European Perspectives
From Baruch Course Wikis
[edit] Balkans
by Fis Shkreli
Introduction
Two years ago while I was doing research online I came across an article that caught my attention; Third World Europe it read across the page as I centered myself comfortably in my chair. There were advertisements on the margins of the page and every here and now a Flash-based banner would catch my eye but somewhere between statistics and a reference guideline there read that an estimated two-million undocumented people are living below the poverty line in the high mountains of Romania. Now, I knew that there existed poverty all over the world, but two-million people is about the average population for some established countries in the Balkans. That number happens to be two-thirds of everyone in Albania, for example. This simple fact struck me as a possibility for research discussion: The Social Welfare and Economic Imbalance In The Balkans.
Body
This past summer I just happened to be visiting the Balkans – not coincidentally, it also happens to be my birthplace – and aside from a relatively fun summer I came across a couple of startling truths. Some people above the age of fifty (and many) are not sure what the internet even is. It’s not so much a culture shock as it is a plain astonishment, but I couldn’t blame them: it seemed that the government that inhabited the land(s) that I visited didn’t encourage these technological gems as strongly as they should have. At first, this might not seem as a factor worthy of affecting the welfare of the republic, but in this age it certainly affects the economic situation, indirectly impacting the welfare of the people. That’s a long shot – but this idea didn’t seem so foreign to me as I began to wander different metropolises of Macedonia. What I saw there were houses pasted up against buildings from communist-era Yugoslavia, with their messy roofs just barely clinging on to the mortar that hasn’t been re-visited since Tito’s time. I began to wonder if this place really changed or if I was too young to see it for what it was worth back when I was just a toddler.
Albania
Facts About Albania
- Albania is located in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula
-The total land area of Albania is 28,500 square kilometres (England 130,000 square kilometres)
-The total population of Albania, in 2003, was about 3.6 million people
-The capital city is Tirana, with a population of about 350,000 people
-The unit of currency is the Lek (at the time of writing, 1 US dollar = 96.6 Leke)
Population of Albania
-The overall life expectancy (at birth) is about 77 years
-This breaks down to 80 years for women and 75 years for men
-The fertility rate is a little over two children born per woman
-The population growth rate is a little over 0.5% per year
-The literacy rate in Albania is 93% for men and 80% for women
-70% of Albanians are Muslims, 20% are Albanian Orthodox and the remainder are Roman Catholic
Geography of Albania
-The overall terrain in Albania is mountainous with peaks ranging between 2,100 and 2,400 m
-Forests cover nearly 40% of the total land area of Albania
-The climate of Albania tends towards mild winters and hot summers (as I well recall)
-Natural resources include petroleum, natural gas, coal, bauxite, chromium, copper, iron ore, nickel, salt, timber
-Natural hazards include destructive earthquakes; tsunamis occur along south-western coast; floods; drought
-Finally some facts and figures about the economy of Albania
-Albania is one of the poorest and least-developed countries in Europe
-The Gross Domestic Product is a shade under $19 billion
-The average annual salary in Albania is less than $100 per month (the scientists I worked with when I was over there earned about $7 per day in 2000)
-The total number of people in jobs (excluding immigrants) is just over 1 million
-The "official" estimates of rate of unemployment is around 15%
-Italy is Albania's biggest export partner
Welfare In Albania
Albania has a population of 3,141,000 with a GDP per-capita of 587,161 leks (around 4,092 US dollars, in 2001). More than 9.5% of that population was older than 60 years of age in 2002 and the dependency ratio that year was around 53%.
A large number of individuals are clustered around the poverty lines. Increasing the poverty line by 10% increases the percentage of poor individuals by 25 to 50%, depending on the poverty line used.
Poverty in Albania has marked spatial and regional dimensions, with rural areas and the Mountain region being consistently poorer than rest of the country.
Households in the most remote districts in the Mountain region in the north and northeast of the country do not fare well in terms of poverty, and almost half of residents of this area are poor, and more than a fifth live in extreme poverty.
Low levels of educational attainment and unemployment are perhaps the main demographic factors driving poverty.
Social Security finds a juridical legitimacy in the Albanian Constitution where it defines some social rights.
When considering the non-income dimension of poverty, inequality is much more obvious.
There are large differences between rural and urban areas as regards access to water and sanitation, and while all urban dwellers have access to a sanitation facility inside their house, only half of households living in rural areas have access to sanitation facilities.
Social Security System In Albania
Social Security finds a juridical legitimacy in the Albanian Constitution where it defines some social rights.
Art.52 of the Albanian constitution states that “everyone has the right to social security in old age or when he is unable to work” and “everyone, who remains without work for reasons independent of his volition, and has no other mean of support, has the right to assistance”.
Art.54 states that they reserve special protection to the weakest social groups (young, new mothers, etc.), and the chapter V of the constitution is entirely dedicated to social objectives.
The Social Insurance System provides for comprehensive protection against income loss due to old age, disability, loss of a primary earner, death, unemployment, general sickness, occupational injury and work related illnesses, childbirth and maternity.
The Social Safety Net consists of three cash social assistance programs - a targeted poverty benefit in cash (called Ndihme Ekonomike or economic aid, which provides a means-tested cash benefit for eligible families with little or no earned income); a regular monthly allowance to those disabled since childhood; and price compensation paid to pensioners and their families - and a program of social care services for orphaned, disabled, and elderly people. A few words should be added on the "Ndihme Ekonomike," which is the main cash social assistance program: it is structured around conditional grants from the national government that local governments have to administer using nationally specified eligibility and benefit rules. Local governments receive and process applications. The final decision on whether to grant assistance is then made.
In a broad sense, the current safety net has replaced an inherited social protection strategy in which people were assured of guaranteed employment at low wages on collective farms and in government enterprises, while a system of administered pricing within a closed economy kept consumer prices low.
