REPUBLIC OF SERBIA MINISTRY OF YOUTH AND SPORT
THE ANNUAL REPORT ON THE PROGRESS IN THE NATIONAL YOUTH STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION 2009
Belgrade, May 2010
The Report was made with the technical assistance of the German organization for technical cooperation (GTZ )under the scope of the project “Strengthening of structures for youth empowerment and participation”.
1. INTRODUCTION
In a wide consultative process and through participation of all stakeholders, above all young people, the National Youth Strategy (hereinafter referred to as “NYS“) was made and adopted by the Serbian Government on 9 May 2008 on Europe Day. While finishing the NYS, the work on the action plan for its implementation was initiated. The Аction plan for the implementation of the National Youth Strategy for the period from 2009 to 2014 (hereinafter referred to as “APNYS“) was adopted by the Government on 22 January 2009. Fifteen ministries, a large number of the young, state bodies, organizations and institutions, associations, local self governments, and experts in various fields took place in the process of drafting APNYS. APNYS defined the activities and protagonists in every sector under the scope of NYS, as well as the deadlines for the implementation and priority activities in 2009, the first year of implementation. Based on APNYS, all ministries, organizations and institutions, and protagonists in certain activities of the implementation made a plan of the implementation of the activities and included them in their annual plans for the year 2009. Following the agreed cooperation on the APNYS implementation, the Ministry of Youth and Sports (hereinafter referred to as “MYS“) prepared a special method of collecting the information on the implementation of the activities planned for the year 2009, concordant with the suggested APNYS monitoring and evaluation method. Based on the collected information, the Annual report on the progress of the National Youth Strategy implementation was made .1
2. METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH
The Report on the progress of the NYS implementation was prepared based on several sources of information harmonized with the defined APNYS monitoring and evaluation system. There are two groups of sources used in making the report:
а) responses of the protagonists in activities and projects in the special questionnaire for monitoring the APNYS implementation in 2009. The questionnaire consisted of three segments – the correspondence of the implemented activity/project to a general goal and specific objective of the NYS, the survey of elements and effects of the immediate implementation and the proposal of the planned activities for the year 2010. The example of the questionnaire is enclosed in Annex 1, whereas the list of all protagonists who sent their reports is enclosed in Annex 2;
b) reports and research on certain aspects of the youth policy or about the attitudes of the young made or conducted for MOS by other bodies, organizations, and institutions.
The questionnaire prepared by MYS especially for the monitoring of implementation is structured to enable collection of all relevant information and indicators of the implemented activities and projects. In addition to the informative part, the questionnaire provided the direct evaluation of: • the degree of implementation of planned activities and projects;
1 The Report on APNYS implementation was made jointly by MYS and GTZ project “Strengthening of the Structures for Youth Empowerment and Participation”. 2 • degree of implemented results in relation to the results projected in APNYS; • restrictions in the implementation, if any; • lessons learned from the mere process of implementation of activities and projects; • degree of sustainability of implemented activities and projects, i.e. long term effects on the young and their life in community.
MYS sent the questionnaire to all protagonists in the APNYS activities planned for 2009. Responses were sent back by 22 ministries, state bodies, organizations and institutions, 77 towns and municipalities – self government units (SGU), 67 of which have opened the local youth offices (LYO) and 54 associations whose projects were financed by MYS in 2008 and 2009, and implemented in 2009.
Additionally, MYS sent the questionnaires to the international organizations which provided support to the APNYS activities and projects. Responses and reports were sent by six international organizations.
The report is structured based on the general goals and specific objectives of the NYS, activities planned in APNYS, and the questionnaire prepared for collecting the information. The obtained information were analyzed in comparison to the activities planned in APNYS and the defined monitoring system for the APNYS implementation.
Comparison and analysis of the data were impeded in the half filled questionnaires, and the questionnaires with unclear answers. Another difficulty arose in the questionnaires where not all three segments were fulfilled so that no true picture of the implementation could be obtained. Also, the problem in processing of the collected data was the indicated number of participants. As most of the ministries did not state the number of participants in the activities and projects, the information of the number of participants obtained from the answers of other protagonists could be taken only as an approximate benchmark and cannot be considered final and precise, but can be taken as an approximate indicator of the number of participants in certain activities and projects.
In the first part of the Report, general indicators of APNYS implementation in the first year of implementation are shown, comprising the following:
• structure of protagonists of APNYS implementation; • structure of activities; • participants in the APNYS implementation; • primary results of the implemented activities and projects; • implemented partnerships and cooperation among protagonists; • lessons learned from the implementation of activities and projects; • restrictions which arose in the course of implementation.
In the second part of the Report, a detailed analysis of all eleven general goals of the NYS is shown, which enables a precise insight into implementation of activities and projects under the scope of each goal and its specific objectives. Some general goals are analyzed and presented in charts and figures, whereas the others are described in writing, depending on the diversification of the implemented activities (under some general goals only one activity with the specific objective was implemented, which couldn’t be presented in a chart or figure).
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PART ONE
4 1. The implementation directions
1.1 Protagonists in the implementation and their roles
Implementation of activities defined in the APNYS was realized in a few ways:
o through initiating and direct implementation of the planned activities most often by ministries, state bodies and organizations, either independently or jointly in partnership, following the responsibilities defined in APNYS; o through general or topical tenders for the activities defined by the APNYS general goal(s) for associations, the young, organizations, and institutions. The tenders were announced by the ministries, SGU, and other organizations.
As the key protagonist in the APNYS implementation, МYS carried out the defined responsibilities – а) independently and/or b) together with other state bodies, organizations, institutions and ministries.
а) МYS independently implemented activities defined in the APNYS in several metheds and forms: o as independent, autonomous activities which APNYS defines for the particular year and which are funded directly by MYS; o as tenders for asociations which will implement the APNYS activities in their projects and MYS provides the financial funds, while the associations implement the projects; o as the announcements of the Serbian Fund for Young Talents, the indirect beneficiary of the budget funds through the distribution of the Ministry of Youth and Sports funds; o as the activities implemented by MYS to support the youth offices and local self governments.
b) МYS together with other ministries, international organizations, associations and organizations implemented the activities and projects outlined in the APNYS. These activities were planned and initiated by other ministries state bodies, organizations and institutions based on their programmes and budget plans, and MYS was a cooperant, partner or co implementor.
1.2 Structure of the implemented activities based on the NYS general goals
The analysis of the number of implemented activities / projects can be taken as a benchmark for the analysis of APNYS implementation and it provides a response to one of the APNYS indicators. Based on the information obtained from the questionnaires in 2009, 1.069 activities and projects within APNYS were implemented. The structure of the implemented activities based on the NYS general goals is the following:
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Number of General goal activities and projects General goal 1 To encourage the young to participate actively in society 19 3 General goal 2 To develop cooperation with the young and provide conditions for their 77 participation in decision making through a sustainable institutional framework, based on the needs of the young and in partnership with the young General goal 3 To build a system of informing the young on all levels and in all fields 66 General goal 4 To secure exercising of the right to equal opportunities of all th e young 69 in society, particularly of the young living in difficult circumstances General goal 5 To encourage and value exceptional performance and achievements of 61 the young in different fields General goal 6 To develop opportunities for quality free time of the young 189 General goal 7 To develop an open, efficient, effective and just system of formal and 91 informal education available to all the young people following the global education trends as well as the education context in the Republic of Serbia General goal 8 To encourage and stimulate all forms of employment , self employment 93 and entrepreneurship of the young General goal 9 To advance the conditions for the safe life of the young 92 General goal 10 To take care and advance the health of the young , reduce risks and 88 main health problems and develop a health care system adapted to the young General goal 11 To encourage the young for the initiatives and activities in line with the 50 main goals of the sustainable development аnd healthy environment TOTAL 1.069
Goal 10 Goal 11 8% 5% Goal 1 Goal1 18% Goal 2 Goal 2 7% Goal 3 Goal 9 9% Goal 3 Goal 4 6% Goal 8 Goal 5 9% Goal 6
Goal 7
Goal 4 Goal 8 6% Goal 5 Goal 9 6% Goal 10 Goal 7 8% Goal 6 17% Goal 11
Figure 1. Structure of the implemented activities and projects based on the NYS general goals
The structure of implemented activities and projects shows (Figure 1) that the largest number of activities and projects were implemented within the general goal 1 ( To encourage the young to participate actively in society ) and they make the total of 193, i.e. 18% of the total number of the implemented activities. The next is goal 6 ( To develop opportunitites for quality free time of the young ) with 189 activities and projects, i.e. 17%. General goals 7 ( To develop open, efficient, effective and just system of formal and informal education available to all the young people following the world education trends as well as the education context in the Republic of Serbia ), 8 ( To encourage and stimulate all forms of employments, self employment and entrepreneurship of the young ) and 9 ( To advance the conditions for the safe life of the young ) have a similar number of implemented activities (93, 91, 91), i.e. 9% of the
6 total number of activities and projects. Under the scope of general goal 10 ( To take care and advance the health of the young, reduce risks and main health problems and develop a health care system adapted to the young ), 88 activities and projects were implemented, i.e. 8% of the total number. Implementation of general goal 2 ( To develop cooperation with the young and provide conditions for their participation in decision making through sustainable institutional framework, based on the needs of the young and in partnership with the young ) included 77 activities and projects, i.e. 8%, while the implementation of goals 4 ( To secure exercising of the right to equal opportunities of all the young in society, particularly of the young living in difficult circumstances ), 3 ( To build a system of informing the young on all levels and in all fields ) and 5 ( To encourage and value exceptional performance and achievements of the young in different fields ) included a similar number of activities (68, 66 and 61), i.e. 6% each of the total number. Within the general goal 11 ( To encourage the young for the initiatives and activities in line with the main goals of the sustainable development аnd healthy environment ), 50 activities and projects were implemented, i.e. 5%. The data show that the young were mostly interested in the issues of their position and role in society, especially in their communities, and the issue of how to spend their free time. The protagonists of the implementation of the APNYS goals were ministries, state and public bodies and organizations, local self governments, local youth offices, associations.
1.3 Participants
One of the characteristics of the APNYS projects and activities implementation is an enormous number of participants. Some protagonists of APNYS implementation failed to state the number (at least approximate) of direct and indirect participants, so that it couldn’t be said what is the total number of participants. In the reports of some SGU, a general statement was provided that “most citizens participated in the implementation of activities”, or “most young people from the countryside...” participated in the activities, etc. This indicates that the precise number of direct and indirect participants is much larger than the number obtained in the data analysis. It can be said that more than 780,000 direct and more than 1,000,000 indirect participants took place in the APNYS implementation . Based on the obtained data, the largest number of participants were involved in the implementation of general goal 6 – 247,777 direct and 240,000 indirect users. In the implementation of general goal 1 there were around 40,000 direct and more than 50,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 2 there were 5,936 direct and more than 20,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 3 there were 82,766 direct and more than 200,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 4 there were 226,909 direct and 140,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 5 there were 63,515 direct and more than 10,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 7 there were 15,520 direct and around 20,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 8 there were 23,266 direct and 69,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 9 there were around 50,000 direct and more than 200,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 10 there were around 32,228 direct and more than 55,000 indirect participants; in the implementation of general goal 11 there were 8,047 direct and more than 20,000 indirect participants.
1.4 Results of activities
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1.4.1 The key achieved results
Generally speaking, results of the implemented activities and projects show a great degree of achievement and harmonization with the expected results defined in APNYS.
The application of the defined indicators for specific objectives show that the degree of harmonization of the achieved and planned results for the year 2009 equals 70% (approximately) for all protagonists in the in the APNYS implementation .
МYS achieved 75% of harmonization between the planned and achieved results.
If the planned indicators of the number of activities are compared to the achieved number of activities, the largest degree of implementation was achieved within general goal 1 – both in total and based on the specific objectives.
The effects of the activities and projects implementation regarding general goals and specific objectives can be compared with the expected results outlined in APNYS. The application of the defined indicators shows that the first year of the APNYS implementation provided the following: o developed awareness of all social factors, especially decision makers on every level, about the needs of the young and the ways to satisfy their needs; o advanced communication among the young, as well as among the institutions responsible for the young; o increased responsibility and inclusion of the young in the life of the local community; o increased level of being informed about various issues significant for the young, their life and work; o connecting the young on the local level; o advanced quality of life in the community achieved through the initiatives of the young; o a developed level of participation, activism, responsibility and creativity of the young; o trainings for the young to become able to transfer their knowledge and experience to their peers; o empowerment of the young to form associations and undertake their own initiatives; o increased mobility of the young in the country and abroad; o increased sensitivity of the young to accept cultural diversity; o better being informed of the young.
These conclusions come out from the fact that the young and their organizations, supported by the local YO, associations and SGU, mostly dealt with their participation in life on the national, and particularly on the local level and that they recognized implementation of the APNYS activities as a mechanism which can help them to change their position and role in society. This is also proved by the fact that the young mostly took part in drafting the local action plans, defining the information needs of the young, establishing the youth councils, initiating different programmes to fulfill free time of the young, strengthening of the youth organizations and bodies in which the young can actively participate in their community and environment.
8 1.4.2 Promotion of active participation of the young in every aspect of social life
Pursuant to APNYS, goal 2.1.2. activity 4, Promotion of active participation and empowerment of the citizens in every aspect of social life and empowerment of actors for the participation process, in 2009 МYS opened eleven tenders providing support to initiatives and programmes motivating, educating and encouraging the young to actively participate in society. The total of 141 projects was approved and RSD 157,876,256.40 was allocated for their implementation. Eleven projects targeted at inclusion and independence of the young from the sensitive social groups implemented by associations are ongoing and financed by MYS through the Tender for inclusion of civil associations in the process of NYS implementation by implementation of the projects targeted at implementation of NYS goals and activities planned in APNYS. Also ongoing are nine projects implemented by associations and financed by MYS, based on the Tender for inclusion of citizens in the process of NYS implementation and activities planned in APNYS dealing with peer education on HIV/AIDS, addicition diseases, advancement of reproductive health of the young, prevention of self destructive behaviour of the young, information about and promotion of healthy lifestyle. MYS provided financial funds for 18 projects implemented by civil associations targeted at promotion of voluntary work of the young and social appraisal of the voluntary work and the young involved in it.
1.4.3 Normative regulation of the changed role of the young in society
On the national level, the activities carried out in the implementation of APNYS contributed or even ensured adoption or participation in adoption of certain legal and regulatory documents regulating key issues of the role of the young on all levels: o in 2009 MYS worked on the finalization of the Strategy for career guidance and counselling based on Action plan, which was adopted on March 4 2010 by the Serbian government, following the proposal of MYS; o decision to establish the working group for NYS implementation published in “Official Gazette of RS”, no. 71/09, 31 August 2009; o upon the initiative of MYS, Republic of Serbia officially signed the Partial agreement Centre “North South” on March 1 2009 (the Government decision adopted 21 January 2009); o National action plan for employment for the year 2009 and Action plan for the implementation of youth employment policy for the period 2009 2011; o A wide consultative process for the preparation of the Law on Youth was initiated. Working group for drafting the Law on Youth was established. Research about human and material resources of the organizations and institutions dealing with youth policies was conducted, as well as abouth the degree of their networking and achieved projects. A comparative legal analysis of relevant national legislature was carried out and proposals of the system solution for organizing youth policy were made; o The Law on employment and insurance in case of unemployment was adopted (“Official Gazette of RS”, no. 36/09); o The Law on Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons was adopted (“Official Gazette of RS”, no. 36/09); o The Law on Associations was adopted (“Official Gazette of RS”, no. 51/09); o Following the proposal of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the Law on Changes and Amendments of the Law on Prevention of Violence and Inappropriate
9 Behaviour at the Sports Manifestation (“Official Gazette of RS”, no. 72/09 and 111/09); o The National Strategy for Prevention and Protection of Children from Violence was adopted by the Serbian Government on 25 December 2008 (“Official Gazette of RS”, no. 122/08 dated 30 December 2008), and Action Plan for the implementation of strategy was adopted on 11 March 2010 for the period from 2010 to 2012 (published in “Official Gazette of RS”, no. 19/10 dtaed 15 March 2010 ); o National action plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Combating human trafficking adopted by the Serbian Government on 30 April 2009 (Official Gazette of RS, no. 35/09); o The Law on the Safe Traffic on the Roads was adopted (Official Gazette of RS, no. 41/09 dated 2 June 2009) whose implementation started on 10 December 2009; o Draft of the law on public order was made and forwarded to the Ministry of Justice; o The draft of the law on public gatherings was completed; o The National programme for the health care of women, children and youth was adopted and published in Official Gazette of RS, no. 28/09, which prioritizes the health care of the young people not older than 26 years of age, regardless of their inclusion in the education system (i.e. higher education); o The draft of the law on volunteering was prepared, public debate was organized about the draft of the law and the draft was submitted to the ministries for an opinion. The proposal of the law on volunteering was adopted at the Government meeting held on 17 September 2009, and then submitted to the National Assembly for adoption. The Law was adopted and published in Official Gazette of RS, no. 36/10 dated 26 May 2010.
1.4.4 Promotion of the active role of the young in the life of local community
By the end of January 2010, 103 local youth offices were opened. In addition to the initiative to open LYO, MYS has actively strengthened their capacities to implement youth policy through organizing trainings for coordinators and providing support to the process of drafting local youth action plans. Over 50 local self government units established Youth Councils (half of whose members are the young). This body provides the opportunity for the young to directly participate in decision making on the local level for the issues relating to the young. Adoption of the local youth action plans, the making of which included a large number of the young people, created the conditions for the participation of the young in decision making. MYS together with GTZ and local self governments, under the scope of the project “Conflict Transformation and Youth Empowerment”, provided support for 32 local self governments to adopt local youth action plans (LAP) by the end of 2009. Together with OSCE, the project “Support to LAP in 9 municipalities“ has been implemented. Based on the tender opened by MYS last summer, 25 municipalities were allocated funds for drafting LAP. Only these three activities are expected to bring about 66 LAPs adopted by the local governments . In these activities the key protagonists on the local level were LYO and SGU, and support was provided by MYS, competent ministries and international organizations. In the process of initiating and implementing the APNYS activities on the local level, LYOs were given the role of initiator or “nucleus” of changes for the participation of the young in society. Effects of these activities can be seen not only in the degree of achievement of the expected
10 results, but also in a series of formal sustainable decisions which turn some activities into a system supporting the young. Statutes of the municipalities with LYO comprise articles defining the establishment of LYO, youth councils, budget allocated for the activities of LYO. Some municipalities regulated in their statutes other important matters regarding the young people in the local community, e.g. volunteering, volunteer services, different forms of peer education, harmonization of the support system (together with MLSP) for the young coming from the sensitive groups in order to include them lawfully in the community life. One of the effects is paying special attention to the young talents, not only on the national level, but also on the local level. Besides the Serbian Fund for the Young Talents, many municipalities established funds intended for the young talents (Krupanj, Krusevac, Lajkovac, Negotin, Novi Sad, Pirot, Plandiste, Pozega, Zajecar, Ivanjica, Kikinda, etc). The Fund for Youth Employment was established within the project “Support to national efforts to promote employment of the young and migration management”. In order to promote systematic care of the young and efforts to ensure quality work in the programmes for youth employment, MYS provided support to the foundation and operation of the National Association of Youth Work Practitioners (NAYWP) founded in March 2009. It currently has 77 organization members conducting youth work in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. Foundation of NAYWP meant that there is a body on the national level which will deal with professionalization and ensuring the quality of youth work. The project “Support to national efforts to promote youth employment and migration management” is the joint project of four UN organization (UNDP, UNICEF, ILO, IOM) initiated in May 2009 and will last until 2012. The project is intended for the people for whom it is hard to find employment, especially Romas returnees pursuant to Readmission agreement, as well as the other social groups threatened by social exclusion. It is suggested to include 3,000 young people in the measures of active employment policy. In the course of 2009 pursuant to the Agreement between UNDP and NES the Fund for Youth Employment was founded. In addition to the funds from the state budget, the Fund is also financed from the donation of the Spanish fund for achieving the millennium development goals. The project “Promotion of the Youth Employment” started in July 2009 and is intended to the unemployed young people of 15 to 30 years of age with a low level of education. The goal of the Project is to find solutions for particular difficulties that the young come across when entering the labour market – low level of education, a lack of work experience, through complex intervention combining information on labour market, assistance in finding job, counselling about employment, professional education and subsidized employment. The project is implemented by ILO – Subregional office for Central and East Europe and NES and will last until 2011. Also, within the project “Balkan youth and health” supported by CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency) and implemented jointly by the Ministry of Health in Novi Sad, Novi Pazar and Novi Beograd, youth councils in the local health stations were empowered. In these three towns, i.e. municipalities, 1,309 young people were trained for prevention of addiction diseases (drug addiction, alcoholism, smoking), protection of reproductive health, HIV prevention, proper diet and violence prevention. The activities were implemented by donated funds. Supported by UNICEF and within the project of advancement of the health of young people peer educators were trained in 6 towns in the field of advancement of reproductive health and prevention of addiction diseases, of whom 5 teams of the young Romas who involved over 700 peers in health education. Mobilization and education of several thousands young were continued through Y PEER network activities, i.e. the peer educators network and “Dance 4 life” projects developed by the support of UNICEF and UNFPA. The implementation of the tasks planned in APNYS enabled the young in the Republic of Serbia to participate largely in the EU programme “The young in action”. The
11 Republic of Serbia participated in two fields of this programme: Cooperation of the neighbouring countries and European volunteer services. In 2009 youth organizations and associations from the Republic of Serbia were partners in 103 projects within the Cooperation of neighbouring countries with 472 young participants. Within the programme European volunteer services, Republic of Serbia was a partner on 58 projects with 36 volunteers. Youth organizations from the Republic of Serbia have recognized the programme “The Young in Action” as a tool for daily work. In 2009 contact points for this European Commission programme (NGO “Let’s...” and Educational centre of Krusevac) organized National training of multiplicators for “The young in action” to use and promote the programme “Young in Action” on the local level. A large increase in applications coming from the Republic of Serbia on central level is noticeable (ЕАCЕА, 200 submitted projects for the period 2007 2009), as well as large increase of the approved projects (youth exchange: from 66 projects in 2007 to 103 projects in 2009, ЕBS: from 29 projects in 2007 to 58 projects in 2009; the success rate is 45%). Organizations underline the interest for the programme “Youth in action” as a tool for raising capacities in youth work and for creating partnership with organizations from abroad. Further on, youth organizations from the Republic of Serbia find that the most relevant goals of the programme “Youth in action” are intercultural learning, intercultural, interethnic and interreligious dialogue and the increase of mobility of young people, enabling the acquisition of important social and educational skills. An increase of number of participants in youth exchange is expected, since visas are no more needed for EU countries, which will save money for participation, time, and energy and enable some young people to travel for the first time to EU countries.
1.4.5 Implemented partnerships
In the course of implementation of activities and projects numerous partnerships have been achieved, as well as cooperation on the local, national and international level. Besides the partnerships and cooperation which the APNYS defines as joint responsibilities for the implementation of activities and projects, other connections have been established too. Particularly numerous are the partnerships achieved within the projects implemented by associations, because most of the projects were implemented jointly by two or more partners, most often on the local level. The effect of these partnerships contributed to create a favourable context for the participation of the young people, for creating new forms and renewing old forms of cooperation among various actors dealing with young people. Implementation of project activities and establishing partnerships contributed to raising the awareness of the local community about the importance of working with the young, as well as the levele of awareness of the young about their real position in society, and the importance of personal engagement (youth activism) for improvement of their status. Partnerships included six categories of partners: local government (youth offices), associations, business sector, informal groups, public institutions, international organizations and other groups. The protagonists of the APNYS implementation were asked to evaluate (in their answers to the questionnaire MYS asked them to fill out) partnerships on the APNYS projects implementation with each category of partners using the scale from 1 to 5. All partners were evaluated differently, none of the categories received the highest grade, and no homogenization of grades was achieved. Associations received the best average grade – 4.47, then public institutions – 4.39, international organizations – 3.83, informal groups – 3.63. The partnership with business sector received the lowest grade – 2.84.
12 In the Republic of Serbia the programme “School without violence” has been implemented in all elementary schools upon the UNICEF initiative since 2005, and since 2009 in Serbian high schools too, in order to prevent violence in educational and learning institutions. Ministry of Education, MLSP, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, MYS, Council for the Rights of the Child, the Institute for advancement of education and learning, and Regional Education Secretariat have been included in the project.
