Reasonable Hopes and Little Progress!

In this article, we aim to describe how the Operational Programme for the Support of Disadvantaged People (POAD), part of the European Fund for the Most Disadvantaged People (FEAD), has contributed to reducing the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion in Romania. We highlight the role of the auxiliary measures that accompanied the food support programme, as well as the added-value element of the implementation of the programme in Romania, emphasising the introduction of electronic social vouchers for hot meals for the eligible target group and electronic social vouchers to provide educational support for disadvantaged children. The research methodology used considered combinations of quantitative and qualitative methods, combining multiple data sources to reflect the perspectives of all stakeholders and relating quantitative data to representative samples using a participatory approach. Macro-level data on risk-of-poverty and social exclusion indicators, as well as information from sectoral analyses (social transfers), show an improvement in the situation of people in the POAD target group and a decrease in the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion. However, progress is limited, and it is difficult to determine the degree to which this is due to the POAD. Romania still ranks lowest in the European Union in terms of indicators measuring the risk of poverty and social exclusion. The provision and monitoring of accompanying programmes are an area where the potential of POAD could be further exploited. The need to strengthen the accompanying measures is extraordinarily strong and emerges from the analysis of information provided by final beneficiaries and public authorities responsible for the implementation of the programme. The distribution of social vouchers enables final beneficiaries to choose the goods they need. Purchases with social vouchers are less affected by the risks of financial corrections, final beneficiaries can monitor the consumption of the support received in real time, the number of supporting documents is reduced, and reimbursement is issued only for the amounts used by final beneficiaries.