Health Care System of Albania
Among social policies, one that deserves particular attention in Albania is health care. This is essentially due to a couple of reasons. The first one is an historical reason: During the Communist era the health sector was not considered a priority, because it is a non-productive sector, and thus few investments were made on it.
The basic structure of the Health Care System in Albania has continued almost unchanged in the last decade.
Many health care institutions are under the direct administrative control of the Ministry, with the partial exception of primary care.
Albanian health services are funded through a mix of taxation and statutory insurance. The bulk of funding still comes from the state budget, but the tax base is problematic due to low incomes, unemployment, a large informal economy and tax collection problems. As a consequence, financing levels remain very low.
Since the collapse of the communist regime the health care sector reform is on its way, moving toward the introduction of some market mechanism in the financing system and toward a decentralized and efficient model.
Macedonia
Facts About Macedonia
-The Republic of Macedonia is situated in the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula and covers an area of 25,713 square kilometers.
-According to the 1991 population census, the total figure for the registered total and estimated population in the Republic of Macedonia was 2,033,964.
-The extraordinary 1994 population census listed the figure of 2,075,196.
-More than half of the Republic's inhabitants (58.1%) live in urban areas, most of them in the capital, Skopje (c450,000), followed by Bitola (85,000), Kumanovo (70,000), Prilep (70,000), Tetovo (51,000), Veles (47,000), Ohrid (43,000), Stip, etc. There are 1,753 populated settlements.
-In terms of ethnic composition, according to the 1994 population census, 1,378,687 inhabitants of the Republic of Macedonia are Macedonians (66.43%), 478,967 are Albanians (23.08%) and 81,615 are Turks (3.9%). There are also 47,408 Roms living in Macedonia as well as 39,865 Serbs, 8,571 Vlachs and some other ethnic groups.
-The only Roma - Gypsy parliamentarian in the world sits in the Macedonian Parliament. His, however, is not the only Roma party in the country. In addition to having two Roma parties, the community boasts two (competing) Roma TV stations.
-(The Republic of) Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia from the formation of Yugoslavia in 1918 till Yugoslavia fell apart in 1991.
-Macedonia is the only part of former Yugoslavia which won independence without bloodshed. It was not involved in the wars of former Yugoslavia of the 90s (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo).
-One quarter of the population lives in the capital, Skopje.
Welfare In Macedonia
Macedonian welfare is regulated by the Law on Social Welfare and the Law on Family; the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy is responsible, through 39 district Centres for Social Work (CSW) and Labour Offices, for employment and social welfare policy.
The economic situation of the Republic has faced a long period of no growth in gross domestic product, exacerbated by other negative development tendencies, such as geographically unbalanced development which widened the gap between rural and urban areas, pollution of the environment at a time of growing industrialization, rising ethnic tensions etc.
The privatization process has spread the social gap between the social groups because the transition from a socialist system to a liberalized new social and economic system,shows bad results with respect to its economic efficiency and stability.
The key social issue is to enhance access to social welfare services for vulnerable groups and to do so in a manner that will reduce poverty and social exclusion, and enhance social cohesion. The problem that exists within the social services is a lack of fiscal awareness, planning and transparency.
The main cash benefits currently operating in the country include unemployment benefits administered by the National Employment Bureau, various forms of social assistance benefits administered by the Centres for Social Work, war veteran benefits administered by the War Veterans Department, and the child benefits which until recently were administered by the Child Protection Department. Under new arrangements introduced by the Ministry of Labour & Social Policy MLSP, child benefits will be managed by the CSW.
Health Care System of Macedonia
The Republic’s Constitution of 1991 states the principle of universality of health care access.
The state is responsible for providing a healthy living environment and for the provision of preventive care for the population through the activities of the Institutes for Public Health and for ensuring that health services are available.
When Macedonia was part of the Republic of Yugoslavia, the health system was highly decentralized, owned and operated by 30 local municipalities, with only large capital projects being centrally executed.
The health system organization is insurance based: everyone is covered by a compulsory health insurance scheme for a basic health care package, on top of which out-of-pocket fees are paid.
The first (and a minimum) objective achieved in the troubled period in which Macedonia implemented its stability was the maintenance of some form of basic health system.
I was excited to see these post-Yugoslav territories, but I tried not to bother myself about the conditions of those living there at that moment. I did however, make mental note of what I saw, and I guess I’m just merely paying homage to that situation by writing about it today. As my curiosity began to deepen I found an article essay online written by Fiona Werge, a reporter from BBC News; she states that about fifty million children are living in poverty throughout Europe today, not just Eastern Europe, and that the situation has become about twelve times worse than it what it was ten years ago. That being said, I’ve read enough for now, I feel as though if I kept reading I might hate myself – but I did bookmark the find.
Image:Http://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/0808/ac296534de2c134ee756.jpeg
Image:Http://chromatism.net/current/images/mapbalkans.jpg
Conclusion
In a class where key welfare institutions are being examined and questioned, I believe that it is important to have a perspective on what is occurring by having a three-dimensional view of the matter on a global-scale. I saw these children while I was venturing across South-Eastern Europe. I gave them money hear and there. And to them, I probably looked like a millionaire with my American one-dollar bills. I couldn’t blame them.
European Social Welfare: Balkans
Bibliography
Books ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Europe’s Troubled Region
by William Bartlett
ISBN-13: 9780415193504
February 2008
Demographic Change, Economic Growth and Social Welfare in Europe
by John F. Ermisch; Heather Joshi
April 1987
Economic Change, Social Welfare and Health in Europe
by Lowell S. Levin
ISBN-13: 978-9289013185
August 1994
Web Resources ________________________________________________________________________________________________
