Soziale Sicherungssysteme und gesamtwirtschaftliche Entwicklungen in Bosnien und Herzegowina

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) suffers from various problems, which are both political as well as economical. The most dramatic economic problems are a high level of unemployment and a permanent deficit in foreign trade. The rate of unemployment is linked to high, but incalculable activities in the shadow economy. Both of these do undermine the existing systems of social security. Social security, however, is a political tool to stabilise a poor society that is affiliated with ethnic problems. The following article shows some fundamental problems concerning the pension funds, the sickness funds as well as the unemployment funds. All of these funds do work only inefficiently due to their scheme of organisation and their weak base of finance based on contribution payments. A radical reform of the social security scheme seems to be a necessity, but partly political classes do not recognise this importance.