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1. Main challenges to social inclusion

2. Main concepts

Main challenges to social inclusion

Specific data on the main challenges of youth social inclusion can be found in the Youth Monitoring Dashboard, a policy-making support tool with visualised data by Statistics Estonia. It features rates of absolute poverty by age group, youth unemployment, shares of NEET youth and youth with disabilities, and offences committed by young people, among other indicators.

At national level, youth-specific focus is provided by the Youth Sector Development Plan 2021–2035 (Noortevaldkonna arengukava 2021–2035). It defines four strategic objectives, each with references to social inclusion challenges:

• recognising youth as a driver of societal change and development, ensuring opportunities for self-development, self-realisation and entrepreneurship for everyone, with particular attention to youth with fewer opportunities;
• safeguarding the rights and participation of young people, with specific approaches and tools for youth with fewer opportunities and risk backgrounds;
• guaranteeing access to quality youth work services by reducing regional disparities and removing barriers for young people with special needs;
  
• strengthening the social security of youth by fostering early-stage prevention, supporting different risk groups (such as young people not in education, training or work and those with health challenges), and raising awareness in society to combat stigmatisation.

In addition, broader views on social inclusion are set out in:

• the „Estonia 2035“ Strategy and Action Plan

   (Strateegia „Eesti 2035“, „Eesti 2035“ Tegevuskava);

• the Welfare Development Plan 2016-2023

   (Heaolu arengukava 2016-2023);

• the Draft Welfare Development Plan 2023-2030 (Heaolu arengukava 2023-2030 Koostamise ettepanek).

The “Estonia 2035” strategy, approved by the Government of Estonia in 2021, sets out five long-term strategic goals related to people, society, economy, living environment and governance, and identifies nine key development needs. The strategy emphasises that children and youth deserve special attention and supportive environments in relation to challenges such as:

• demographic changes and the need for sustainable population policies;
• socio-economic inequalities across regions; 
• equal access to education, work and public services. 

The Welfare Development Plan 2016-2023, adopted by the Government of Estonia in 2016 and prepared by the Ministry of Social Affairs, identifies the following as the most important areas requiring development and support for the inclusion of young people:

• participation in working life;
• economic coping;
• social services and protection;
• equality;
• health.

The Draft Welfare Development Plan 2023-2030 (Heaolu arengukava 2023-2030 Koostamise ettepanek)(adoption in progress), intended to replace the former Strategy of Children and Families 2012–2020 (Laste ja perede arengukava 2012–2020), also highlights challenges in support services for children, youth and their families. It aims to reform the support system to ensure that help is available at the earliest possible stage, with coordinated efforts from all relevant experts (child welfare, education, medicine, etc.).

Continuous efforts focus on assessing and reducing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on young people, particularly in relation to mental health and access to employment and education. For example, the key findings of the Study „COVID-19 Impact on the need for labour force and skills“ confirm a rise in youth unemployment and increased vulnerability in this area.

Regarding health, The Green Paper on Mental Health (Vaimse tervise roheline raamat), adopted in 2021, highlights that during the COVID crisis, 49% of young people aged 15–24 reported stress levels notably higher than those of other age groups. The majority of mental health challenges appear during childhood or young adolescence: in 50% of cases before the age of 14 and in 75% of cases before the age of 24.

Children and youth are strongly influenced by their social environment. Accumulated risk factors significantly increase the likelihood of health challenges; for example, the risk of alcohol and drug abuse and depression rises 4–12 times for children and youth experiencing four or more risk factors. Coherent cooperation between different services and policy fields is therefore of great importance  (The Green Paper on Mental Health). 

Main concepts

The approaches and principles on social inclusion and welfare, defined at government level in the Welfare Development Plan 2016-2023 arise from the principles of a social welfare state, the framework of fundamental and social rights, and social protection principles. 

On the one hand, the social state principle ensures that strengthening the state’s economic development and competitiveness takes into account the needs of different social groups. Equal opportunities must be created for population groups that cannot secure their livelihood and welfare under market-economy conditions. On the other hand, adhering to this principle is also a prerequisite for economic development, as it prevents and reduces the exclusion of parts of the population from social and economic life.

The broader view is that the welfare of people and society is shaped by all aspects of life and the policies that affect them. Solutions follow the general shift in welfare state policies: moving from compensating for social risks and repairing their consequences to empowering and preparing people to cope with risks. Alongside traditional social protection, increasing people’s self-sufficiency and their social and professional engagement has become increasingly important. Social and labour market policies are therefore treated as investments that support participation in society and the economy.

Some of the most important concepts are defined as follows:

• Prevention refers to the need to focus primarily on preventing social risks and their consequences, which stops problems from progressing and accumulating, making them more time- and resource-efficient to solve.
• Shared responsibility means that the individual and their family bear primary responsibility for securing their welfare and a decent life. The state and local authorities provide support when a person or family cannot manage on their own. The provision of help also follows this principle, encouraging self-responsibility and preventing learned helplessness and dependency.
• Ensuring human dignity is the central objective for the protection of social rights. Human dignity means both decent treatment and a decent life.
• A comprehensive approach to human needs means that a person’s needs are assessed as thoroughly as possible, and this assessment is used in designing and implementing measures by combining benefits, grants and services as needed.
• Equal treatment is based on the idea of equality among people and the prohibition of discrimination as a central principle of a social state. It must be taken into account in granting rights, their implementation and the creation of equal opportunities. Equal treatment means considering the needs of all people, not treating all people uniformly.