INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SECURITY

Ministry of Social Security, Family and Child

Portugal

Poverty and Social Inclusion Policy Development in Portugal

Belfast, 7th-8th October 2004

MSI Project – Phase IIMSI Project – Phase II

Main contentsMain contents

Historical and political context

Policy development:

- The actors

- The consultation process

- The evaluation process

- Resources

Concluding remarks

Historical and political contextHistorical 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.

During the 90’s

social protection systems were developed,

total expenditure on social protection rose,

the range of risks and situations covered was increased and

more people access to services, benefits and assistance.

Historical and political contextHistorical 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 contextHistorical and political context

TARGET PROGRAMME / MEASURE

ChildrenSocial protection in maternity, paternity and adoption Programme “To be a Child”Commission for the protection of children and young people

People with disabilities

National Action Plan for the Rehabilitation and Integration of People with DisabilitiesPromotion of the social and professional integration of people with disabilities – POEFDS/ESFSupported Employment in the regular labour marketOlder

PeopleProgramme 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 TrainingSocial Employment Market

Community developmen

t

Guaranteed Minimum IncomeSocial Network National Programme Against Poverty

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:

Historical and political contextHistorical and political context

- the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion (PNAI)

- the Social Network Programme

In recent years

the construction of this new and innovative path has been

accomplished particularly within the frame of:

Historical and political contextHistorical and political context

A new step in the reinforcement of the combat for a more inclusive society

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

Policy DevelopmentPolicy 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 DevelopmentPolicy 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 developmentPolicy development

The Ministry Ministry ofof Social Security, Family and Child 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 NGONGO, Private Solidarity InstitutionsPrivate Solidarity Institutions and Local Development Local Development AssociationsAssociations 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 entitiesprivate entities as well as local authoritieslocal 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 actors

The Consultation ProcessThe Consultation Process

The consultation involves mainly national representative organizations of social partnersnational 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 ProcessThe Consultation Process

This consultation is formal and within established structures. The examples of such formal consultation structures are:

the Council for Economic and Social CooperationCouncil for Economic and Social Cooperation, (State Central Government, Unions, Social Partners) dealing mainly with economic and employment policies,

the Commission of the Cooperation Pact for Social SolidarityCommission 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 ProcessThe Consultation Process Other national consultive formal structuresOther 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 Evaluation and Follow-up of Cooperation Agreements

The National Commission for the Protection of Children and Young People

The National Commission for the Social Employment Market

…

The Consultation ProcessThe Consultation Process

At local levelAt 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.

Good examples of more participated decision on policy-making process:Good examples of more participated decision on policy-making process:

1) The recent discussion of the second Portuguese NAPincl:

At national levelAt national level - the plan was discussed within national structures:

the NAPincl Interdepartmental Follow-up Commission

the Napincl NGO’s Forum

At local levelAt 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 ProcessThe Consultation Process

The Consultation ProcessThe Consultation Process

2) The Social Network ProgrammeSocial 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 processEvaluation process

The most important policy measures and programmes are regularly

monitoredmonitored, but their disseminationdissemination 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 researchIndependent research seems to have a very small impact in the formulation of policy.

An information system was created to monitor the Portuguese Portuguese

NAPinclNAPincl, 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 processEvaluation process

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.

Participation of target groups in policy evaluationParticipation of target groups in policy evaluation

RessourcesRessources

The government communicates the general policy lines through the

Programme of GovernmentProgramme of Government and its spending priorities through the announcement of the Broad Economic Policy GuidelinesBroad Economic Policy Guidelines the the

Annual State BudgetAnnual 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 upSumming 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.

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.

Summing upSumming up