Download MSI Presentation: Poverty and social inclusion

Poverty and Social Inclusion
Policy Development in Portugal
MSI Project – Phase II
INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SECURITY
Ministry of Social Security, Family and Child
Portugal
Belfast, 7th-8th October 2004
Main contents

Historical and political context

Policy development:
- The actors
- The consultation process
- The evaluation process
- Resources

Concluding remarks
Historical and political context




Poverty was not seen as a problem in Portugal until the
beginning of the 80’s and therefore it was never a main
issue in the political agenda.
There was no specific and coherent set of policies to
combat poverty in Portugal.
As Portugal joined the EC in 1986 the problem gained
more visibility, and in June 1988 the political debate was
set in Parliament.
A subject that was completely absent from policies began
to appear and to play an important role in policy making in
Portugal.
Historical and political context
 During the 90’s

social protection systems were developed,

total expenditure on social protection rose,


the range of
increased and
risks
more people
assistance.
access
and
situations
covered
was
to
services,
benefits
and
Historical and political context

Since 1995
 Portugal has developed a whole new generation of
social policies, aimed specifically at reinforcing the
dynamics of inclusion in Portuguese society
New generation of active social policies
activation of individuals
activation of institutions
Historical and political context
These policies targeted children, older people, people with disabilities and
several vulnerable groups and very poor families and individuals. In this
scope important national programmes and measures were developed, such
as:
PROGRAMME / MEASURE
TARGET
Children
People with
disabilities
Social protection in maternity, paternity and adoption
Programme “To be a Child”
Commission for the protection of children and young people
National Action Plan for the Rehabilitation and Integration of People with Disabilities
Promotion of the social and professional integration of people with disabilities – POEFDS/ESF
Supported Employment in the regular labour market
Older People
Programme of Integrated Support for Older People
Project for Social Private Initiative
Drug abusers
National Action Plan against Drugs and Drug Misuse
Programme Life-Employment
Employed and
Unemployed
Special Vocational Training
Social Employment Market
Community
development
Guaranteed Minimum Income
Social Network
National Programme Against Poverty
Historical and political context
 In recent years
 the construction of this new and innovative path has been
accomplished particularly within the frame of:
- the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion (PNAI)
- the Social Network Programme
In different levels, both policies are aimed at making the
measures to fight poverty and social exclusion well planed and
better targeted, more integrated and thus more effective
A new step in the reinforcement of the combat
for a more inclusive society
Policy Development
The
political
and
the
policy
development
process in Portugal is rather centralised and,
with some exceptions, the most frequently
used level of consultation is national.
Policy Development

Partnerships between public and private institutions, at local
and national level, are very common and the partnership
work is well established.

Such an experience created the conditions for the
incorporation of the partnership principle in current
management of social policies and increased the
participation of representative national organisations in
policy development.

However, there is still a long way to go forward to reach a
desirable level of participation and involvement on policy
decision-making of private entities and especially of the
target groups and local communities.
Policy development
 The actors



