Existence of a national strategy

There is no national youth volunteering strategy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Strategy on volunteering is adopted only at the level of Republika Srpska – Strategy for the Improvement and Development of Volunteering in Republika Srpska 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 Republika Srpska.

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

• Legal framework for volunteering

Strategic objective: Established harmonized and adequate legal framework of volunteering that in an effective and adequate way support continuous and sustainable promotion and development of volunteering in Republika Srpska.

• 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 Republika Srpska.

• 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 Republika Srpska.

• 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 overall objective. Nevertheless, the Action Plan for implementation of the Strategy clearly defines 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 Republika Srpska Volunteer Service has been established in 2014. It is established as a network of 12 local volunteer services that operate in Republika Srpska. The Republika Srpska Volunteer Service is a main partner to the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport in the Republika Srpska 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 Republika Srpska Government. Furthermore, a huge contribution from foreign donors was planned but was not secured at all. The main reason is that volunteering is not recognized and supported as a priority for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Revisions/updates

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

The Republika Srpska Government adopted the Decision on the Adoption of the new Republika Srpska 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 Republika Srpska.

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 Republika Srpska, taking into account European and international trends in the field of volunteering.

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