Poverty Reduction in Europe & CIS

Call for papers: Social Inclusion in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

A prize will be awarded to the best paper on social inclusion – the winning paper and other valuable contributions will be presented at an international conference on social inclusion.

How to submit your paper:

We invite authors to submit a full paper by October 2nd 2010 to susanne.milcher@undp.org. The paper must be in English or Russian and should not exceed 25 standard pages including annexes.

The paper should include a short abstract, keywords, your contact information (name(s), affiliation(s), short bio(s) and email addresses of all authors). Notification of acceptance and announcement of the winner of the best paper will be given by the end of December 2010.

Travel costs: Participation to the conference is free of charge. Travel costs for the researcher of the winning paper will be fully covered. A limited number of travel grants are available for researchers whose papers will be selected to be presented at the conference. Applications for travel grants have to be handed in with submission of the paper (proposed travel budget, including other available funding sources, such as funding from the applicant's institution).

Download:

Survey dataset

Call for paper – English version

Call for paper – Russian version

Details:

The UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre and the Human Development Report Office in partnership with the UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS, the Master's of Public Affairs (MPA) of Sciences Po and the Human Development Centre of Moscow State University offers researchers from different disciplines free access to a unique UNDP/UNICEF 2010 survey data on social exclusion covering Kazakhstan, Moldova, Serbia, Tajikistan, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Ukraine. A committee of representatives from the organizations will also evaluate the papers.

The survey has been collected in November-December 2009 as part of the preparation of a Regional Human Development Report on Social Inclusion for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which will be launched in October 2010. The survey is based on nationally representative samples of 2,700 individuals per country and was carried out in November and December 2009. The survey covered employment, access to assets, housing, standard of living and income sources, opportunities, health, education and social services, social capital and relations, participation in cultural and political life.

The papers should focus on, but not be limited to, empirical research that makes use of the UNDP/UNICEF survey – regional or country level analysis – in the following fields:

• Social exclusion is manifested through and results in exclusion from political, social, cultural and economic life in societies. Deprivation in one domain reinforces deprivation in other domains which leads to a vicious cycle of social exclusion. Different triggers of exclusion, such as gender and poverty, can reinforce each-other. What can a multidimensional poverty measurement tell us about exclusion? What additional measures are needed to capture the dynamics of social exclusion processes?
   
• How is social exclusion of children manifested in the different countries of the region and
  what are the effects of exclusion? How can it be measured? What policies have been
  developed and how have they worked?
   
• Human development is about the empowerment of people to affect decisions that impact their lives. Anti-discrimination policies and legal frameworks may miss the point or remain hollow when the community has not been heard or does not have concrete opportunities to participate in society?
   
• How can social protection policies help reduce social exclusion of particular groups?
  What strategies have been effective?
   
• What methods have been successfully employed to improve access to high-quality
  services, such as health care and education, and the labour market for excluded groups? Do these policies take into consideration the different needs of men and women?
• Almost all European and Central Asian transition economies have sought to modernize inherited pre-transition social policy, taxation, and labour market regulation frameworks. While the goal of accelerating economic growth by reducing tax and regulatory burdens on enterprises has figured prominently in these efforts, so have desires to increase employment among, and break poverty traps often affecting, vulnerable groups. To what extent have these reforms been successful? Are they consistent with the logic of social solidarity and inclusion?

Papers can be comparative covering the six survey countries or focus specifically on one or more selected countries. Comparisons of results with other countries from the region and outside the region are also of particular interest. Researchers are encouraged to complement the UNDP/UNICEF survey data with other existing quantitative and qualitative data.

International Conference on Social Inclusion in Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia

The conference convened in partnership with UNICEF, MPA Sciences Po and the Faculty
of Economics of Moscow State University in January 2011 will bring together leading
academics, experts and researchers from different disciplines to present and discuss their
research and policy recommendations on social inclusion.

The conference will serve as an opportunity to:

• Ensure follow-up and wider use of the UNDP/UNICEF social exclusion survey and the Regional Human Development Report’s policy recommendations;
• Focus on developing ideas to ensure sustained impact of the Regional Human Development Report;
• Invite keynote speakers on human development and social inclusion;
• Promote dialogue between researchers and policy makers and identify
  priorities for the future research agenda on poverty and inclusion;
• Award a Best Paper Prize to an outstanding paper on social inclusion;
• Allow researchers with best papers to present their findings;
• Produce a conference booklet with selected best papers for publication on UNDP’s website.