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Partners in the project “Strengthening resilience of older persons and persons with disabilities during COVID-19 and future disasters” – a three-year initiative in the Western Balkans region, coordinated by the Serbian Red Cross and supported by the European Union, the Austrian Development Agency and the Austrian Red Cross – gathered in Belgrade in order to exchange experiences in previous work. This project was launched at the end of 2020, and it connects partners from the civil society of the Western Balkan countries and a large network of civil society represented by older persons and persons with disabilities at the level of the European Union.

At the Annual general meeting of the Global Compact in Serbia, held on December 14, the final Activity Report for 2022 was adopted and the Work Plan for 2023 was presented.
SeConS Development Initiative Group was an active participant, as a permanent member of the Global Compact in Serbia.

The main findings of the research “Human trafficking in Serbia – an overview of the situation in the context of the 21st century” were presented by Olivera Vuković, an executive director at SeConS Development Initiative Group and Milica Stević, a researcher, at the conference entitled “How close are we to human trafficking?” organized by ASTRA Association.

*In four villages in Vojvodina, there was a slight decrease in the acceptance of patriarchal attitudes among both women and men, while women showed a significantly higher ability to recognize different forms of violence. These are results of the initial and final studies on attitudes and knowledge about gender-based violence and gender-based discrimination, conducted as part of the project “Break the silence – Respond: Changing social norms and knowledge about gender-based violence against women in rural areas in APV”.

At the XI International Gerontological Congress at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade, the SeConS Development Initiative Group presented key research findings on access to long-term care services in the Western Balkans. This is about a research from a comparative perspective of six locations where said research was conducted: Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo*, and North Macedonia.

“At a time of rising inflation, high costs of living and the consequences of the pandemic, people living in poverty struggle to meet basic needs of life, the number of homeless people is increasing, while gender and social inequalities are also growing,” it was stated at the time of presentation of the European Anti-Poverty Network’s (EAPN) Annual Poverty Watch in the European Parliament.
The European Anti-Poverty Network – Serbia was represented by the SeConS Development Initiative Group.

SeConS Development Initiative Group presented the study “Rapid assessment of the prevalence of child begging as a form of child labor in Montenegro” at an event organized on this occasion in Podgorica by the International Labor Organization and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare of Montenegro.
Admir Adrović, Minister of Labor and Social Welfare, and Nina Krgović, National Project Coordinator at International Labor Organization in Montenegro gave opening speeches.

As the only institution in Serbia that monitors the progress made towards the achievement of SDGs, the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia published, with the support of the Governments of Germany and Switzerland, a Progress Report for 2021 on the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in the Republic of Serbia by 2030. Video material containing brief presentation of the results was created based on this Report. The creation of this video material was made possible by the contribution of the Governments of Switzerland and Germany as part of the project “Public Finance Reform – 2030 Agenda”, implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

The achievements of the Erasmus+ “Public Policy Making and Analysis” – PPMA project on capacity building in higher education, were presented at the panel on “Lifelong learning in the field of public policy”, held on May 10, 2022 at the University of Niš.
Presentation included educational programs in the field of public policy, editions of books published as part of the project, as well as the multifunctional web platform “Policy club” intended for the publication of professional papers in the field of public policy.

SeConS Development Initiative Group participated in the workshop “Public Policy Making and Analysis: institutions, implementation and approaches”, held at the Faculty of Law, University of