4.2 Administration and governance
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Governance
Main actors involved in youth social inclusion
The main top-level governmental authority responsible for youth social inclusion are:
- the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity;
- the Ministry of Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities;
- the National Authority for Children Protection and Adoptions (NACPA);
- the National Authority for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (NARPD);
- the General Offices for Social Assistance and Children Protection (GOSACP) at county level;
- the National Agency for Payment and Social Inspection (NAPSI);
- the Public Social Assistance Services (PSAS) at city level.
Trade unions, employers’ organisations and NGOs participate in policy making in the field of youth social inclusion using three main methods:
- the National Council for Youth (NCFY) created in 2020 as an advisory body for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, composed by 50 representatives of youth civil society organisations
- ad-hoc consultative meetings, mainly with NGOs
- the Economic and Social Council, a consultative body of the Parliament and the Government, organised as an autonomous tripartite public institution of national interest, having the function of an advisory board for all bills in the social or economic field.
There are three types of organisations participating to the Economic and Social Council:
- nationally representative trade unions, according to the Law no. 367/2022 on social dialogue;
- nationally representative employers’ associations, according to the Law no. 367/2022 on social dialogue;
- NGOs appointed by the Minister of Labour, according to representation criteria. However, the criteria are not public but NGOs organised in the previous years to vote representatives proposed for nominations to the Minister of Labour. An umbrella youth organisation: the Romanian Youth Council is part of the Economic and Social Council.
In ad-hoc meetings the participation of NGOs is more important.
UNICEF office in Romania is also active, providing information, studies and advice at the level of policy planning as well as testing and piloting social assistance models at local level. Their models are targeting primarily children, but young people (14-35 years old) are also an important target group for UNICEF office in Romania.
General distribution of responsabilities
Concerning the general distribution of responsibilities, the main governance approach to youth social inclusion is mainly top-down, but distribution of social benefits at local level and some of the basic social services are provided by the local authorities. The main responsibilities are as follows:
- the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity is the main central authority responsible for the development of the national policies for social inclusion. It also has a coordination role over the county offices implementing social inclusion policies and a monitoring role over the implementation of policies at national, county and local level;
- the Ministry of Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities is responsible for family policies, including policies for children in the special protection system for children without parental care and for young people leaving the special protection system;
- the National Authority for Children Protection and Adoptions (NACPA) is the central institution under the Ministry of Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities in charge with policy making and implementation (while decision on these policies lies with the Ministry) for the social protection of young people under 18 and young people leaving the special protection system;
- the General Offices for Social Assistance and Children Protection (GOSACP) are implementing the policies at county level in the field of social inclusion and child protection, including young people under 18;
- the National Agency for Payment and Social Inspection (NAPSI) is an institution under the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity in charge with the coordination of social benefit payments and inspecting these payments. The institution has county offices that are directly communicating with the local services and carrying out the inspections;
- the Public Social Assistance Services (PSAS) are departments at the level of local authorities, in charge with direct provision of services and direct distribution of social benefits.
Central authorities have a regulatory responsibility in the field of services and can also allocate limited financial resources from the central state budget for accredited organisations that provide such services, according to Law no. 34/1998 on providing subventions to Romanian associations and foundations with legal personality, which establishes and administers social work units.
The governance approach to youth social inclusion is top-down concerning policy development and decentralised in implementation. Local Public Assistance Services in the structure of local administration and authorised certified NGOs are directly providing social assistance and paying social benefits.
Cross-sectorial cooperation
There are three mechanisms of cross-sectorial cooperation between Ministries, Departments, and Agencies involved in defining top-level policies and measures on youth employment and entrepreneurship:
- Ad-hoc meetings and consultations
- Ad-hoc inter-ministerial committees organised on different topics according to the bill in preparation. For example, in 2016 the Ministry of Labour created an inter-ministerial committee for jobs creation, with responsibilities on jobs for young people.
- Until December 2023: the Monitoring Committee of the Operational Programme Human Capacity (OPHU), the programme including employment, education, training, social support and social entrepreneurship support from the European Social Fund and the Youth Employment Initiative. The Monitoring Committee of OPHU was an important cooperation mechanism, as OPHU funded many strategic initiatives and projects in the field of youth inclusion.
No evidence and public documents are available on the results of the cross-sector cooperation mechanisms presented.