“We have established cooperation with six towns and municipalities through youth offices and associations, we enabled a better information flow among local communities regarding the activities on prevention of psychoactive substances abuse, we organized a network of peer education volunteers and founded IPON network (Initiative of the Young Against Drug Abuse) to conduct joint campaigns, education, exchange programmes, advise and counsel, etc. A significant benefit of the project is the cooperation with NGO Iskra, Loznica, and its expert team who implemented the peer education programme and enabled us to advance knowledge and skills of our volunteers and to apply their education programme in our local community (Valjevo) and other towns involved in the project.”
Association Good People , Valjevo
“An important aspect which, besides the interesting campaign, contributed to a successful implementation of project activities is openness of the tender for informal youth groups with whom we have worked together for the first time now. This move allowed the young who are not active and who are not members of any association to organize and apply to the tender with their ideas for the improvement of life in their environment. The result was 71 applications of the informal groups and 51 organizations. The implementation of nine actions was entrusted to informal groups, and only three – to the organizations. A large number of applications came from the rural environment. Three actions were implemented in villages.”
European movement in SERBIA
1.4.6 Financing the NYS implementation
Financing the APNYS activities and projects implementation was directly taken care of by the protagonists themselves, on the basis of the planned budget funds, particularly by the ministries, state bodies, organizations and institutions. Besides, SGU directly financed certain activities on the local level. The structure and volume of the funds cannot be shown by items since many protagonists presented their funds in total for all categories of users, therefore we couldn’t obtain reliable information on how many young of 18 to 30 years of age were involved. МYС through its Youth Sector obtained funds for the NYS implementation directly from the Republic of Serbia’s budget in the amount of RSD 628,880,733.00, including the funds from the Serbian Fund for Young Talents. In 2009 international donnors allocated funds for the projects focused on NYS implementation together with MYS and local self governments in the amount of RSD 170,000,000.00. APNYS outlines that MYS should allocate RSD 180,760,500 for the APNYS implementation in 2009 from the budget and RSD 511,000,000.00 for the Fund for Young Talents. It is also outlined that MYS through international donations for APNYS implementation should allocate RSD 85,858,000.00. International donations secured more than the planned funds, whereas budget revision in 2009 decreased the approved budget funds for MYS. However, in its internal distribution MYS managed to secure almost all planned funds for APNYS implementation.
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1.4.7 Effects of activities and projects implementation – lessons learned
Effects of APNYS activities and projects implementation are many and can be viewed from several aspects: а) in relation to APNYS implementation; b) in relation to the institutional frame through which the activities and projects are implemented; c) in relation to the planned results; d) in relation to the project sustainability; e) in relation to the benefit the young get from the activity/project.
а) APNYS implementation
As for APNYS implementation, the prevailing attitude says that even a larger number of the young can become active and interested in youth activism. The participants’ opinion is that, in addition to broader youth participation and initiatives, it is necessary to network more and more state bodies, organizations and institutions in local community to carry out specific activities for the successful APNYS implementation. For this kind of networking, the following is ecessary: o To inform more young people about the LYO activities; o To include more young people in volunteering; o To promote and inform the schools in local community about APNYS.
The protagonists of the implementation think that it is necessary to inform and educate more professionals in the local community about: o The youth policy implementation and NYS goals; o Equal human rights of all the young regardless of their “diversity”; o The term and significance of the integration of the young from the socially vulnerable groups in local community and inclusive education.
One of the main lessons regarding the APNYS implementation is that it is essential to work with the relevant youth groups, individuals, organizations and institutions more intensively in order to understand better APNYS goals and tasks. Civil associations find it necessary to promote APNYS more actively in public events, lectures, the media, which would make APNYS implementation more visible. In the protagonists’ opinion, APNYS is extremely important for the advancement of the position of the young in Serbia and any kind of support to its implementation through various projects is welcome. Every organization dealing with the young can easily find its own goals in the document.
b) Institutional context
In the protagonists’ opinion, particularly the opinion of the associations, newly established youth offices should be additionally empowered and strenghtened so that they become recognized by the local self government and the young. It has also been said that the young in small, under developed environment are not well informed about the possibility to implement local initiatives. A more active APNYS promotion has been recommended in
14 small local communities to contribute to a more active role of the young in the life of the community. Participants noticed that organizations and institutions in the local community grasp the real importance of some initiatives, projects, activities only after their implementation has begun and when specific activities show to be successful and the results can be seen. Before that, they remain reserved and skeptical instead of initiating these concepts significant for a wide local community. It is necessary to take initiative, be optimistic and ready to fight the problems of all social categories.
c) Planned results
Protagonists pointed out the lessons they learned and they can be summarized as follows: o The planning process is necessary for successful implementation. Both processes require maximum engagement of all participants; o Most implementation protagonists agree that they carried out most of the planned activities. Some civil associations pointed out the problems they encountered because their plans were too ambitious; o In some situations, the implementation overreached the plans, for instance in the field of adoption of youth work standards when the processes of drafting and adoption of quality assurance standards, as well as the process of NAPOR foundation (National association of youth work practitioners) surpassed the expected results. The results can be seen in high motivation and recognition of the importance of this issue by many organizations involved in the process.
d) Sustainability of the achieved results
When asked to explain what they learned about sustainability of the achieved results from the projects implementation, the representatives of associations which participated in the implementation underlined the following: o “Since the priority of every organization is to spread and have sustainable development, we are convinced that the knowledge we gained will be used in the best possible way, as well as promotional material. The stepse we took will be helpful for these organizations to extend their membership and find means for their further work.” o “Since the young are a fluctuating population, sustainability of the results will be questionable until all institutions dealing with the young strengthen so much as to be able to constantly provide services for career guidance and counselling.” o “Sustainability of the project is made possible through the inclusion of LYO into project implementation, the inclusion of more institutions from the local community, joint work on the selection of participants from the marginalized groups.” o “Sustainability of results in large part was transferred to the local self government institutions, which is extremely important for candidates who passed trainings, because they are accepted in the local office of the NES and we believe this will have some effects in the future period.” o “Achived results represent a prerequisite for creating the monitoring standards and mechanisms, defining and approving the occupational standards and availability of education. Strategically speaking, the first phase of the process was targeted at finding the critical mass, and the sustainability aspect was seen as raising the awareness of the civil society organizations, as well as opening a certain number 15 of youth offices which, in a consultative process, realized the extreme importance of the issue and necessity to solve the problem.”
e) Benefit the young obtained from APNYS activities implementation and from the Fund for Young Talents’ work
The analysis of the responses shows that the benefits are multiple. The established partnerships and joint work of organizations belonging to different sectors contributed to the improvement of quality of the future work and strengthening of the youth activism in local communities. The young received specific knowledge and skills necessary for various activities, personal development and participation in life of their community. Besides, LYO were promoted and empowered for further work with the young:
o The young are directly empowered with knowledge, techniques and skills necessary for a non violent and partner reaction; o The young are informed, mobilized, respected and encouraged to be active; o The young are networked with peer educators, and many internet social networks were initiated where they can organize themselves and carry out numerous activities which are not planned by the project, but surpass it to a large extent; o Schools are motivated to recognize and point to violence, to react to it by non violent means, which can make pupils feel safer and more respected; o Local communities recognize the problems of the young, consult them and together they reach a solution; they initiate and support the activities of the young, because of which the young are not seen as a problem, but as a resource.
The young are encouraged to think about differences with the perspective of equality in their minds and to try to find alternative, non violent approaches to conflicts. One of the effects is to encourage the young to recognize different forms of violence, to call them violent and to identify them in their environment. Significant effects have been achieved in the field of exercising rights to equal opportunities of all young people in society, particularly those who live in difficult conditions and belong to vulnerable social groups. The projects influenced the reduced prejudices against the young from the vulnerable groups and better informed public about their rights, position and opportunities, as well as youth empowerment through trainings and local actions.
Benefit for the young from socially sensitive groups: o Equal opportunities were given to the young from socially sensitive groups for self development, identity and respect; o Reduction of discriminatory behaviour, direct and active participation of the young from LYO in the integration of the young from socially vulnerable groups in the local community; o Sensibilization of the young in LYO for the needs of the young from socially sensitive groups and the way of their integration in the local community.
In June 2009 the Serbian Fund for Young Talents rendered the Decision on the changes and amendments of its Decision on Education (Official Gazette of RS no. 44/09) which allows awarding of the scholarships to the students who will continue their studies in the EFTA countries (European Free Trade Association) and at the leading universities in the world. In 2009 the Fund announced three tenders for the young talents and provided
16 scholarships for 1,845 students. The total budget resources for the Fund for Young Talents in 2009 were equal to RSD 469,964,000.00. Besides scholarships and awards, the Fund for Young Talents to its scholarship holders, through cooperation with significant institutions (Microsoft, Jat Airways, NES, Serbian National Library, Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences etc.) provided additional activities and favourable opportunities which will be of great help for their future education and professional development . The Fund also opened the Centre for Career Guidance and Counselling whose main task is to help the young to choose their future employment and line of professional work, and to provide professional and academic orientation. The main idea of the Fund is to send a clear message to the young that the state is determined to help them and participate in the education of pupils and students, and that the state values their efforts and hard work.
1.4.7 Restrictions
Questions about the restrictions of the project implementation were mostly answered by associations. The majority of protagonists found no major restrictions in the project implementation. If any, the restrictions were of financial nature, insufficient financial funds, restricted number of participants in comparison to the number of interested persons, insufficient number of participants from the local self government, in some towns LYO representatives were not interested enough to implement the projects, or the professional sector wasn’t interested either.
1.4.8 Conclusion
Based on the analysis of the received reports it can be concluded that a significant progress in the APNYS implementation has been made in the first implementation year, and that a process of strategic and conceptual changes has started when it comes to the role of young people in society. In the implemented activities and projects the awareness of the young about their active role in the local community has been raised, as well as about the importance of youth work, and a significant role was given to the youth office which, most often in cooperation with associations and local self government, achieved significant results and effects, either conceptual or strategic, or promotional, or other actions for the young. Huge progress was made in connecting, cooperation and joint work of formal and informal youth organizations in the Republic of Serbia. Many youth offices in local communities were coordinators for that cooperation and a bridge for network of associations, youth organizations and institutions. In this way, formal and informal youth groups were strengthened and networks of associates from partner EU organizations were established. It can be concluded that the process of creating the information youth system was initiated and this specific goal was fulfilled to a large degree. The young have a possibility to get the information about the cultural affairs which they may find interesting in their free time, or about the matters which directly promote mobility and intercultural cooperation. Effects of these activities are visible not only in the degree of achievement of expected results , but also in a number of formal sustainable decisions which turn some activities into a system supportive of the young. Financing of the APNYS activities and projects implementation was completed by the protagonists themselves on the basis of the planned budget resources. This is, first of all, the case with the ministries and other state bodies, organizations and institutions. Besides, many SGU directly financed specific activities on the local level. The structure and volume of
17 resources cannot be shown item by item because many protagonists showed their resources in total for all categories of participants so that a totally reliable information on how many young people of the age between 18 and 30 were involved cannot be obtained. МYS, through the Youth Secretariat used the funds for the NYS implementation from the budget of the Republic of Serbia in the amount of RSD 628,880,733.00, including the funds for the Serbian Fund for Young Talents. In 2009 international donnors allocated funds for the projects focused on NYS implementation and implemented jointly by MYS and local self governments in the amount of nearly EUR 1,500,000 and $ 240,000.00.
18 APNYS – activities planned for 2009
GENERAL GOAL 1: To encourage the young to participate actively in society
No. Activities Deadlines Expected result/goal Competent body
Specific objective: 1.Providing support for and financing the initiatives 1.1. To motivate, educate and support the young to 2009–2014 and programmes of the listed youth associations participate actively in society and associations dealing with young people
To render the Directive on drawing the programmes about the appropriation and spending The funds on appropriation 481 used for financing the Government; 2009 1.1.1. of funds for programmes and projects of the the programmes and projects of youth associations MYS as a proposer; and further on every year associations dealing with youth policy in 2009 and associations dealing with the young MF. (appropriation 481)
To provide financial support to initiatives and Financing the programmes and initiatives, 2009 MYS; 1.1.2. programmes which motivate, educate and support monitoring and planning of implementation and and further on every year PSSO. the young to participate actively in society advancement of financing criteria
Provide support to the programmes of youth SGU support the organizing, strengthening the 2009 1.1.3. associations and associations dealing with the capacities and implementation of activities of youth SGU and further on every year young on the local level associations and associations with the young
To prepare and adopt the Strategy for Career Guidance and Counselling of the young in Serbia, together with the Action Plan for its implementation; The main strategic document which defines the Action plan for the implementation of the the Governement; 1.1.4 . 2009 development of career guidance and counselling of Strategy for Career Guidance and Counselling of MYS as a proposer of the law. the Young defines specific activities to be the young in Serbia is adopted. implemented in all fields interesting to young people (labour market, education, safety, health 2 etc.).
2 All activities connected to the career guidance and counselling outlined in the action plan are to be implemented after 2009 and to be harmonized with the Strategy for Career Guidance and Counselling of the Young in Serbia.
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GENERAL GOAL 2: To develop cooperation with the young and provide conditions for their participation in decision making through a sustainable institutional framework, based on the needs of the young and in partnership with the young
Specific objective: Increased inclusion of the young in social activities 2.1. To define the term ’youth organization’ and the 2009–2010 due to developed and legally defined youth standards for its work organizing and acting
the Government; 2.1.1. To propose the adoption of the Law on the Youth 2009–2010 To prepare and adopt the Law on the Youth MYS.
To participate in the adoption of the Law on the Government; 2.1.2. 2009 Law on Associations Associations (youth organizing) MPALS.
To take the initiative for Changes and The initiative is approved and Changes and Amendments of the Law on Local Self 2.1.3. 2009 Amendments of the Law on Local Self Government MYS Government in order to define the role of SGU in are adopted. youth policy
GENERAL GOAL 3: To build a system of informing the young on all levels and in all fields
Specific objective: Timely and thorough informing of the young about To ensure timely and thorough informing of the 3.1. 2009–2014 the opportunities and perspectives in the local young about the opportunities and perspectives in community and on the state level is ensured. the local community and on the state level
To support the foundation of info points for the MYS; Info points for the direct distribution of information 3.1.1. direct distribution of information to the young in 2009 and further on PSSO; to the young are opened. LYOs SGU.
To define specific information needs, potentials The needs of the young for information are defined 3.1.2. and restrictions, as well as adequate methods of 2009 MYS and presented to the public. distribution of information to the young
To develop a system of quality standards in the A quality standard system is developed, along with field of information distribution and the evaluation 3.1.3. 2009 the evaluation system for information campaigns MYS system for information campaigns for the young implemented or supported by MYS implemented or supported by MYS
20 The capacities for objective and timely informing of To build capacities of various actors, institutions various actors, institutions and organizations 3.1.4. and organizations so that they can inform the 2009 and further on MYS working with the young and for the young are young objectively and timely increased. To design a website or portal for the young which Relevant information is available to the internet 3.1.5. will present relevant information from different 2009 MYS users. fields interesting to young people Specific objective: Increased capacities of associations for timely and 3.7. To develop information programmes for the 2009 and further on thorough informing of the young. young.
To provide financial support to the associations for Financial support to the information programmes MYS; 3.7.1. implementation of information programmes for 2009 and further on for the young implemented by associations is PSSO. the young provided.
GENERAL GOAL 4: To secure exercising of the right to equal opportunities of all the young in society, particularly of the young living in difficult circumstances
Specific objective: To establish a functional inter system cooperation An integral system of social protection is 4.1. in order to secure a comprehensive approach to 2009 and further on established. evaluating and satisfying the needs of the young from sensitive groups To initiate and commence the activities for the adoption of inter ministry protocol about the cooperation on satisfying the needs of the young and their integration in local community; A functional intersystem cooperation based on the MYS; To initiate the process of harmonizing the law rights and obligations of various systems to satisfy 4.1.2. 2009 and further on MLSP. with other normative documents in parts the needs of the young from vulnerable groups is
referring to protection of the young from the established. vulnerable groups and providing support to them; Harmonization of the law with other normative documents.
To support the process of preparation, consultations and adoption of the Law on Social A more efficient legal framework for the social the Government; 4.1.4. Protection including the young, particularly from 2009 protection system is found. MLSP. the vulnerable social groups in the public debate about the Law
21 Specific goal: To reduce the number of young users of the A transformation of institutions for residential 4.2. institutional accommodation and to improve the 2009–2012 accommodation of the young is completed. accommodation and quality of services for the young who will stay in institutions.
To make an analysis about the number of the young from vulnerable social groups accommodated in all institutions of social An established and developed network of services MLSP; 4.2.2. protection in the last five years by SGU (origin) 2009 in the community provided as support to the young SGU. and types of institutins; to become independent To lobby for the introduction and development of the missing services for the young in LC.
To define the minimum standards for services in residential accommodation for the young from To improve quality of services in the institution for 4.2.4. vulnerable social groups; 2009–2010 MLSP residential accommodation of the young. To establish a quality system in the institutions for the residential accommodation of the young.
Specific objective: To develop tolerance for diversity and to recognize 4.4. To reduce prejudices against the young from 2009–2014 the capacity of the young from vulnerable groups vulnerable social groups
To organize joint activities of the young from impoverished social groups and the young from general population; Better informing of the public, young people To build capacities of the public sector particularly about the rights, position, needs and 4.4.1. employees about the rights and opportunities for 2009 and further on МE opportunities for the young from vulnerable social the young from vulnerable social groups groups To introduce issue of the young from vulnerable social groups in the school subject “Civil Education”.
To apply international conventions relating to the rights of the young from vulnerable social groups National legislature is harmonized with the and monitor their implementation; MLSP; 4.4.2. 2009 and further on international in the field of the rights of persons To lobby for amendments and changes of the MYS. from the vulnerable social groups system laws which do not prescribe protection from discrimination.
Specific goal: To encourage the environment to include the young To include the young from the vulnerable social 4.5. 2009–2012 from the vulnerable social groups in daily life of the groups in the active and productive life in community community
22 To adopt and implement local action plans for the inclusion of young people from vulnerable Local youth action plans are based on the social groups in education, employment, sports, inclusion of the young from vulnerable social recreational activities and various organizations groups in the productive life in community; MYS; 4.5.1. and bodies dealing with the young; 2009 and further on The young from vulnerable social groups are SGU. To commence activities to remove physiscal and enabled to become mobile and to access the social barriers (information, procedural, etc.) and services easily. make available various services in SGU in Serbia.
Specific objective: Increased number of sport facilities on the local To create conditions (space, equipment, staff) for 4.6. 2009–2012 level available for recreational activities of the the availability of the mass sports activities to the disabled young people young from vulnerable groups
To build new facilities available to public (public SGU; 4.6.1. playgrounds, park playgrounds), especially in rural 2009 and further on Better conditions for sports activities. Sports associations. environment
To build or renew sports facilities for the disable young people; Inclusion of the disabled young people in sports SGU; 4.6.2. 2009 and further on To ensure timetable for sports activities for the activities Sports associations. disabled persons in sports facilities.
To finance participation of the disabled young Promotion of sports among the young, especially MYS; 4.6.3. people in sports competition and tournaments in 2009 and further on among the disabled young people Sports associations. the country and abroad
Specific objective: Increased capacities of education institutions to To ensure exercising the right of every young 4.7. 2009–2014 respond to different needs of the young especially person to adequate education and to ensure equal the needs of the young from the vulnerable groups opportunities for learning and development
To make a framework for the Strategy for The completed strategic framework for the 4.7.1. 2009–2010 IAEL development of inclusive education inclusive education
To advance the educational curricula so that High school and university curricula recognize 4.7.5. gender equality and specifics are recognized and 2009–2014 IAEL gender equality respected To implement measures to prevent reduction of Reduced number of the young Roma who leave ME; 4.7.6. the young Roma in the education system together 2009 and further on education system NRC. with NRC
23 Increased number of the young in the education To include the young who left school in the system; 4.7.7. 2009 and further on additional programmes for adult education Increased volume of the young from vulnerable groups with high school education.
To promote second chance education among the Increased number of the young from vulnerable 4.7.8. 2009–2014 MYS young who left school groups who acquired qualifications
Specific objective: Advanced social inclusion and employment of the 4.9. To increase employment of the young from the 2009–2014 young from the vulnerable groups vulnerable groups
To remove physical and psychological obstacles Broader inclusion of the young from vulnerable 4.9.1. for a larger inclusion of the young from vulnerable 2009 and further on MYS; groups in the working process groups in the working process
To include the unemployed young people from the vulnerable groups in measures and programmes of A large number of young from vulnerable groups MERD; 4.9.2. active employment policy on the labour market 2009 and further on involved in the active employment policy NES. (subsidies for employment, programmes of development of skills and entrepreneurship)
GENERAL GOAL 5: To encourage and value exceptional performance and achievements of the young in different fields
Specific objective: Established mechanisms to encourage and support To encourage the development of the young the young who show exceptional performance, 5.1. researchers, scientists, sportsmen, artists and 2009 and further on interestedness and results in various fields of work innovators to achieve faster economic growth and and art prosperity
the Government; To ensure continual work of the Fund for Young Established criteria, open announcement and 5.1.1. 2009 and further on MF; Talents selected scholarship holders MYS.
A respectable and encouraging national award for To introduce the National Award for the 5.1.2. 2009 the achievement in the fields which are not covered MYS exceptional results and achievements of the young by other awards, competitions and tournaments
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GENERAL GOAL 6: To develop opportunities for quality free time of the young
Specific objective: To establish an analysis and monitoring system for Established support system for the youth the key needs of the young and providing support 6.1. 2009–2014 programmes targeted at the free time management for intervention programmes and coordination of of the young on all levels the key actors in the free time management on the national, regional and local level
MYS; To encourage implementation of the programmes 6.1.1. 2009 and further on Advancement of quality free time of the young ОЈЛС. for quality free time of the young
MYS; Establish a unified monitoring and implementation Established monitoring and evaluation system for 6.1.2. 2009 and further on ОЈЛС. system for the programme effects the implementation of the youth programmes
GENERAL GOAL 7: To develop an open, efficient, effective and just system of formal and informal education available to all the young people following the global education trends as well as the education context in the Republic of Serbia
Specific goal: Increased number of the young in high schools and 7.1. To increase the participation of the young in 2009–2014 at universities various fields of formal and informal education
An analysis of the number of young people (15–30 Defined number of the young (15–30 years of age) 7.1.3. years of age) included in different forms of 2009 included in the different forms of informal MYS informal education education Specific goal: Established mechanisms for the participation of the 7.2. To increase the degree of participation of the 2009–2014 young in the decision making process in education young in the decision making process in education on the state, local and institutional level To establish the Proposal for the Changes and A Proposal for the Changes and Amendments of the Amendments of the Law on Education and Law on Education and Learning System which will 7.2.1. Learning System which will regulate participation 2009 ME regulate participation of the students in decision of the students in decision making process in making process in education education
25 To promote active participation of the young in Decisions in education institutions are rendered MYS; 7.2.2. 2009–2014 decision making process in education with active participation of students and pupils ME.
Specific goal: To ensure quality in formal and informal Raised level of competences of the young for the 7.3. 2009–2014 education of the young through the introduction of continued education. standards
To initiate and support the adoption of standards Established standards and competences; for teaching occupation; MYS; 7.3.2 2009–2010 The young actively participate in establishment of To include the young in the process of defining IAEL. standards for the teaching occupation. the standards.
Specific goals: A more efficient system of financial planning and To ensure mechanisms and encouragement for 7.4. 2010–2014 management is established in formal and informal increasing efficiency in formal and informal education education of the young
A continuous increase of percentage of Increased percentage of appropriated funds for 7.4.1. appropirated funds for education and development 2009–2014 education and development programmes from ME programmes from GDP GDP;
Specific goal: To stimulate the development of the informal Established professionalization of work with young 7.6. learning and education programme and 2010–2014 people in Serbia professionalization of the work with young people in Serbia
To support strengthening of peer education Increased number and quality of informal education 7.6.3. programmes in high schools as a form of informal 2009 and further on programmes in high schools which are ME learning implemented through peer education
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GENERAL GOAL 8: To encourage and stimulate all forms of employment, self employment and entrepreneurship of the young
1. Increased employment of the young; 2. Developed technical and human resources of the Specific objective: centres for career guidance and counselling and To develop youth perspectives on the labour centres for professional informing; 8.1. 2009–2011 market and create conditions for participation and 3. A large number of centres for career guidance 3 4 quality employment of the young and counselling and centres for professional informing which adopted standards defined in the Strategy for career guidance and counselling.
