On December 11, 2020, the European Commission welcomed the political agreement reached between the European Parliament and EU Member States on the new Erasmus+ Program.

Over the last three decades, participation in Erasmus+ has boosted the personal, social and professional development of over 10 million young people. The programming period will be funded with almost double the budget of the previous period and will last from 2021 to 2027.

Erasmus+ is a real European success story and one of the most successful initiatives of the EU. The program has expanded considerably since its inception in 1987. It covers all education and training sectors ranging from early childhood education and care, and school education to vocational education and training, higher education and adult learning. It also supports cooperation on youth policy, youth work, volunteering and promoting sports.

The new EU long-term budget and the new Next Generation EU program will not only be more inclusive and innovative but also more digital and dedicated to protecting the environment and promoting sustainability. With the new program, the EU is planning to mobilize the education, training, youth and sport sectors for future growth. The program will support youth with fewer opportunities, and offer new opportunities for cooperation, foster innovation and promote both green and digital skills.

It offers youth mobility opportunities for learning across Europe and beyond, allows youth and youth workers to develop their interpersonal skills, improves employability through various forms of cooperation, training and networking in Europe and globally.

This program will be rolled out once the EU adopts the EU budget. The current Erasmus+ program ends with 2020, but many projects related to youth have been extended into 2021, in response to pandemic-related delays.

Read more at https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_20_2317.

The Institute for Youth Development KULT, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice of BiH, is conducting a survey on the position of non-governmental organizations/foundations/associations (hereinafter: NGOs) in BiH, the way NGOs engage with existing mechanisms of cooperation with BiH institutions and international organizations offering various programs.

This survey is designed to examine the extent to which NGOs use available forms of cooperation with BiH institutions (Cooperation Agreement between the Council of Ministers and NGOs), eKonsultacije platform, IPA e-Konsultacije platform), key problems identified by NGOs when it comes to cooperating with BiH institutions, solutions for improving the current cooperation. The survey will also examine the position of NGOs in certain segments.

The survey has 42 questions and takes approximately 20 minutes to complete.

There are no right or wrong answers in this survey. Please be as truthful and as accurate as possible when answering these questions, so the analysis of the results would provide an accurate account of the current position of NGOs in the aforementioned segments.

The results will be presented to the Ministry of Justice of BiH as a cumulative analysis of all the answers provided by NGOs without any identifying data (no names of organizations or individual answers).

The Institute will use the answers exclusively for the purpose of this analysis and the data will not be used for any other purpose without the permission of the organizations.

The survey can be accessed here:

• http://mladi.org/myURL/upitniknvo

The Institute for Youth Development KULT is celebrating the achievements of young people and youth workers who took part in one of the Institute’s programs in 2020. To do this, the Institute organized an event titled (KO)VIDI mlade? (See Youth) to call for young people to be acknowledged and offer guidelines for future youth work.

This annual event was attended by youth leaders who completed the Institute’s UMiD training (generations 15 and 16), young political leaders from the third UMiDp, youth officers, young entrepreneurs and other friends and partners of the Institute and of youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“This year is an important lesson to all of us and it taught us to be more flexible that we thought we could be, and more innovative too. I hope we continue with that in the future. The Embassy of Sweden in BiH will continue working with our partners in Bosnia and Herzegovina to make sure we’re doing our best in these difficult circumstances,” said H.E. Johanna Strömquist, Swedish Ambassador to BiH.

This event was supported by the Embassy of Sweden in BiH, European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in BiH, UN Volunteers BiH, and local communities throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina supported all the initiatives, businesses and voluntary activities organized by youth. It’s important to note that this isn’t the only youth-focused initiative supported by the European Union, embassies and other international organizations in BiH, which shows how important youth are in this society, and how capable they are of driving positive change in the country.

The year we are leaving behind has been very challenging, but also full of solidarity and support we gave one another. This is why our online event was held today, after yesterday’s International Solidarity Day. This year, we launched several initiatives to show our solidarity and support for youth in the field. One special initiative was #darujzanastavu, which allowed us to provide over 600 tablets and laptops to students across BiH, so they can attend their online classes. This year, the Institute celebrates its 18th birthday, and this was a year when we supported youth even more strongly than before, and we remain committed to continuing our efforts in 2021 as well. Thank you to all our partners for their invaluable support! - said Mr. Jasmin Bešić, General Director of the Institute for Youth Development KULT

Over a hundred participants had a chance to see what an important role youth play in society and how they work on improving their communities. But, for youth to actually feel important, all levels of government in BiH have to recognize youth as partners and work with them to solve current challenges and plan future activities.

Video footage of the event is available online on the Facebook page of the Institute for Youth Development KULT.