Forthcoming policy developments

The programme on achieving public interest in the field of youth policy in 2022 is planned to be adopted. The programme is a public policy document that elaborates key objectives and activities aimed at addressing youth priorities in the public interest, one of which is promoting healthy lifestyles among youth (more information in the Country Sheet on Youth Policy in Montenegro). The programme is to be based on the analysis of the needs of youth conducted by the Directorate of Sport and Youth.

Ongoing debates
 

There have been various initiatives from NGOs concerning youth health in the past, e.g. initiatives to include sex education in schools submitted by an NGO to the Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports and an initiative to make the subject “healthy lifestyles” mandatory rather than optional in schools.

The topic related to youth health that is currently being widely discussed is related to increasing vaccination coverage of young people. Representatives of the Institute for Public Health invited young people to get vaccinated on International Youth Day and recently published a statistic that all Covid-19-related deaths of people younger than 40 have been registered among unvaccinated people. There has also been an increasing awareness of the need of carrying out measures and initiatives regarding the mental health of young people, for instance NGOs’ appeals to increase the budget and resources in this area.