Poor Relief Policy Under Severe Local Budget Constraints: An Example of the Urban Municipality in Belgrade

Kelić, Vasko and Manić, Slavica (2026) Poor Relief Policy Under Severe Local Budget Constraints: An Example of the Urban Municipality in Belgrade. In: ), Advancing Urban Governance in Western and Transition Europe: Equity, Sustainability and Smart Practices. Springer Nature, pp. 33-51.

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Abstract

This chapter explores how poverty reduction policies can be conducted by the local political authorities in the context of the lack of sufficient poor relief protection under the current national policy framework in Serbia. For this purpose, we consider an example of Stari Grad, an urban municipality in Belgrade that is, as such, particularly characterized by limited competences and budget. Taking the 2021–2024 period as a reference point, we can see that the local government allocated less than 0.12 percent of an already small local budget to poverty reduction policy. Meanwhile, the national financial social aid threshold has been put at a level below the absolute poverty line for a long time, let alone the significantly higher at-risk-of-poverty threshold. We explore the possibilities of allocating more funds to poor relief in Stari Grad. Considering the relevant data, we conclude that relatively modest reallocation of funds can literally eradicate involuntary absolute poverty from Stari Grad. At-risk-of-poverty rates, however, require significant additional budgetary resources to be meaningfully reduced

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