Provide financial and professional help to the An increased number of young people who passed MERD; 8.1.4. young for labour, professional and student pratice 2009 and further on labour practice in companies, organizations, and MYS, Fund for Young Talents. and volunteering institutions 1. Increased rate of youth activism on the labour Specific objective: market To ensure larger youth participation in measures 8.2. 2009–2011 2. Ensured higher quality and more equal regional and programmes of active employment policy representation of the young involved in measures
and programmes of active employment policy To ensure that the young as a specific unemployed group on the labour market become a priority and Improved quality and increased number of young MERD ; 8.2.1. to ensure better quality of active measures and a 2009–2011 involved in trainings and programmes, including NES. better regional representation of the young in the young from the vulnerable social groups trainings and programmes
Based on the needs of the local and regional labour market, to increase the number of the Improved quality of trainings and increased number 8.2.2. young in trainings and improve the quality of 2009–2011 NES of the young involved. trainings for advancement of the exisitng skills and qualifications and acquisition of new ones.
3 The National Action Plan for the Youth Employment developed by the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development defines in detail the activities for quality youth employment and combating informal youth employment младих, the protagonists and sources of financing, therefore this part is omitted from the action plan. The activities which encourage youth employment in Serbia defined in this action plan are complementary with the efforts focused on the implementation of the international documents. The agends for promotion of decent work for everyone adopted in 2000 was approved by the International Labour Organization. 4 The activities which could contribute to the increase of labour demand and jobs for the young are not particularly defined by the action plan, but the action plan regarding the youth employment relies completely on the economic and sector policy, and thus on employment policy and youth policy defined by the Memorandum on the budget and economic and fiscal policy for 2009 with the projections for 2010 and 2011 of the Ministry of Finance and Government.
27 To inform the uneducated young about the Developed programmes and mechanisms to inform MERD; 8.2.3. opportunities to continue education and find 2009–2011 the uneducated young. SGU. employment
Specific objective: To encourage opening of new jobs, develop self Developed entrepreneurial skills and increased self 8.3. 2009–2014 employment and entrepreneurship of the young in employment of the young every environment
To encourage the implementation of the Developed entrepreneurial spirit among the young MYS; 8.3.2. programmes and projects for the development of 2009 and further on and advanced perspective for self employment of RARMSPP. youth entrepreneurship in Serbia the young in Serbia
GENERAL GOAL 9: To advance the conditions for the safe life of the young
Specific objective: To advance normative and strategic regulation of Normatively and strategically developed security 9.1. 2009–2012 the security sector in order to improve safety of sector in order to improve safety of the young. the young
To support and participate in the process of drafting legal and strategic documents in the youth security field – the Strategy for National Security, the Law on Physical and Technical Security, the Problems with the safety of the young are 9.1.1. National Strategy for the Criminal Behaviour 2009–2012 recognized and included in the legal and strategic MYS Prevention, the Traffic Safety Strategy, the security documents National Actional Plan for Combating Human Trafficking, the Strategy for the Reform of Security Sector, and other document.
Specific objective: Developed mechanisms for combating domestic 9.8. 2009–2014 Prevention and combating the domestic violence violence with the young victims and perpetrators
Organize media campaigns to point to the MYS; Raised awareness about the problem of domestic 9.8.1. domestic violence with the young victims or 2009–2012 MH; violence perpetrators MLSP.
To find the opportunity for social inclusion of the - Increased social inclusion of the young,victims of victims of domestic violence; domestic violence; MLSP; 9.8.2. To organize permanent training for LYO staff to 2009–2014 Improved capacities of all institutions in charge of SGU; recognize violence and to help the victims of the prevention of and combating the domestic MH. domestic violence. violence.
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GENERAL GOAL 10: To take care of and improve the health of the young, reduce risks and main health problems, and develop a health care system adapted to the young
Specific objective: 10.1. To develop healthy life styles, take care of and 2009–2014 Developed activities of youth health clubs of SGU improve the health of young people
To draw strategic plans for health clubs as MH; resource centres for the young in SGU 10.1.1. 2009–2010 Developed strategic plans of the health clubs MYS; (informing, peer education, counselling, SOS help SGU. lines) and initiate their activities
To organize youth peer education system based on A developed system of accredited peer education MH; the adopted national standards and organize programmes and organized educational ME; 10.1.2. educational programmes for parents, teachers and 2009 and further on programmes about the health of young people for MYS; other persons in contact with the young about the persons in contact with the young SGU, LYO. health of young people
Specific objective: Increasingly broad usage of prevention programmes 10.2. To take care of and improve the reproductive 2009–2014 and early detection of abnormalities in reproductive health of the young health
To provide information through health clubs about the possibilities for the prevention of unwanted The young are well informed about the possibilities MH; pregnancy, prevention of chronic abnormalities in for the prevention of unwanted pregnancy and 10.2.1. 2009 and further on Institutions of public health; reproductive health (sterility, malign diseases) and chronic abnormalities of reproductive health, as Institutions of students health care. the possibilities for providing counselling of the well as about youth counselling services young men and women in local health stations
To educate teams of primary health care in youth counselling offices in local health stations about 10.2.2. the skills of prevention the sexual malfunction and 2009–2013 Educated teams of primary health care MH abnormalities of reproductive health of young men and women
To promote the condom and contraceptive methods via social marketing – leaflets, “Together for Health” action in cafes and in other places The young are well informed about the 10.2.5. 2009 and further on MH where the young gather, along with organizing a contemporary contraceptive methods. continuous media campaign adapted to the needs of the young and rights of young men and women
29 Specific objective: 1. The Programme of Mental health Protection is 10.3. 2010–2014 To take care of and improve mental health implemented.
To institutionalize the mechanism of mobile units To establish mobile units in youth counselling 10.3.3. for psychological support to the young in 2009 and further on MH centres for local health station counselling centres in local health stations
To ensure the Programme of Sustainable Opening SOS help lines for psychological support 10.3.4. Development of SOS help lines network and 2009 and further on MH of the young and their promotion promote it
To develop the programme of Psychological Developed institutional and human capacities for ME; Support in schools, at universities and in boarding 10.3.5. 2009–2014 the implementation of the youth psychological MH; schools together with health clubs and youth support programme MLSP. counselling centres in local health stations
To establish a new functional structure – a unit within the existing institutions and provide Forming the separate and equpped hospital units for 10.3.6. 2009–2010 MH equipment for it to form a surrounding friendly to a friendly orientation towards the young the young – humanization of environment
To develop the Volunteering Programme – MH; 10.3.7. 2009–2010 “Volunteers in Hospitals“ programme is developed. licenced peer educators in health station units SGU.
Specific objective: To protect the young from smoking, alcohol and A reduced abuse of all psychoactive substances 10.4. 2009–2013 other psychoactive substances abuse, and to avoid among the young on average for 10% serious consequences for health
To adopt the National Strategy for Drugs and the the Government; National Strategy for Alcohol, as well as There is a strategic framework for the protection of MH; 10.4.1. corresponding laws and to ensure that the youth 2009 and further on young from drug and alcohol abuse MI; issues are recognized and adequatly dealt with; to MJ. act upon the adopted strategies A developed network of associations for Sustainable development of programmes for combating drugs, and developed accredited combating drugs and of network of associations 5 MH; 10.4.2. for combating drugs and organizing summer and 2009 and further on programmes for PAS abuse prevention ; MI; winter camps for acquiring the skills and Developed skills of the young about the SGU. knowledge for combating drugs consequences of smoking, alcohol and other psychoactive substances (PAS) on average of 30%.
5 For instance, “Ten steps – School for abuse prevention”, “Step by Step“ association..
30 MH; MI; To develop multidisciplinary programmes for Developed multidisciplinary programmes for MJ; 10.4.3. 2009 and further on prevention of PAS abuse in schools prevention of PAS abuse in schools ME; MLSP; CSW. MH; To implement national mechanism for monitoring 2009 and further on periodically every four Developed national mechanism for monitoring PAS ME; 10.4.4. PAS abuse by the young years abuse by the young MLSP; CSW. Specific objective: 1. The number of the young visiting the youth 10.6. To improve health care system to respond to the 2009–2014 counselling centres is doubled and they are satisfied needs of young with the provided services.
In every SGU in the territory of the Republic of To open youth counselling centres in every local Serbia there is the Youth Counselling Centre in health station, or form teams of ’chosen doctors’ the primary health care unit based on the operation 10.6.1. dealing with the improvement of health and 2009–2014 MH criteria and national standards; prevention of diseases among the young Defined, published and publicly presented rights of population. the young users in the health care system.
GENERAL GOAL 11: To encourage the young for the initiatives and activities in line with the main goals of the sustainable development аnd healthy environment
Specific objective: To develop awareness and behaviour of the young The matters regarding the Law on Environment and 11.1. in the spirit of sustainable development, 2009–2014 natural heritage protection incorporated in formal environmental protection, natural heritage and informal education protection
To define education standards for the Law on Environment for students, teachers, curricula, Standards for including the Law on Environment in 11.1.1. 2009 ME teaching material, and material for the professional formal education are set. development of teachers
To ensure financial and logistic support and Responsible national institutions and MESP ME; promote professional development in the field of motivate the improvement of the young in the field MSTD; 11.1.2. 2009–2012 the Law on Environment (undergraduate studies, of environmental pprotection in the country and MESP; specialist’s and doctoral studies) abroad MYS.
31 To draw development programmes for the Established development programmes of the national, regional and local scientific and national, regional and local scientific and education ME; 11.1.3. education centres for extra curricula and informal 2009–2014 centres for extra curricula and informal education MYS. education of the young in the field of sustainable in the field of sustainable development and development and environtmental protection environmental protection To draw programme basis for forming the radio The young are better informed about all matters 11.1.4. and TV shows about sustainable development and 2009–2010 MC regarding environmental protection environmental protection for young people
To organize scientific research camps, sports Youth scientific research and sports activities MYS; camps and professional conferences for the young nurturing the spirit of environmental protection are MSTD; 11.1.5. with the main task to nurture the spirit of 2009–2012 organized within the youth organizations and other ME; sustainable development and environmental associations Office for sustainable development. protection and promote it in public
1. The young possess basic knowledge and information about the health risks from polluted Specific objective: environment and possess information about a better 11.2. To prevent and reduce health risks of young 2010–2012 choice for their health; people which may arise from environment 2. The young can easily access advice and doctor’s help if their health is deteriorating due to polluted environment.
To organize joint actions in order to create a clean 11.2.2. and tidy school environment and to establish a 2009–2012 Cleaner and tidier school environment. ME fund for awarding the most successful ones.
Specific objective: To develop system capacities which will enable To build capacities of ministries to create, monitor youth policy implementation, to monitor and and improve activities regarding health, education 11.4. 2009–2012 adequately react to all problems significant to the and informing of the young regarding environment young in the field of sustainable development and and sustainable development environmental protection
To establish an interdisciplinary body with the task to work on improvement of education in the An interdisciplinary body which adopts annual MYS; field of sustainable development of the young and 11.4.2. 2009 action plans for education in the field of sustainable MH; to coordinate all relevant activities with other development is established. MESP. responsible institutions and interdisciplinary bodies
32
PART TWO
33 2. OVERVIEW OF GOALS
2.1 General goal 1. To encourage the young to participate actively in society
34
The implementation of the first general goal defined in APNYS To encourage the young to participate actively in society , in 2009 included the greatest number of activities and projects comparing to the implementation of other general goals. Namely, based on the implemented activities and specific projects the attention of all participants in the APNYS implementation was paid to the matters of active youth participation in society.
2.1.1 An overview of implemented activities and projects by specific objectives
Within general goal 1, based on the received reports, 193 activities and projects were implemented by 68 APNYS protagonists (12 ministries, 34 local self governments and 25 associations). There were over 40,000 direct projects and over 50,000 indirect users. Self government units which implemented activities under the scope of this goal are the following: o Obrenovac, Despotovac, Kikinda, Apatin, Becej, Cuprija, Belgrade, Uzice, Ivanjica, Palilula, Kladovo, Knjazevac, Krupanj, Lajkovac, Medvedja, Novi Sad, Pantalej, Pirot, Paracin, Plandiste, Presevo, Priboj, Ruma, Savski venac, Senta, Svilajnac, Svrljig, Trstenik, Varvarin, Vlasotince, Vrsac, Zagubica, Zajecar, Gornji Milanovac.
An overview of implemented activities and projects presented on the basis based on the specific objectives: o 1.2.2. To strengthen capacities and opportunities for active participation of young people in society on the local level (Specific objective 1.2. To improve the quality and proportion of the distribution of youth active participation programmes ) 28 activities and projects ; o 1.1.6. To provide support for spreading the peer educators network in the fields interesting to the young (Specific objective 1.1. To motivate, educate and support the young to actively participate in society ) 24 activities and projects ; o 1.1.3. To provide financial support to the programmes of youth organizations on the local level (Specific objective 1.1. To motivate, educate and support the young to actively participate in society ) 23 activities and projects ; o 1.2.1. To provide support to the process of drafting local youth action plans on the local level (Specific objective 1.2. To advance the quality and equal distribution of programmes contributing to a more active youth participation in society ) 22 activities and projects ; o 1.4.2. To initiate local volunteering services and promote volunteering among young people (Specific objective 1.4. To establish mechanisms for encouraging, organizing and evaluating youth volunteering) 19 projects and activities ; o 1.1.2. To provide financial support to the initiatives and programmes which motivate, educate and support the young to participate actively in society (Specific objective 1.1. To motivate, educate and support the young to participate actively in society ) 16 activities and projects ;
35 o 1.1.1. To render the Decision on the budget item and allocating funds for financing the programmes of youth organizations, organizations and institutions dealing with the young (Specific objective 1.1. To motivate, educate and support the young to participate actively in society ) 16 activities and projects ; o 1.5.1. To promote the value of mobility and creating conditions for increasing the youth mobility; To intensify partnership between MYS and competent state bodies dealing with youth issues in other countries (Specific objective 1.5. To design support programmes for youth mobility) 16 activities and projects ; o 1.4.3. To establsih youth volunteering system in public institutions, agencies and companies (Specific objective 1.4. To establish mechanisms for encouraging, organizing and evaluating the youth volunteering ) 9 activities / projects ; o 1.3.1. To develop standards for youth work; To establish monitoring process for the quality of youth work ( Specific objective 1.3. To develop and improve the quality standards for youth work and mechanisms for its monitoring and improving ) 5 activities/projects ; o 1.4.1. To prepare the text of the Draft law on volunteering which will recognize the young as a special category of volunteers (Specific objective 1.4. To establish mechanisms for encouraging, organizing and evaluating the youth volunteering ) 4 activities and projects ; o 1.1.4. To prepare and adopt the Strategy for Career Guidance and Counselling of the Young in the Republic of Serbia, along with the Action Plan for its implementation; the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Career Guidance and Counselling of the Young which includes all activities implemented in all fields interesting for young people – labour market, education, security, health (Specific objective 1.1. To motivate, educate and support the young to participate actively in society ) 4 activities and projects ; o 1.3.2. To develop the occupation standard for a “working youth”, as well as the standards for supporting the professionals and volunteers working with young people (Specific objective 1.3. To develop and improve quality standards for youth work and mechanisms for its monitoring and improving) 2 activities/projects ; o 1.7.1. To encourage activities for removing gender steretypes in mass media and adopting affirmative measures in state institutions; To draw a special document (Specific objective 1.7. To increase participation of young women in the highest decision making positions) 2 activities/projects ; o 1.6.1. To take the initiative to introduce tax reductions for donnors and sponsors investing in the activism development and volunteering of young people and to promote socially responsible business operations 1 activity / project ; o 1.2.3. To draw and implement the Action Plan for youth policy in the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina (Specific objective 1.2. To advance quality and equal distribution of programmes contributing to a more active youth participation in society ) 1 activity or project ;
36 o 1.4. To establish mechanisms for encouraging, organizing and evaluating youth volunteering (Specific objective 1.4. To establish mechanisms for encouraging, organizing and evaluating youth volunteering) 1 activity or project .
Ac 1.2.2 Ac 1.1.6
Ac 1.3.2 Ac1.6.1 1% 1% Ac 1.1.3 Ac 1.2.1 Ac 1.3.1 Ac 1.7.1 3% 1% So1.4 1% Ac1.2.2 15% Ac 1.4.1 Ac 1.1.4 Ac 1.2.3 Ac 1.4.2 Ac 1.1.2 2% 2% 1%
Ac 1.1.6 12% Ac 1.1.1 Ac 1.5.1 Ac 1.4.3 5% Ac 1.5.1 8% Ac 1.4.3 Ac 1.3.1
Ac 1.4.1 Ac 1.1.4 Ac 1.1.1 8%
Ac 1.3.2 Ac 1.7.1
Ac 1.1.3 Ac 1.1.2 Ac 1.4.2 Ac 1.2.1 12% 8% 10% 11% Ac 1.6.1 Ac 1.2.3
So 1.4
Figure 2. Number of activities and projects by specific objectives under the scope of General goal 1.
Most of the activities and projects were implemented under the scope of implementation of specific objective 1.1. – To motivate, educate and support the young to participate actively in society (50%) and specific objective 1.2. – To improve the quality and equal distribution of programmes contributing to a more active youth participation in society (26%). The information about the implemented activities and projects within specific objectives under the scope of general goal 1 shows that the total of 193 activities was implemented . The implementation of these activities included : strengthening of capacities of the young to participate in society on the local level (28 activities/projects, or 15%); peer education (24, or 12%); providing support to youth organizations on the local level (23, or 12%); drafting local action plans (22, or 12% ); programmes designed to motivate young people to actively participate in society (19, or 10%); financing the work of youth organizations (16, or 9%); initiating volunteering services (16, or 9%); developing the standards of youth work (5, or 3%); drafting the Strategy for Career Guidance and Counselling along with the Action Plan (4, or 2%), etc. Such encouragement of activities and projects shows that APNYS implementation in 2009 incited young people to respond to their greatest needs. In this case, this refers to strengthening of their role on the local level and looking for a systematic way to realise it.
37 This dispersion of implemented APNYS activities can be linked to the results obtained from the research carried out by the Centre for Free Election and Democracy (CESID) in December 2009 which stated that “on average, one tenth of young people is a member of a cultural organization or a humanitarian organization. It is worrying, however, that in these organizations, as well as in many others, the membership reduces with the growing age of members. By many benchmarks, the youngest youth are the most active, whereas the youth older than 20 years of age significantly move towards average, i.e. in many cases of social activism they are closer to the population older than 30 years of age than those who are 20”6. CESID’s findings can be connected with the fact that most of the implemented activities and projects were targeted at four areas: strenghtening of capacities of the young to actively participate in society on the local level, then providing support to the programmes of youth organizations and organizations dealing with the young, spreading the peer educators network and drafting local action plans. These four groups of activities include 94 activities and projects which makes 50% of all implemented activities under the scope of general goal 1.
2.1.2 An overview of implemented activities by implementation protagonists
The implementation of planned activities and programmes was conducted, prevailingly, in cooperation of MYS and other ministries, organizations and institutions. A number of activities was initiated by MYS directly and independently, but many more activities and projects were implemented in partnership with MYS and other organization(s) and institution(s). Most often MYS was a partner to other ministries or self government units. Other large group of APNYS implementation protagonists was made of ministries and other bodies and organizations which implemented the planned APNYS activities in various partnerships and associations. Besides partnerships and unions formed as the result of the planned joint work on APNYS, some activities and projects were designed as independent activities of protagonists and members of partner unions. Most of the activities, particularly projects, were implemented by MYS in cooperation with associations, self governments and youth offices. The APNYS activities and projects implementation protagonists were: o ministries (MYS, MLSP, MC, MPALSG, MERD, MESP, ME, МПР, MI, MHMI); o regional bodies ПССО; o SGU; o associations; o international organizations (GTZ, IOM, UNICEF, UNDP, ILO, OSCE, USAID); o universities and university organizations and institutions.
MYS activities as an independent protagonist
6 CESID , the Report on Public Opinion Research RESOURCE, December 2009.
38 Ministry of Youth and Sports based on APNYS implemented the planned activities which strategically and conceptually define the position of the young in society and directly contribute to the first NYS goal. MYS especially focused on the strategic definition of career guidance and counselling of young people, development of standards for youth work, ensuring scholarships student loans for higher education in the country and abroad, providing financial support to initiatives and programmes which motivate, educate and support the young to actively participate in society, establishing the support programmes for organizing youth mobility. Within the activities of the specific objective 1.1.4, upon the MYS proposal, the Serbian Government at its meeting of 4 March 2010, adopted the Strategy for Career Guidance and Counselling in Serbia with the Action Plan for its implementation for the period from 2010 to 2014. Besides MERD, ME and NES, MYS is one of the responsible bodies for its implementation. Also, the quality standards for youth work were developed, as well as monitoring mechanisms and methods for continuous development of the quality of youth work. In this context MYS carried out research about the development and visibility of youth work in Serbia for the needs of monitoring the quality of youth work, which is part of the comparative research “Socio economic field of youth work in Europe” organized by the Council of Europe’s Partnership for the Young and European Commision. In this way, the concept of standards for youth work was completely developed. MYS developed the scholarship programme for undergraduate, master and doctoral studies in the EU member states, EFTA and leading world universities. Effects of implemented activities are visible in individual projects implemented by associations.
Through international cooperation, MYS implemented the following activities: o signing the Partial Agreement of Council of Europe “North South”; o signing the Memorandum on Understanding in the field of youth policy with the Republic of Greece; o active participation in the Council of Europe bodies – the Directorate for Youth and Sports, the European Youth Foundation and Partial Agreement on Youth Card EURO 26; o signing the Mutual Statement on Cooperation between Holland and Serbia, as well as the Agreement on Cooperation with the YouthBuild programme; o implemented European Conference on Youth Mobility in cooperation with the Council of Europe; o tour of LYO to inform them about Agenda 2020 and activities for the young on the European level; o training on active participation of the young “Democratic Youth Participation” implemented together with the Council of Europe; o implementation of many projects together with the international partners; o preparation of an article about youth policy in the Republic of Serbia for the European journal Forum 21 (published in July 2009); o organizing the national competition for the selection of the best essay “How do I imagine a European citizen of the Future” to mark 60 years of the Council of European.
39 Under the scope of implementation of the specific objective 1.1.2. – To provide financial support to initiatives and programmes which motivate, educate and support the young to participate actively in society , MYS announced the Tender for implementation of international cooperation (MTI) – and initiated the project “Encouraging human capital through active youth participation” implemented by MYS together with IOM in 10 self government units financed by the Republic of Italy.
APNYS implementation in cooperation of MYS with other ministries, organizations and institutions
In partnership with other ministries, Regional Secretariat for Sports and Youth (PSSO), organizations and institutions, MYS took part in 13 activities and projects under the scope of the following specific objectives:
Specific Activity/project Partners objective MYS; To establsih a youth volunteering system in public bodies, 1.4.3. MLSP; organizations, institutionsagencies and companies MPALSG. To provide financial support to initiatives and programmes MYS; motivating, educating and supporting the young to actively 1.1.2. PSSO. participate in society SGU ; To provide support to the programmes of youth associations and SKGO; 1.1.3. associations dealing with the young on the local level MYS; PSSO. MYS; To provide support for spreading the peer educators network in the 1.1.6. ME; fields interesting to the young MH. Strengthen capacities and opportunities for active participation of MYS; 1.2.2. the young in society on the local level SGU . To initiate local volunteering services and promote volunteering MPALSG; 1.4.2. among the young MYS. 1. To promote the mobility values and creating the conditions for MYS; increasing youth mobility 1.5.1. MFA; 2. To establish and intensify partnership between MYS and foreign PSSO. state bodies responsible for youth issues - MYS; To develop standards for the occupation ’working youth’, as well as - MERD; the standards for training professionals and volunteers working with 1.3.2. - MLSP; the young - PSSO. To take the initiative to introduce tax reductions for donnors and sponsors who invest in activism and youth volunteering - MYS; 1.6.1. development and to promote socially responsible business - MERD. operations To establish local volunteering services and promote volunteering - MPALSG; 1.4.2. among the young - MYS. - SGU ; To provide support to the process of drafting local youth action 1.2.1. - MYS; plans on the local level - GTZ;
40 - OSCE.
- IOM; To strengthen capacities and opportunities for the young to 1.2.2. - MYS; participate actively in society on the local evel - SGU.
