Forthcoming policy development

• Amendments to the Youth Law

• European Youth Card Development Program 2024-2027

• Youth guarantees

Ongoing debates

Through qualitative research conducted by the Directorate for Sports and Youth, in partnership with the UNDP Office in Podgorica, during 2022, the following priority areas for the future development of the strategic and legal framework in the field of youth have been identified.                                       

• improving the institutional framework for the implementation of youth policy: Establishing the Council for Youth as an expert and advisory governmental body that should ensure better inter-sectoral co-operation and connection with the Youth Network as Umbrella Youth Organization;                                 

• strengthening youth services and improving working conditions for their smooth functioning;                   

• encouraging proactive participation of young people in the process of creation and implementation of youth policy at the national and local level;                                               

• encouraging employment and self-employment of young people;                                              

• fostering the involvement of young people as the creators and consumers of cultural events;                                 

• strengthening the mobility of young people emphasizing educational mobility;                         

• empowering young people in the field of non-formal education;                                 

• development, transition to adulthood and health protection of youth;                                   

• promoting and encouraging young people to volunteer;                                               

• professionalization of youth work, ICT skills and digitalization;                                               

• gender equality;

• strengthening the resilience of young people through the development of their social and emotional competencies;

• social cohesion and social inclusion of vulnerable youth groups;                           

• improving the quality of education in the light of digitalization of the education system and the epidemiological crisis caused by the COVID-19 virus;                                               

• promotion of media literacy among youth and youth media development.                                           

Plans for a more inclusive approach aimed at young people belonging to vulnerable categories relate to defining and implementing measures and activities that will be developed through new strategic documents in the field of youth policy, including:                                                         

• regular mapping of young people needs, especially those belonging to vulnerable groups in all regions of Montenegro;                               

• improvement of statistics on the position of young people with developed indicators relating to the EU indicators for monitoring and evaluating the results achieved in this field;                                       

• encouraging the active participation and informing of young people with disabilities, including the structured dialogue mechanism which is mandatory in EU countries;                                                 

• development of psychosocial support programmes for adolescents and transition of young people to adulthood with a focus on marginalized categories exposed to discrimination;                                             

• development and promotion of socially useful programmes for young people with the aim of improving their position in all areas of public interest;                                                                

• through the digitalisation of work with young people, according special attention to the inclusion of vulnerable groups in education programmes, active employment measures, non-formal education, information, mobility, health and transition to adulthood;                                           

• conducting training programmes for young people who are at risk of discrimination in order to increase their involvement in the various youth projects and activities;                                           

• building the new Youth Strategy on the principles of social inclusion and cohesion, so that the most vulnerable groups of young people  are specifically targeted by youth policy measures and mechanisms;                                           

• ensure greater representation of young people with disabilities, young people from minority groups, rural areas as well as the Roma population based on the mapped needs and results of the evaluation of programmes targeting these groups.