The first online meeting of the thematic network on poverty and inclusion, organized by IFKA Public Benefit Non-profit Ltd as a partner of the SI Plus project, was held this week on the Zoom online platform.
The first meeting of the thematic network focused on the presentation of the main challenges of poverty and inclusion on the European level and the leading EU policy trends including social innovation to mitigate them.
The meeting began with a presentation of the European frameworks by Katalin Szatmari, expert of the European Commission’s DG for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. Experts of IFKA then gave a short introduction into the poverty- and inclusion-related priorities of the Human Resources Development Operational Programme Plus (HRDOP Plus). Zsófia Batta, representative of the Ministry of Interior of Hungary, presented the dedicated social innovation priority of the Hungarian ESF+ programme.
After the policy-focused parts of the programme, the emphasis was put on the practice. Participants of the meeting got an insight into member state-level good examples of social innovation initiatives targeting the mitigation of poverty and inclusion-related issues.
Speakers on the subject were Stefani Doynova from Volkshilfe Wien, Austria, Iskra Stoykova – Program Officer of the Trust for Social Achievement Foundation, Bulgaria, and Nikoletta Luptakova from TENENET NGO, Slovakia. The meeting ended with a moderated discussion about the services to be developed in the future, different cooperation opportunities and the next possible steps forward.
The project is funded by the EUROPEAN UNION, the European Social Fund and European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation.