Ilidža Municipality’s Coordination Body and working groups are currently working on the municipality’s fifth youth strategy. At their third meeting, held this week, the team reviewed their progress and mapped out the next priority steps.
A major milestone has been completing the strategic platform, which is essentially a comprehensive analysis of the current situation that will guide the youth strategy document. With unanimous agreement reached, this platform now goes to public consultation for 30 days.
The platform covers all areas that matter to young people, examines the legal and institutional framework, and lays out a vision for action along with strategic goals.
This meeting concentrated on identifying priorities and concrete actions to reach those goals. The youth strategy will focus on four main areas:
- providing better education and job opportunities for young people through networking with local businesses,
- offering more accessible, higher-quality health and social services
- fostering a safer, healthier environment,
- providing a variety of cultural, sports and educational opportunities, along with better transportation, information access and chances for young people to get involved in community life,
The group stressed the importance of getting more young people involved in local activities, with partnerships between public institutions and secondary schools seen as essential for showing young people why activism and civic engagement matter.
The discussion emphasized that youth involvement is vital for creating inclusive communities where youth are not just using the services, but also helping to shape and improve them.
Building stronger connections between youth organizations, sharing experiences, and improving cooperation between institutions and youth groups emerged as another key priority.
The team stressed that any worthwhile strategy has to be realistic, implementable, and rooted in what young people actually need.
By opening the Strategic Platform for public input, Ilidža Municipality is moving closer to finalizing the Strategy. The consultation process should bring valuable perspectives from the wider community, especially young people themselves, helping ensure the final document truly meets their needs and expectations.
The Institute for Youth Development KULT is supporting the Municipality of Ilidža in the process of developing their youth strategy through the project “Designing, Developing, and Implementing Youth Policies”. The project “Designing, Creating and Adopting Youth Policies” is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Institute for Youth Development KULT in partnership with the Regional Youth Cooperation Office (RYCO), the Youth Council of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Network of youth centers for animation, development and training of Republika Srpska (M.O.C.A.R.T.) and the Association of Secondary School Students in BiH.