The activities which were carried out in partnership between MYS and other ministries and PSSO included the following: youth volunteering, especially promoting volunteers and volunteering services, providing support for strengthening and training of peer educators, promoting and creating conditions for youth mobility in society. Most of the activities and specific projects implemented in partnership by ministries and PSSO included providing financial support to youth initiatives and programmes for active participation in society on the local level, the programmes for educating and supporting the young to participate actively in society, as well as for strengthening the capacities and providing the support for support to youth associations and associations dealing with the young on local level. The results of these activities can be seen in the prepared documents, such as the Draft law on volunteering which is pending adoption in the national assembly procedure, and the following documents were adopted: the National strategy for improving the position of women and advancing gender equality (Official Gazette of RS no. 15/09) and the Law on gender equality (Official Gazette of RS, no. 104/09). The financial support was provided for the initiatives and programmes of the listed youth associations and associations dealing with the young. The effects of these activities can be seen in the results of the implemented programmes of the associations.
Cooperation with the local self governments and youth offices
Based on the reports received from 32 local self governments, MYS together with SGU and LYOs provided support for the implementation of 88 activities and projects under the scope of General goal 1. Around 30,000 young people were direct users, and over 40,000 were the indirect users. Activities/projects included the following activities: o 1.2.1. To provide support to the process of drafting local youth action plans on the local level (18 activities and projects ); o 1.1.3. To provide financial support to the programmes of youth organizations and organizations for the young in local communities (16 activities and projects); o 1.1.6. To provide support for spreading the peer educators network in the fields interesting for young people (14 activities and projects ); o 1.4.2. To establish local volunteering services and promote volunteering among the young (13 projects and activities ); o 1.1.1. To render decisions on introducing the budget item and allocating funds for programmes of youth organizations, organizations and institutions dealing with the young (10 activities and projects ); o 1.2.2. To strengthen capacities and provide opportunities for the young to participate actively in society on the local level (8 activities and projects );
41 o 1.1.2 To provide financial support for initiatives and programmes motivating, educating and supporting the young to participate actively in society (4 activities and projects ); o 1.4.3. To establish the system of youth volunteering in public institutions, agencies and companies (3 activities / projects ); o 1.5.1. To promote the value of mobility and create the conditions for increasing youth mobility; To intensify partnership between MYS and foreign state bodies responsible for the young (1 activity or project ); o 1.1.4. To prepare and adopt the Strategy for Career Guidance and Youth Counselling in the Republic of Serbia along with the Action Plan for its implementation; Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Career Guidance and Youth Counselling includes the activities implemented in all areas interesting to the young (labour market, education, security, health (1 activity or project ).
Figure 3. Number of activities and projects based on specific objectives implemented in partnership with SGU and LYO
Figure 3 shows that most of projects implemented by SGU and youth offices supported by MYS (or implemented independently) included drafting of local youth action plans (21% of projects in this group). In the last year, 16 youth organizations were supported when this activity was implemented together with SGU. During the implementation of this activity in 2009 jointly coordinated by MYS, SGU and international organizations (GTZ and OSCE), support was provided to the process of drafting local youth action plans. 28 local action plans were adopted. МYS independently financially supported another 25 local action plans whose adoption is expected in 2010 of the total value of RSD 5,000,000. Besides drafting local action plans, most activities and projects included providing financial support for the programmes of youth organizations and organizations dealing with the young on the local level 21%. Somewhat fewer were the activities and projects
42 intended for peer education programmes (16%) and projects financed from the municipal budgets 18%. Almost 15% of the total number of activities and projects of this strategic group include the issue of volunteers and volunteering services. Within these activities, 300 volunteers were trained in 31 municipalities in the Republic of Serbia. SGU and youth offices carried out different activities and tenders in order to provide financial support to initiatives and programmes motivating, educating, and supporting the young to actively participate in society. The implemented activities and projects raised the awareness of young people about their active role in the local community, and the importance of youth work. Youth offices had a significant role, most often in cooperation with associations and local self governments, and achieved important results and effects – either conceptual, or strategic, or promotional, or other actions for young people. A significant progress was made in connecting, cooperation and joint work of formal and informal youth organizations in the Republic of Serbia. In most local communities youth offices were coordinators and a bridge between associations, youth organizations and institutions. In this way, formal and informal youth groups were strengthened, networks of associates were formed with the partner organizations from EU countries. SGU and city governments financially supported the APNYS implementation activities via tenders for financial support for youth organizations dealing with youth work, or directly supporting youth offices and their activites. It is general conclusion that SGU independently or together with youth offices and/or supported by MYS provide support for organizing, capacity building and implementation of activities of youth associations and associations dealing with young people, which is an expression of the needs of young people to organize themselves in their own environment and to establish their own associations.
SGU and youth offices stated in their reports the results of these activities :
“We made an insight into the needs of young people, the reasons for their social abstinence and their attitudes about social activism while working with them. We showed them a way in which an individual can be socially responsible. They were encouraged to join a non governmental organization, or an informal group of citizens, a political party, local community... They were encouraged to take part in problem solving in local community. The awareness that local community can be changed based on the needs of its citizens was raised, because the local problems concern them most of all. ...”
Youth office, Knjazevac
“Providing support to the programmes of youth associations dealing with young people on the local level resulted in:
1000 young people who attended over 200 presentations and trainings 30 young people who passed the training and organizing an exhibitions of their works a theatre play trainings trainings and sports competition 40 artistic events a musical concert 4 exhibitions 523 consultations.” 43 Savski venac, Belgrade In 2009, the UN week was devoted to young people and it was called “Wake up. Start moving.” Together with the UN topical youth group, other relevant ministries, bodies, organizations and institutions, local self government units and youth offices, NGOs and the media, once again the public and youth attention was drawn to the key issues regarding young people, over 15 activities were organized with and for young people and a few thousand young people, bodies, organizations and institutions were mobilized.
Cooperation with associations
The associations took part in the implementation of APNYS general goals and specific objectives through special tenders announced by MYS and/or SGU and LYO. Cooperation between MYS and associations included the implementation of activities under the scope of NYS general goals. Practically the most of activities of SGU and LYO were implemented through associations’ projects. Around 200 associations have so far been involved in the tenders for APNYS implementation opened by MYS. Within the implementation of general goal 1, associations implemented the total of 69 activities and projects.
An overview of implemented activities/projects based on specific objectives: o 1.2.2. To strengthen the capacities and opportunities for young people to participate actively in society on the local level (12 activities and projects ); o 1.1.2. To provide financial support for initiatives and programmes motivating, educating and supporting the young to actively participate in society (10 activities and projects ); o 1.1.6. To provide support to spreading the peer educators network in the fields interesting to the young (8 activities and projects ); o 1.5.1. To promote the value of mobility and creating conditions for increasing mobility of the young; To intensify the partnership between MYS and foreign state bodies responsible for the young (7 activities and projects ); o 1.4.2. To found local volunteering services and promote volunteering among the young (7 activities and projects ); o 1.1.3. To provide financial help for programmes of youth organizations and organizations dealing with the young on the local level (7 activities and projects ); o 1.1.1. To render decisions on introducing the budget item and allocating funds for the programmes of youth organizations, organizations and institutions dealing with young people (3 activities and projects ); o 1.2.1. To provide support to the process of drafting youth action plans on the local level (2 activities and projects ); o 1.3.1. To develop standards for youth work; To establish the process of monitoring the quality of youth work (2 activities and projects ); o 1.4.3. To establish a youth volunteering system in state bodies, organizations and institutions, agencies and companies (1 activity and project );
44 o 1.1.4. To prepare and adopt the Strategy for Career Guidance and Youth Counselling in the Republic of Serbia along with the Action Plan for its implementation; the Action Plan for the implementation of the Strategy for Career Guidance and Youth Counselling with the complete list of activities implemented in all fields interesting to the young – labour market, education, safety, health (1 activity or project ); o 1.2. To advance the quality and equal distribution of programmes contributing to the youth activism and increased youth participation in society (1 activity or project ).
Figure 4. Number of activities and projects based on specific objectives implemented by civil associations
Starting from the report about the implemented APNYS projects , it may be concluded that most projects and protagonists’ activities were targeted at strengthening the capacities and opportunities for young people to actively participate in society on the local level (specific objective 1.2.2) 12 activities and projects were implemented, or 20%. The projects were focused on:
o Capacity building in youth organizations; o Campaign for approving new policies for the improvement of the position of the young; o Raising the level of youth activism on the local level.
The key result of this project group is: “Activization of young people in the region was increased through synergy of different operational methods, the young were trained and organized in the network of youth NGOs and enabled to implement action plans through youth public events and peer education when a significantly large number of young people were interested in specific issues and in having an active approach to defining its position in the community”. Also, the knowledge of the young about basic
45 matters in the operation of youth organizations was improved, and the awareness of new youth policies was raised.
“The implementation of activities for drafting municipal youth action plans set permanent mechanisms for the cooperation between government and and non government sector, raised the capacities of youth associations in Vrbas, Backi Petrovac, Bac, Backa Topola and Odzaci, and enabled active participation in the implementation of NYS goals, advanced the activities in the field of youth policy and sector activities og the government and non governmental sector focused on the young.”
The Association for the Development of Vrbas Municipality
Another major group of projects included providing financial support to the initiatives and programmes motivating, educating and supporting the young to participate actively in society and it made 17% (10 projects), followed by promoting the value of mobility and creating conditions for increasing the youth mobility – a series of these projects were implemented by associations devoted to this specific objective. In total 7 projects were implemented (according to the received report), or 12%. Most projects were under the specific objective dealing with establishing communication and cooperation among the young from the local communities in Serbia with the young from the West Balkan and EU. As part of these projects, young people travelled to the West Balkan countries, and EU, and participated in conferences, festivals, etc. Communication channels were established and cooperation bеtween student parliaments and other student bodies from the West Balkan was initiated. The implementation of these projects enabled the young to understand the political, economic, social and educational system of the EU countries, to exchange experiences with their peers, to improve their language skills, to acquire new knowledge, establish and form networks with the young from different countries. One of the goals was to promote and make popular the idea of the EU by giving a clear positive perception of the advantages of the European integration. Since the young cannot be regarded as an isolated group within society, a number of professional and educational circles was involved and informed about the benefits and values of the EU standards, as well as public institutions, numerous citizens, including families. The application of these standards and codes contributes to well being of young people in Serbia. Spreading the peer educators network in the fields interesting to young people was a topic which attracted numerous associations. 8 projects were implemented, or 13% of all projects under the specific objective 1.1.6. – To provide support to spreading the network of peer educators in the fields interesting to young people. Under the scope of specific objective 1.4.2. – To initiate local volunteering services and promote volunteering among the young, 7 projects were implemented, or 12% of the total number of projects implemented by associations. The implementation of the projects achieved the following results: o the awareness about the significance of volunteering and voluntary work was raised; o capacities for volunteering were built;
46 o the young were strengthened their organizational and acquisition skills and practised sensibilization for volunteering; o volunteers were trained to provide psychological and social help to children and young people from the marginalized social groups; o children and young people were strengthened to become integrated in the life of community; o the activities of volunteers were encouraged through workshops; o volunteering was promoted; o visibility of volunteers was secured; o the level of citizens’ awareness about the equality of children and young people from the marginalized groups was raised; o groups of volunteers in different local communities were formed.
The implementation of activities and projects contributed to networking of young people, forming the partnership for local development, and promoting the initiative on the local level. A better coordination was organized between youth offices, they exchanged their experiences and made short term action plans, and a better understanding of the operation of local authorities was achieved. Contacts and cooperation resulted in the awareness about the advantages of cooperation, which brought up socialization of young people and created conditions for joint projects and cooperation with organizations abroad.
Cooperation with international organizations
Through the cooperation of MYS and international organizations, a set of projects was implemented, primarily providing support to local self governments and youth offices for the preparation and strengthening the capacities and opportunities for the young to participate actively in society on the local level. The implementation of the general goal 1 was carried out together with OSCE, GTZ and IOM and UN organizations.
OSCE
The project entitled “Support for youth offices in minority environment for making local youth action plans” related to providing support to the process of drafting local youth action plans in four municipalities in the south and south east of the Republic of Serbia with minority population. The idea was to strengthen the cooperation of the central and local level and to systematically plan and present initiatives and services for the young in local communities. Representatives of municipal government, youth councils, associations, organizations and institutions providing support to young people took part in the whole process, as well as the young themselves. The methodology for the drafting of action plans was prepared by GTZ and MYS approved it and respected the specifics of the process in minority communities. In the municipalities of Bosilegrad, Dimitrovgrad, Bujanovac and Presevo the plans were drawn at four seminars attended by the main actors – the matrix of the AP,
47 data collecting, LAP activities, the budget, and four mentoring visits. In this way, LAPs in all four municipalities were drawn and unanimously adopted. A special budget item was introduced in the municipal budget for the LAP implementation. The following are the results of the project: o the awareness of the needs of young people is developed and of the ways to satisfy the needs of the young; o the communication with young people is improved, as well as with the bodies, organizations and institutions responsible for the young, which is important for securing quality activities for the young in the local community ; o the responsibility and inclusion of young people in the life of local community was increased ; o young people are networked on the local level ; o the quality of life in the community is improved by the initiatives of young people.
GTZ
The projects “Conflict Transformation and Youth Empowerment” (2008 2009) and “Strengthening of the Structures for Youth Participation and Empowerment” (2010 2012) have been implementing the accredited programmes of peer mediation (PM) and student parliaments (SP) in 105 schools, high school students dorms and a few youth clubs in around thirty towns in the Republic of Serbia. These are essential for a high quality of implementation: harmonization of the programmes and resources, needs and plans of the institutions and local communities, support of managers determined by their characteristics, social and professional position and relation they have to the programme, enthusiasm, dedication, competence, social status and realistic abilities of the persons responsible for the project and motivated by the importance the programmes have for their professional, social and personal competences and needs. PM and SP trainings achieved a huge success among young people, became popular in schools and contributed to the improved conditions for a safe life of young people. The programmes contributed to a stronger role of student parliaments in schools, their networking and a broad participation of young people who initiated numerous activities. The project also supported the implementation of the peer education programme. The project also supported the process of drafting local youth action plans in 32 municipalities throughout the Republic of Serbia, which connected the initiatives and services for young people in local communities. The whole process had a gender component of raising the awareness about the issues of gender equality when planning the financing of youth programmes. In the whole process young people actively participated through fora (composing questionnaires, conducting surveys, data analysis, presentations and implementation through LAPs). Before commencing the planning process, the project worked on capacity building of regional and local youth offices and key actors in the local community in the planning process. The project also supported the youth initiatives. After the analysis of the needs in local communities, the project established and commenced the initiatives for the development of informing the young and enriched the educational programme of the national broadcast service with its promotional activities.
48 The awareness about the needs of young people from the sensitive groups was raised through trainings organized both for the LYO coordinators and for the young who now have access to services intended for them and who are now included in the active and productive life in community. The level of youth participation in decisons regarding their education was increased through raising the awareness and building the capacities of the young to take part in the decision making process either in student parliaments, or youth councils. The project’s inclusive mediation programme contributed to the inclusive education and creating the atmosphere in which the young from sensitive groups feel personal and collective security. The project also worked on the exchange of high school students and activists from youth groups in Serbia and their peers in FR Germany. The visits to FR Germany and the Republic of Serbia were organized. The project has been implementing the programme of professional orientation and career guidance in extra curricula environment together with LYO and associations dealing with young people.
These are the main results: o a developed and operational “training system for conflict transformation and youth participation” in selected regions (in schools following “the whole school“ approach, outside school: in youth centres, with the groups of young people and in community, as well as on the national level); o adapted and tested methodology for conflict transformation and youth participation (including the training material) which can be applied for the marginalized groups / risk groups (testing conducted in selected regions); o the change of conflict transformation and youth participation model on the community level in selected regions; o a developed network (abroad too) of conflict transformation and youth participation among stakeholders (topics: exchange of experiences and good practice examples, adaptation of methodology and material, interethnical issues – quality management); o developed marketing for conflict transformation and youth participation among relevant stakeholders on different intervention levels.
IOM
The goal of the project entitled “Empowerment of human resources in Serbia through active youth participation” is to motivate young people to participate actively in the work of LYO, but also, on a broader perspective, to take part in various activities on the local level. Capacity building of LYO coordinators and drafting the strategy for promoting their work among young people was the key element, because they were empowered, in a short period of time, to manage LYO professionally, to advocate and lobby, to have a dialogue with the young and with the local government, which contributed to the promotion of NYS itself, as well as LYO. Under the scope of this project, ten youth offices were opened, seven of which were local and three regional offices, and coordinators’ and their most active associates’ capacities were built. Various workshop programmes (creative workshops/ seminars/educations) represented constant activities of LYO during the project and additionally increased the
49 interestedness and motivation of young people, which brought to the development and implementation of many actions and initiatives of young associates and volunteers in LYO.
The results of the project are the following: o LYO were opened and became completely operative; o The needs of LYO coordinators were analyzed and the training programmes were prepared; o Coordinators and associates acquired additional skills necessary for the successful management of LYO; o the work of LYO is recognized and visible on the local level; o the internet presentation is activated; o direct participation of young people in the research process; o a handbook is made on the basis of an estimation of needs; o workshop curriculum for young people was designed based on the estimation of their needs; o number of young activists in LYO is constantly increasing; o young people acquire additional skills and knowledge in the fields they recognized as priority; o 10 mini grants for the youth initiatives on the local level.
USAID
Within the USAID Programme for planning and reacting in critical situations and strengthening the economic security the programme “Junior Achievements in Serbia“ was implemented in 2009 by over 2,700 young people. The programme has been implemented in more than 50 municipalities throughout Serbia. Students participating in the programme have clearly developed entrepreneurial and communicative skills. The coordinators in over 67 youth offices attended trainings so as to strengthen their capacities for promoting youth entrepreneurship. The first round of youth entrepreneurship trainings was organized in 30 youth offices. 93 trainings were organized and 1,043 persons participated in them (620 young individuals, since some of them attended more than one training, and 91% of them think they have better chances of employment after attending the training; 16% participated in the tender for start up; 7% started their own business 2 months after the trainings). The preparations for the second round of trainings in which 29 youth offices will take part are ongoing. 12 of the selected municipalities from the first round completed LAP for employment and entrepreneurship and three of them were adopted (Loznica, Lajkovac, Knjazevac). In 2010 USAID will implement PPES project (Preparedness, planning and economic security program), which will support the implementation of activities outlined in the action plan (through co financing with the municipality 50% 50%, USAID provides around 5,000$ per municipality).
The conclusion:
50 The results achieved in all activities and projects under the scope of all specific objectives of the General goal 1 are coordinated and they follow the APNYS projected results. The implementation of activities under the specific objective 1.1. (To motivate, educate and support the young to participate actively in society) included 94 activities and projects, which makes almost 50% of all implemented activities of the general goal 1, which surpasses the expected number of projects from APNYS (at least 70 projects by the young or for the young per year financed from the Serbian budget). The obtained results follow the projected result of this specific objective and they show harmonization of the defined indicators for the achieved results.
2.2 General goal 2. To develop cooperation with the young and provide conditions for their participation in decision making through a sustainable institutional framework, based on the needs of the young and in partnership with the young
2.2.1 An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific activities
Under the scope of general goal 2, 76 activities and projects were implemented by APNYS protagonists (based on the received reports). There were totally 5,936 direct users and more than 20,000 indirect participants. The activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, MLSP, MC, MPALSG); o 30 SGU (Apatin, Becej, Belgrade, Cuprija, Gornji Milanovac, Kikinda, Uzice, Ivanjica, Palilula, Kladovo, Knjazevac, Krupanj, Lajkovac, Novi Sad, Osecina, Pantelej, Pirot, Plandiste, Presevo, Priboj, Ruma, Savski venac, Senta, Svilajnac, Trstenik, Vlasotince, Zagubica, Zajecar, Zvezdara); o 6 associations.
The overview of implemented activities / projects by the specific objectives is the following: o (Specific objective 2.2. To establish institutional support for founding, financing and active operation of youth organizations and programme activities of the organizations working for the young ) 36 activities and projects ; o 2.2.2. To encourage SGU to open LYO and youth councils, i.e. to provide support to the future work of LYO and youth councils in the environment which has already established a youth office (Specific objective 2.2. To establish the institutional support for founding, financing and active operation of youth organizations and programme activities of the organizations working for the young) 27 activities and projects ; o 2.3.1. To apply the concept of joint management of processes and decisions – co management and permanent trainings of the participants of the process (Specific objective 2.3. To adopt the concept of joint management of processes and decisions
51 as the basis for cooperation between local and national bodies and young people ) 7 activities and projects ; o 2.4.1. To define forms, models, and ways of cooperation between youth organizations on all levels (Specific objective 2.4. To promote the importance of cooperation between youth organizations, their networking and mutual trust ) 2 activities and projects ; o 2.2.6. To support the initiatives of youth organizations for international cooperation and access to international funds and institutions as an important integration aspect and exchange of knowledge and experience (Specific objective 2.2. To establish the institutional support for founding, financing and active operation of youth organizations and programme activities of organizations working for young people ) 2 activities and projects ; o 2.2.4. To start using the real estate property owned by the state to satisfy the needs of young people and youth activism (Specific objective 2.2. To establish the institutional support for founding, financing and active operation of youth organizations and programme activities of organizations working for young people ) 1 activity/project ; o 2.1.2. To take part in drafting the Law on associations (youth organizations) ( Specific objective 2.1. To define the term ’youth organization’ and standards for its operation ) 1 activity/project ; o 2.1.3. To take the initiative for changes and amendments of the Law on Local Self Government in order to define the role of SGU in youth policy (Specific objective 2.1. To define the term ’youth organization’ and standards for its operation ) 1 activity/project .
Figure 5. The overview of implemented activities and projects by the specific objectives
On the basis of the received reports it may be concluded that most of activities and projects were implemented under the scope of specific objective 2.2. To establish the institutional support for founding, financing and active operation of youth organizations and programme activities of the organizations working for the young . Under the scope of this objective, the total of 66 activities and projects, or 86% of all activities within the
52 general goal 2. Most of the activities and projects were aimed at providing support to founding the local youth councils, and providing support to LYO and local institutions and organizations dealing with young people or organizing youth programmes. In 18 municipalities, SGU together with MYS founded youth councils, secured funds for their operation and ensured the coordination of council activities. In most of the municipalities, firm cooperation between youth offices and councils was established and activities were implemented. In most municipalities, youth councils were entered into municipality or city statutes as permanent working bodies in the municipality assemblies. Youth offices were also defined by statutes, which regulated their permanent financing and operation. In some municipalities, other youth bodies were established, such as youth forum, nework of active citizens, council for interethnic relations. The joint work of the youth councils, youth offices, youth fora and other bodies included various activities on the level of local communities aimed at responding to the needs of young people and ensuring the continuous and institutional cooperation between the young and local government. Most of the activities implemented in the last year referred to the drafting of LAP, but also to the implementation of some other projects. The implementation of other activities and projects under the scope of the general goal 2 included the activities for implementation of the concept of joint management of processes and decisions – co management with the participation of young people in the decision making process and permanent trainings of the participants of the process. In some local communities, working groups were established gathering many youth organizations and enabling a wide debate about drafting the action plans and joint activities.
The Commission for drafting the Local action plan for youth
policy in the City of Novi Sad was established and appointed by the Decision of the Mayor of the City of Novi Sad (Official Gazette of the City of Novi Sad no. 50/2009). It was structured in such a way that the management of 11 working groups is performed in partnership and through equal participation of the youth representatives, members of City Council and heads of city administration departments.
The protagonists of the implementation of activities and projects under the scope of general goal 2 were mostly SGU supported by MYS. Besides, a number of activities was implemented by the Ministry of Culture as the support provided for cultural production – the total of 17 projects in which young people participated and most of which were implemented by the cultural institutions on the local level:
o Workshops for modern dance and the International festival CONDENS; o Concerts of young performers „КоMA 7”; o “Serbia in the Region” – concert activities of the chamber orchestra “St. George’s string orchestra”; o Summer programme of the Faculty of Fine Arts’ Gallery; o Annual fine arts programme of the “Studentski grad“ Cultural Centre; o 30 year anniversary of the Faculty of Fine Arts’ Gallery; o Real Presence 2009;
53 o BALKANIMA 2009 VI European festival of animated film; o The Ninth Film Colony “The Sand of Deliblat”; o The International Animated Film Festival MEDFAF 2009; o 46th Belgrade International Writers Meeting; o The theatre play “Water Bull”; o North City Jazz & Blues Festival 2009; o Sokolica 2009; o Safekeeping the traditional customs of the Krivorecki region; o The Vidovdan Poets’ Communion; o The participation of cultural and artistic association in the Topola Convention.
