Governance

The main governmental actor responsible for policy making concerning youth work is the Ministry of Sports and Youth / Directorate for Youth as a state administration body in charge of youth policy, state administration bodies and other administrative bodies in charge of certain fields of significance for the youth, municipalities, the Capital City, the Royal City, non-governmental organizations that implement youth policy and other legal entities.

Cross-sectoral cooperation

At national level, the most important institution in the domain of youth policy is the Ministry of Sports and Youth (Directorate for Youth). It performs the tasks related to:
• improvement and implementation of the national policy, strategy and action plans and programmes for youth;
• co-operation with youth organisations and associations regarding organisation of international youth manifestations and events in Montenegro;
• assistance and co-operation with youth organisations and associations and their promotion;
• enabling youth organisations and associations from Montenegro to participate at international youth manifestations;
• stimulation and achievement of international co-operation regarding youth;
• stimulation of development of youth policy and work.

Other state bodies that participate in the creation and implementation of youth policy at national level are the ministries, directorates, agencies and other institutions. Bodies competent for specific areas of youth policy are obliged to co-operate in the implementation of youth policy and appoint the contact person for youth. Therefore, in 2017, the Ministry of Sports and Youth established a Coordination Inter-sectorial Body for monitoring the implementation of the National Youth Strategy, whose members are representatives of all ministries that are recognized as actors who implement activities for youth. They regularly report on the activities of their ministries related to the Action Plan of the Youth Strategy, suggest possible inter-sectoral projects and give recommendations on the strategic documents in the field of youth.
 

Structures dealing with youth within the local self-governments are secretariats, local youth offices and local councils for youth. According to the Law on Youth, all local self-governances are obliged to submit to the Ministry of Sports and Youth the local youth action plans which contain measures and activities of youth policy at the local level based on the youth needs in their local community. In addition to this, they have to submit annual reports on implementation of the local action plan as well.
 

National or local youth councils 
 

There is a legal framework for establishment of the national and local councils for Youth in Montenegro. According to the Law on Youth (Article 16) “For the purpose of fostering development of youth policy, the Ministry (Ministry of Sports and Youth) shall establish the Council for Youth, an expert and advisory body”. However, the process of establishing the abovementioned body is still in progress in Montenegro.
 

The Law stipulates that National Council for Youth shall have a president and eight members. The president and three members are proposed by the Ministry, and state administration bodies in charge of labour affairs and education affairs shall propose a member each. They shall be appointed for a period of four years. One member of the Council for Youth is a representative of legal persons who govern youth services, and is elected for a period of one year via a public call published by the Ministry. Representative association of NGOs that implement youth policy1 shall propose two members of the Council for Youth, of which at least one is a young person, and they will be appointed for the period of one year. If a Representative association of NGOs that implement youth policy has not been established, two members of the Council for Youth, of which at least one is a young person, shall be proposed by the NGOs that implement youth policy, for the period of one year. Members of the Council for Youth that are proposed by the NGOs that implement youth policy are persons who have the support of the majority of those NGOs, and they shall be selected via a public call published by the Ministry. Correspondingly, further conditions, manner and procedure of selection of members of the Youth Council that are proposed by the representative association of NGOs that implement youth policy and member of the Council who is a representative of legal entities that govern youth services shall be prescribed by the Ministry via bylaws.
 

The competences of the Council for Youth are to give proposals for improvement of youth policy; give suggestions in the procedure of the Strategy implementation; delegate its member for participation in the procedure of elaboration of a law in the field that is of importance for the youth; monitor the position of the youth and suggest measures for its improvement; give opinion on other matters of importance for the youth etc.

Local Council for Youth
 

For the purpose of fostering and improving youth policy, strengthening cooperation and improving position of the youth at the local level, the municipality may establish a local council for youth, as an expert and advisory body.
Local council for youth shall consist of representatives of municipality bodies in charge of youth policy and NGOs that implement youth policy. The representative of NGOs that implement youth policy is a person that has the support of the majority of NGOs and is selected via a public call.

Youth and youth work NGOs
 

Non-governmental organization may implement youth policy according to the Law on Youth if in its statute it cites activities of youth policy as one of the objectives or fields of its function. NGOs can also establish the Association of NGOs or organizations that implement youth policy. The Law specifies that the Representative association is an alliance that consists of several and 30 at least NGOs that implement youth policy, from at least six municipalities, of which coastal, central and northern municipalities are represented by two members, as determined by the law that governs regional development. The Ministry defines the representativeness of the association for a period of one year by issuing a certificate of representativeness.

However, the civil sector in the area of working with youth is much broader than what can be seen, therefore it is difficult to give the precise number of youth and youth work NGOs in Montenegro. Still, a great number of the NGOs in general implement youth work activities (some of them are: Forum MNE, PRIMA, ADP ZID, Centar za omladinsku edukaciju, CAZAS, Juventas, Centar za mlade-Proactive, Da zaživi selo, Udruženje mladih sa hendikepom Crne Gore, Aktivna zona, Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava, Mladiinfo Montenegro, Crnogorski omladinski forum, Građanski kreativni centar, Unija mladih srednjoškolaca, Novi horizont, youth clubs/centres, and many others).

Other relevant actors
International organizations (EU office to Montenegro, OSCE Mission to Montenegro, UN System, etc),
international foundations (The European Youth Foundation, Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Anna Lindh Foundation, the Robert Schuman Foundation, the Robert Bosch Foundation, etc),
Regional Youth Coopertion Office,
European Youth Card Association, etc.