In December 2020, the Ministry of Information Society and Administration launched the Open Government Partnership online platform. Open Government Partnership (OGP) is an international initiative that aims to provide concrete commitments by governments aimed at promoting transparency, support civic participation, fight corruption and use new technologies in public administration and beyond in order to support innovation. The electronic tool launched in December 2020 is a central point for consultation, monitoring, involvement, networking and reporting to all stakeholders and stakeholders in the process. The OGP portal aims to serve as a platform for interaction and exchange of information in four segments: consultations for the preparation of the National Action Plan (NAP), monitoring the implementation of the NAP, as well as monitoring the work of the OGP Council and the Network of civil society organizations for OGP.^[1]

In June 2020, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Information Society and Administration provided vouchers for digital skills training for young people not older than 29. The candidates should apply for the vouchers via the National Platform for e-services: https://uslugi.gov.mk/^[2].

In the Republic of North Macedonia there is no legal framework which enables and encourages young people to participate in political processes electronically. There are certain measures adopted in order to ease the access to some information or to ease the interaction with state institutions. For example, the Ministry of Education and Science has launched online platform e-books (е-учебници), which is a type of digital library where students in primary and secondary school (and any other interested citizen) can have free access and free download e-version of books which are studied in primary and secondary education.

There are also some other measures aimed to facilitate the contact with the state administration in North Macedonia, such as e-Personal tax (electronic filing of annual tax return); or aimed to consult the citizens about certain pubic state’s initiative, for example, in the end of July 2019, the Major of the City of Skopje launched online survey where Macedonian citizens were able to propose new names of some streets, bridges, squares and parks. These and similar measures have a general scope and do not apply exclusively to young people.

Young people are often using the internet for different reasons.

According to the State Statistical Office, in 2022, 86.6% of households had access to the Internet from home.

In the first quarter of 2022, of the total population aged 15 to 74, 88.3% used the Internet, and 73.9% used it several times during the day.

49.5% of people ordered/bought goods or services online in the last 12 months.

[1]https://mioa.gov.mk/?q=mk/node/3203 (Accessed December 10, 2020)

[2]https://www.mioa.gov.mk/?q=mk/node/2955 (Accessed December 10, 2020)

[3] www.stat.gov.mk (Accessed February 24, 2022)