The Serbian National Assembly adopted the Law on Associations which defines the principles of youth organizing (normative regulation of the field of youth organizing).
The conclusion:
The key result of the implemented activities under the scope of general goal 2 is the improved position of young people, first of all on the local level, encouragement of youth groups, active decision making of important decisions by the young and strengthening of their decisiveness, which relies on the expected results drawn in APNYS relating to the increased inclusion of young people in social activities through the developed and legally defined youth organizing and activism .
Youth office was opened back in April 2008. Youth Council was founded pursuant to the decision of the municipal council in May 2009. Youth Office and Youth Council have established an excellent cooperation which in the end resulted in drafting LAP. Youth Office has become an integral part of the municipal government and the basic prerequisites for its smooth operation have been fulfilled.
Knjazevac
2. 3 General goal 3. To build a system of informing the young on all levels and in all fields
2.3.1 An overview of implemented activities and projects by specific objectives
Under the scope of general goal 3. To build a system of informing the young on all levels and in all fields – the total of 66 activities and projects were implemented (based on the received reports) by the APNYS protagonists. The total of 82,766 direct users and over 200, 000 indirect users were involved.
54
The activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, MTIS, MC); o 34 SGU (Apatin, Becej, Belgrade, Cuprija, Gornji Milanovac, Kikinda, Uzice, Ivanjica, Palilula, Kladovo, Knjazevac, Krupanj, Lajkovac, Novi Sad, Osecina, Palilula, Pantelej, Pirot, Plandiste, Presevo, Priboj, Paracin, Ruma, Savski venac, Senta, Svilajnac, Svrljig, Trstenik, Vlasotince, Zagubica, Zajecar, Zvezdara, Raca, Cuprija); o 8 associations.
An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific objectives is the following: o 3.1.2. To establish specific information needs, potentials and restrictions, as well as adequate methods of distributing thе information to the young (Specific objective 3.1. To ensure timely and thorough informing of the young about the opportunities and perspectives in the local community and on the state level ) 23 activities and projects ; o 3.1.5. To design a website or portal for young people which will present relevant information from various fields interesting to the young (Specific objective 3.1. To ensure timely and thorough informing of the young about the opportunities and perspectives in the local community and on the state level ) 15 activities and projects ; o 3.1.1. To support opening the info points in LYO for the direct distribution of information to young people (Specific objective 3.1. To ensure timely and thorough informing of the young about the opportunities and perspectives in the local community and on the state level ) 12 activities and projects ; o 3.1.4. To build capacities of various actors, bodies, organizations and institutions in order to inform young people objectively and timely (Specific objective 3.1. To ensure timely and thorough informing of the young about the opportunities and perspectives in the local community and on the state level ) 9 activities and projects ; o 3.4.2. To encourage and support projects which can increase the computer literacy of young people (Specific objective 3.4. To increase the level of computer literacy of young people ) 9 activities and projects ; o 3.3.1. To encourage and strengthen the activities of youth offices in the field of public relations, cooperation with the mass media, information services on all levels (Specific objective 3.3. To enrich the media programmes with educational shows appropriate for young people ) 9 activities and projects ; o 3.5.1. To implement the peer education programme so as to inform the young about employment and to increase the effects of information campaign in high schools (Specific objective 3.5. To improve informing of young people about career options, possibilities of employment, and perspectives on the labour market ) 6 activities and projects ; o 3.4.1. To encourage opening IT clubs in LYO and to organize a training system for the employees of IT clubs (Specific objective 3.4. To increase computer literacy of young people) 5 activities and projects ;
55 o 3.7.1. To ensure financial support to associations for the implementation of information youth programmes (Specific objective 3.7. To develop information programmes for the young) 3 activities and projects ; o (Specific objective 3.1. To ensure timely and thorough informing of the young about the opportunities and perspectives in the local community and on the state level ) 2 activities and projects ; o 3.7.2. To carry out trainings for associations dealing with informing the young about the development of communication strategies, communication techniques and application of the new mass media resources for informing the young ( Specific objective 3.7. To develop information programmes for young people) 2 activities and projects ; o (Specific objective 3.4. To increase the level of computer literacy of young people ) 2 activities and projects ; o 3.4.3. To implement systems of free mass European Computer Driving Licence – ECDL (European computer diploma) and trainings for young people (Specific objective 3.4. To increase the level of computer literacy of young people) 1 activity or project ; o 3.4.4. To support development, distribution and promotion projects of open source – ОS software (open software) (Specific objective 3.4. To increase the level of computer literacy of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o (Specific objective 3.7. To develop information programmes for young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 3.2.1. To update the curriculum for the school subject “Civil education” in high schools with the additional information about the civil rights and obligations in the Serbian legal system, following the good practice examples of the Council of Europe and European Commission for the education in the field of human rights (Specific objective 3.2. To make the relevant information about youth rights and possibilities and opportunities for young people available to public ) 1 activity or project ; o (Specific objective 3.3. To enrich the media programmes with educational shows appropriate for young people ) 1 activity or project .
56 Figure 6. The overview of implemented activities and projects by the specific objectives
By the received reports, it may be concluded that most of the activities and projects were implemented under the scope of the specific objective 3.1 . To ensure timely and thorough informing of the young about the opportunities and perspectives in the local community and on the state level, more precisely, as the implementation of activity 3.1.2. To establish specific information needs, potentials and restrictions, as well as adequate methods of distributing thе information to the young with 23 activities and projects implemented, or 25% of the total number of activities and projects under the scope of general goal 3. Numerous activities included the preparation of of the internet page (3.1.5. To design a website or portal for young people which will present relevant information from various fields interesting to the young ) 15 activities, or 16%, opening the info points for the direct distribution of the information to young people in LYO – 12 activities, or 13% and capacity building of different actors, bodies, organizations and institutions (3.1.4. To build capacities of various actors, institutions and organizations to ensure objective and timely informing of young people ) 9 activities, or 9%. Namely, most of the activities implemented under the scope of specific objective 3.1 related to securing the timely and thorough informing of the young (59 activities, or 63%), which shows that the greatest needs the young people have are for being sufficient and timely informed. Other activities under the scope of this general goal included peer education, trainings for associations dealing with informing the young, increasing the computer literacy of young people, etc. However, if we analyze the number of users involved in the implementation of activities we can see that all activities had a huge number of direct or indirect users, which means that all activities achieved the volume and framework planned in APNYS. The results achieved in these activities secured the progress and improvement primarily in the following areas:
57 o In the opinion of protagonists in these activities, a quality cooperation between LYO and local media for following the activities of LYO and young people has been established; o Youth offices were equipped formally, technically and with human resources for a well organized information activity with the mass media in 9 local communities; o Websites and portals were set up, as well as internet pages for the young in 15 local communities; o Info points in schools, LYO and other local organizations were opened in 12 local communities; o Cooperation with the local media was established (radio shows on the local radio stations about the activities of the young in municipalities, volunteers in LYO take part in selecting and broadcasting the shows on the local media); o Programmes for information distribution significant to the young were implemented on all levels; o IT clubs were opened and equipped with computers and fast internet access in 5 local communities; o projects for raising the level of computer literacy of the young were supported; o purchase of computers and introduction of internet enabled the young to have a free access to the information from the internet; o young people design, shoot and anchor the topical shows for the young; o the programmes of direct peer education were used for the distribution of information regarding employment; o human resources of associations were improved in the field of development of communication strategies, communication techniques and application of the new mass media resources for the purpose of informing the young; o the information about the disadvantages of the process of informing the young about the mobility programmes and benefits was gathered from the representatives of youth offices in the Republic of Serbia.
o 63,494 visits to the internet page of the Youth office (Savski venac); o 40,000 young people were informed about their rights through the internet page, or directly in the Youth office (Novi Sad)
The conclusion: Based on the analysis of the received reports, it may be concluded that the mentioned municipalities made a great progress in the implementation of general goal 3 and that four activities of the specific objective 3.1 were implemented to a great degree. Generally speaking, it may be concluded for all municipalities that the process of developing the youth information system was established and it became available to
58 many young users, which shows a high degree of achieving the specific objective and young people have the opportunity to get the information about mobility, or cultural events which may be visited in free time, as well as the information directly promoting mobility and intercultural communication.
2.4 General goal 4. To secure exercising of the right to equal opportunities of all the young in society, particularly of the young living in the difficult circumstances
2.4.1 An overview of the implemented activities and projects by the specific objectives
Under the scope of general goal 4. To secure exercising of the right to equal opportunities of all the young in society, particularly of the young living in difficult circumstances the total of 69 activities and projects were implemented (based on the received reports) by the APNYS protagonists. There were 226,909 direct users and over 140,000 indirect users.
The activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, MLSP, MC, MPALSG, MERD, ME); o 30 SGU (Ivanjica, Palilula, Cuprija, Bojnik, Beograd, Becej, Apatin, Gornji Milanovac, Zajecar, Zagubica, Vrsac, Veliko Gradiste, Varvarin, Trstenik, Svilajnac, Senta, Savski venac, Ruma, Priboj, Presevo, Plandiste, Pirot, Paracin, Pantelej, Novi Sad, Medvedja, Lajkovac, Krusevac, Krupanj, Kladovo); o 10 associations.
An overview of the implemented activities / projects by the specific objectives is the following: 4.1.3. Founding the municipal and intermunicipal councils for social policy to cover all SGU and include the young from the vulnerable groups in the work of the council (Specific objective: 4.1. To establish a functional intersystem cooperation for a comprehensive approach to evaluation and satisfaction of the needs of young people from the vulnerable groups) 15 activities and projects; o 4.5.1. Adoption and implementation of the local action plans for the inclusion of young people from vulnerable social groups in the educational processes, employment, sports and recreational activities, various organizations and bodies dealing with young people (Specific objective: 4.5. To include young people from the vulnerable groups in the active and productive life in the community ) 5 activities and projects ; o 4.1.1. Adoption and harmonization of the strategic and action plans of SGU relating to satisfying the needs of young people and their integration in the local community (Specific objective: 4.1. To establish a functional intersystem cooperation for a
59 comprehensive approach to evaluation and satisfaction of the needs of young people from the vulnerable groups ) 4 activities and projects ; o 4.3.2. To define the minimum standards for help in the house services, daycare centres, shelters, youth clubs and development of lacking services for young people (Specific objective: 4.3. To develop services in the local community as the support for life of young people in the family and natural environment ) 4 activities and projects ; o 4.4.1. To organize joint activities for the young coming from the vulnerable social groups and the general population of young people (Specific objective: 4.4. To reduce prejudices against the young from the vulnerable social groups ) 5 activities and projects ; o 4.7.2. To introduce the framework for inclusion index in the school development plan (Specific objective: 4.7. To ensure the right of every young person to adequate education and equal opportunities for learning and development ) 4 activities and projects ; o 4.2.3. According to the identified needs of users, the services of “Living through support” for integration of young people in the local community should be developed (Specific objective: 4.2. To reduce the number of young users of institutional accommodation and improve the quality of services for the young living in the institutions) 3 activities and projects ; o 4.8.3. Providing support to initiatives and self organizing of young people from the vulnerable groups in the field of cultural production (Specific objective: 4.8. To increase the availability of cultural events for the sensitive youth groups ) 3 activities and projects ; o 4.1.2. To initiate and implement activities for the adoption of inter ministerial protocol about the cooperation on satisfying the needs of young people and their integration in the local community (Specific objective: 4.1. To establish a functional intersystem cooperation for a comprehensive approach to evaluation and satisfaction of the needs of young people from the vulnerable groups ) 2 activities and projects ; o 4.1.4. To support the process of preparation, consultations and adoption of the new Law on Social Protection, including the young, particularly from the vulnerable social groups, in the public debate about the Law (Specific objective: 4.1. To establish a functional intersystem cooperation for a comprehensive approach to evaluation and satisfaction of the needs of young people from the vulnerable groups ) 2 activities and projects ; o 4.5.2. – To develop a youth support system for independent work and start up of personal business; To develop the programme for the employment of young users of social protection system (Specific objective: 4.5. To include the young from the vulnerable groups in the active and productive life in the community ) 2 activities and projects ; o 4.6.1. To build new facilities for public use (public playgrounds, park playgrounds), particularly in rural environment (Specific objective: 4.6. To create conditions (space, equipment and human resources) for mass and available sports in the vulnerable youth groups ) 2 activities and projects ; o 4.6.2. To build or refurbish and equip sports facilities for sports done by disabled persons (Specific objective: 4.6. To create conditions (space, equipment, staff) for the
60 availability of the mass sports activities to the young from vulnerable groups ) 2 activities and projects ; o 4.8.5. Adequate informing of young people from the vulnerable groups about the existing cultural events on the local level (Specific objective: 4.8. To increase the availability of cultural events for the sensitive youth groups ) 2 activities and projects ; o 4.10.5. To organize programmes of tertiary PPI and HIV/AIDS prevention in the sensitive youth groups, particularly among those who live with HIV/AIDS, and to promote them through health clubs (Specific objective: 4.10. To protect the health of young people from the sensitive groups and develop mechanisms for their participation in the health improvement programmes ) 2 activities and projects ; o 4.2.1.To analyze individual needs and plans of users – young people from the sensitive social groups (Specific objective: 4.2. To reduce the number of young users in the institutional accommodation and to improve the services and their quality for those young people living in the institutions ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.2.2. To analyze the number of young people from the sensitive groups accommodated in all social protection institutions in the last five years by SGU and types of institutions (Specific objective: 4.2. To reduce the number of young users in the institutional accommodation and to improve the services and their quality for those young people living in the institutions ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.2.4. To set the minimum standards for residential accommodation services for young people г смештаја намењеногfrom the sensitive groups (Specific objective: 4.2. To reduce the number of young users in the institutional accommodation and to improve the services and their quality for those young people living in the institutions ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.7.4. To clean and organize driveways to educational institutions, organizations and bodies and equip them with teaching aids so that they become accessible to everyone, especially young disabled people (Specific objective: 4.7. To ensure exercising of all young people to the right to adequate education with equal opportunities for learning and development ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.7.6. To carry out support measures for preventing the young Romas from leaving education system together with the National Roma Council (Specific objective: 4.7. To ensure exercising of all young people to the right to adequate education with equal opportunities for learning and development ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.7.7. To include young people who left school in additional programmes for adult education (Specific objective: 4.7. To ensure exercising of all young people to the right to adequate education with equal opportunities for learning and development ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.9.2. To include young unemployed people from the sensitive groups in the measures and programmes of active employment policy on the labour market – employment subsidies, skills development programmes and entrepreneurship development (Specific objective: 4.9. To increase employment of young people belonging to the sensitive groups ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.9.3. To provide support for the national and local projects whose aim is to reduce addiction of young people from sensitive groups to all forms of welfare (Specific
61 objective: 4.9. To increase employment of young people from the vulnerable groups ) 1 activity/project ; o 4.10.4. To establish a mechanism for continuous monitoring of the needs of young people from the sensitive groups about PPI and HIV/AIDS, particularly of those living with HIV/AIDS (Specific objective 4.10. To protect the health of young people from the sensitive groups and develop mechanisms for their participation in the health improvement programmes ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.10.5. To organize programmes of tertiary prevention of PPI and HIV/AIDS in the sensitive groups of young people, particularly those living with HIV/AIDS and to promote them through health clubs (Specific objective: 4.10. To protect the health of young people from the sensitive groups and develop mechanisms for their participation in the health improvement programmes ) 1 activity or project ; o 4.12.1. To make research about the perception of security among the sensitive youth categories (Specific objective: 4.12. To create an atmosphere and surrounding in which all young people, particularly those from sensitive groups, have a feeling of personal and collective safety ) 1 activity or project .
On the basis of the received reports it may be concluded that the implementation of activities under the scope of the general goal 4 included a large number of direct and indirect users, and a large number of activities of almost all specific objectives. Namely, activities of all specific objectives were implemented without the domination or concentration of one activity under the scope of one specific objective. Regarding the state bodies ministries, the largest number of activities (10) were initiated and implemented by the competent ministry – the Ministry of labour and social policy. Some systematic and legal activities were initiated and implemented (drafting of the Law on social protection, now in the phase of public debate), numerous activities directly contributing to the achievement of the planned result in NYS – foundation of an integral system of social protection . In the implementation of these activities MYS was a partner to the Ministry of labour and social policy. The following key activities were implemented under the scope of this general goal: o A document called “A comprehensive plan of transformation of residential institutions for the social protection of children“ was prepared; o in 2009 three apartments were bought in Kraljevo from the NIP budget for the young leaving the institutional protection. Another purchase of apartments for the programme “Residing through support” from the NIP funds is planned for 2010. In 2008 2009, 58 young people from the homes were involved in the programme “Residing through support”; o the Draft of minumum standards for the institutional accommodation of children and young people was drawn and piloted. In 2010 the minimum standards will be introduced in all institutions for the residential accommodation of young people.
Ministry of Youth and Sport:
A multi purpose sports facility in Belgrade; approach ramp to the sports facility “Kej”, Pirot; Manjez for therapeutical riding with the assisting ramp in Belgrade; two lifts were installed in sports facilities – Belgrade and Kragujevac; technical documentation for reconstruction of sport centres in schools for disabled children in Belgrade. 62 Numerous activities of state bodies, especially MLSP and SGU, were implemented under the scope of specific objective 4.3. To develop services in the local community as the support for life of young people in the family and natural environment . MLSP and welfare centres carried out various campaigns which influenced the rise in the number of foster families, and new family centres were opened. Further dissemination of these services is planned. The Ministry of health together with 42 local health centres took part in the project The improvement of services on the local level in RS and implemented the education programme for the health workers about the rights and opportunities of young people from the sensitive groups. LAPs for the health improvement of young people were adopted and physiscal and social barriers were removed so as to increase the availability of health protection. The National programme of the women, children and young people health protection was adopted which underlined monitoring of 11 indicators regarding young people, such as PPI and HIV/AIDS. The following programme is ongoing: A voluntary, confidential counselling and testing of HIV students (DPST), the internet counselling centre for sexual orientation was installed and opened by the Institute of health protection of students and the National programme for the prevention of drug and alcohol abuse. In 23 towns in the Republic of Serbia, local communities and SGU have been implementing the programme “Strengthening of national response to HIV/AIDS through decentering of services”, which includes 46 trainings attended by 1,025 persons. The following risk groups have been included: children and young people in the social care homes and institutions (minors with legal problems and children without parental care), young people living with HIV/AIDS, drug addicts who use syringes, young Romas and other young people from the vulnerable groups, inmates, sexual workers. MERD, MYS and NES took part in the preparation and adoption of the Law on professional rehabilitation and employment of disabled people, which will increase opportunities for employment and self employment of the young coming from the vulnerable social groups. In 2009, 1,498 young persons (together with the data for AR Vojvodina) became self employed with the self employment subsidy. 17 of them are Romas. In 2009, the measures for the inclusion of young unemployed members of sensitive groups in the active employment measures and programmes on the labour market (employment subsidies, development of skills, development of entrepreneurship) included 69,535 individuals (together with the data for AR Vojvodina). 1,131 of them were Romas. MERD, NES, UNDP, IOM, ILO and UNICEF initiated a big project “Providing support for the promotion of employment of young people and migration management” which included young people in various local environements. Many SGU in cooperation with other ministries (MPALSG, MYS) founded municipal and intermunicipal councils for social protection to cover all SGU and include young people from the sensitive groups in the council’s work. They also adopted LAPs for the inclusion of young people from the sensitive social groups in the education processes, employment, sports and recreational activities and various organizations and bodies dealing with young people. They also initiated activities for the removal of physical and social (information, procedural etc.) barriers and availability of various services.
63 The associations carried out the largest part of the activities together with SGU.
The conclusion:
The key findings and results are the following: o LAP for young people are based on the inclusion of young people from the sensitive social groups in the productive life in community; o Mobility and unrestricted access to services are available to young people from the sensitive social groups; o The young become increasingly interested in the activities of LYO; o Greater motivation of young people for trainings in peer education; o Increased interest of schools in peer education (mediation and conflict prevention in inclusive school system); o The initiative of schools to get support from LYO to form peer teams; o Interestedness of Roma associations and social protection centres for future cooperation and the improvement of the position of young Roma girls and boys; o The influence on the awareness of integration of young people from the sensitive groups through joint activities, as the first step towards inclusive education; o Better informed public, above all young people, about the rights, position, needs and opportunities for the young from the sensitive social groups; o Action teams were formed, consisting of 15 20 young people in nine towns of the Republic of Serbia, which is at least 150 young people altogether, 50% of whom come from sensitive social groups. Four actions were implemented, and each had 150 800 users, depending on the town, which makes the total of 1,500 users; o Participation in drafting and adoption of the Law on professional rehabilitation and employment of disabled persons; o Development of a support system for the young who work independently or who are about to start their own business; o A better quality of cultural events and more adequate programme of such events for the young from sensitive groups.
Project TIM (The theatre Has Power) of inclusive peer education:
Through joint peer education young people from impoverished families, young Romas and young with behavioural deficiencies showed to their peers that they can do the same things if they are given a chance. The first chance for the young living in hard conditions is the implementation of joint activities so that the young can learn about each other, which is the point of inclusive education as one form of the informal education. They have the opportunity to develop and exercise social skills of decision making, communication and ability to resolve conflicts. The programme of joint, informal education represents a method of successful inclusion of marginalizedo осетљивих youth in the група. life of local community. The inclusive education offers the following to the young: - To meet other people, - To take responsibility for in the prevention of peer conflicts, - A reduced number of adult interventions in resolving their problems, - Development of patterns of behaviour and equal participation, - A preparation for joint formal (iclusive) education, - An active participation of young people in the process of providing equal chances for their 64 peers.
Centre for constructive conflict resolution , Republic of Serbia , Rakovica
Through promotion of the right to a second chance in 2009 we made it possible for 80 young Roma girls and boys from Sabac and Obrenovac with no qualifications to obtain qualification for the job they want or expect to get. All qualifications were verified in the local offices of NES and in the first 7 months after the training 29 of all participants got various jobs. The continuation of the project in Pancevo and Bogatic in April 2010, another 60 young Romas will join this group.
Centre for progressive education “Learning education”, Belgrade
2.5 General goal 5. To encourage and value exceptional performance and achievements of the young in different fields
2.5.1 An overview of implemented activities and projects by specific objectives
Under the scope of general goal 5. – To encourage and value exceptional performance and achievements of the young in different fields 66 activities and projects were implemented (based on the received reports) by APNYS protagonists. There were 63,515 direct users altogether and over 10,000 indirect users.
Activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, MSTD, MC, ME); o 34 SGU (Svilajnac, Krupanj, Krusevac, Lajkovac, Medvedja, Negotin, Novi Sad, Palilula, Pantelej, Pirot, Plandiste, Pozega, Savski venac, Senta, Svrljig, Trstenik, Uzice, Veliko Gradiste, Vlasotince, Zagubica, Zajecar, Gornji Milanovac, Ivanjica, Kikinda, Cuprija); o 6 associations.
The overview of activities and projects by specific objectives: o 5.3.2. To develop various mechanisms for encouraging the creativity of the young and their artistic performance – counselling, festivals, etc. (Specific objective: 5.3. To support and motivate the creativity of young people in arts and culture ) 21 activities and projects ; o 5.2.4. To improve the system of social recognition and awards for young people’s scientific achievements (Specific objective: 5.2. To promote scientific research of young people ) 14 activities and projects ; o 5.3.1. Development of a network of organizations, programmes and activities in the whole territory of the Republic of Serbia so that the young can show and improve their interests and talents for arts (Specific objective: 5.3. To support and motivate the cultural and artisitic creativity of young people ) 11 activities and projects ; o 5.1.1. To ensure the continuous work of the Fund for Young Talents (Specific objective: 5.1. To encourage the development of young researchers, scientists,
65 sportsmen, artists and innovators to achieve a better economic growth and prosperity ) 4 activities and projects ; o 5.5.1. A systematic implementation of scientific empirical research and collection of data about the position and needs of young people (Specific objective: 5.5. Systematic monitoring of the situation, problems, needs and attitudes of young people) 3 activities and projects ; o 5.5.2. To encourage publishing and information activities targeted at young audience (Specific objective: 5.5. Systematic monitoring of the situation, problems, needs and attitudes of young people ) 4 activities and projects; o 5.2.3. To improve the system of competition and tournaments for young people (Specific objective: 5.2. To promote scientific research of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 5.2.2. To develop different mechanisms for a more successful inclusion of young people in scientific research; A more efficient promotion of science and research as an occupation for young people (national counselling, science festivals) ( Specific objective: 5.2. To promote scientific research of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 5.2.1. A constant updating of the programmes, organizations and activities dealing with formal and informal education and well organized free time of young people showing interest in and talent for science and research (Specific objective: 5.2. To promote scientific research of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 5.1.7. To find and include the material for the work with young people showing exceptional abilities and interest in the programmes of initial education of teachers and expert associates (Specific objective: 5.1. To encourage the development of young researchers, scientists, sportsmen, artists and innovators to achieve a better economic growth and prosperity ) 1 activity or project .
