The Center for Social Research Analitika organized a working meeting "Caring for the carers: policy analysis of informal care in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, on 18th of November in Sarajevo, which gathered representatives of relevant institutions and organizations dealing with issues of social protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim of this working meeting is to look at the current situation in the field of long term care policies in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the perspective of different actors, to encourage the exchange of experiences and to identify measures that will take into account the needs and experiences of informal carers and improve their position.

In her introductory speech, Aida Malkić presented the preliminary results of the research „Caring for the carers: policy analysis of informal care in Bosnia and Herzegovina", which Analitika conducted in the cooperation with the European Policy Institute – Skopje, and was funded by the Regional Research Promotion Program in the Western Balkans (RRPP). She explained to what extent there were discrepancies between the actual needs of people in need of long-term care and informal cares and how the system responds to them. 

Zaklina Ninkovic, from the Red Cross Society of Bosnia and Herzegovina, referred to the current regulation of the long-term care system in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a focus on the shortcomings they identified in the framework of the same and concluded that the resolution of the identified problems requires an interdisciplinary approach.  

Tanja Manojlović, before the Center for Social Work Trebinje, spoke about the position of informal caregivers in long-term care system, about the (non)existing measures to regulate their status, and the possibility for their integration into the long-term care system. During her presentation, she emphasized that the role of informal caregivers is not clearly identified, and that more effort needs to be invested in order for their needs to be recognized and adequately addressed.

The representative of Caritas Banja Luka, Josipa Basta, talked about the organization's activities in this field, the position of informal carers and their neglected needs. She stressed out the importance of recognizing the significance of the role of informal carers and the necessity of investing joint efforts of all stakeholders in order to improve the position of informal carers.

After the introductory presentations, recommendations derived from interviews with service providers coming from different parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina were presented at the meeting and discussed together with the participants. Participants agreed that government and authorities in BiH should pay more attention to development of measures to improve the situation of persons who provide informal care.

This event is organized with the support of the Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP).