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1. Formal Mechanisms of Consultation

2. Actors

3. Information on the extent of youth participation

4. Outcomes

5. Large-scale initiatives for dialogue or debate between public institutions and young people

Formal Mechanisms of Consultation

The aim of the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies (Закон за младинско учество и младински политики) adopted in January 2020 is to ensure: “creating and implementing youth policy at all levels through multi-sector approach, starting from the needs and interests of young people; strengthening the participation of young people in the policy-making processes for youth, active information, promotion and protection of the interests of young people, as well as raising awareness of the importance of young people and their social role; promoting intergenerational partnerships to support youth participation in the decision-making and policy-making process; support and promotion of youth organization; encouraging structural dialogue at national and local level; encouraging volunteering, youth activism and youth work and encouraging personal, professional and social development of young people.

Actors

Youth Actors

The structure, composition, role and funding of the main Youth actors: National Assembly of Youth, National Advisory Body for Youth Policies; Local Assemblies of Youth and Local Youth Councils are explained in 5.3.

The National Youth Council of Macedonia is an umbrella organization and representative body of 46 youth organizations in North Macedonia. As such, it has great impact and influence in policy making concerning youth.

Specific target groups

Public authorities

During consultation processes, the key public actors were: The Agency of youth and Sport (Агенција за млади и спорт), Ministry of Education and Science , Ministry of Labor and Social Policy (Министерство за труд и социјална политика) , National Agency for European Educational Programmes and Mobility , the Units of Local self-Government, the Assembly of North Macedonia and the Club on Youth Affairs and Policies, Cross-sectoral group on youth within the Ministry of Culture (Министерство за култура), and the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia

Additional stakeholders

Additional stakeholders involved in the consultation processes are: other government agencies; High Education Institutions; High School Institutions; Media representatives and Civil Society Organizations.

Information on the extent of youth participation

No official public information is available

Outcomes

The Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies specifies that the scope of work of the National Assembly of Youth consists of:

- election of youth representatives in the advisory body;

- creating policies and priorities;

- monitoring the work of youth representatives;

- reviewing reports from youth representatives and

- other activities in accordance with the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies and the Rules of Procedure.

The Law states that the local youth councils have an advisory and advocacy role in the municipalities, the municipalities in the city of Skopje and the city of Skopje within the scope of youth issues and policies.

The representatives of the local youth council have the right to:

- propose items on the agenda of the Municipal Council, the municipalities in the city Skopje and the city of Skopje that affect young people;

- initiate questions for young people from the scope of work of the municipalities, the municipalities in the city of Skopje and the city of Skopje;

- initiate, participate in and provide feedback on the local process youth strategy and other policies;

- submit information to the municipalities, the municipalities in the city of Skopje and the city of Skopje for issues related to youth and

- perform other advisory and advocacy activities in accordance with this law.

The National Advisory Body for Youth Policies, according to the Law, has the following competencies:

-provides opinions and recommendations for implementation of youth regulations and policies;

- provides an opinion on the National Youth Strategy and the action plan for implementation of the National Youth Strategy;

- provides an opinion on the budget funds intended for young people as well as proposals, opinions and recommendations for financing youth-related activities;

- initiates consideration of youth issues to the Government and the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia;

- proposes the establishment of mechanisms for evaluation of youth participation and realization of youth interests in social life;

- publishes reports (thematic and periodical) on the rights, opportunities and needs of young people in the Republic of North Macedonia;

- follows the recommendations of the European Union for youth and advocates for improvement of youth policies;

- organizes events and consultations for its work with youth organizations and young and

- performs other activities related to the youth and their interests.

There is no publicly available information on the extent to which the proposals and initiatives of young people are incorporated in public policies. Institutions usually share general information about youth consultations. For example, the draft version of the  National Youth Strategy 2023-2027 states: “The process of defining the aims and objectives of the NYS took place within eight thematic working groups and additional consultations with youth, umbrella organizations, high school students and

high school organizations, students and student organizations, youth officers and others representatives of the institutions, youth party wings, the Club on Youth Affairs and Youth Policies of the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia and other relevant stakeholders, in

consultative, inclusive and transparent process. ”^[1]

^[1] Draft Version of  National Youth Strategy 2023-2027, Agency of Youth and Sport, p.5  https://api.ams.gov.mk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/nsm-23-27_draft.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2N1l5NnXD3diqp4nF-ZPewW4WOHuKup6yWcOnR3YGguD1xWN3rbfy80sI  (Accessed August 23, 2023)

Large-scale initiatives for dialogue or debate between public institutions and young people

Dialogue with civil society organizations - EU Structural Participation Platform

Integrations (Дијалог со граѓанските организации – Платформа за структурно учество во ЕУ интеграциите) is an EU-funded project whose aim is to ensure essential and structural participation of the civil society that reflects the views of citizens about key sectoral reforms in the EU process.

This project is implemented by: Fоundation Open Society – Мacedonia;  Reactor - Research in Action; Center for Civil Communications andEurothink - Center for European Strategies.

Project implementation started on 1.4.2019 and ended on 31.3.2022. In particular, the project was focused on attainment of three following objectives:

1. Establish a platform that will structure participation of civil society organizations in consultations and decision-making process related to the country’s accession in the EU

The project established a platform for structural participation of the civil society in institutional consultation mechanisms, thereby increasing availability of information and support for participation in policy-making related to the EU accession process.

2. Enhance formal consultation mechanisms with the civil society

At the same time, the project aimed to increase the civil society impact on sector reforms in the EU accession process and  worked  on all institutional consultation mechanisms between the Government and civil society.

3. Increase the civil society impact on the country’s accession in the EU

The project strived to increase the civil society impact on policies related to the EU accession process by means of evidence-based policy creation, development of policy documents (shadow reports, policy briefs, position statements) in key sectors and reform policies under the EU accession process.

Western Balkans Youth Lab Project is a three-year EU funded (1,5 million EUR) and RCC implemented project that kicked-off in January 2020, with aims to provide opportunities for youth to participate in decision-making. The project is covering the Western Balkans Six economies (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Montenegro, Serbia and North Macedonia). The Western Balkans Youth Lab (WBYL) Project strives to create a longer-term structured regional dialogue between youth organizations and national administrations focused on jointly devising policies which will increase youth participation in decision-making, to improve the overall socio-economic environment for and mobility of youth in the Western Balkans economies through different types of activities. The project goal is strengthening formal and informal mechanisms of youth participation, with expected outcomes to increase mobilization of youth in policy making, and to increase co-creation of relevant policies with youth.

The project utilizes the structured dialogue methodology and addresses different topics on an annual basis, notably youth unemployment in 2021, and youth and mental health in 2022 and green agenda as of 2023.