1.7 Funding youth policy
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How Youth policy is funded
The specific budget for public youth policies comes from three sources: the Portuguese State Budget, Community Funds and the income of the organism that has the executive power to run public youth policies – the Portuguese Institute for Sports and Youth (IPDJ, I.P.).
The specific budget for youth policy, managed by the IPDJ, I.P., and allocated to youth policies, is as follows:
- 2015 Budget: approximately 8 187 250.00 euros
- 2016 Budget: approximately 9 757 922.09 euros
- 2017: approximately 11 763 070.00 euros
- 2018: approximately 12 183 861,00 euros
- 2019: approximately 11 220 039,00 euros
What is funded?
All projects and programmes developed in the following scopes of action are funded: associationism, employment and entrepreneurship, volunteering, creativity and culture, health, leisure, citizenship and participation, mobility, non-formal education.
Financial accountability
The IPDJ publicly provides annual information about its activity. Through its Annual Report, all fields of youth policy, with quality and quantity indicators, are made available and can be analysed. In addition, specific information is regularly provided and every financial support to youth organisations is published in the IPDJ Portal, as well as the list of members of the National Register of Youth Associations.
Within the scope of the IPDJ Advisory Council's competencies, the Plan and the Activity Report are subject to the dissemination, analysis and opinion of its constituting members, including the National Youth Council, the National Federation of Youth Associations, a representative of the higher education students’ associations and a representative of the basic and secondary education students’ associations. The IPDJ’s Advisory Council gathers at least twice a year.
In turn, also in the Youth Advisory Council: which is chaired by the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports and brings together youth organisations, youth parties, associations of municipalities and parishes, union associations, among others; there can be pronunciation regarding the outlining of youth policies, programmes, implemented projects and actions, and also issues regarding civic participation and the social and economic integration of young people. The body gathers on a quarterly basis, being that part of the agenda is the presentation of measures and results achieved in the previous quarter.
The presence among the youth and student associative movement ensures a relationship of proximity, with the aim of improving the transparency and accountability of public youth policies, having been organised, between 2016 and 2017, an itinerary through the country’s several districts to better know the territory and to organise district meetings with the association network of the district, local authorities and other relevant entities for the purpose of accountability and debate of youth public policies.
Use of EU Funds
The IPDJ, I.P., has resorted to community funds for the employment and entrepreneurship sectors and also for cross-border projects.
From 2013 to 2015, this was made resorting to the ERDF – European Regional Development Fund, for the implementation of the Business Perception and Management Network programme (RPGN – Rede de Perceção e Gestão de Negócios). This programme was one of the measures included in the Youth Impulse, which was a model extended to youth entrepreneurship, applied from the gestation of an idea until the creation of a sustainable associative or business initiative. The programme was funded with 1,193,107.98 euros by the Operational Programmes (PO) of the North (ON2), Centre (MaisCentro) and Alentejo (INAlentejo).
In 2016, the IPDJ, I.P., applied for the European Social Fund, Youth Employment Initiative, through the Operational Programme Social Inclusion and Employment (PO ISE – Programa Operacional Inclusão Social e Emprego) for the implementation of the Business Perception and Management Network programme (Programa Empreende Já – Rede de Perceção e Gestão de Negócios).
This programme aims to stimulate an entrepreneurial culture, focusing on creativity and innovation, and to support the creation and development of social economy enterprises and entities, as well as the creation of jobs, by and for young people. This intervention is carried out under the typology of operations within the scope of priority axis II - Youth Employment Initiative of the investment priority 8.ii. -Professional Integration under POISE. A budget of 4,633,615.80 euros (IPDJ, I.P. and community budget) was allocated to this Programme.
The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) helped the support of cross-border projects from 2012 to 2015, involving partnerships between the following entities: Portuguese Institute of Sports and Youth (PT); Youth Council of Extremadura (ES); the Government of Castile and León (ES); Directorate-General of Youth – Regional Government of Galicia (ES); Huelva Provincial Council (ES); Braga (PT) and the National Federation of Youth Associations – FNAJ. During the last four years, the Regional Directorates of Alentejo, Centre and North have been involved in cross-border projects, through the Operational Programme for Cross-border Cooperation Spain-Portugal (POCTEP).
Between 2016 and 2020, through the Regional Directorate of the North, the IPDJ applied for the ERDF, under the Interregional Operational Programme for Cross-border Cooperation Spain-Portugal (Programa Operacional INTERREG V A ESPANHA-PORTUGAL – POCTEP), which aims to actively promote the participation of Iberian young people, through their associative movements and in collaboration with public organisms with responsibilities in the youth sector, in the construction and implementation of regional, national and Iberian youth policies, in proposals for the improvement of youth policy in the European Union (thus, contributing to improve the European youth policy), as well as in the development of synergies and economies of scale, resorting to cross-border cooperation and seizing the opportunities created by this cooperation.
The IPDJ, in the period between 2016 and 2020, will be involved in three projects: LIDERA; EUROCIDADE 2020 and JUVIBERIA, to stimulate the cooperation between the organisms responsible for youth policies, effectively implementing the cooperation work opportunities identified in the first Iberian youth summit and in the Juviberia agenda, taking into account the diverse intervention domains and the transversality of both countries’ youth policies. These projects’ budget is approximately 1.420.703.12 euros.