Figure 7. An overview of implemented activities and projects by specific objectives
The analysis of indicators shows that most of activities and projects were implemented under the scope of the specific objective 5.3. To support and motivate the creativity of young people in arts and culture, specifically within the activities relating to the development of various mechanisms for encouraging the young for artisitc creativity
66 (counselling, festivals etc. ) 32% of the total number of activities. According to the interest of protagonists, 22% of activities were implemented under the scope of 5.2.4. To improve the system of social recognition and awards for young people’s scientific achievements . Activity 5.3.1. Development of a network of organizations, programmes and activities in the whole territory of the Republic of Serbia so that the young can show and improve their interests and talents for arts included 17% of the total number of activities. The protagonists also implemented the projects which ensured the continuous work of the Serbian Fund for Young Talents, the scientific empirical research and data collection about the situation and needs of young people, encouraged publication and information activities dealing with young people, etc .
In 2009 the Fund for Young Talents of the Republic of Serbia, the indirect user of budget funds through the Ministry of Youth and Sports announced three advertisements: 1. The tender for awarding the prizes to high school students and university students for excellent results in the national and international competitions in 2008, and 690 high school and university students received awards on this basis; 2. The tender for providing scholarship for the best students who enrolled in the final year of the first degree academic studies, as well as the second and third degree academic studies in the universities in EU countries, or countries memebrs of the European association for free trade, or leading universities in the world, and 155 students received awards on this basis. 3. The tender for awarding scholarship for the best students in the final year of the primary academic studies, or master academic studies, or integrated academic studies in the higher education institutions founded by the Republic of Serbia in the academic 2009/10 year, and 1,000 students received awards on this basis.
The total budget funds for the Fund for Young Talents in 2009 amounted to RSD 469,964,000.00. In addition, most local self governments which opened youth offices have certain funds in their budgets for awarding young talents. Most often these awards go to students who only had best marks during their education („vukovci“), or young people who took one of the first three places in the state competitions, or scholarships are awarded for further education of talented high school and university students.
The conclusion:
Other key results of activities implemented under the scope of general goal 5: o The implementation of programmes for promotion and popularization of science through financing the projects approved through open tenders (organizations for scientific research, scientific societies, associations etc.) 30 implemented programmes of organizations doing scientific research; o Introduction of system of awards and recognition satisfying the pedagogical and functional criteria and eliminating the accumulation of awards; o Defining the criteria and other solutions for winners, the awards themselves and the amount of awards for scientific achievement of young people;
67 o Support to young students in their preparations for competitions and their participation in international and global competitions, olympics of knowledge – 7 olympics; o Support to students organizations for implementing the activities which encourage scientific work – 11 students organizations; o Support to youth summer schools – 9 summer schools; o Once used financial support to students of any level of studies for academic studying abroad 70 and 65 for participation and presentation of paper in conventions abroad; o Support to the state foundation for the development of scientific and artisitc youth 550 scholarships (together with ME); o Over 250 implemented programmes, activities and scientific promotions; o Once used support to scientific societies for the implementation of programmes of science promotion and popularization 25 popular lectures and panel discussions; o Support to the implementation of the programme of the Research station Petnica – participation of around 2,500 young people in over 140 seminars, courses, etc.; o Established mechanisms ensuring a more successful participation, creativity and enagagement on the part of young people; o 185 various media presentations for young people; o Radio and TV shows dedicated to young people, youth leaflets and internet pages in 10 local communities.
2.6 General goal 6. To develop opportunities for quality free time of the young
2.6.1 An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific goals
Under the scope of general goal 6 (based on the received reports), 189 activities and projects were implemented by APNYS. There were 247,777 direct users and over 240,000 indirect users.
Activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, MC, ME); o 38 SGU (Kladovo, Knjazevac, Krupanj, Krusevac, Lajkovac, Medvedja, Negotin, Novi Sad, Osecina, Palilula, Pantelej, Paracin, Pirot, Plandiste, Pozega, Presevo, Priboj, Razanj, Ruma, Savski venac, Senta, Svilajnac, Svrljig, Trstenik, Uzice, Varvarin, Veliko Gradiste, Zagubica, Zajecar, Zvezdara, Gornji Milanovac, Ivanjica, Becej, Bojnik, Belgrade, Cuprija, Golubac); o 11 associations.
An overview of implemented activities/projects by specific objectives:
68 o 6.1.1. To provide support for commencing and implementation of programmes for quality free time of the young (Specific objective: 6.1. To establish an analysis and monitoring system for the key needs of the young and providing support for intervention programmes and coordination of the key actors in the free time management on the national, regional and local level ) 67 activities and projects ; o 6.4.1. – To encourage and support the creativity of young people in different fields paying special attention to small underdeveloped communities; To support implementation of various cultural events in poor, small communities (public performaces and street manifestations of youth culture, visiting museum installations), Night of museums in small communities or organized excursion of young people from small communities to the Night of museums (Specific objective: 6.4. To increase the availability of cultual events especially to young people in small and impoverished communities ) 22 activities and projects ; o 6.6.4. To finance sports and recreational activities for students during holidays, and for young employees after working hours (Specific objectives: 6.6. To support the participation of young people of all ages in sports and recreational activities on all levels ) 17 activities and projects ; o 6.6.5. To organize mass sports manifestations, schools and camps (marathons, races, bicycle competitions, etc.) in order to promote sports or for humanitarian reasons (Specific objective: 6.6. To support the participation of young people of all ages in sports and recreational activities on all levels ) 17 activities and projects ; o 6.5.1. To refurbish and equip the exisitng sports facilities, including facilities for outdoors recreation – skate parks, aqua parks, trim paths, hiking trails, orienteering, etc. (Specific objective: 6.5. To ensure conditions for young people to do sport activities in the local community ) 10 activities and projects ; o 6.2.1. To continuously inform public about the youth initiatives – planned and implemented (Specific objective: 6.2. To provide support and conditions for self organizing of young people ) 10 activities and projects ; o 6.2.2. To provide support for youth initiatives through LYO (Specific objective: 6.2. To provide support and conditions for self organizing of young people ) 9 activities and projects ; o 6.5.2. To build new facilities available for public use (public playgrounds, park playgrounds) particularly in rural environment (Specific objective: 6.5. To ensure conditions for young people to do sport activities in the local community ) 6 activities and projects ; o 6.6.1. To provide support to sports organizations for introduction and dissemination of recreational activities to young people (Specific objective: 6.6. To support the participation of young people of all ages in sports and recreational activities on all levels ) 5 activities and projects ; o 6.6.7. To support national campaigns for promotion of healthy lifestyle (Specific objective: 6.6. To support the participation of young people of all ages in sports and recreational activities on all levels ) 5 activities and projects ; o 6.7.1. To improve general physical condition and health of young people by extra curricula sports activities in high schools (Specific objective: 6.7. To institutionalize and develop school sports ) 5 activities and projects ;
69 o 6.6.8. To promote and implement the programme of physical activities adapted to preservation of health of young people (based on the results of medical check ups) (Specific objective: 6.6. To support the participation of young people of all ages in sports and recreational activities on all levels ) 4 activities and projects ; o 6.1.3. To establish research material and methodology for the needs of young people and youth programmes (Specific objective: 6.1. To establish an analysis and monitoring system for the key needs of the young and providing support for intervention programmes and coordination of the key actors in the free time management on the national, regional and local level ) 4 activities and projects ; o 6.6.2. To support campaigns to promote sports among young people (Specific objective: 6.6. To support the participation of young people of all ages in sports and recreational activities on all levels ) 3 activities and projects ; o 6.6.3. (Co)finance and introduce subsidies for young people doing sports (Specific objective: 6.6. To support the participation of young people of all ages in sports and recreational activities on all levels ) 3 activities and projects ; o 6.3.1. To support campaigns promoting comanagement principle in creating cultural policies, and to inform young people about opportunities for their participation in the process of creating cultural policies (Specific objective: 6.3. To promote active participation of young people in creating cultural policies and their implementation on all levels ) 3 activities and projects ; o 6.3.2. To support volunteering of young people in cultural institutions (Specific objective: 6.3. To promote active participation of young people in creating cultural policies and their implementation on all levels ) 1 activity or project ; o 6.1.2. To establish a unified monitoring system for the programme implementation and effects evaluation (Specific objective: 6.1. To establish an analysis and monitoring system for the key needs of the young and providing support for intervention programmes and coordination of the key actors in the free time management on the national, regional and local level ) 1 activity or project ; o 6.1.4. To make and update the database of research results about the needs of young people and programmes for young people’s free time (Specific objective: 6.1. To establish an analysis and monitoring system for the key needs of the young and providing support for intervention programmes and coordination of the key actors in the free time management on the national, regional and local level ) 1 activity or project .
70
Figure 8. An overview of implemented activities and projects by the specific objectives
The implementation of activities and projects under the scope of general goal 6 To develop opportunities for quality free time of the young included all specific objectives of this general goal. Namely, all specific objectives were implemented under the scope of certain projects and activities. Judging by the received reports most activities were implemented under the scope of specific objective 6.1 . To establish an analysis and monitoring system for the key needs of the young and providing support for intervention programmes and coordination of the key actors in the free time management on the national, regional and local level . Most definitely the largest number of activities and projects were implemented in order to encourage the implementation of programmes for quality free time of young people (activity 6.1.1.) 67 activities and projects were implemented, or 34%. These activities and projects initiated various programmes for quality free time of young people in 34 local communities. Other big field in which different projects and activities were implemented is encouragement of young people’s creativity in various fields with special attention paid to small and underdeveloped environment (6.4.1.) – 22 activities and projects, or 11%. MYS finances the construction, reconstruction, adaptation and sanation sports facilities, which gives the possibility to children and young people to play sports, foster and promote healthy lifestyle. A special MYS project implemented together with the Government of Kingdom of Norway and Serbian Football Association is to build mini pitch fields in 49 towns and municipalities in the Republic of Serbia, which will create conditions for sports activities in towns where there are no publig grounds. Financing sports and recreational activities for high school and university students during holidays as well as for employed young people, organizing mass sports activities, schools and camps included even 34 activities and projects, or 18%. Refurbishing and equipping the existing sports facilities and recreational outdoors facility (skate parks, aqua parks, trim and hiking trails, orienteering, etc.) included the implementation of 10 activities and
71 projects, or 5%. The need for continuous dissemination of information to public about the initiatives of the young was the topic for 10 activities and projects (5%), whereas support for young people through LYO was provided in 9 projects (5%). Topics about sports and engagement of young people in free time were implemented through various activities and projects. The construction of new facilities such as public playgrounds, especially in rural environments, was of primary importance, as well as providing support to sports organizations to introduce and spread recreational activities of the young, the improvement of general physical condition and health of young people through extra curriculum sports activities in high schools, promotion and implementation of programmes of physical activities adapted to health of young people (based on the results of medical check ups).
The conclusion: Main results achieved in the activities and projects under the scope of general goal 6 may be summerized in the following way: o Raising the awareness of young people about the quality time with peers; o Inciting the sport spirit of young people; o Promoting healthy lifestyles; o socializing; o development of ecological awareness; o sports organizations for recreational activities of young people; o increased dissemination of information about the activities of young people and for the young to public; o ensured conditions for doing sports both in urban and rural communities; o young people encouraged to spend quality free time in nature; o increased mobility and networking of the young from different municipalities; o active participation of young people in society through raising the capacities of young people and encouragement for active participation in their own environment and exchange of experience through joint actions with peers from various communities; o young people are well aware of cultural and historical sights in their community.
Sports and recreational activities in town help educate people about sports and promote them, they have a positive influence on adopting healthy lifestyle habits by young people and efficient usage of their free time. This year 306 teams took part in competitons in the country and in towns called “Sports summer ”, i.e. 2,988 participants (total number of participants was 6,352). The manifestation “Sports winter ” in the country and in towns was attended by 366 teams, i.e. 1,849 participants.
Paracin
Intercultural exchange completely fulfilled its aim – the young exchanged the knowledge about the specifics of their and other cultures, learned basic values of sport competing such as having fun, respect and fair play, learned more about discrimination and marginalized groups, they were encouraged to become agents of change in their environments, and they were networked for further work in the intercultural fields.
Intercultural youth exchange in Nis and Lebane 72 2.7 General goal 7 To develop an open, efficient, effective and just system of formal and informal education available to all the young people following the global education trends as well as the education context in the Republic of Serbia
2.7.1 An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific goals
Under the scope of general goal 7 To develop an open, efficient, effective and just system of formal and informal education available to all the young people following the global education trends as well as the education context in the Republic of Serbia 91 activities and projects (based on the received reports) were implemented by APNYS. The total of direct users was 15,520 and the total of indirect users was 20,000.
The activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, MLSP, MC, ME); o 25 SGU (Varvarin, Ivanjica, Zagubica, Zajecar, Trstenik, Veliko Gradiste, Senta, Svilajnac, Plandiste, Priboj, Savski venac, Knjazevac, Krupanj, Lajkovac, Osecina, Medvedja, Novi Sad, Palilula, Pantelej, Cuprija, Zvezdara, Gornji Milanovac, Kikinda, Belgrade, Mali Zvornik); o 7 associations.
An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific objectives: o 7.1.8. – To promote informal learning and life long education among young people; To implement campaigns which will promote knowledge and education as values (Specific objective: 7.1. To increase participation of young people in various aspects of formal and informal education ) 24 activities and projects ; o 7.6.4. To support the implementation of informal educational programmes together with LYO (Specific objective: 7.6. To stimulate the development of the informal learning and education programme and professionalization of work with young people in the Republic of Serbia ) 17 activities and projects ; o 7.6.3. To support strengthening of the peer education programme in high schools as a form of informal learning (Specific objective: 7.6. To stimulate the development of the informal learning and education programme and professionalization of work with young people in the Republic of Serbia ) 12 activities and projects ; o 7.4.2. To organize trainings for LYO employees for financial planning and education management (Specific objective 7.4. To secure mechanisms and incentives for raising the efficiency in formal and informal education of young people ) 5 activities and projects ; o 7.1.2. To establish permanent cooperation with all key partners in the field of informal education – joint data collection, data processing and exchange of information about the volume of young people taking part in various forms of formal and informal education with ME, MYS, RSO and NES (Specific objective: 7.1. To increase participation of young people in various aspects of formal and informal education ) 5 activities and projects ;
73 o 7.2.3. – To establish youth councils in LYO and train council members for active participation in education policy; To define procedures for participation of youth councils in planning the informal education programme which will be financed from the SGU budget (Specific objective 7.2. To increase the degree of participation of young people in decision making processes in education ) 4 activities and projects ; o 7.2.5 To train the representatives of students parliaments for their participation in making, implementing and monitoring the results of various educational activities on the level of an institution, body, or organization (Specific objective 7.2. To increase the degree of participation of young people in decision making processes in education ) 3 activities and projects ; o 7.7.5. To train high school and university students for active and efficient career management (Specific objective: 7.7. To empower young people to take over an active, responsible and efficient management of their careers ) 3 activities and projects ; o 7.3.3. To support further development of the internal and external evaluation system for the work of the high school education institutions standards, indicators, instruments for measuring the level of standards implementation, trainings of education counsellors, teachers and students (Specific objective: 7.3. To ensure quality in formal and informal education of young people through setting the standards ) 2 activities and projects ; o 7.3.6. To set the quality standards for the programmes of informal education (Specific objective: 7.3. To ensure quality in formal and informal education of young people through setting the standards ) 2 activities and projects ; o 7.2.2. To promote active participation of young people in decision making process in education (Specific objective 7.2. To increase the degree of participation of young people in decision making processes in education ) 2 activities and projects ; o 7.1.6. To increase the capacities and improve equipment in high school and university students’ dorms (Specific objective: 7.1. To increase participation of young people in various aspects of formal and informal education ) 2 activities and projects ; o 7.6.1. To develop professional standards for work with young people, including the work wit volunteers, harmonized with the EU standards and needs in the Republic of Serbia (Specific objective: 7.6. To stimulate the development of the informal learning and education programme and professionalization of work with young people in the Republic of Serbia ) 2 activities and projects ; o 7.1.4. To initiate the adoption of legal regulations for awarding scholarships to young students from impoverished families and rural areas in Serbia, as well as for elementary education of adults not older than 30 (Specific objective: 7.1. To increase participation of young people in various aspects of formal and informal education ) 1 activity or project ; o 7.2.1. To establish the proposal of amendemnts to the Law on educational and learning system (ZOSOV) which regulates students participation in decision making process in education (Specific objective 7.2. To increase the degree of participation of young people in decision making processes in education ) 1 activity or project ; o 7.3.1. – To promote and support defining of the educational standards based on competences;
74 To establish educational standards which should be met at the end of high school education regarding both general education and professional subjects (Specific objective: 7.3. To ensure quality in formal and informal education of young people through setting the standards) 1 activity or project ; o 7.3.5. To implement methods and forms of education and learning encouraging young people to actively participate in teaching process and development of learning with understanding the teaching material (Specific objective: 7.3. To ensure quality in formal and informal education of young people through setting the standards ) 1 activity or project ; o 7.3.8. To train young people to self evaluate the competences acquired in the course of informal education (Specific objective: 7.3. To ensure quality in formal and informal education of young people through setting the standards ) 1 activity or project ; o 7.3.4. To modernize curricula in order to provide a functional computer and technological literacy (Specific objective: 7.3. To ensure quality in formal and informal education of young people through setting the standards ) 1 activity or project ; o 7.4.4. To support the development of a unified information educational system which will comprise all information necessary for measuring the progress of informal education (Specific objective 7.4. To secure mechanisms and incentives for raising the efficiency in formal and informal education of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 7.5.4. To encourage various forms of cooperation between education institutions on the one hand and pupils and students on the other: 1. To organize regional and local business and educational meetings between businesspeople and students, 2. To develop a system of awarding scholarships by businesspeople and funds as a way of socially responsible business operations (Specific objective: 7.5. Permanent harmonization of the educational and learning system with the current and future demands on the labour market ) 1 activity or project ; o 7.6.2. To train teachers and expert associates in high schools to work with youth associations following the set professional standards of working with young people (Specific objective: 7.6. To stimulate the development of the informal learning and education programme and professionalization of work with young people in the Republic of Serbia ) 1 activity or project .
The implementation of general goal 7 included 91 activities of almost all specific objectives of this goal. Most of the implemented activities (24) are under the scope of 7.1.8. – To promote informal learning and life long education among young people (Specific objective: 7.1. To increase participation of young people in various aspects of formal and informal education ). Namely, most activities dealt with opportunities, forms and ways of inclusion of young people in various forms of formal and informal education. These activities were organized by ministries, primarily MYS, then ME and MC, but also SGU in large part. Similarly to other specific objectives, most activities were implemented together with youth offices or through youth offices. LYO organized numerous activities connected with the development of the informal learning and education programme and professionalization of work with young people in Serbia.
75 Other activities carried out during the implementation of this objective included various fields, particularly the following: peer education programme, trainings for the SGU employees, cooperation with all stakeholders on the informal education implementation, strengthening of capacities of youth groups working on projects, various forms of training young people, youth council members and LYO. The contents of these activities included trainings for young people, such as: o Informal education programmes for high school students – business simulations; o Seminar about global warming; o Programmes contributing to the development of creative abilities of young people; o Programmes of informing the young; o Peer education programmes for high school students about youth entrepreneurship, healthy lifestyles, combat against HIV; o Educational camps; o Organizing the student parliaments.
Informal education has been promoted through a number of activities MYS (support to projects of civil associations, informing youth offices about seminars and trainings, support for youth participation...).
The cooperation on the Partial agreement North South, young people from Serbia
participated in ”Summer university about the young and development” in Molina, Spain; they participated in the seminar about global warming in Budapest; and a long term training about Euro African cooperation, Ivory Coast.
MYS
The conclusion: The main results are the following: o The number of young people participating in various forms of informal education was increased; o The young are empowered regarding informal education; o Violence among young people was reduced (according to the indicators from the reports received from the implementation protagonists); o A certain contribution to the development of creative skills of young people was made; o The awareness of young people about gender equality was raised; o Young people are empowered to look for a job actively; o The variety and quality of informal education in schools were increased; o The programmes were promoted among young people; o Peer education was promoted; o The awareness of young people about themselves was raised; o The dialogue for drafting the Development strategy for informal education of the young was initiated;
76 o Decisions in education institutions and organizations are made through active participation of high school and university students.
Local self government in Knjazevac provided support of RSD 600,000 two programmes of informal education for high school students. Grammar school in Knjazevac implemented the business simulation programme within Junior Achievement, and Technical high school the youth entrepreneurship programme.
2.8 General goal 8 To encourage and stimulate all forms of employment, self employment and entrepreneurship of the young
2.8.1 An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific objectives
Under the scope of general goal 8 – To encourage and stimulate all forms of employment, self employment and entrepreneurship of the young the total of 93 activities and projects (based on the received reports) was implemented by the APNYS protagonists. Considering the character and content of the specific objectives, the activities included a large number of direct and indirect users. The National Employment Service only directly worked with 138,804 young people of the age from 18 to 30. The total number of users of other projects was 23,266 direct and 69,000 indirect users.
The activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, ME, MERD, NES, MNIP, MLSP); o 28 SGU (Knjazevac, Krupanj, Kladovo, Lajkovac, Medvedja, Palilula, Osecina, Pantelej, Paracin, Plandiste, Presevo, Priboj, Savski venac, Senta, Svilajnac, Svrljig, Varvarin, Trstenik Veliko Gradiste, Zagubica, Zajecar, Zvezdara, Gornji Milanovac, Ivanjica, Cuprija, Kikinda, Belgrade, Alibunar); o 11 associations.
An overview of the implemented activities/projects by specific objectives: o 8.3.1. To promote the concept of youth entrepreneurship (Specific objective: 8.3. To encourage opening new jobs, develop self employed and entrepreneurship among young people in every environment ) 29 activities and projects ; o 8.3.2. To encourage the implementation of the programmes and projects for the development of youth entrepreneurship in Serbia (Specific objective: 8.3. To encourage opening new jobs, develop self employed and entrepreneurship among young people in every environment ) 22 activities and projects ; o 8.2.2. Based on the needs of local and regional labour markets, to increase the number of young people participating in trainings and improve the quality of trainings for improvement of skills and acquiring new skills and qualifications (Specific objective
77 8.2. To ensure a higher participation of young people in measures and programmes of active employment policies ) 10 activities and projects ; o 8.1.4. To provide financial and professional help to young people in experiencing work, expert and student practice and volunteering (Specific objective 8.1. To improve the perspective of young people on the labour market and create conditions for participation and quality employment of young people ) 7 activities and projects ; o 8.1.1. To investigate the needs of young people for career guidance, counselling and informing (Specific objective 8.1. To improve the perspective of young people on the labour market and create conditions for participation and quality employment of young people ) 6 activities and projects ; o 8.3.3. To encourage the education of young people for entrepreneurship in rural areas (Specific objective 8.3. To encourage opening new jobs, develop self employed and entrepreneurship among young people in every environment ) 5 activities and projects ; o 8.2.3. To inform the uneducated young people about the opportunities for continuation of school education and employment (Specific objective 8.2. To ensure a higher participation of young people in measures and programmes of active employment policies ) 4 activities and projects ; o 8.2.1. To ensure that young people as a specific target group of unemployed persons become priority on the labour market and to ensure a better quality of active measures and better regional representation of young people in trainings and programmes (Specific objective 8.2. To ensure a higher participation of young people in measures and programmes of active employment policies ) 3 activities and projects ; o 8.3.4. To introduce new credit lines and support programmes to encourage youth entrepreneurship through the Development Fund of the Republic of Serbia, with favourable interest conditions (Specific objective 8.3. To encourage opening new jobs, develop self employed and entrepreneurship among young people in every environment ) 3 activities and projects ; o 8.1.2. To encourage the foundation and development of the career guidance and counselling centre which will work with young people on the labour market (Specific objective 8.1. To improve the perspective of young people on the labour market and create conditions for participation and quality employment of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 8.1.3. To adopt standards for the work with young people in career guidance and counseling centres and centres for professional informing, based on the Strategy for career guidance and counselling (Specific objective 8.1. To improve the perspective of young people on the labour market and create conditions for participation and quality employment of young people) 1 activity or project ; o 8.4.1. To secure bigger investments of state funds in the development of underdeveloped regions in order to reduce the number of young persons leaving these regions (Specific objective: 8.4. To increase professional and spatial mobility of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 8.4.3. To ensure that the system of prognosis on the labour market is introduced on the national and regional level (Specific objective: 8.4. To increase professional and spatial mobility of young people ) 1 activity or project .
