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1. Existence of a National Youth Strategy

2. Scope and contents

3. Responsible authority for the implementation of the Youth Strategy

4. Revisions/updates

Existence of a National Youth Strategy

The Youth Strategy 2020 (Estrategia Juventud 2020) is currently in force, approved by the Council of Ministers on the 12^th of September 2014. This plan is the result of the activities of the Interministerial Commission for Youth and the Youth Institute. It covers two different Action Plans: the first Action Plan encompassed the years 2014 to 2016 and the second Action Plan currently includes the year 2017 to the year 2020. However, the second Action Plan has not been presented and approved by the Interministerial Comission for Youth yet. The Strategy (as well as its drafting process) entails an assessment on the situation and opinions of youth and an analysis on youth tendencies towards year 2020, an analysis of the policies and actions related to youth in the last few years, as well as the background information, which make up the basis for the Strategy.

The Strategy is therefore divided into three parts:

First, an analysis of the policies and actions related to youth in the last few years, which make up the background information of the Strategy.

Second, the axis and goals of action are established: education and training; employment and entrepreneurship; housing; health and equality; participation, voluntary and inclusion work, as well as institutional cooperation.

Third, a series of youth indicators are developed in order to be used as a reference for the follow-up and assessment of the Strategy. These indicators can be split into general, emancipation, education, employment, health, social engagement and social networks areas.

Scope and contents

Youth Strategy 2020

It is an interministerial initiative promoted by the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda (Ministerio de Derechos Sociales y Agenda 2030), through the Youth Institute (Instituto de la Juventud) consistent with the Europe 2020 targets. All Ministries have taken part in the definition and contents of the Strategy through the Interministerial Commission for Youth.

The target group of the strategy is the Spanish population between 16 to 29.

The main goal is to become a reference for the youth policies developed in Spain and to favour policies and services for youth that have an impact in areas such as employment, participation, youth associationism, voluntary programmes, leisure and free time, healthy life habits, prevention, values for coexistence, etc.

It also encourages collaboration concerning youth between the different Ministries and other administrations such as Autonomous Regions, local authorities and provinces. The Youth Strategy will also imply cooperation between all the actors related to youth issues, including associations.

The Youth Strategy 2020 (Estrategia Juventud 2020) is implemented through Action Plans including actions related to youth from the different Ministries. Thus, an assessment mechanism to quantify the success of the Plan has been established. Also to grant the positive implementation of the strategy consultation activities are carried with the youth population and youth organizations, the main dialogue process with the youth population are the EU Youth Conferences (Conferencias de Juventud de la UE).

Axes of action

The 2020 Strategy (Estrategia 2020) establishes six Axes of Action. Its goals are also defined.

1) AXIS 1 Education and training. Goals

• Improving the Spanish Education System quality in order to raise employability and entrepreneurship.
• Encouraging the non-formal training system.
• Identifying and encouraging new niches and sources of employment through training.

2) AXIS 2 Employment and entrepreneurship. Goals

• Encouraging the establishment of youth employment opportunities
  • Encouraging the entry of youth in the labour market.
  • Increasing the number of self-employed youth as well as the number of companies established by people under 30 years of age.
• Encouraging the entrepreneurial culture.
• Promoting the implementation of a youth guarantee system.

3) AXIS 3 Housing. Goals

• Raising the youth emancipation figures.

4) AXIS 4 Health, leisure and sports. Goals

• Promoting actions taken in order to encourage healthy life habits.
• Reducing the use of drugs and narcotic substances.
• Fighting any kind of violence or discrimination.

5) AXIS 5 Participation, voluntary work, inclusion and equality. Goals

• Improving channels and tools to raise the participation and voluntary work of associated and not associated youth, especially those linked to ICT.
• Fighting against social exclusion of the most disadvantaged groups of youth population.
• Promoting equality.

6) AXIS 6 Institutional Cooperation. Goals

• Encouraging cooperation between public administrations, national and international bodies and youth entities which may have an impact on youth, through the following areas of youth cooperation:

Youth Indicators

The youth indicators pointed in the Strategy are the following:

General

• Young people in present-day society
• Youth population in the last few years
• Youth studying/working

Emancipation

• Emancipation figures
• Financially independent youth between 25 and 29 years of age
• Physically emancipated youth between 25 and 29 years of age  
• Emancipation on the basis of renting a property

Education

• Early education and training dropout rate
• Completion of secondary school studies rate
• Completion of further education studies rate

Employment

• Unemployment rate
• Employment rate
• Activity rate
• Temporary employment rate
• Employed youth with a permanent contract of employment
• Self-employed

Health

• Age-specific mortality rate
• Deaths due to external causes
• Deaths due to road traffic accidents
• Deaths due to suicide
• Tobacco use
• Alcohol use
• Cannabis use
• Use of condoms in sexual relationships
• Physical exercising amongst young people

Social engagement

• Associative membership rate

Social networks

• Presence in social networks
• Participation in social networks

Responsible authority for the implementation of the Youth Strategy

The Strategy refers to those actions related to youth taken or to be taken by the General Government Administration, through the different departments. This Strategy was conceived by the Ministry of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda.

The Youth Strategy 2020 (Estrategia Juventud 2020) is implemented through Action Plans including actions related to youth from the different Ministries. Thus, an assessment mechanism to quantify the success of the Plan has been established.

At the end of each year, the Youth Institute will produce a report on the follow-up of the actions taken, which shall be used as the basis, in order to partially asses each Action Plan and to encourage the development of new measures.

Revisions and updates

Assessment and review of Strategy 2020 shall be carried out by virtue of the different Action Plans through the Youth Interministerial Commission:

• Action Plan 2014-­2016
• Action Plan 2017­-2020

Originally, the Strategy established three Action Plans, however the number and length of the Action Plans has been reduced to two action plans, as mentioned above, one for the period 2014 to 2016 and another that comprehends between 2017 to 2020, as the National Reform Plans establish.

From this annual report, the Youth Interministerial Commission shall decide the inclusion of new actions proposed by the different Ministries.

Furthermore, in 2018, the European Commission presented the EU Youth Strategy for the 2019-2027 period, considered now the framework for EU in youth policy cooperation, which contains the main goals every state member must pursue by using their policy instruments and actions at national and local levels.