This workshop is designed as a policy dialogue and peer learning event aimed at exposing policy makers from the Western Balkans who are working in the spheres of employment and social policy to innovative ideas. The workshop will feature discussions around an emerging report on safety nets. The event will also feature speakers familiar with the activation models in Organization for Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union countries - specifically Ireland and Germany - who will present the newest trends in integrated employment and social welfare policy design and implementation, as well as new methods for identifying and addressing multiple constraints to labor market participation. This workshop will also include a short study tour for the participants to an employment office in Vienna, to see how the Austrian service model for active job seekers works.
The objectives of the workshop are threefold:
(i) Enhance policy dialogue by providing a venue for joint discussion of findings from the project and next steps in policy development and implementation aimed at activation of different categories of inactive and unemployed - including social assistance beneficiaries, and understanding and reducing of the multiple barriers to their employment and active inclusion;
(ii) Stimulate peer learning and intra-regional exchange of evidence on good practices of institutional arrangements, financial incentives, mutual responsibility arrangements or specific projects that promote activation;
(iii) Provide an opportunity for exposing policy makers from the Western Balkan countries to the newest international trends in this filed (with a particular focus on EU and OECD countries) on how to enhance the ‘promotion’ function of the safety net during times wherein increased demand for protection and prevention of poverty and vulnerability need to be met more efficiently under increasing fiscal constraints.