Youth Policy

Establishment of the Ministry of Youth and Sport in Serbia in 2007 initiated the pursuit of the Organization in the field of youth policy, as well. Through local action plan (LAP) delivery programmes and standardization of work of local youth offices (YO) the Organization contributed to the improvement of local youth policy in Serbia.

In strategic partnership with the German organization for international cooperation (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit -GIZ GmbH) and in cooperation with the Ministry of Youth and Sport the programmes are being implemented in 120 local self-government units in order to strengthen institutional framework of youth policy at the local level.

The Organization, as the author of methodologies and work programmes in the fields such as (1) Delivery of local action plans (LAP), (2) Revision (monitoring and evaluation) of the planning results, (3) Standardizations of work of local Youth Offices (YO) and competences of local coordinators and also (4) Provision of expert support in establishment of work of the National Association of Local Youth Offices, has achieved a significant contribution in the creation of youth policy at the local level.

(1) Planning at the local level – By delivering methodology of planning in the area of youth policy at the local level and coordinating the process of delivery of local action plans (LAP) in 96 local self-government units, preconditions have been created for the implementation of the National Strategy for Youth at the municipal/city level. Through the creation of the Manual on the delivery of local action plans (LAP) and the Matrix for the delivery of local action plans the objectives of the local youth policy have been defined in compliance with the specific needs of the local community and available resources, along with ensuring continued financial resources from the local budget.

(2) Revision (monitoring and evaluation) of the planning process – Creation and implementation of this programme have ensured systemic monitoring of the youth policy implementation results at the local level and identification of such segments which are still challenging, i.e. definition of levels and scopes of support to local youth offices in order to surpass inconveniences in their work.

(3) Standardization of work of local Youth Offices – In order to achieve the objectives defined by the LAP. i.e. to overcome - during the implementation - the issues which were identified by the LAP revision, it is necessary that: (1) local coordinators have proper knowledge and skills, i.e. (2) local Youth Offices have clearly defined the scope and type of activity to be implemented. Therefore, the Organization has initiated the process of delivering the Standards of work of local Youth Offices and competences of local coordinators as a framework which defines the two mentioned segments, yet having in mind differences of local circumstances in certain communities as well as different education and work experience of local coordinators.

(4) The Model of continued support to local Youth Offices (Association) – Having in view all cited results the need for innovative organizational model of support to local Youth Offices to accomplish their activities has been recognized. The Organization, in cooperation with the GIZ and the IOM (International organization for Migration), has produced a proposal for efficacious model of this organizational structure (Association of Youth Offices).