78
Figure 9. An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific objectives
The results show that most of the activities were implemented through the specific objective 8.3. Specific objective 8.3. To encourage opening new jobs, develop self employed and entrepreneurship among young people in every environment 54 projects and activities. The greatest interest was for the activities implemented in the field of development and empowerment of young people for youth entrepreneurship. This topic was dealt with by the ministries, NES, associations, LYO and youth organizations.
MYS, Agency for the development of small and medium enterprises, Business innovative program, trainings about recognizing and development of a business idea were implemented for young people (18 35 years of age) in 14 towns.
These activities had expected results from NES – young people were shown different ways and possibilities for self employment and development of entrepreneurial skills important for youth entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial skills of young people were developed in youth entrepreneurship trainings; the young passed the training for starting up their own business; young entrepreneurs who wanted to improve their own business were also trained. The total activity of the development of youth entrepreneurship was implemented in every segment – disseminating information, planning and empowering the young for entrepreneurship. In this context, students companies were opened (in cooperation with USAID Junior Achievement) in high schools in many local communities. Youth entrepreneurship programmes were implemented by associations too and the results of these projects contributed to the final results achieved by the implementation of this specific objective , particularly the number of young people being well informed about the
79 possibilities for self employment was increased through TV shows, PR activities, leaflets. In this way, not only general public was influenced, but also bodies and organizations of local and state authorities whose support and help in this and similar projects was invaluable, regarding the credibility, as well as coverage of the area where the project is implemented. The joint work of different bodies, organizations and institutions resulted in the development of the awareness of the significance of cooperation between unemployed young people and local authorities, organizations, institutions and associations.
The results of these numerous activities on strengthening and development of youth entrepreneurship are the following: o Development of the spirit of entrepreneurship and development of environment favourable for innovative business; o Drafting of LAP for the development of youth entrepreneurship; o The development of youth spirit was encouraged, as well as entrepreneurial environment among young people; o Providing help to young people to develop self initiative, self confidence, creativity, team work and responsibility; o Motivating and encouraging young people to think about and promote self employment.
The people who participated in the training for youth entrepreneurship PPES will also take part in the announcement for AGRO BIZNIS project open to young people who have a business idea in agriculture.
During the Global entrepreneurship week “Be your own man” two trainings were organized for high school students about writing a CV, finding a job, starting up one’s own business, defining a professional orientation of senior high school students.
Priboj
In addition to entrepreneurial trainings, other trainings were organized, as well as changing the qualification of young people in local environment. Besides NES, such programmes were implemented by SGU and associations.
Group dissemination of information about the services offered by NES, rights and obligations of unemployed people included: Young people up to 30: 137,395 persons
Individual employment plan which establishes activities to be carried out by the unemployed and type of help NES will provide in order to increase employment, i.e. finding the job was signed with: Young people up to 30: 181,757 persons
80 Trainings for active seeking the job ATP 1 with the aim to motivate the unemployed for active seeking the job and direct to all relevant sources of information about vacant positions, learn how to write a CV and prepare for a job interview included: Young people up to 30: 21,481 persons
The employment fairs where direct meetings of the unemployed and employers are organized were visited by: Young people up to 30: 21,528 persons
Clubs for seeking the job whose aim is to disseminate information, educate and exchange experiences of the unemployed included: Young people up to 30: 1,918 persons
Working on the implementation of the activities which will ensure that young people as a specific target group of unemployed people on the labour market become a priority and that more quality active measures are provided and that a better regional representation of young people included in trainings and programmes is organized, in 2009 MERD implemented, through the mediation of NES, the apprenticeship programme based on the Announcement for awarding funds to employers for hiring and professional training of apprentices “First chance” which includes 15,589 persons. The executive board of the Autonomous region Vojvodina together with NES implemented a public announcement for financing the employment of apprentices for a limited period of time in the territory of AR Vojvodina. With the subsidy for opening new jobs, the total of hired persons together with AR Vojvodina 6,915 persons, 2,642 of whom are younger than 30, and 1,326 of whom are hired from the RS budget. Within the implementation of the programme of new credit lines and support to senior citizens to incite entrepreneurship among young people the Development Fund of RS approved start up credits to business beginners under favourable conditions. After the first round of approving the start up credits without mortgage in 2009, the number of funds approved for start up credit line for initiating personal business was 1,059 credits in the amount of RSD 1.6 billion dinars. The entrepreneurs were approved 721 credits, whereas legal entities were approved 338 credits. In the second round 1,763 credits were approved in the amount of RSD 2.5 billion dinars, out of which the entrepreneurs were approved 1,245 credits, and legal entities 518 credits. In this year, young people not older than 25 applied for and were approved 722 credits, whereas 1,136 young people between 26 and 30 years of age were approved the start up credit for their own business. The total amount of funds of 4.1 billion dinars projected for 2009 was exhausted and it is expected that 10,000 persons will be employed on the basis of the approved credits. The implementation of activity – To ensure bigger investments from the state funds in the development of underdeveloped regions in order to reduce the number of young people leaving these regions was allocated the funds from the budget based on the Programme for the distribution and usage of funds to encourage the development of companies and entrepreneurship in the most underdeveloped municipalities in 2009 through the Development Fund equaling RSD 2,490,000,000. The Agency for Foreign Investments and Export Promotion pursuant to the Directive of the Serbian Government about the conditions and ways of attracting direct foreign investments in 2009 approved
81 subsidiaries to investors in the amount of EUR 2,000 to 5,000 per one newly opened position for at least 50 new employees, while in industrial sector the minimum investment was from 1 to 3 million euro depending on the unemployment rate in the municipality where the investment is made. NES made a catalogue of trainings based on the analysis of local labour market demands, vacant positions of various employers, occupations, skills and knowledge demanded/requested by the employers, interests of unemployed people to do certain jobs /attend certain programmes. The trainings included 1,789 young people. The project ”Let’s find a job together” included 506 unemployed people from the pilot regions (Belgrade and Banat).
The goal of the project was to empower 45 young people in the municipality of Kanjiza. The goal was fulfilled 100% since competences of target group of the age between 18 and 35 were developed through trainings and certification for EBC*L qualification acquisition. - Qualification was gained by 44 persons; - 2 persons started their own business; - Reform at work place was introduced by 9 persons; - The training helped introduce various changes in the business of 32 persons; - Number of persons who said they wanted to start their own business within one year – persons; - Want to continue trainings in EBC*L, „B” modul – 42 persons.
The project ”Practice fair 2009” – two day fair held on 27 November over 70 companies, small and medium enterprises and organizations offered more than 1,000 forms of professional practice for young people.
Youth office of the Belgrade City government
The conclusion:
Within the implementation of this general goal activities carried out were in the field of creating the programme of informal education for young people and active looking for a job, and initiating their own career. The achieved results were that the young were empowered to develop themselves as educators and to become more decisive regarding their choices for future career. The acquired knowledge enabled them to counsel and direct their peers. They worked under the scope of activities organized by local and regional youth offices. The concept of peer educator who will deal with career issues turned out to be very successful. As in other fields of informal education, it was shown that young people can easily share trust with other young people and that they are more ready to accept counsel from peers. Great interestedness of high school students to participate in peer education workshops shows that the young have the need to acquire knowledge in this field.
82 2.9 General goal 9. To advance the conditions for the safe life of the young
2.9.1 An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific objectives
Under the scope of general goal 9 – To advance the conditions for the safe life of the young (based on the received reports) 92 activities and projects were implemented by APNYS protagonists. There were around 59,130 direct participants and over 200,000 indirect users.
Activities and projects were implemented: o ministries (MYS, ME, MH, MLSP, MIF, MJ); o 20 SGU (Krupanj, Medvedja, Palilula, Novi Sad, Pantelej, Plandiste, Pirot, Presevo, Savski venac, Senta, Svilajnac, Varvarin, Trstenik, Veliko Gradiste, Zagubica, Zvezdara, Gornji Milanovac, Becej, Cuprija, Belgrade). o 12 associations.
An overview of the implemented activities and projects by specific objectives: o 9.3.3. – Continuous promotion of safe culture, particularly safe driving, among young people through sports and cultural events; To organize continuously campaigns about safe driving (Specific objective 9.3. To develop safe culture among young people ) 21 activities and projects ; o 9.6.1. To introduce and develop mechanisms and modalities for evaluation, identification and reaction to safety risks and problems: 1. To encourage teams of experts (crisis teams) for prevention and sanation of consequences of sociopsychological and safety problems of young people (on all levels starting from tha national to local, as well as the level of specific institutions and organizations, such as schools), 2. To define and train someone to mediate conflicts in every school (Specific objective 9.6. To make a safe school environment ) 14 activities and projects ; o 9.9.1. – To make services in social centres available 24 hours; To develop procedures for making urgent services in social centres for young victims of violence and other people in acute crisis situations available 24 hours (Specific objective 9.9. To develop procedures and services of urgent interventions for young people – victims of violence and other people in acute crisis situations ) 8 activities and projects ; o 9.11.1. – To make and adopt a bylaw about the implementation of educational decisions; To make a list of institutions, services and organizations where educational decisions and measures for special responsibilities can be implemented and make a list of jobs minors can do as educational measures and special responsibilities; To introduce a system of data collection about the diverse measures and secure annual analyses of the data; To identify mentors, i.e. key workers who will monitor the mentioned measures (Specific objective: 9.11. To make conditions for the implementation of
83 diverse procedures and alternative measures sentenced to young people in conflict with the law ) 7 activities and projects ; o 9.3.1. To integrate elements of safety culture in the curricula of elementary and high school education in Serbia (Specific objective 9.3. To develop safe culture among young people ) 5 activities and projects ; o 9.4.1. To promote the significance, role and function of the safety sector among high school youth – educational visits of police and military representatives to high schools, and visits of high school students to these bodies ( Specific objective 9.4. To strengthen mutual trust between young people and safety sector ) 5 activities and projects ; o 9.7.1. To identify and map public places risky for the safety of young people in every SGU (Specific objective 9.7. To increase safety in public places ) 4 activities and projects ; o 9.12.1. To conduct research on the annual level: about the violence among young people, the trust of young people in the security sector, about injuries at work, occupational hazards of young people, mobbing over young people (Specific objective 9.12. To support research about violence among young people and on the young people ) 3 activities and projects ; o 9.11.2. To encourage mediation as an alternative measure for minor violators (Specific objective: 9.11. To make conditions for the implementation of diverse procedures and alternative measures sentenced to young people in conflict with the law ) 3 activities and projects ; o 9.3.4. To exercise procedures for actions in the state of emergency in educational institutions (Specific objective 9.3. To develop safe culture among young people ) 3 activities and projects ; o 9.2.1. To train employees in the interior control of safety sector in the field of human rights, rights of young people and children’s rights – the convention about the rights of the child comprises important provisions, especially for minors, not included in other conventions relating to adults (Specific objective 9.2. Institutionally empower the security sector and public administration in order to improve, exercise and protect human rights and rights of young people ) 2 activities and projects ; o 9.2.2. To promote the development of careers of minority and socially vulnerable youth groups in the security sector (Specific objective 9.2. Institutionally empower the security sector and public administration in order to improve, exercise and protect human rights and rights of young people ) 2 activities and projects ; o 9.3.2. To set an internet page (“Imagine a safe life”) about safety culture for young people as support to formal and informal education in this field (Specific objective 9.3. To develop safe culture among young people ) 2 activities and projects ; o 9.12.2. Systematically collect data and publish yearly analyses about violence among young people (Specific objective 9.12. To support research about violence among young people and on the young people ) 2 activities and projects ; o 9.8.1. To organize media campaigns so as to point out the problem of domestic violence with the young as victims of violence or offenders (Specific objective 9.8. Prevention and combating domestic violence ) 2 activities and projects ; o 9.8.2. – To provide support for victims of domestic violence for their social inclusion;
84 To organize permanent trainings for LYO employees to teach them recognize violence and help the victims of domestic violence (Specific objective 9.8. Prevention and combating domestic violence ) 2 activities and projects ; o 9.9.2. To select and train families for urgent domestic accommodation of young people who are not of age (Specific objective 9.9. To develop procedures and services of urgent interventions for young people – victims of violence and other people in acute crisis situations ) 2 activities and projects ; o 9.2.3. To appoint assistant ombudsman (on the national and regional level) who will be in charge of young people and their continuous improvement (Specific objective 9.2. Institutionally empower the security sector and public administration in order to improve, exercise and protect human rights and rights of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 9.5.1. – To develop the information system in the field of security and health at work to register work injuries, professional hazards, mobbing etc; To organize media campaigns with special attention to small and medium enterprises in order to promote affirmative work environment, prevention culture and good practice in the field of security and health of young people at work; To constantly improve young people who start working and employers about security and health at work (Specific objective 9.5. To make conditions for a healthy and secure work environment of young people ) 1 activity or project ; o 9.7.2. To support informing of young people about the risks on mapped risk public places and ways of avoiding risky locations visited by the young (Specific objective 9.7. To increase safety in public places ) 1 activity or project ; o 9.7.3. To transform risky places into places where young people can be safe, active and creative – construction of amateur theatre in “bad” neighbourhood, putting a fence around sports field etc. (Specific objective 9.7. To increase safety in public places ) 1 activity or project ; o 9.10.1. To train continuously members of special police units for the use of modern mediation and conflict transformation techniques according to the Programme adopted by the minister of interior affairs (Specific objective: 9.10. To develop procedures and services of urgent interventions for young people – violators ) 1 activity or project .
The analysis of activities and projects implemented under the scope of general goal 9 shows that most activities were implemented under the specific objective 9.3. To develop safety culture among young people, especially as an activity aimed at promoting safety culture, particularly safe driving, among young people through sports and cultural events. The number of activities and projects implemented under this activity was 21 individual activity and project. Creating a safe environment was also a specific objective with many projects – 13. Besides, activities and projects were targeted at other specific objectives under general goal 9 so that a great number of projects were implemented. Most projects were implemented by MIF, independently or together with other ministries, MYS, ME, MH, MLSP and MJ. In the period from 2006 to 2009 ministers of labour and social policy, interior affairs, health and justice adopted special protocols. The purpose of Protocols was to contribute to establishment of an efficient and coordinating procedure for the protection
85 of child who is a real or potential victim of abuse and neglect, whose guidelines will enable adequate intervention, rehabilitation and conditions for further safe development of the child. Among other things, it should encourage the development of and spreading the network of multidisciplinary teams for the protection of children in local communities, and to implement the unified model of these teams on the municipal level throughout the Republic of Serbia. This approach is aimed at emphasizing that the protection of the child is a unique process although different systems participate in it, each with particular characteristics to be recognized and respected. In the period from 2007 to the end of 2009, MIA together with the organization ”Centre for the rights of the child” supported by OSCE mission in the Republic of Serbia under the scope of the project ”Protection of the child victim of human trafficking” in the context of reform projects of MLSP and MIA implemented 12 regional seminars for police officers (who acquired special knowledge in the field of rights of the child, young violators and criminal procedure including minor violators) and team coordinators for the protection of children without parental care in the social protection system in order to view the position of the child victim of human trafficking in the protection process through implementation of procedures outlined in the general and special protocols for the children protection from abuse and neglect in everyday work. Under the scope of specific objective 9.2, the Ministry of Justice prepared a special protocol about the position of legislative bodies in the protection of minor persons from abuse and neglect. This protocol defines efficient procedures for legislative bodies to intensify cooperation with other authorities on protection of minor persons from abuse and neglect. The protocol sets the framework for good practice and leads towards the development of standards for the protection of minors, respecting the international standards in this area. Its implementation will enable that the children have as least traumatic experience as possible when in court and to avoid further victimization. Also, it will contribute to a more efficient operation of courts in procedures involving children victims, and preventing the statutory limitation of these cases. The strategy of reform of legal bodies in the Republic of Serbia included adoption of the Law on legal academy (published in Official Gazette of RS no. 104/09 dated 16 December 2009, implemented from 1 January 2010) which transforms the former Legal centre into Legal academic, the institution whose main goal is to secure professional, independent, impartial and efficient judges and prosecutors and expert and efficient court and public prosecution staff. Under the scope of activity 9.2.2.related to the promotion of career development of minority and socially vulnerable youth groups in the security sector, reform of legal bodies will enable national minorities to have an easy access to justice and to exercise their rights in court in accordance with the relevant European and international standards. Basic minority rights guaranteed by the Constitution and laws such as the right to education, preservation and safekeeping of culture, the right to official use of language and alphabet and the right to be informed in the native language were integrated in the laws related to the reform of legal bodies. For instance, the Law on judges (Official Gazette of RS no. 116/08, 58/09 and 104/09) prescribes in Article 46 the prohibition of discrimination on any grounds when appointing and electing a judge. Also, it is prescribed that when proposing and appointing a judge, representation of national minorities should be taken into consideration, and corresponding representation of
86 members of national minorities and knowledge of court practice and legal terminology in the language of national minorities used officially in court. Under the specific objective 9.11. related to creating the conditions for the implementation of alternative procedures used for young people in conflict with the laws, particularly about the activity 9.11.1. related to drafting and adoption of bylaws about the implementation of educational measures, as well as activity 9.11.2. related to the encouragement of mediation as an alternative measure for minor violators, it is very important to outline that the working group of the Ministry of Justice made a Draft law about changes and amendments of the Law on Minor offenders and legal protection of minors, as well as the Proposal of the Book of Rules for educational measures for court settlement with the violated party. The round table where these documents were presented to professional public was held on 30 June 2009 in the premises of Legal centres. These acts define in detail the implementation of educational measures, in accordance with the new tendencies in the science of minor criminal law, contemporary solutions and experiences in legal regulations about minors and their application in practice. Regarding this, it is important for the implementation of goal 9 that the foundation of Council for monitoring and improving the work of criminal procedure bodies and criminal sanctions for minors bodies is ongoing. The obligation to found this council comes from the provision of the Article 166, Paragraph 1 of the Law on minor offenders and criminal and legal protection of minors (Official Gazette of RS no. 85/08), which outlines that this body should be set by the ministry responsible for justice system and the Serbian Supreme Court. The council will submit initiatives, proposals, opinions and analyses to MJ and the Serbian Supreme Court about the violations committed by minors and criminal and legal protection of minors and dealing with them, as well as monitoring the application of provisions of the Law on minor criminal offenders and criminal and legal protection of minors, as well as other bylaws and initiatives for their changes. The council will cooperate with the corresponding state bodies and institutions when implementing the provisions of the law, and with scientific institutions, professional and other associations.
The conclusion:
The key results include the following: 1. In 2009 MLSP through its Council for the rights of the child initiated and financed the media campaign ”The tendering hand” in which short videos of Council of Europe for the prevention of physical punishing of children were broadcast in every environment (RTS). The representatives of centres for social work continuously organize in their local communities various activities (campaigns, panels, guests on local TV stations etc.); 2. The Book of Rules for structuring, norms and standards for work of social centres was adopted (Official Gazette of RS no. 59/08 of 11 June 2008) which defines 24 hour availability of services in centres for social work and acting in urgent interventions; 3. In 2009 activities were initiated to set the criteria for selecting, training and financing of urgent family accommodation; 4. Education of health care workers were organized in 157 local health stations;
87 5. The Serbian national strategy for the prevention and protection of children from violence was adopted on 25 December 2008 ( Official Gazette of RS no. 122/08 of 30 December 2008); Action plan for the implementation of the Strategy was adopted on 11 March 2010 for the period from 2010 to 2012 (Official Gazette of RS no. 19/10 of 15 March 2010); 6. The national action plan for the implementation of Strategy for combating human trafficking was adopted by the Serbian Government on 30 April 2009 (Official Gazette of RS no. 35/09); 7. A proposal of strategic document for the development of police force in the community was made, which will harmonize the proposals of organizational units of MIA, will be submitted to the Serbian government for adoption; 8. The Law on safe traffic on roads was adopted (Official Gazette of RS no. 41/09 of 2 June 2009); 9. MIA made a draft of the Law on public order and the Law on civil gathering which are now in the phase of being harmonized between the competent bodies of the mentioned ministry; 10. Pursuant to Articles 153 and 154 of the Law on police force (Official Gazette of RS no. 101/05 of 21 November 2005), the ministry of interior affairs should adopt the Programme of professional improvement of police officers obligatory for all police officers. In 2009, during the theoretical lessons the following topics were discussed: human rights, police ethics, communication in police work, legal grounds for the implementation of police authorities. The work of the police with the marginalized, minority and socially vulnerable groups and dealing with problems and providing expert help based on the needs defined through the analysis of the current security situation. The Action plan for the implementation of the National strategy for the prevention and protection of children from violence defines that a special topic should be introduced in the mentioned Programme of 2010 ”Behaviour of police officers to children younger than 18”; 11. 40 police trainers completed their trainings in MIA (the trainings were led by the representatives of MIA, OSCE, and Police college in Kent) about the work of police with the minority, marginalized and socially vulnerable groups and prevention of discrimination. The manual about the implementation of the trainings was made and has been used since the beginning of 2008 for the training of all police officers in MIA; 12. MIA in 2009 redesigned its internet presentation where a separate link was introduce – “Children and the police”. This link offers to children and young people various materials about safety culture. Also, active participation of children and young people in creating and developing the link was initiated; 13. Traffic wardens and control officers implemented the central action of increased traffic control to improve the safety of all traffic in the beginning of school year ”School” which is implemented on the streets and roads in the zones close to elementary and high schools. At the same time, as the prevention and educational part of this action, traffic wardens and officers for traffic control gave lectures in schools to improve safety culture of children and for their better protection. In order to improve safety traffic wardens
88 implemented the preventive and marketing campaign in the period from 25 May to 31 October 2009 ”Helmet on the head” when young motorcycle riders were given 1,000 helmets; 14. The action ”Students excursions” included technical check ups of coaches and psychophysical health of their drivers with the continuous informing of school headmasters about the conditions the coaches hired for transport of students must fulfill. In 2009 the professionals, upon the request of police officers and traffic wardens inspected 1,336 coaches used for transportation of children during school excursions; 15. During the implementation of the Strategy for the protection of domestic violence and institutional care in AR Vojvodina, the Regional secretariat for labour, employment and gender equality organied trainings for the protection of domestic violence attended by police officers. So far 50 police officers completed the training and it is planned that till 2012 police officers from all police administrations in AR Vojvodina should attend the mentioned trainings, i.e. from 50 municipalities; 16. During the implementation of the local projects (21 municipalities) directed at the prevention and combating domestic violence mobile teams were formed to offer 24 hour availability of services, and they consist of members of police force, centres for social work,local self government, health care institutions, legal bodies, NGOs and educational institutions engaged to early identify and combat domestic violence; 17. 200 workshops were implemented about the prevention of peer violence in Savski venac; 18. The risks were identified, strategies for crisis situations adopted and recommendations passed, practical instructions given, preventive mechanisms developed to improve safe conditions for the life of young people – Trstenik; 19. A broad youth population was taught about the NYS goals, particularly the part related to the safety of young people. The public attention was drawn to the importance of developing safety culture among young people. The work of youth offices and expert services working with the young was improved – Centre for civil military relations; 20. The programme “School without violence” began in 2009 in high schools. The achieved results show the direct effects in reducing the degree of peer violence in high schools. The programme especially focused on the problem of violence between students and teachers in 2009.
2.10 General goal 10. To take care and advance the health of the young, reduce risks and main health problems and develop a health care system adapted to the young
2.10.1 An overview of activities and projects by specific objectives
89 Under the scope of general goal 10 To take care and advance the health of the young, reduce risks and main health problems and develop a health care system adapted to the young (based on the received reports), 88 activities and projects were implemented by the APNYS protagonists. There were around 32,228 direct users and over 55,000 indirect users.
Activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, ME, MH); o 29 SGU (Krupanj, Lajkovac, Medvedja, Negotin, Novi Sad, Osecina, Palilula, Pantelej, Paracin, Pirot, Plandiste, Presevo, Priboj, Ruma, Savski venac, Senta, Svilajnac, Trstenik, Varvarin, Veliko Gradiste, Vrsac, Zagubica, Zajecar, Zvezdara, Gornji Milanovac, Ivanjica, Kikinda, Becej, Cuprija); o 13 associations.
Under the scope of implementation of the general goal 10 various activities were carried out through almost all specific objectives so that there are no dominant activities nor a single activity can be said to be prevailing. Most activities were focused on informing the young about the importance of healthy life and prevention of drug abuse, alcohol abuse, protection of health. Slightly more activities were in the field of organizing counseling about healthy life styles, offering information through health clubs about the possibilities of prevention of unwanted pregnancy and deformity of reproductive health, and youth counseling services. Many programmes were organized with the aim to inform young people about STD and their treatment. Also, SGU and LYO initiated actions of the development programmes for combating drugs, and a network of associations for combating drugs, and camps for acquiring skills and knowledge necessary for combating drugs.
The organized activities were focused on the following areas: o Promoting the condom and contraceptive methods via social marketing – leaflets, action ”Together for health” in cafes and other places young people visit with a continuous media campaign adapted to the needs and rights of young boys and girls; o Drafting strategic plans for health clubs as resource youth centres; o Organizing counseling centres for healthy life styles; o Making the proposal of introducing more school lessons about health education; o Gathering youth volunteers and training them for preventive programmes in the community; o Youth counseling – via the internet (website, forum), phone lines, peer education; o Organizing centres for harm reduction of psychoactive substances abuse following good practice examples ( harm reduction ); o Making strategic plans for health clubs as resource centres through SGU (informing, peer education, counseling, SOS phone lines) and initiating the activities;
90 o Establishing mechanisms for continuous monitoring of the needs of young people from vulnerable groups about PPI and HIV/AIDS, particularly young people living with HIV/AIDS; o Organizing programmes of tertiary prevention of PPI and HIV/AIDS in vulnerable youth groups, particularly young people living with HIV/AIDS and promoting them through health clubs; o Promotion of health among young people and adolescents (reducing the frequency of alcohol and drugs abuse, reducing the frequency of STDs, training the young to become peer educators, improving the communication between parents and children and teachers); o Improving and affirming family accommodation in the territory of Pirot municipality to support to young people living in foster homes and develop and improve their social skills; o Developing the work of counseling youth centres in local health stations. The result of this activity ensured that 253 health workers were empowered to work with young people on health issues specific for their age, modules and handbooks were finalized (reproductive health, addiction diseases, mental health, protection from abuse and neglect, diet etc.). A few thousands young people were reached through various programmes.
During the implementation of NYS, MYS in 2009 published an announcement for inclusion of civil associations in the implementation process of the Strategy and activities projected in the Action plan so as to train and inform young people about healthy lifestyles. In the announcement two civil associations were chosen: JAZAS youth Belgrade and Process group which implemented the programme of healthy lifestyles ”A healthy style, my style” together with 12 civil associations from the following towns: Uzice, Novi Sad, Leskovac, Kragujevac, Loznica, Zajecar, Pancevo and Pozarevac. In the implementation of the projected over 90 youth offices participated from different towns and municipalities in the Republic of Serbia. During the implementation, JAZAS youth Belgrade and Process group with the local partners and peer educators organized local actions and promotions of healthy lifestyle with LYO. 8 peer education programmes were organized for 151 peer educators. During the education programmes local actions were designed and a calendar of activities and implementation of local actions was made in towns and municipalities in the Republic of Serbia. The actions included various lectures, panel discussions on health fairs, photography exhibitions, sports tournaments, quizzes, replacing cigarettes with fruit, a box for anonymous questions of young people about the addiction diseases and healthy lifestyles, actions “The boulevard of health” and “The boulevard of bad habits” in which young people who gave up a certain lifestyle were given a lot in the boulevard of health, as well as free theatre or swimming pool tickets. Also, concerts were organized with the aim to promote healthy lifestyle and insufficiently affirmed young bands, together with Dejan Cukic concerts were organized in Uzice, Kragujevac, Loznica, Leskovac, Subotica, Novi Sad and Novi Pazar. During the project much of the promotional material for young people was printed, such as brochures, handbooks, magazines, T shirts, freebies, key rings, swimming pool balls. More than 10,000 young people took part in the project activities.
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The conclusion:
The main results of the actions were the following: o Young people were shown the risks and included in prevention campaigns, peer educators; o Young people were given necessary and adequate help; o Promotion of the programme of tertiary prevention of PPI and HIV/AIDS in vulnerable youth groups on the local level; o The young became better informed about the STDs and their treatment; o Strategic plans for health clubs were developed; o Health programmes were defined; o Young people were informed about the possibilities of prevention of unwanted pregnancy and chronic problems with reproductive health, and about services offered by youth counseling centres; o A significant interest of children to do sports and raise the level of sports culture; o Guidelines for deformity correction and prevention were promoted.
2.11 General goal 11. To encourage the young for the initiatives and activities in line with the main goals of the sustainable development аnd healthy environment
2.11.1 An overview of implemented activities and projects by specific objectives
Under the scope of general goal 11. To encourage the young for the initiatives and activities in line with the main goals of the sustainable development аnd healthy environment (based on the received reports) 50 activities and projects were implemented by APNYS protagonists. Regarding the character and content of specific objectives, the activities included 8,047 direct users and over 20,000 indirect users.
Activities and projects were implemented by: o ministries (MYS, ME, MSTD, MEPSP, MH); o 22 SGU (Krupanj, Knjazevac, Krusevac, Lajkovac, Medvedja, Novi Sad, Palilula, Pirot, Presevo, Priboj, Savski venac, Senta, Svilajnac, Trstenik, Varvarin, Veliko Gradiste, Zagubica, Gornji Milanovac, Ivanjica, Alibunar, Becej, Cuprija); o 5 associations.
An overview of implemented activities and projects by specific objectives:
92 o 11.2.2. To organize joint actions with the aim to make a clean and nicely decorated school environment and to introduce funds for awarding the most successful students (Specific objective 11.2. To prevent and reduce health risks of young people originated from the environment ) 22 activities and projects ; o 11.2.1. To inform young people about possible health risks and potential accidents in the environment (natural or human factor – traffic accidents, chemical accidents etc.), as well as about the organized system of protection and self protection (Specific objective 11.2. To prevent and reduce health risks of young people originated from the environment ) 9 activities and projects ; o 11.1.4. To make programme basics for youth TV and radio shows about the sustainable development (SD) and environmental protection (EP) (Specific objective 11.1. To create awareness and behavior of young people in the spirit of sustainable development, environmental protection, and preservation of natural heritage ) 4 activities and projects ; o 11.1.5. To organie scientific research camps, sports camps and professional conferences for young people with the aim to cherish the spirit of SD and EP and promote them in public (Specific objective 11.1. To create awareness and behavior of young people in the spirit of sustainable development, environmental protection, and preservation of natural heritage ) 4 activities and projects ; o 11.1.3. To make development programmes for the national, regional and local scientific research centres for extra curricular and informal education of yooung people about SD and EP (Specific objective 11.1. To create awareness and behavior of young people in the spirit of sustainable development, environmental protection, and preservation of natural heritage ) 3 activities and projects ; o 11.1.2. To provide financial and logistic support and promote professional development of young people in the field of EP and SD (undergraduate studies, specialist’s and doctoral studies) (Specific objective 11.1. To create awareness and behavior of young people in the spirit of sustainable development, environmental protection, and preservation of natural heritage ) 3 activities and projects ; o 11.4.3. – To extend the employment and labour books of rules with the clearly identified possibilities for young people to find employment in the fields of EP and SD; To make programmes for stimulation of youth employment in the fields of EP and SD (Specific objective 11.4. To develop capacities of the system which will enable the implementation of youth policy and monitoring and adequately reacting to all problems significant for young people in the segment of sustainable develoment and environmental protection ) 2 activities and projects ; o 11.1.1. To make standards for EP and SD education for students, teachers, curricula, teaching materials and programmes for professional development of teachers (Specific objective 11.1. To create awareness and behavior of young people in the spirit of sustainable development, environmental protection, and preservation of natural heritage ) 1 activity or project ; o 11.4.1. To initiate, encourage and implement the whole process of capacity building of actors and participants of the EP and SD process (Specific objective 11.4. To develop capacities of the system which will enable the implementation of youth policy and monitoring and adequately reacting to all problems significant for young people
93 in the segment of sustainable develoment and environmental protection ) 1 activity or project .
Figure 10. An overview of implemented activities and projects by the specific objectives
The results of analysis show that most of the activities (22), or 44% were implemented under specific objective 11.2. To prevent and reduce health risks of young people originated from the environment , particularly the activities 11.2.2. To organize joint actions with the aim to make a clean and nicely decorated school environment and to introduce funds for awarding the most successful students . Immediately following it is the activity 11.2.1. To inform young people about possible health risks and potential accidents in the environment (natural or human factor – traffic accidents, chemical accidents etc.), as well as about the organized system of protection and self protection, which included 18% of individual projects. Altogether, these two activities included 62% of all projects implemented under the scope of general goal 11. The key findings which included numerous indicators are based on this.
The conclusion:
Key findings and results: o Providing scholarships for young people on doctoral studies working on the research projects in environmental protection – 27 students were awarded scholarships; o A once awarded support for professional development of young people (students in the undergraduate, master and doctoral studies) abroad – 7; o Promotion programmes and science popularization in the field of EP – 7 ;
94 o A once awarded support to summer schools and scientific conferences in the field of EP and SD, and participation of young people with presentation in this field – 20 conferences; o In August 2009, two international camps were organized, one in the Stara planina mountain and the other one in the town of Ravna, with the aim to research and preserve natural environment (Knjazevac); o Media presentations raised the awareness of young people about the value of healthy lifestyles (Lajkovac); o Financial support to projects whose aim is to strengthen the awareness of the need to protect environment (Novi Sad); o The young were shown the health risks which may be caused by environmental pollution (water, air, food, refuse etc.) and ways of protection via the film “It’s not embarrassing to recycle” (Palilula); o since October 2009 young peer educators of the YO Priboj have given lectures to the grammar school students and mechanical and technical high school students about EP and SD (Priboj); o cleaning the banks of the Danube river , education about preserving the environment , cleaning everyday environment (Veliko Gradiste).
During the implementation of this programme, educational workshops for young high school students were organized. The education was organized in two segments: the field of environmental protection and mountaineering school. The participants had a chance to see different exercises in nature (Ovcar Kablar canyon, Ovcar mountain and Kablar) and use them practically and thus see how important it is to preserve natural environment both for themselves and for future generations; they also had a chance to see how a clean environment and sports can be important for their psychological and physical development while they spent their free time in a quality way. During workshops we implemented the actions for cleaning the garbage and they practically saw the difference between a good practice example ad a bad practice example.
The fact is that school curricula do not offer enough programmes for education of young people about the environmental protection, and mountaineering education is non existent. Sciences such as physics, chemistry, biology, geography are taught without a special overview of their mutual overlapping. The implementation of this project showed the young that these sciences can overlap and we showed them specific examples in nature, which will bring them closer to healthy life. Lecturers in different fields used theoretical talks, empirical exercises, walks in nature and practical exercises to educate young people to protect the environment and spend their free time in quality ways. Six two day workshops were implemented (three in the field of environmental protection, and three in mountaineering). Altogether 62 young high school students were educated. There were more of them who were interested, but the number of places was limited.
Mountaineering society Kablar, Cacak
95 THE CONCLUSION
On the basis of the received reports, it can be said that a significant progress has been made in the APNYS implementation in the first year of the implementation, and that the process of strategic and conceptual changes began when it comes to the role of young people in society:
1. in 2009 over 1,000 APNYS activities and projects were implemented. Most of the activities and projects were implemented under the general goal 1. – To encourage young people to participate actively in society ;
2. the APNYS implementation included more than 700,000 direct and over 1,000,000 indirect users. The greatest number was included in the implementation of general goal 6. To develop opportunities for quality free time of the young ;
3. 70% of the planned results were implemented of all APNYS activities projected for 2009. Most of the results were implemented through activities and projects implemented or financed by MYS, either independently or together with partners;
4. During the implementation of projects and activities, numerous partnerships and cooperations were realized on the local, national and international level. Particularly numerous were partnerships implemented within the projects of associations;
5. On the basis of the received reports, it was not possible to determine the exact funds spent on the APNYS implementation in 2009. MYS allocated over RSD 600,000,000 from the state budget for the NYS implementation in 2009, including the funds from the Serbian Fund for young talents. International donors allocated funds in the amount of RSD 170,000,000.00 for the projects directed at NYS implementation with MYS and local self governments in 2009.
The implemented activities and projects raised the awareness of young people about their active role in the community, the importance of youth work, and about the significance of youth offices which, most often together with associations and local self governments, achieved excellent results and effects, both conceptual and strategic, through promotional and other actions for young people, a significant progress was made in networking, cooperation and joint work of formal and informal youth groups and organizations in the Republic of Serbia. Youth offices were in many local communities the coordinators and the connecting bridge between associations, youth organizations institutions. In this way, formal and informal youth groups were strengthened and networks of associates were opened with partner EU organizations. It may be concluded that the process of creating an information system for young people has begun, which to a great extent fulfills specific objectives. Young people have the opportunity to be directly informed about cultural events they can see in their free time, or about events promoting mobility and intercultural cooperation.
96 The effects of these activities are visible not only in the degree of achievement of the expected results, but also in a number of formally sustainable decisions which will turn some of the activities into a system supporting young people.
In the opinion of the participants, this is important for the following period:
• To network as many bodies, organizations, and institutions as possible in the local community to implement certain activities to inform a large number of young people about the activities of LYO; to include as many young people as possible in volunteering, promotion, disseminating information about APNYS in schools in the local community; to disseminate information and educate as many professionals in the local community as possible about the implementation of youth policy, NYS goals, and equal opportunities of all young people regardless of their ,,diversity”; • Additionally empower and strengthen youth offices and their recognition in the local self government and among young people; • To secure a better engagement and a more intense communication with the relevant bodies, individuals, institutions, organizations and general public in the NYS promotion and in activities being implemented.
97 ABBREVIATIONS:
NYS National Youth Strategy APNYS Action plan for the National Youth Strategy implementation MYS Ministry of youth and sports MLSP Ministry of labour and social policy MC Ministry of culture ME Ministry of education MPALSG Ministry of public administration and local self government MERD Ministry of economy and regional development MHMR Ministry of human and minority rights MJ Ministry of justice MIA Ministry of interior affairs PSSO Regional secretariat for sports and youth NES National employment service MTIS Ministry of technology and information society MH Ministry of health MF Ministry of finance MSTD Ministry of science and technological development MD Ministry of Diaspora MESP Ministry of environment and spatial planning NSO National statistics office GTZ German organizations for technical cooperation OSCE Organization for security and cooperation in Europe IOM International organization for migration UNICEF UN Children’s fund UNDP UN Development programme ILO International labour organization USAID American agency for international development SGU Self government units LYO Local youth offices SWC Social work centres LAP Local action plan PM Peer mediation SP Students parliament NIP National investment plan NGO Non governmental organizations EP Environmental protection IE Informal education IT Information technology SD Sustainable development STI Sexually transmitted infection SADSMEE State agency for the development of small and medium enterprises and entrepreneurship
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ANNEX 1
QUESTIONNAIRE
FOR THE COLLECTION OF DATA FOR PREPARATION OF THE ANNUAL REPORT ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVITIES OUTLINED IN THE ACTION PLAN FOR THE NATIONAL YOUTH STARTEGY (APNYS)
ORGANIZATION’S NAME
PROJECT’S NAME*
TOTAL VALUE OF THE PROJECT Other sources From the state budget (including personal resources)
* the project refers to an action, one activity or more of them, or a complex project
99 1. DATA ON THE HARMONIZATION OF THE PROJECT WITH APNYS
APNYS consists of 11 general goals and 75 specific objectives. Each of the general goals establishes specific objectives aiming at the implementation of the general goal. Further on, activities directly contributing to the implementation of every specific objective were defined, and which indirectly, i.e. through specific objectives, contribute to the implementation of the general goal. We’d like you to define, based on the aforesaid, the scope of activities within APNYS your project belongs to, i.e. the implementation of which specific objective , i.e. general goal it contributes to. For each of the specific objectives APNYS defines activities, expected results of the implementation of proposed activities and indicators which help monitor the implementation of the Strategy and measure the achieved results.
Indicators directly connected Specific objective/s in Expected results of the General goal in APNYS Activities within APNYS* with the expected result from APNYS APNYS activities APNYS
* if the implementation of your project cannot be sorted into any of the mentioned categories within APNYS, please fill it out and mark it in a different colour
2. INFORMATION ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROJECT
Regarding the goals, activities, results and indicators you mentioned in the table above, please fill out the following:
The degree in which the Explain and list the project result/s of the project were Achieved result/s of the Indicators which help establish Goal/s of the project activities implemented to achieved(achieved/partially project the achievement of the result achieve the mentioned goal achieved/not achieved)
100
101 Briefly describe in what ways the project contributed to the implementation of the general goal from APNYS and provide arguments.
2.1. INFORMATION ON PARTNERSHIPS
2.1.1. List the partner organizations included in the implementation of the project (formally and informally)
2.1.2. Please evaluate and briefly describe the cooperation with pa rtners during the project implementation The level of engagement Partner(s)’ role in the project (scale 1-5) Local authorities Youth office Civil association Business sector Informal groups Public institutions International organizations Other (list them)
2.1.3. Did you improve the cooperation with partners through the project implementation and, if yes, in what ways?
2.1.4. Analyze and list the participation of stakeholders who were not partners on the project (this relates to those groups of project participants who were not defined as responsible partners on the APNYS implementation).
102 2.2. INFORMATION ON THE LOCATION OF THE PROJECT ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTATION
2.2.1. Please list the towns, local self -governments and regions where the project activities took place (e.g. Donja Trnava => Nis => Region of Nis)
Towns Municipalities Regions 1. 1. 1. 2. 2. 2. 3. 3. 3.
2.3. INFORMATION ON PROJECT USERS
Achieved number of Planned number of direct Achieved number of Planned number of indirect project users (in project users direct project users indirect project users your opinion)
2.3.1. DIRECT USERS Please describe the M: gender structure of the Gender structure (M/F): direct project users in the F: table Age Number of persons Percentage The age structure of the – 15 direct users of the project 15 – 30 (the achieved number) 30 – 40 40 –
2.4. THE TIME FRAME OF THE PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION (date of the beginning and end of the project) Planned time frame for the implementation The real period of the implementation
3. EFFECTS AND LESSONS LEARNED
3.1. Explain how you monitored and evaluated the activities/project implementation process
3.2. Present the effect s of activities in the context of the wide youth environment and changes achieved in the target group of young people between 15 and 30 years of age
103 3.3. Is there a person responsible for the monitoring and evaluation process ? If there is, write down their name(s) and contact(s):
3.4. Point out lessons learned regarding:
• APNYS implementation
• Institutional context
• Financial framework
• Planned results
• Sustainability of achieved results
• Benefit for the young achieved through this activity/project
3.5. List the restrictions and problems which arose during the activities/project implementation
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ANNEX 2
A LIST OF APNYS PROTAGONISTS WHO SENT BACK THE FILLED OUT QUESTIONNAIRE
MINISTRIES, NATIONAL AND PUBLIC ORGANIZATIONS
1. Ministry of youth and sports (MYS) 2. Ministry of culture (MC) o Sector for the media o Sector for the contemporary art, cultural industry and cultural affairs 3. Ministry of labour and social policy (MLSP) 4. Ministry of science and technological development (MSTD) 5. Ministry for public administration and local self government (MPALSG) 6. Ministry of economy and regional development (MERD) 7. Ministry of justice (MJ) 8. Ministry of environment and spatial planning (MESP) 9. Ministry of defence (MD) 10. Ministry of education (ME) 11. Ministry of health (MH) 12. Ministry of Diaspora (MD) 13. Ministry of interior affairs (MIA) 14. Ministry of finance (MF) 15. Ministry of infrastructure (MI) 16. Ministry of telecommunication and information society (MTIS) 17. Regional secretariat for sports and youth 18. National agency for regional development 19. Republic statistics office 20. State university of Novi Pazar 21. University centre for career development and counseling of students at the University of Belgrade 22. University of Nis
105 TOWNS AND MUNICIPALITIES (SGU)
1. Alibunar 48. Youth council of Kanjiza 2. Apatin municipality 3. Arandjelovac 49. Srbobran 4. Backa Topola 50. Osecina 5. Backi Petrovac 51. Pozega 6. Bela Palanka 52. Palilula Belgrade 7. Belgrade 53. Pantelej Nis 8. Beocin 54. Paracin 9. Becej 55. Pirot 10. Bogatic 56. Plandiste 11. Bojnik 57. Pozarevac 12. Bujanovac 58. Pozega 13. Varvarin 59. Presevo 14. Veliko Gradiste 60. Priboj 15. Vladicin Han 61. Prijepolje 16. Vlasotince 62. Prokuplje 17. Vrnjacka Banja 63. Razanj 18. Vrsac 64. Raca 19. Golubac 65. Ruma 20. Gornji Milanovac 66. Savski venac Belgrade 21. Despotovac 67. Svilajnac 22. Doljevac 68. Svrljig 23. Zabari 69. Senta 24. Zagubica 70. Sjenica 25. Zitiste 71. Stara Pazova 26. Zajecar 72. Temerin 27. Zvezdara Belgrade 73. Trstenik 28. Ivanjica 74. Cuprija 29. Kikinda 75. Uzice 30. Kladovo 76. Cajetina 31. Knjazevac 77. Sabac 32. Kovin 33. Kosjeric 34. Krupanj 35. Krusevac 36. Kucevo 37. Lajkovac 38. Loznica 39. Mali Zvornik 40. Malo Crnice 41. Medvedja 42. Negotin 43. Nis 44. Nova Varos 45. Novi Pazar 46. Novi Sad 47. Obrenovac
106 CIVIL ASSOCIATIONS
1. AIESEC – International organization for exchange of economics and management students – local committee Belgrade –Faculty of economics 2. NGO IUVIA 3. RES POLIS 4. Association for the development of Backa Topola municipality 5. Association for the development of Vrbas municipality 6. Balkan fund for local initiatives 7. Belgrade open school 8. Belgrade fund for political excellence 9. Volunteering centre 10. Volunteering centre of Vojvodina 11. Civil library ”Libergraf” 12. Civil library ”Pirgos” 13. Group 484 14. Children’s views 15. Good people 16. Society for the protection and improvement of children’s and young people’s mental health 17. European movement in Serbia 18. European movement in Serbia, local council in Nis 19. Educational centre of Krusevac 20. Educational centre of Leskovac 21. Euro<26 22. Be healthy 23. Karate club ”Zrenjanin” 24. Club for youth empowerment 018 – KOM 018 25. Inter municipal organization of the Association of deaf persons and persons with impaired hearing in Kragujevac 26. Association for combating AIDS – JAZAS 27. NGO Sveza 28. Humanitarian centre of Novi Sad 29. Scouting platoon ”Ravangrad” 30. Youth NGO – ONO 31. Youth educational centre 32. Youth cultural centre ”Reformars” 33. Youth association ”Generation” 34. Organization of creative gathering – OKO (The eye) 35. Mountaineering society ”Kablar” 36. Sports association of Uzice 37. Civil association ”Kokoro” Bor
38. Civil association ”Svetionik” 39. Civil association ”Sansa” 40. Association for providing support to people with special needs ”Our house” 41. Association for the development of the Petrovac on the Mlava municipality
107 42. Association of electrical engineering students of Europe – local committee Belgrade 43. Festival of ecological theatre for children 44. Centre for alternative conflict solving 45. Centre for civil activism ”Denizen” 46. Centre for social and economic development – CDER 47. Centre for constructive conflict solving, Serbia 48. Centre for advanced education ”Learning revolution” 49. Centre for youth work 50. Centre for the development of civil society ”Protekta” 51. Centre for the development of inclusive society – CRID 52. Centre for civil and military relations 53. Red Cross of Kragujevac
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
1. German organization for technical co operation (GTZ) 2. Organization for security and cooperation in Europe (OSCE) 3. International organization for migration (IOM) 4. UN organizations (UNICEF, UNDP, ILO, IOM) 5. US Agency for International Development (USAID) 6. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
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