Governance

According to the Law on Voluntary Work, supervision over the implementation of the Law and the regulations governing volunteering is performed by the ministry in charge of labor issues through the Labor Inspectorate. When the Law was adopted, the ministry in charge of labor was the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, whose responsibilities were taken over by the Ministry of Economic Development through the Decree on the State Administration’s Organization and Manner of Work in 2020 (“Official Gazette of Montenegro”, Nos. 118/2020, 121/2020, 1/2021 and 2/2021). The Law also stipulates that the Employment Agency of Montenegro is responsible for keeping a central database of the organizers, beneficiaries of volunteering and volunteers, based on the data provided by the organizers of volunteering who are obliged to keep records of concluded contracts on volunteering.

Concerning, specifically, youth volunteering the main actor involved in policy making was the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and the Sports and Youth until the end of 2021 when the responsibilities in the area of youth policy were taken over by the Ministry of Sports and Youth.

At the local level, according to the Law on Youth (“Official Gazette of Montenegro”, Nos. 025/19 of 30.04.2019 and 4 027/191 of 17.05.2019), municipalities adopt a local youth action plan, which contains measures and activities of youth policy at the local level, to meet the interests and needs of young people. These action plans should be harmonized with the Youth Strategy, which includes measures relating to youth volunteering.

Civil society organizations mainly have the role of initiators and contributors towards implementing the policy measures regarding youth volunteering set by the government.


Cross-sectoral co-operation
 

There is no official mechanism for cross-sectoral co-operation dedicated exclusively to youth volunteering. More information which can be linked with cross-sectoral cooperation is described in the I Chapter Youth Policy Governance under the subchapter 1.5 CROSS-SECTORAL APPROACH WITH OTHER MINISTRIES.

One of the possible mechanisms for cross-sectoral co-operation, although not dedicated solely to youth volunteering, is the councils for youth which are planned to be established at the national and local levels. The Law on Youth stipulates that the Council for Youth will be created in order to foster the development of youth policy. It will involve representatives of state administration bodies in charge of youth policy, labor affairs and education affairs, representative of legal entities that govern youth services and two representatives of NGOs that implement youth policy. For the same purpose a municipality may also establish a local council for youth as an expert and advisory body, which should consist of representatives of municipality bodies in charge of youth policy and NGOs that implement youth policy.