The significance and role of local self-governments in the population policy of Serbia
Authors: Gavrilovic Ana , Jugovic Aleksandar 
Published: January 2012

Population should be in the central focus of local community institutions and
the local community may constitute its population policy which will
supplement state population policy measures, considering the local specific
various traditions, values and models of living. The paper's basic goal is to
critically perceive the characteristics, significance and role of local
self-governments in the current population policy of Serbia. Social situation
and social policy characteristics in Serbia are analyzed in the context of
the population policy. It is pointed out that poverty, unemployment, the
economic crisis, the process of privatization, the issue of system
decentralization and social expectations of the population, as current
expressions of transition, all have a consequence on the demographic
development and population policy. A critical estimation of the activities in
the field of population policies which are carried out by local and
provincial self-governments in Serbia in the last decade are brought into
focus, with a special review to the activities of provincial and local
governments in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina. As a result of the
analysis it is pointed out that the population and social policy measures
have been separated since the year 2000 and that they have been directed only
to stimulating births and not child raising and that solutions regarding
maternity leave brought improvements, however shortened maternity leave for
the third child. The new conception of the population policy brought a whole
series of restrictions such as: suspension of aid for newborn essentials;
discontinuance of the right to maternity allowance; abolishing of
compensation for preschool expenses for the third child; children?s allowance
lost its population measures character along with considerable tightening of
the census and decreasing of amount; the activities of preschool facilities
have been reduced only to an educational function, and the terms for
realizing rights to preschool education for children without parents and
children with special needs have been tightened. The authors point out to the
values and principles on which a contemporary population policy of local
self-governments in Serbia should be established, such as: stability of
established measures, a clear message on the needs of society, compatibility
and not uniformity with measures of other bodies, compassion and uniformity
with aspirations of couples and individuals, respect for the rights and
freedom of man, information availability, equality of birth and raising
children in measures. The establishment of population policy municipality
funds is suggested and that local population policy measures are both
material and non-material type, as well as in the form of organizational
measures which could use the existing resources in a better way. The
municipal assembly should create organizational suppositions by appointing a
Population Policy Commission as its permanent body. The Commission would
propose to the Municipal Assembly to adopt a strategic document - the
Population Policy Strategy in the municipality. The Municipality Assembly
should adopt the Action Plan for carrying out of the population policy every
year, which would define the measures, bearers, terms and methods of
evaluating measures with a plan for the following year. The population policy
of the local self-government should be a constant process which manages,
follows and evaluates, which is public and which understands the engagement
of competent people, participation of citizens-volunteers and civil
organizations.