Implementing the European Youth Work Agenda in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Jasmina, what is the current situation of youth work in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

When it comes to youth work, something that is very good in Bosnia and Herzegovina is that we have really experienced NGOs that are running different programmes and projects for young people. There are also organisations like ‘Proni’ and the ‘Institute for Youth Development KULT’ that are providing long term educational programmes for youth workers. These programmes hand out certificates at the end of their courses but these certificates are not recognised by the public institutions or in law or under any policy regulations.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina we have two entities and a district. There is the Republic of Srpska, the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina, and the Brcko District. Each entity and the District have separate jurisdiction toward youth.

In the Republic of Srpska and the Federation, the youth work situation is quite different. For instance, in the Republic of Srpska, things are better because we have a Youth Law that is recognising youth work. The Youth Law even provides a definition of youth work.

There is a network of youth centres that are recognised by the law and by the official ministry. This network gets support directly from the ministry to organise some of the activities they run. On one level we are happy for this support, but it could be much better and not just in terms of budget, but also with cooperation.

At the moment my organisation, the Institute for Youth Development KULT, is supporting an organisation in the Republic of Srpska called “Perpetuum Mobile – Institute for Youth and Community Development”. Together we are advocating for the recognition of a curriculum for youth workers, working in youth centres.

Our intention is to pilot this curriculum in the Republic of Srpska and for it to be adopted at the entity level. If we can get the Ministry of Family, Youth and Sport and the Institute for Adult Education to adopt it, this would be a great success. We also have the intention to push the faculty of Political Science to recognise it.

In the Federation, there was the adoption of a Youth Law about 13 years ago. Unfortunately, the law does not recognise youth work as such, it does not have a definition of youth work, and there is no youth strategy. So, everything that is happening is based on the work of the youth NGOs and youth councils. There is cooperation however with authorities at the local level. This has led to the development of local initiatives and local youth strategies, and they are tackling youth issues much more than before.

Many are also tackling youth work and recognition, working to make the wider community aware of the importance of youth work. As a result of this work the local authorities are offering much bigger financial support to the youth centres and youth organisations to run their activities.

At the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole, absolutely nothing is happening, even the Commission for Youth that's supposed to be active and coordinated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs is not working. This is because the entities need to agree on how the Commission will make decisions and function in general.

Every year we are trying to push these processes and at least since 2017, nothing has happened.

What has happened so far regarding the recognition of youth work and the Bonn Process in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

Our connection with the Bonn Process and therefore our connection to the European Youth Work Agenda is basically coming from non-governmental organisations. Of course, the big institutions don’t have to be aware of the Bonn Process but they should be aware of the European Youth Work Agenda and what it contains.

There was one Bonn Process event that we attended as a group of representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it was the Bonn Process Exchange Forum in May of 2023. There was me, a representative from the Federal Ministry of Sport and Culture, and Jasmin Jašarević from the organisation Proni. That is the most representatives we have had coming together directly connected to the Bonn Process.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina there is no official national working group or national coordination for the Bonn Process. Any work connected to the Bonn Process is coming from the networking between civil society organisations, like NGOs working with young people.

These NGOs are then communicating to the ministries on certain topics and proposals that we come up with because we want, and we are trying to involve them. The national process in Bosnia and Herzegovina is more grassroots work than official ministry supported work, but it is ongoing.

What have been the highlights linked to the recognition of youth work?

As I mentioned before, in the Republic of Srpska, we have this initiative for the recognition of the curriculum for the youth workers working in youth centres. Even if it's just in one entity, I believe it can be a push factor for the Federation as well, and for the state. We started this process last year and we know it will take some time, but we hope for results around the middle of next year (2024).

Also, in the Republic of Srpska we had the adoption of the youth strategy at the beginning of this year (2023). The process was really inclusive with young people, youth organisations and youth structures having the opportunity to get involved. Their voices and opinions contributed to the development of the strategy. The document itself recognises the importance of youth work.

Another highlight is that we had our first country wide youth work Convention this summer. It included organisations and representatives from both the Federation and Republic of Srpska. It was organised by my organisation and pulled together for the first time such a broad spectrum of organisations working with young people.

There were representatives from public institutions like pedagogies, psychologists and academia, there were also representatives of local communities, local municipality officers and different employment institutions. It was a very good opportunity to discuss everything that is happening in the youth sector and explore who is doing what in terms of work with young people.

The convention came up with several conclusions:

• In order for youth work to be recognised, it is necessary to improve the cooperation between the academic community and the non-governmental organisation, especially youth organisations and organisations working with young people.
• It is necessary to form a Commission for the coordination of youth issues in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• It is necessary to increase budget allocations for youth at all levels of decision making in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Standardisation of youth work is needed. To define who youth workers are, what is their role and task in working with young people.

There was a follow-up to the convention in September, with different actors, including the Ministry of Civil Affairs. At this follow-up event we were able to verify the conclusions of the Convention. In November we gained a decision by the Government of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina that we can start with the process of creating a youth strategy, the first strategic document in this entity.

What about the future? Where would you like to see the situation of youth work in five years?

If dreaming is allowed, I will dream. In five years, I would like to see a youth strategy approved in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that we have a curriculum for the education of youth workers approved.

With those two initiatives in the Federation and with the current initiatives we have in Republic of Srpska, we would have much better opportunities to advocate for the recognition of youth work in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a whole.

I want to see a common understanding of youth work, even just within the youth sector. I would like to see youth NGOs understanding their position and role within youth work. I would like that these NGOs understand how they can use European processes like the Bonn Process to extend their work and to improve their programmes and the activities for young people.

Jasmina Banjalučkić

Jasmina Banjalučkić works at the “Institute for Youth Development KULT”. She is a youth worker and Head of the Department for Youth Policy Development.