On this page

1. Existence of a National Youth Law

2. Scope and contents

3. Revisions/updates

   1. The Youth Report

   2. The new timing

Existence of a National Youth Law

Youth work is regulated by the Decree of 6 December 2011 on the Promotion of Youth Work (Dekret vom 6. Dezember 2011 zur Förderung der Jugendarbeit) which sets out the essentials of the youth policy of the German-speaking Community.

The Decree includes definitions for “youth work”, “youth workers” and the various categories and types of youth work that are eligible for funding from the Government of the German-speaking Community (Regierung der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft). The Decree was a first step towards an integrated and holistic youth approach as well as transversal cooperation between the different sectors regarding youth issues as it foresees the adoption and implementation of a cross-sector Strategic Plan on Youth (Jugendstrategieplan) by the Government for each legislative period. It is explicitly mentioned in the Decree that the Government engages funded youth NGO’s, the Council of the German-speaking Youth (Rat der Deutschsprachigen Jugend, RDJ) and young people in drawing up the Strategic Plan on Youth.

The Decree provides regulated funding, a legal framework for youth work and ensures anchorage of youth work within youth policy, which offers a certain level of security for the sector.

Scope and contents

The target group of the decree are all young people aged 10 to 30. It also specifically takes into account issues of children and young people in disadvantaged life situations, of children and young people with a migration background and children and young people with a disability.

The decree governs the funding of

• youth organisations,
• youth info (Jugendinfo),
• open youth work including youth centres,
• outreach youth work
• the Youth Office of the German-speaking Community (Jugendbüro der Deutschsprachigen Gemeinschaft)
• the Youth Commission (Jugendkommission)
• the Council of the German-speaking Youth

Article 2 of the Decree defines youth work as follows:

Youth work mainly takes place out of school and is based on processes of non-formal and informal learning and on voluntary participation.

By providing appropriate opportunities, youth work promotes the individual, social and cultural development of young people, while taking their interests and needs into account.

A main task of youth policy is to enable young people’s participation in policy making. The consultation of young people is respected on several occasions such as the creation of the youth report or the Strategic Plan on Youth. Moreover, other organizations, such as the consultation of the Council of the German-speaking Youth have been consulted. This organizations’ main goals are strengthening political awareness of young people and supporting young people and their organisations. Its primary task is the representation of the interests of the German-speaking youth. In this regard the Council of the German-speaking Youth is quite active in providing expertise and advice on laws concerning young people and it was also involved in the development of the youth policy in the German-speaking Community.

The Youth Report

Since 2015 (through the amendment to the decree of 6 December 2011), the government has been obliged to publish a "Youth Report" on the situation of young people in the German-speaking Community in October of the year before the elections to the Parliament of the German-speaking Community. The decree of 14 December 2021 amending the decree of 6 December 2011 no longer sets a deadline for the publication of a youth report.

The first Youth Report was published in late 2018, so that its results may contribute to defining the main topics of the following Strategic Plan on Youth. 
While the social space analyses, carried out by trained youth workers, inform specifically on the situation of young people in each municipality of the German-speaking Community, the Youth Report has been based on a broader scientific study, carried out by the KU Leuven, and focus on the whole German-speaking Community. Supported youth centres and the Youth Council of the German-speaking Community as well as young people have been involved in drawing up the youth report.

The second Youth Report was published in late 2023. To produce this report, primary and secondary data was collected and young people and those around them, including parents, teachers and youth workers, were consulted. Research was conducted through surveys, interviews and focus groups. In the first half of 2023, the following 4 surveys were carried out, each targeting a different audience: 

• Young people aged between 10 and 18 who attend school in the German-speaking community; 
• Young adults aged between 18 and 29;
• Professionals who carry out activities aimed (in part or in full) at young people;
• Parents of adolescents and young adults between the ages of 10 and 29.

The youth report concludes with specific recommendations for improving the living conditions of young people in the German-speaking Community.

