"The system of social protection and social assistance in BiH is highly fragmentedand comprises thirteen almost independent systems, with a low level of co-ordination and co-operation between them. Even within the ‘single' system, functions areoverlapped and the division of responsibilities is unclear. These are just some ofthe reasons preventing equal access to the resources and services provided bythe system. Poverty in BiH is deeper and more widespread than in any other countryof former Yugoslavia (it is more widespread only in Kosovo), and some 20 % of thepoor suffer serious shortages in all, or almost all, key aspects of welfare, rangingfrom acceptable housing and sanitary conditions and access to health care services, to literacy and integration into society. Thus, for Bosnia and Herzegovina theessential question is more one of development versus progress, while the questionof equity versus efficiency is highlighted by the political structure – it is a highlyineffective system that produces inequality in many ways."

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