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Serbia

5. Participation

5.6 Supporting youth organisations

Last update: 27 February 2026
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  1. Legal/policy framework for the functioning and development of youth organisations
  2. Public financial support
  3. Initiatives to increase the diversity of participants

Legal/policy framework for the functioning and development of youth organisations 

The Law on Youth (Zakon o mladima) addresses the establishment of the youth associations, while the Law on Associations (Zakon o udruženjima) is governing the establishment and legal status of associations in general. 

According to the Law on Associations, association is a voluntary, non-governmental and non-profit organization based on the freedom of association of individuals or bodies to corporate. These associations are established in order to pursue and promote a particular shared or general goal and interest. 

The Law on Youth specifies that for the purposes of carrying out youth activities, improving conditions for personal and social development of young people and including young people in the social life of a community and their informing, associations of young people and associations for young people may be established.  

Both the Law on Youth and the Strategy for Youth in the Republic of Serbia  for the period from 2023 to 2030 distinguishes the two types of associations that are recorded in the register of the Ministry of Tourism and Youth and operating in accordance with the Law on Associations: 

  • Youth organisation is any association whose membership includes no less than two-thirds of young people and whose goals are aimed at young people, pursuant to the Law on Youth.  

  • Organisation for youth is any other association whose goals are focused, among other things, on young people, pursuant to the Law on Youth. 

Public financial support

Youth organisations receive financial support through funding schemes dedicated to the development and improvement of youth policy.

Existing public funding sources include:

  • The state budget (through public calls launched by line ministries) 

  • The budgets of units of local self-government (through local public calls) 

Each year, the Government of the Republic of Serbia prepares a draft Law on the Budget for the following year. The National Assembly adopts the Law on Budget, including the budget allocations for the youth sector and for the Ministry of Tourism and Youth. For example, under the Law on Budget 2026 , approximately 440,000,000 RSD has been allocated for the development and implementation of youth policy, including support to the units of local self-government in this field.

The Ministry of Tourism and Youth (previously the Ministry of Youth and Sports) annually launches public calls to support programmes and projects aligned with the specific strategic goals of the Youth Strategy, including those aimed at promoting youth participation. These public calls include:  

As indicated by the titles of these calls, the focus is primarily on programmes and projects implemented by youth organisations, while no specific funding schemes are dedicated to the establishment of youth facilities. 

The Article 20 of the Law on Youth defines the types of activities that can be funded from the state budget. The funds for funding programmes and projects of public interest in the youth sector are dedicated for: 

  • providing conditions for the development and improvement of youth activities through encouraging young people to actively participate in social processes;  

  • encouraging associations of young people, associations for young people, and federations to participate in the implementation of youth activities and objectives from the Strategy for Youth;  

  • informing young people on issues of importance for the youth and issuing publications of importance for young people;  

  • stimulating career guidance and counselling for young people, and organizing trainings, seminars and events of importance for the employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship of young people;  

  • fostering non-formal youth education within the youth sector and development of quality of non-formal youth education;  

  • social empowerment of young people, especially through encouraging volunteerism and youth work and capacity building of youth associations;  

  • encouraging young people to spend active and quality free time and foster healthy and safe lifestyles, as well as addressing the needs of young people in the field of culture; 

  • encouraging youth activities within the youth sector at the local level through the support of implementation of local plans of action for young people, as well as programmes and projects of local youth offices; 

  • conducting research on the position and needs of young people in the Republic of Serbia; 

  • implementation and promotion of international cooperation within the youth sector; 

  • support of young talents through rewards, scholarships, and skills improvement of pupils and university students. 

Furthermore, Article 21 of the Law on Youth specifies that funding or co-funding of programmes and projects should be implemented by programme and project holders, including, in particular, associations of young people, associations for young people and federations. 

For the purposes of providing conditions for active involvement of young people in the life, the social community and youth projects, the Law on Youth defines the establishment of Youth Offices. The Youth Offices are mainly funded from the budget of the local self-government units. 

Initiatives to increase the diversity of participants 

The initiatives to increase the diversity of young people participating in youth organisations are addressed in more details within the Chapter 4 – Social Inclusion. Inclusion and diversity issues have been incorporated into the youth policy strategic framework. Two out of four indicators related to the general aim of the Strategy for Youth in the Republic of Serbia for the period from 2023 to 2030 are directly related to inclusion and diversity – Risk of poverty and social exclusion, and the Share of youth reporting their social engagement as good or very good. The strategy recognizes vulnerable groups of young people, marginalized, those at risk of social exclusion and poverty as multiple discriminated and excluded groups young people. Measure 5.5 of the Strategy envisaged support to programmes contributing to social inclusion of youth. Availability of data related to social inclusion of youth has been recognised as one of the main challenges for the effective implementation of the youth policy in the field of social inclusion.

Additionally, initiatives to increase the diversity of participants can also come from the youth sector. For instance, in 2023, Association "Sociativa" in cooperation with the National Association of Youth Work Practitioners (NAPOR), the Women's Group for Peace (ŽMIG) and the association “Daj Mi Ruku” produced a study "Systemic involvement of organizations dealing with youth work in providing additional assistance and support to young users of social protection services from vulnerable groups"  Document aimed at assessing the possibilities for systemic inclusion of organizations that deal with youth work in providing certain services to young people from sensitive groups and thus represents important basis for interinstitutional collaboration in addressing youth social exclusion issues.