Existence of a national strategy

There is no national youth volunteering strategy in BiH. Strategy on volunteering is adopted only at the level of RS – Strategy for the Improvement and Development of Volunteering in RS 2019 – 2023. It is not a specific youth volunteering strategy. However, youth volunteering is covered.

Scope and contents

The overall goal of the Strategy is to provide support to sustainable promotion and development of volunteering and increasing the volunteering engagements in RS.

This overall goal will be achieved by strategic directions and its objectives that are the following:

• Legal framework for volunteering

Strategic objective: Established harmonised and adequate legal framework of volunteering that on effective and adequate way support continuous and sustainable promotion and development of volunteering in RS.

• Volunteering infrastructure

Strategic objective: Defined and established adequate and effective volunteering infrastructure at local and republic level that enables conditions and possibilities for continuous and sustainable promotion and development of volunteering in RS.

• Volunteering in formal and non-formal educational systems

Strategic objective: Established frameworks and methodologies for transfer of knowledge, experience and information on volunteering in systems of formal and non-formal education, as also clearly positioned role of volunteering in processes of long-life learning in RS.

• Volunteering promotion

Strategic objective: Knowledge, possibilities, examples of good practice and other relevant information on volunteering continuously promoted in a qualitative and adequate way by existing and available electronic, written and other media, as well as through other promotional activities.

Each strategic direction and its overall objective are followed by set of measures/activities which implementation and achieved expected results will contribute to achieving of overall objective. Nevertheless, the Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy clearly define indicators, timeline, funds, responsible body, and result for each defined measure/activity. The total budget allocated to the implementation of the Strategy is EUR 455,050.

Responsible authority

For purposes of qualitative implementation of Strategy, the RS Volunteer Service has been established in 2014. It is established as a network of 12 local volunteer services that operate in RS. The RS Volunteer Service is a main partner to the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport in the RS Government for the implementation of the Strategy.

The main obstacles in the Strategy implementation processes relate to the lack of funds. In period 2014 – 2017, only EUR 75,000 has been secured for the Strategy implementation by the RS Government. Furthermore, a huge contribution from foreign donors was planned that was not secured at all. The main reason is that volunteering is not recognised and supported as a priority for BiH.

Revisions/updates

The RS Government is in the process of developing a new RS volunteering strategy. 

The RS Government adopted the Decision on the Adoption of the new RS Strategy for the Improvement and Development of Volunteering (2025–2031) at its 99th session in Banja Luka on December 20, 2024. The new Strategy outlines three strategic goals:

• Improvement of legal regulations and volunteer infrastructure,

• Development of volunteering in formal and non-formal education and community volunteering,

• Promotion of volunteering in RS.

A working group composed of representatives from institutions and civil society organizations based the development of the new Strategy on the achieved results of the previous Strategy, as well as on the identification of challenges and obstacles in the processes of improving and developing volunteering in RS, taking into account European and international trends in the field of volunteering.

The necessary funds for the implementation of activities from the RS Strategy for the Improvement and Development of Volunteering (2025–2031) amount to a total of BAM 604,000.00.