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YouthWiki

EACEA National Policies Platform
Bulgaria

Bulgaria

1. Youth Policy Governance

1.6 Evidence-based youth policy

Last update: 22 March 2024
On this page
  1. Political Commitment to Evidence-Based Youth Policy
  2. Cooperation between policy-making and research
  3. National Statistics and available data sources
  4. Budgetary Allocations supporting research in the youth field
 

 

Political commitment to evidence-based youth policy

The Youth Act provides for that the Ministry of Youth and Sports sets up and maintains a National Youth Information System (NYIS) (Национална информационна система за младежта) in order to provide up-to-date information on the needs of young people in the country as well as to plan, monitor, manage and evaluate youth policies at national, regional and municipal level.

The National Youth Information System contains information about youth organizations in the country; a list of nationally representative youth organizations; youth status studies and researches, analyses and evaluations of youth policies at national, regional and municipal level; national and European documents related to the implementation of youth policy; up-to-date information on funding opportunities for youth activities.

The portal maintains active communication with youth organizations in the country, providing up-to-date information on activities, initiatives, campaigns and competitions for the youth sector. There are also active online surveys on young people's opinion on current youth topics at national and European level.

The Ministry of Youth and Sports drafts biannual youth report. It summarizes the changes and trends in the socio-economic situation of young people during the relevant two-year period and covers at least the following thematic areas: education, employment, health and wellbeing; equality and inclusion, young people from small regions, awareness and digital skills and youth organisations. The youth report is prepared on the basis of data submitted by all governmental institutions in the country – at national and regional level, related to the development of youth within their competence. It is further supported by a sociological study on the identification of the effect of youth policy on young people in the country. See more details about the study below in sub-section “National statistics and available data sources”. 

Cooperation between policy-making and research

There are no institutionalised mechanisms for cooperation. The cooperation between policy-making and research is on ad-hoc basis. Nevertheless policy-makers in the youth field are often invited by researchers and participate in focus-groups, questionnaires, interviews aimed at conducting an evidence-based research. One of the most recent examples of a research in the youth field conducted in synergy with policy-makers is “Youth Policy in Bulgaria – Challenges and Perspectives” (Младежка политика в България-предизвикателства и преспективи) performed by researchers from the National Youth Forum and Freidriech Ebert Shtifung and published in 2020. This report is dedicated to analysing the implementation of the National Youth Strategy (2010-2020) and aims to provide recommendations on how to improve the processes of implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the next National Youth Strategy and how to involve more parties in the implementation of the youth policies.

National statistics and available data sources

The National Institute of Statistics is the body that collects and provides statistical data in general. There are no express statistical data for young people at the age 15-29 years, however some statistics in similar age groups exist in areas such as demography, education, health, employment, culture, etc.

Number of young people as reported by the National Institute of Statistics as of December 2022:

15-19 years of age 20-24 years of age 25-29 years of age Total
301 621 272 140 280 313 854 074

The Employment Agency (Агенция по заетостта) maintains annual statistics on unemployment, including of young people. For example, data on the professional and educational structure of registered unemployed young people (up to 24 years of age) can be found on the Employment Agency’s website.

For the purposes of the preparation of the youth report, the Ministry of Youth and Sports assigns the design of a sociological study on the identification of the effect of youth policy on young people in the country. The study covers many topics of high importance for the life of young people – education, employment, health, social relationships and equality, civic activity, personal development, etc. The target group of the study – 15-29 years of age, comprises people with different views and experiences based on the stage of life they are in: school and university students, employed, married, with children, etc. The most recent sociological study was carried out in December 2023 and the report can be found here (in Bulgarian).

Budgetary allocations supporting research in the youth field

In addition to the sociological studies described above, there is a government-funded or co-funded evaluation of the youth-related programmes and policy outcomes. Examples of these are:

  • Impact assessment of the National Youth Strategy (2010-2020) carried out in 2018 upon assignment of the Ministry of Youth and Sports;
  • Interim impact assessment of the National Youth Strategy (2010-2020) and the action plan thereto carried out in 2015 (under project “Information, Coordination and Partnership for Youth Policy Implementation in the Republic of Bulgaria” funded by Administrative Capacity Operational Program, co-funded by the European Union through the European Social Fund)
  • Subsequent impact assessment of the Youth Act carried out in 2020 (under project “Capacity Building for Carrying out Impact Assessments in the Public Administration” implemented by the Council of Ministers Administration under Good Governance Operational Program, co-funded by the European Union through the European Social Fund).