Youth Voices Group Blog introduction

What is the good news?

Dear Friends. I am very happy to announce to you that one idea that has been around for quite some time has finally been put into practice. It is a creation of blog of Youth Voices Groups from ECA region. I sincerely hope that we will be able to significantly increase the level of our communication, sheering ideas and cooperation. This blog will allow that. I still remember the Istanbul forum where all of our members have agreed upon these priorities.

I it all about us

So why we have created this blog, who will post texts and comments, who is going to read it, how it is going to make any difference? Let me start by saying that this is our spot, our widow to be able to express all of our opinion, ideas and concerns regarding our involvement in the WB operations. This is the place where we can ask for advice how can we get more involved into CAS/CPS creation process, where we can express our opinion for some issues regarding the school reforms in our country that are supported by the WB, and this is the place where we can exchange pictures and personal stories from many events that YVG members are attending. So really this is all about us.

Now we have the media trough which we can express our opinion and we can try to make our group more relevant and more effective. It is finally up to us to make our own agenda and to make our own priorities.

How can you become part of this blog?

If you want to contribute posts please contact Arsovski Todor at arsovskitodor@gmail.com.

So now you know why and how you can become active on our YVG blog. I hope to read your post and comments or just have you here very often.

YVG Macedonia Action plan 2007-2008

Dear friends,

I would like to share the Action plan of YVG Macedonia for this Fiscal Year. Having in mind that all of our groups are still at the beginning of the implementation of our activities I think it will be very useful if we exchange ideas trough exchange of our Action Plans.

This FY we have focused on three priorities:

1. Participation in WB work.
2. Implementation of the recommendations from the Istanbul retreat and Rome conference.
3. Regional cooperation of the Youth Voices groups

As part of the first priority we are going to implement three projects:

1. Evaluation of implementation of education modernization project – For third year our group is involved in the evaluation of the results of the implementation of this project. Our main task is to interview students, teachers and school management in order to determine the positive impact of the project activities. We are also open for critics, ideas and suggestions. At the end of the process we create rapport that it is shared with WB, Project Implementation Unit and the Ministry of Education.
2. Research on “Primary to secondary school transition in rural areas” – This project is very good example of cooperation by the YVG and the Ministry of Education. The secondary education is becoming obligatory next year but there are some areas in the country where we have very low transition of students from primary to secondary education. So YVG members will visit all of this communities and will talk to local people and local students about the reasons for this problem. The rapport that we will prepare will be used as a base for the future project on this issue between the WB and the Ministry of education.
3. Participation in local development project. – For the past two years we have completed successful project of creation of Local Youth strategy in one municipality in Macedonia. Our members received training by local WB staff which helped us in this process. Now we want to create a toolkit based on our experience that we will distribute to all NGO that are interested. Since Macedonia is in the process of decentralization of the government to local level this strategies are very welcomed by the local authorities.

As part of the second priority we will implement following project:

1. Practicing active youth citizenship – our parliament has passed a law on access to information. However this law is not properly implemented. Because of this any NGO find hard to get to some very important data for their work. That is why YVG together with several NGO will launch a series of activities in order to promote access to information.

As part of our third priority we will propose joint project that will be implemented be several YVG from ECA region.

So very briefly this is it. I hope you find some useful informations and ideas. If you want some additional information don’t hesitate to post comment and to ask us. I would realy like to see your Action Plans so please share it whit us.

On Rome Conference

Background/description

The World Bank, in partnership with the Italian Development Cooperation and with the participation of the International Labour Organization, organized a Conference entitled "Young People in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: From Policy to Action" that took place in Rome, Italy, on May 21-24, 2007. The Conference was managed by the Social Development Team in the Sustainable Development Department for Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA) of the World Bank, and was sponsored by the ECA Vice-Presidency, with the support of the Children and Youth Unit and the Social Development Anchor at the Bank.

The conference focused on two primary youth policy domains articulated in the World Bank 2007 World Development Report Development and the Next Generation: transition to work and transition to citizenship.
The event brought together more than 230 young people and experts to discuss policies and programs which can enable young people to make a successful transition to work and help them exercise citizenship.

What are the results of the conference? What are the concrete and practical follow up actions that will actually contribute to improving young people’s lives in the ECA region? Since the Conference, the World Bank has agreed the following projects or programs:

• Capacity Building Grant for Strengthening National and Local Capacities for Youth Strategy Implementation in the Republic of Moldova. This grant was signed in September 2007 and is supported by Italy as part of the Social Development Initiative for South East Europe, an initiative dedicated to youth development. This grant would build capacity of Moldova's Ministry of Education and Youth, regional and local governments as well as youth NGOs, including the Moldovan Youth Council, for implementing the Youth Strategy.

• Joint assessment with the European Commission on the role and impact on non formal education on young people with respect to the acquisition of life and livelihood skills complementary to formal schooling. This joint study, to be launched in Spring 2008, will focus on four or five countries in Eastern and South Eastern Europe.

• Partnership with the European Commission for co-financing a possible youth development investment in Moldova (pending expression of interest by Moldovan Government)

• New WB grant for youth development in Georgia supports non formal education opportunities for young Georgians through a network of local youth centers, start-up opportunities for young entrepreneurs and youth policy implementation.

• Preparation of a comprehensive regional report covering all ECA countries which presents the most comprehensive and up-to-date data on young people with respect to the two main themes of the conference: i) transition to work and ii) active youth citizenship. It will serve as a guide for prioritizing investments. Expected to be published by June 2008.

• Continued support to Youth Voices Groups’ engagement in World Bank work (including Country Partnership Strategies, project evaluations, and portfolio development/implementation)

• Development MarketPlace in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine offers grants up to 20,000 USD to imnnovative grant proposals from NGOs addressing new job opportunities for young people and healthy lifestyles, on a competitive basis.

For further information on any of the above projects and programs, please contact the World Bank’s ECA Youth Team

Imogen Wade
Email: Iwade@worldbank.org