The Ministry of Social Security, Family and Child is responsible for
the definition, orientation and development of the social protection
systems, including insertion, social action and social security
policies.
The NGO, Private Solidarity Institutions and Local Development
Associations play an important role on the social protection system
as well as on the implementation of national social policy
measures since they run most of the social equipments for
children and older people.
Some private entities as well as local authorities are usual
partners of the public local services in the implementation of
national policies, such as the Social Insertion Income, and in the
development of local anti-poverty projects.
The Consultation Process
 The consultation involves mainly national representative
organizations of social partners, such as:
 trade unions
 different entrepreneurial associations
 national organizations of private solidarity institutions
 insurance mutualities
 national organizations representing local authorities
The Consultation Process
 This consultation is formal and within established structures. The
examples of such formal consultation structures are:
 the Council for Economic and Social Cooperation,
Central Government, Unions, Social Partners)
(State
dealing mainly with economic
and employment policies,
 the Commission of the Cooperation Pact for Social
Solidarity, concerning the definition of social policies.
 Within these structures consultation is normally undertaken at the
policy development/design stage.
However if the first is
functioning in a regular basis, the second one has not functioned
regularly in the last two years.
The Consultation Process
 Other national consultive formal structures were created to
help in the definition and implementation follow-up of specific
social policies, such as:
 The NAPincl Interministerial Follow-up Commission
 The National Education Council
 The National Commission for the Social Insertion Income
 The Commission for the
Cooperation Agreements
Evaluation
and
Follow-up
of
 The National Commission for the Protection of Children and
Young People
 The National Commission for the Social Employment Market
 …
The Consultation Process
 At
local
level,
also
exist
formal
permanent
partnership
structures, such as:
 the Commissions for the Protection of Children and Young
People
 Local Education Councils
 Local Follow-up Commissions for the Social Insertion Income
 …
 These local structures are very seldom consulted on national
issues. However they can be consulted on local problems and
projects. Furthermore, a few municipalities are implementing
participative budget discussions opened to local populations,
following the example of Porto Alegre Forum.
The Consultation Process
Good examples of more participated decision on policymaking process:
1) The recent discussion of the second Portuguese NAPincl:
 At national level - the plan was discussed within national
structures:
 the NAPincl Interdepartmental Follow-up Commission
 the Napincl NGO’s Forum
 At local level and in partnership with the Portuguese EAPN - the
plan was presented and discussed in several worshops across the
country with local organizations.
The Consultation Process
2) The Social Network Programme



The Social Networks are formal discussion fora or structures
constituted within the municipalities territories with the participation
of local governments, local public services and opened to every
private non profit solidarity organizations.
In these fora the social problems of the territories are discussed and
the partners define the priorities of the intervention and approves
Social Development Plans, for a three-year period, by consensus,
thus creating conditions for the articulation of all public and private
partners action.
The Social Network Programme is now being implemented in 235 of
the 277 Portuguese continental municipalities, strongly enlarging the
discussion of local social development problems and improving the
social intervention.
Evaluation process

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The most important policy measures and programmes are regularly
monitored, but their dissemination is clearly insufficient and does
not reach the public opinion.
Usually national and EU programmes are evaluated by external
entities (university or private research centres).
Independent research seems to have a very small impact in the
formulation of policy.
An information system was created to monitor the Portuguese
NAPincl, based essentially on a statistical information drawing on
administrative sources. A Working Group is responsible for
permanent monitoring and reporting on the progress of the NAPincl
implementation. Annually a progress report is prepared to evaluate
the advancements made in the implementation of the plan and its
findings allow the reformulation of policies.
Evaluation process



Participation of target groups in policy evaluation
Since 2002 the Portuguese European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN)
in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and Solidarity is trying to
implement a project called “Participation Activation” to develop
processes of participation of people experiencing poverty in the
definition, implementation and evaluation of anti-poverty policies.
However, these project remain a unique experiment and their
impact is very weak.
Ressources

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The government communicates the general policy lines through the
Programme of Government and its spending priorities through
the announcement of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines the
Annual State Budget. Both Programme and Budget are discussed
on the national parliament.
The national and EU programmes to tackle poverty have specific
lines of financing directed to disadvantaged groups such as people
with disabilities, ethnic minorities, children at risk and long term
unemployed persons.
Recent governments prioritised measures to reduce poverty and
social exclusion. However, in the latest years the practical measures
have been limited by the priority efforts to reduce the Portuguese
budgetary deficit.
Summing up

Consultation on policy development in Portugal is centralised
and works within formal established structures, involving
mainly national organizations.

Consulting of local organizations only occurs on rare
occasions and schemes to consult local communities or the
beneficiaries of social policy measures are not previewed.
Summing up

However some of the examples presented, mainly the
discussion of the Portuguese NAPIncl, the EAPN project
“Participation Activation” and the functioning and work of
the Social Network local structures show some important
ways to increase citizen’s participation and also to improve
the transparency and inclusiveness of policy development as
well as for a better resources targeting at the most
disadvantaged.