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1. Existence of a national strategy to increase young people's political and civil society participation

2. Scope and contents

3. Responsible authority for the implementation of the strategy

4. Monitoring and evaluation

5. Revisions/ Updates

Existence of a national strategy to increase young people's political and civil society participation

In Republic of North Macedonia, there is a National Youth Strategy 2016-2025, where one of the nine thematic areas is Youth Participation. The document had a wide consultation process authentic for South East Europe and provided inclusion of a large number of young people. It was adopted in January, 2016.  The Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies adopted in January 2020 envisages the preparation and adoption of a new National Youth Strategy. The legal deadline for the adoption of the new strategy by the Government was July 2021, but so far (February 2022) the new strategy has not yet been prepared or adopted. At the end of 2021, the Agency for Youth and Sports announced a call for consultants who will conduct research on youth trends, which should provide the basis for the preparation of a new national strategy for youth.

In January 2020, the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies was adopted. (Закон за младинско учество и младински политики) The aims of the law are:

1) creating and implementing youth policy at all levels through multisectoral approach, starting from the needs and interests of young people;

2) strengthening the participation of young people in the youth related policy-making processes, active information, promotion and protection of the interests of young people, as well as strengthening awareness of the importance of young people and their social role;

3) promoting intergenerational partnerships to support youth participation in the decision-making and policy-making process;

4) support and promotion of youth organization;

5) encouraging structural dialogue at national and local level;

6) encouraging volunteering, youth activism and youth work and

7) encouraging personal, professional and social development of young people.

According to the same law, National Youth Strategy is a strategic document that sets out medium-term goals and priorities for the development of youth policies and the promotion of the interests of young people and determines organizational, financial and administrative measures for their realization. The Law also underlines that the National Youth Strategy is developed by the Agency for Youth and Sport through consultative, inclusive and transparent process and after previously obtained opinion from youth advisory body and submits it to the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia. 

[1]https://skopje.gov.mk/media/6163/javen-povik-za-izrabotka-na-strategija-za-mladi-2021-2025.pdf (Accessed December 11, 2020)

Scope and contents

The National Youth Strategy is targeting nine thematic areas: youth participation; youth information; local youth work; education; employment and pre-employment support; culture; sports; health; quality of life. The strategy aims with its interventions on national level and plans particular attention to vulnerable categories of young people (unemployed, NEET, low level of education, young people with geographical and financial obstacles).

As stated in the strategy the Vision is that in 2025; “The key challenges in the area of youth participation are related to the opinion of young people that they are only partially involved in policy creation and that they are more involved in helping their peers and friends with school assignments than in volunteer work for non-governmental organizations. Those young people who are members of civil society organizations consider that only a small percentage of young people are members of any organization and that a significant percentage are not interested in politics at all.”^[1]

The law on Youth Participation and Youth policies regulated few bodies that are intended to increase the youth participation in the policy-making processes such as: National Assembly of Youth; National Advisory Body for Youth policies; Local Assembly of Youth and Local Youth Councils.

Strategic Priorities of the National Youth Strategy 2016-2025 are:

1. Providing a better standard of living and equal opportunities for a decent life; 2. Creating conditions for effective observance and protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, and systematic integration and interaction of different categories of young people; 3. Creating opportunities for the involvement of young people in the monitoring and implementation of policies and decisions that affect them; 4. Equal access to quality education and other forms of personal and professional development.

Each thematic area contains objectives that should be achieved with specific measures nationwide.

The Strategy is targeting all young people aged 15-29, but is also emphasizing the importance of promotion of youth activism to young people with fewer opportunities.^[2]

^[1] National Youth Strategy 2016-2025, Agency of Youth and Sport (January, 2016), p. 13 http://ams.gov.mk/images/dokumenti/mladi/National_Youth_Strategy_2016-2025_eng.pdf (Accessed December 14, 2018)

^[2] National Youth Strategy 2016-2025, Agency of Youth and Sport (January, 2016), p. 13 http://ams.gov.mk/images/dokumenti/mladi/National_Youth_Strategy_2016-2025_eng.pdf (Accessed December 14, 2018)

Responsible authority for the implementation of the strategy

As main responsible authority is the government as a whole and specifically the Agency of Youth and Sport. The main coordination is in the hands of the Agency of Youth and Sport, also responsible for monitoring of the implementation.

Monitoring and evaluation

Within the Strategy there is also monitoring plan which strives to provide: Monitoring and assessment of the implementation of the planned activities and the initial outputs to which they contribute; Monitoring and assessing the effects of achieving the sets of results within the thematic areas; Assessment of the overall impact of the Strategy according to the established strategic priorities. There are no monitoring reports publicly available currently, and it is in the 4^nd year of implementation. The National Youth Strategy will have impact assessment after the 5 years of implementation and final impact assessment within six months of the expiry in the 10-year period.^[1]

^[1] See more: National Youth Strategy 2016-2025, Agency of Youth and Sport (January, 2016), p. 39 http://ams.gov.mk/images/dokumenti/mladi/National_Youth_Strategy_2016-2025_eng.pdf (Accessed December 14, 2018)

Revisions/Updates

According to information received from the Agency of Youth and Sport (upon prior request for free access to public information by NYCM), during 2018 AYS held a series of consultative meetings with civil society organizations. In November 2019 there were 6 working groups, working on preparation of the new Action Plan 2020 for the National Youth Strategy, but with the adoption of the Law on Youth Participation and Youth Policies, it is necessary to develop a new National Youth strategy, and thus this process is not relevant and has not been realized.