The social protection system in Macedonia is functioning according to the “Social protection Law”, which is expected to go through major changes due to its non-effectiveness, with the diversification of the pool of social service providers being one of the top priorities. Namely, the goal is to enable other social service providers besides public institutions to deliver services, which should be also supported by the process of decentralization and outsourcing of social services. The second crucial problem is the abscence of standards for social services, which reflects directly to the quality of the services provided and to the effectiveness of the whole system.

The Institution that studies social phenomena and promotes social activities is the Public Institution for Social Affairs. The Institute for Social Affairs has under its jurisdiction monitoring the work of social protection institutions, as well as of other stakeholders that perform certain activities in social protection. At the same time, this institution is responsible for implementing the licensing process for social workers. However the capacity building program being used for the licensing process is considered outdated and not in accordance with the new challenges of social phenomena.

The main actors of the social protection system are the Social Work Centres (SWC), together with institutions for non-residential and institutional care. SWCs are established as public institutions and they are responsible for administration of cash benefits and provision of social services.

Major improvement in social services was expected to happen in 2004 when decentralization of social services was about to start. Back then, the municipalities were given the possibility to have small scope of service provision that was expected to lead to decreasing the administrative burden of the existing SWCs and by that provide more personalized service to each of the service users. That did not happen. Currently social services are based on approving or rejecting the right to social transfers/benefits and social professionals are lacking in terms of resources and capacities to assist people on a more personal level aiming to find sustainable mechanism leading to better life quality.

The main challenges regarding the social protection system in the country include:

• Implementation of crucial reforms promoting decentralization in the provision of social services
• The pool of potential social service providers should be expanded and differentiated (lack of pluralism in provision of services)
• The current system lacks basic quality standards for social services
• The Institute for Social Affairs is in need of urgent reforms
• The professional curricula of social workers for licensing process are outdated
• There is lack of specialized professional capacities of the staff working in the CSWs
• Social workers are facing heavy administration workload
• Innovative new models like case management or social mentoring are not followed by the professionals

KMOP works with national partners in the EU and in developing countries to build their capacities to implement innovative social protection systems and modernize their framework of social services provided. Technical Assistance services provided by KMOP evolve around state-of-the-art examples and benchmarks, utilizing all modern trends, like community based services, decentralisation models, de-institutionalisation processes, introducing quality standards, having as ultimate goal the development and adoption of integrated social protection systems, tailored to the needs for social support and enhancement in the country. In this view, KMOP’ relevant experience can be further utilised for contributing to facing the challenges in the national social protection system.

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