOE and Center for Social Policy are inviting you to online promotion of the policy study Social Protection in the Western Balkans – Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis starting on Wednesday 23rd of September at 10.00 a.m.
Though numbers of COVID-19 cases or deaths in the Western Balkans are not yet amongst the highest when looked at in a comparative perspective, the crisis related to the pandemic has impacted negatively on already weak social protection systems in the region. The broader social impacts of the crisis are likely to be both severe and long-lasting.
In this rapid assessment, based on a review of the literature and extensive information provided by key stakeholders, authors focus less on providing a full picture of social protection responses across the region and more on an informed analysis leading to reasoned recommendations. In a region where policies are not always evidence-based, there is an absence of accurate, disaggregated data on the social impacts of the pandemic. In a region that combines a narrow epidemiological focus, authoritarian, instrumentalist politics, and low trust in institutions, social protection responses may not necessarily have strengthened community resilience.
Authors Gordana Matković and Paul Stubbs, also members of the Future of the Welfare State in the Western Balkans network, wrote the policy paper Social Protection in the Western Balkans – Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis as an extension to the social dimension paper that FES SOE has commissioned last year. Due to the pandemic, an online promotion of the policy paper will be held on the 23rd of September from 10:00 to 11:30 A.M. Authors will be presenting the results of the policy paper with positive lessons, negative observations as well as recommendations regarding emergency preparedness. Please join us to discuss challenges in social protection systems caused by COVID 19, together with the future-oriented regional social protection agenda in the Western Balkans.
How to participate
- When and where: Sep 23, 2020 10:00 AM, Zoom
- Link for the online promotion – click HERE
- Meeting ID: 898 5248 0445
- Passcode: 793327
Downloads
- Invitation: Online promotion of policy study Social Protection in the Western Balkans – Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis (.pdf)
- Regional study Social Protection in the Western Balkans – Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis (.pdf)
Read more…
More information about the regional policy study Social Protection in the Western Balkans – Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis can be found here.