Such an approach, inter alia, is community-based, emphasizes prevention focused on an agency, and is accountable through outcomes rather than inputs. For many, better co-ordination of services is seen as the only solution available which is commensurate with our present democratic societies. All of the papers in this book were presented at a conference held in Toronto, Canada. Today, social assistance institutions have integration and encouragement as their goal. They seek to avoid exclusion and stigmatization.
Poverty can tear at the fabric of society.
However, preventing hardship among those with no resources while reducing exclusion and marginalization is no easy task. This book compares the social assistance policies of Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Norway. Although at first sight these countries appear very different, in fact the same policy dilemmas exist in the four countries. That local action is necessary to identify and help the excluded is accepted, but the balance between ensuring that sufficient resources are available at the local level while limiting budgets so as to ensure efficient use of resources is a continuing preoccupation. No country has yet found a policy package which prevents exclusion, but innovative policies in each of these four countries are proving successful in limiting its extent.