The new National Youth Strategy 2023-2027 is underway
The Agency for youth and sport have started the preparation of the new National Youth Strategy 2023-2027 with support of UNDP, UNFPA and OSCE Mission to Skopje.
Initiated on the basis on the Law for youth participation and an assessment of youth trends in North Macedonia, this new National Youth Strategy is created following a tailor-made Methodology for inclusion and participation of all stakeholders in the field of youth.
LINK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tumLuu-LVDs&t=3s
The celebration of the International Youth Day on the August 11th was occasion for announcing the creation of the National Youth Strategy. The process started with the launching conference on October 17th in Skopje uniting 150 participants - representatives of youth organizations, institutions, international community and young people. The participants have defined the vision and the objectives of the strategy for the next five years.
In the period between October and December, wide consultations in different forms with young people took place. Thematic groups were organized in each of the topics covered by the National Youth Strategy: youth participation, education, youth information, youth work, security, culture, health, and employment. Total of 24 working groups took place involving relevant institutions, civil society organizations and young people from all around the country. Moreover, consultative meetings were organized with youth from political parties, umbrella youth organizations and high-school students.
Furthermore, online consultation process and participation campaign took place on the social media. Namely, eight thematic questionnaires for consultation of young people were distributed widely through social media and other communication channels. The U-report tool was used to reach more young people from across the country. An Instagram profile was created so that youth-friendly information would be widespread among the youngsters. Short videos filed by young people were promoted online as invitation for youth involvement in the process.
The process continues in 2023 with consultation of the young people on local and regional level and organization of 10 local events. The draft version of the Strategy will be publicly available for consultation in January/February 2023. The Strategy is expected to be discussed on Governmental level from March 2023.
The new National Youth Strategy comes as a response to the changing environment for young people in the post-COVID and world crisis period. This new context brings additional challenges for the young people in all spheres of life such as education, health, employment etc. Creating sustainable youth policies will put the focus on the young people in the society and create better conditions for their development.
The creation of the National Youth Strategy is supported within the project “Youth 4 inclusion, Equality and Trust”, funded by UN Peacebuilding Fund. This 2-years regional project is implemented by four UN agencies: UNDP, UNFPA, UN Women and UNESCO in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo[1], North Macedonia and Serbia.
[1] All references to Kosovo shall be understood in the context of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999).
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