The government discussed and approved the proposal of ministers Ivan Bartoš and Marian Jurečka on the institutional anchoring of the Agency for Social Inclusion, in an amended form, and confirmed that it will continue to operate in cities and municipalities after 2025. It is the government’s main tool for solving social exclusion in the regions.
The Agency for Social Inclusion has been operating since 2008, the last four years as a department of the Ministry for Regional Development. “For the Agency, the government’s decision means above all a confirmation of its necessity and the continuation of its operation in the current scope even for 2025. It will remain permanently part of the Ministry for Regional Development, but its activities will continue to be financed primarily in a project way. Next year, however, I will strengthen its funding within the framework of the MMR, as the government decided today,” explained Deputy Prime Minister for Digitization and Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš.
The agency supports cities in the restoration of socially excluded localities, the development of affordable housing, solving the long-term burden on residents, making education accessible to socially disadvantaged children, or increasing safety. It cooperates with the General Directorate of the Labor Office in supporting the employment of the long-term unemployed, now as part of the pilot project Integration Jobs. Together with the Ministry of Education and Culture, it provides support to municipalities in the desegregation of schools with a larger number of Roma pupils. It is also a partner of the Ministry of the Interior, with which it participates in the development of systemic crime prevention measures.
Among the main tools of functioning is the so-called coordinated approach to social exclusion. Through it, it helps cities and municipalities to process and put into practice projects from the operational programs of the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the MMR. In the last four years, there were over 400 of them for 3 billion crowns. The agency also fulfills an important methodological role. For example, it methodically develops community work in 20 municipalities. It has newly opened a program for cities and municipalities for the systematic development of selected socially excluded localities. “The government has confirmed the need to develop both basic support in municipalities and specific programs in which the Agency works closely with individual ministries. This connects support at the local level with government social inclusion policies, which is essential,” added Martin Šimáček, director of the Agency for Social Inclusion.
Local consultants of the Agency currently work in more than 60 places in the Czech Republic, including large cities such as Ostrava, Brno, Liberec, but also in smaller municipalities in the less accessible areas of Jesenice or Šluknovska. “The interest in supporting the Agency is growing. Not only smaller municipalities, but also large cities, which need to solve overcrowded slums, unaffordability of housing and disturbed coexistence in the vicinity of some localities, are applying for cooperation. We can see from the positive feedback that they rely on this support,” added Šimáček.
A significant initiative of the Agency for Social Inclusion is the development of the so-called Social Exclusion Index. This is the government’s basic orientation tool for monitoring the development of social exclusion and interpreting changes in individual areas. According to data from the Index for 2023, due to covid, rising energy prices and extreme inflation, the number of municipalities at risk increased by 10% year-on-year. There are now 238 municipalities in the Czech Republic where the social exclusion rate exceeds 12 as measured by the Social Exclusion Index, which means a high burden. The Agency updates the Index annually. It is measured by five indicators, which are foreclosures, unemployment, unaffordability of housing, material poverty and children leaving school early.