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EACEA National Policies Platform
Serbia

Serbia

8. Creativity and Culture

8.9 Enhancing social inclusion through culture

Last update: 28 November 2023
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  1. Fostering equality and young people involvement through cultural activities
  2. Combating discrimination and poverty through cultural activities

Fostering equality and young people involvement through cultural activities

As mentioned in Ch 8.5 -  Providing quality access to creative environments, the Ministry of Culture and Information announces an annual call for financing or co-financing projects in the field of contemporary art in the Republic of Serbia. The call defines 12 priorities and two of them are particularly aimed at financing projects fostering equality in cultural activities of national minorities and persons with a disability. This granting scheme is not limited only to youth, but is open to this group in addition to the general population.

Priority 9: cultural activities of national minorities in Serbia

  • These are the projects that contribute to strengthening the capacity of cultural entities. These can be the project for the improvement and modernization of work, contribution to the professionalization of minority culture, cooperation with professional institutions and individuals, encouragement of professional and scientific research in culture;
  • Projects that enable the availability of cultural content (intended for a wider circle of users, and not only for members of minorities or only for members of the majority people, e.g. translation of a publication, subtitling of a film, dubbing of a theatre play);
  • Projects of cooperation, networking, co-production, guest appearances in the country and the region (home countries).

Minimum amount to be financed or co-financed per project is RSD 120,000.00 in 2020. In 2019, 127 of these projects were funded with total allocated amount of RSD 16,558,000.00.

Priority 10: Cultural activities of persons with disabilities

  • Projects that contribute to strengthening the capacity of cultural entities (professionalization of staff of organizations of persons with disabilities; cooperation with professional institutions, organizations and individuals; education of employees in cultural institutions for the needs of persons with disabilities; sensitization of visitors - audience);
  • Projects that enable the availability of cultural content - accessibility of cultural content and programmes of cultural institutions (translation, subtitling, dubbing, info boards in Braille, etc.);
  • Projects with clearly profiled target groups of persons with disabilities;
  • Projects that ensure participation.

Minimum amount to be financed or co-financed per project is RSD 100,000.00 in 2020.  In 2019, 29 of these projects were funded with total allocated amount of RSD 6,901,000.00.

Combating discrimination and poverty through cultural activities

Respect for the cultural and democratic values of local, national, regional, European and world traditions is guaranteed by the Law on Culture. In addition, the creativity of national minorities is seen in the Culture Development Strategy as a special value in nationally mixed environments that contributes to the diversity of culture and the promotion of dialogue and tolerance in society.

The Social Inclusion and poverty Reduction Unit of the Government of the Republic of Serbia is the main governmental authority responsible for social inclusion and poverty reduction in Serbia. It was established in 2009 by the Government of the Republic of Serbia. The Unit so far did not include explicitly activities in which discrimination and inclusion are tackled through culture/cultural activities but they are not excluded either.

The Unit has been implementing the project "Support to the Improvement of Social Inclusion in the Republic of Serbia" since 2009. In January 2018, the implementation of the third phase of this project began, which is being implemented with the support of the Government of Switzerland through the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

The general goal of the third phase of the project  is to contribute to greater social inclusion of vulnerable social groups and active participation of all relevant actors to ensure a better quality of life for all.

The activities carried out within the project should contribute to:

  • Relevant national and local institutions more effectively apply selected principles of good governance (with emphasis on participation, equality and non-discrimination) in achieving social inclusion priorities in accordance with international standards, in areas of public policy related to social inclusion (social protection, education, health, employment and housing);
  • institutions at the local level better respond to the needs of poor and socially excluded citizens;
  • people in a state of social exclusion (especially women, youth, Roma, migrants and people with disabilities, especially in rural and extremely poor areas) are empowered through the support of the environment to use quality, integrated and inclusive social protection, education, employment services, health care and housing.