The Strategic Plan on Youth

The Strategic Plan on Youth is intended to improve the situation of young people in the German-speaking Community. The Strategic Plan on Youth is based on the needs of young people, which are determined by the Youth Report, among other things.
The first Strategic Plan on Youth was implemented 2013-2015. The second Strategic Plan on Youth was intended to be implemented 2016-2020, but was eventually prolonged for 2 years, so the final duration of the second Strategic Plan on Youth is 2016-2022. On 1 January 2023, the third Strategic Plan on Youth has started its implementation. The current strategic plan covers the period 2023-2027.
In order to ensure that young people are part of the policy-making process, a range of consultation mechanisms have been put in place in recent years. For example, young people were involved in the consultation process in the first half of 2022 as part of the action plan of the third Youth Strategy Plan and in accordance with Article 4 of the Decree on the Promotion of Youth Work of 6 December 2011. This was achieved through an online participation opportunity via the Padlet tool. Using this digital pinboard, young people were able to answer various questions on the key topics and enter comments and suggestions. The link to this platform was distributed to numerous organisations from the youth and social sector. 
In addition, the youth workers and volunteer youth leaders were sent a series of key questions on the main topics. 
On 26 March 2022, a workshop was also held to develop the action plan for the third Youth Strategy Plan under the motto "Participate and make a difference". During the workshop, representatives of the supported youth organisations and social institutions exchanged views on the needs of young East Belgians and jointly developed solutions and project ideas.

Revisions/updates

After numerous debates in the Parliament of the German-speaking Community, the parties then forming the government (ProDG, SP and PFF) collaborated with the opposition parties (CSP and ECOLO) and passed on 23 November 2015 the Decree amending the Decree of 6 December 2011 on the Promotion of Youth Work. This new Decree includes two major innovations:

1. The introduction of a new youth report on the living situation of young people in the German-speaking Community;
2. Readjustment of the overall agenda and timeline of the Strategic Plan on Youth.

Another evaluation of the Decree on the Promotion of Youth Work was launched in 2017, in order to face the challenges in the youth sector. Between 2017 and 2018, the focal points of the evaluation were first identified together with the youth institutions. This was followed by four closed meetings with representatives of the sector in 2019 to formulate joint recommendations for action, which were then discussed with stakeholders in the youth sector.

Due to the Corona crisis, some of the meetings could not take place as planned. In addition, the opinions of the Council of the German-speaking Youth (Rat der Deutschsprachigen Jugend, RDJ), the Data Protection Authority and the Council of State were sought and the draft decree was approved by the government. Finally, on 14 December 2021, the Parliament of the German-speaking Community adopted the amendment to the Decree on the Promotion of Youth Work. The amended Decree on the Promotion of Youth Work entered into force on 1 January 2022, marking the next major revision.

Major changes introduced include:

• the readjustment of the target group: people between 10 and 30 years of age are now considered as young people, while before it was between 12 and 30 years of age. Accordingly, people are now considered children between 4 and 9 years of age.
• the introduction of a differentiation between different kind of youth workers: they are now divided into youth social worker and youth worker assistant. Youth social workers need to have a Bachelor in the social-pedagogical area, youth worker assistants need to have completed their secondary school education and have to follow 300 hours of further training to be qualified for the specific youth work sector they are applying for.
• the introduction of a new system of organising youth work agencies. Youth work is organised per municipality and can either be implemented by a non-profit-association (Vereinigung ohne Gewinnerzielungsabsicht, VoG), by the municipality itself or by the Government of the German-speaking Community which delegates the responsibility to the Youth Office of the German-speaking Community. This also means there will be an open youth work agency in every municipality of the German-speaking Community, which was not the case before. 
• the introduction of digital youth work and sustainability as focal points of youth work.
• the simplification of administrative requirements for funded youth organisations, Youth Info and open youth work agencies: they do not need to write a multi-annual concept anymore, but an annual activity plan when applying for funding. The funding period is five years, the activity plan is updated annually in combination with the effectiveness dialogues, which were already required before.