Youth are not on the list of priorities in current politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are the ones who are most affected by unemployment, they lack social protection and are at highest risk in terms of the budget. Youth are not listed as an important and noticeable factor in the political parties’ programs that we saw during election campaigns in previous election cycles. The general public similarly does not acknowledge youth as an important political factor. Obviously, youth remain unacknowledged as the primary electorate, although they hold over 600,000 votes.
This initiative places youth on the list of priorities. Politics will be presented as a discreet discipline whose activities bring immediate benefits for youth in their everyday life. By doing so, we want to educate youth on politics so that they can encourage and develop critical thinking during voting for election candidates and motivate those who usually abstain to vote in the elections.
The difficult position of youth cannot concern only youth, it must concern the entire society. The economy cannot grow without a young, prepared workforce, pensions cannot grow without mass youth employment, education cannot improve until younger staff replaces the older staff unable to keep up with new trends in teaching. Politics cannot improve either until more youth are injected into the political scene.
Through this initiative, 33 trained young people from three BiH municipalities will ensure that the policy and programs of political parties are focused on the problems and needs of youth in their communities. They will actively advocate and lobby the local authorities in order to solve some of the issues faced by youth in their local community, thus giving youth and politicians an example of the importance of political participation, critical thinking and active work.
And this is just the beginning.
Contact person:
Mirela Ajanović, projektna koordinatorica
tel.: + 387 33 778762, fax.: +387 33 778779
email: mirela.ajanovic@kultbih.org
Donor: Ambasada Sjedinjenih Američkih Država u Sarajevu
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