YOUTH INCLUSION COUNTRY OVERVIEW EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: I NEVER HOPE. HOPE IS FOR LAZY PEOPLE. I AM ACTING!

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1 YOUTH INCLUSION I NEVER HOPE. HOPE IS FOR LAZY PEOPLE. I AM ACTING! COUNTRY OVERVIEW EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Republic of Macedonia (R.M.), as a state member of the Former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and afterwards one of its successor, raised its young generations for most of the past century with the mantra A country with these young people should not be afraid of its future. Yet in the years since its independence a new mantra has become more accepted, The youngsters are the future of our society. Led by this new framing, many public officials continued to hold the power in our country while almost nobody has promoted the idea that perhaps young people are not only the future of our society but are moreover a pillar of our country today. After more than 20 years of transitioning to a democratic society integrated in the EU and NATO, a lot of youngsters are frustrated with all the injustice that has occurred over the years and having to prove themselves as an important part of Macedonian society. Many of them see themselves as part of some other place in the world, and unfortunately many of them have left Macedonia forever. Those who have stayed. have simply decided to act on their own and in various manners. The actions of youth have become increasingly visible over the last 4 years. Therefore, we suggest a new maxim for youth in our society: I never hope. Hope is for lazy people. I am acting! This is the basis for how this research approaches youth inclusion. It specifically looks three important aspects: political participation, economic participation and social inclusion. With this baseline research we are elaborating the legal framework, policy, both positive and negative examples, as well as impediments and recommendations for all three relevant aspects in order for the actions and behaviors of youngsters to be directed in the right direction to create a better present for them and society at large. We, the youngsters, all have at least a moral duty to contribute to ourselves and our common future. Furthermore, we should be led by a clear aim and understand that A GREAT FUTURE IS MORE ACHIEVABLE WITH A BETTER PRESENT! 1

2 I. POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: When we analyze the political participation of youth in Macedonia from the angle of the existing policy and legal framework that is considered as the most relevant, we should be aware of different indicators which are equal puzzles of the whole mosaic. Therefore, in order to achieve the purpose of this research it is quite appropriate to state the most significant facts for each indicator. These statements will lead us to see the overall picture for political participation of youth and enable us to give better recommendations on the basis of the conclusions. 1. Youth participation in elections: The conventional measure of citizens participation is voter-turnout for elections. During our country s last parliamentary elections in 2014, a survey was conducted with 350 youth about their use of their right to vote. The results are as follows: 1 Many youths are members of political parties (26%). It is important to note that larger percentages of party members are from small municipalities and villages and that most of them became members in the last few years. This fact and the fact that 33% of youth are both members of a political party and a civil society organization (CSO) is something that should concern our society Youth participation in government (ministers) According to the Law on Organization and Operation of State Administrative Bodies, there are 15 ministries established in Macedonia. In the last cycle of reorganizing the government which took place in the beginning of April 2016, the number of youth ministers is increased. Now in the Government of the Republic of Macedonia there are 9 youth ministers from which just one is 1 Research Youth and Elections done by Institute for youth development KULT, Survey named Youth needs and youth participation published by SEGA 2

3 a woman the Minister for Local Self-Government. 3 This means that a majority of Ministers are youth which is a very rare situation and is not necessarily an advantage. 3. Young people nominated/elected to municipalities (mayors, members of municipal councils) In our country there are 84 municipalities from which 33 are in urban areas, 41 are in rural areas, and 10 are part of the City of Skopje 4. In addition, the City of Skopje has been established as a special unit of self-government. 5 The main bodies of each municipality are the Mayor and the Council, which can have between 9 and 33 members, depending on the population of the municipality. 6 The Council of the City of Skopje is composed of 45 members elected directly by the citizens. 7 In this baseline survey we have not learned the exact number of elected youth members to all councils Young people nominated/elected to the parliament When we consider what is published publicly, in the current composition of the Parliament of the Republic of Macedonia, only 2 MPs are under the age of 30, i.e. youth, from a total number of 123 MPs, meaning 2.46% Young people participating in general assemblies for parliamentary parties When we speak about the participation of youth in parliamentary parties or the broader concept of participation of youth in decision-making process, we should first address the issue of the political parties election programs and to what extent youth politics is present in these. On this line, during the last parliamentary elections in Macedonia in 2014, taking into consideration the 11 indicators defined by the European Youth Forum and the programs of the 8 largest political parties, the following results emerged: 10 3 Youth ministers are chiefs of this ministries: Deputy Premier for EU Integration, Ministry for justice, Ministry for education, Ministry for Environment and Spatial Planning, Deputy Premier for Enforcement of Ohrid Framework Agreement, Ministry of Economy, Ministry without portfolio for attracting foreign investments, Ministry for Local Self-Government (the only woman) and Ministry for Labor and Social Affairs (only minister on this ministry is ethnic Macedonian and all others are Albanians) 4 Law on territorial division of the municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia 5 Law on the Self-Government and Law on City of Skopje 6 Law on the Self-Government 7 Law on City of Skopje 8 The State Election Commission answered to us that there isn t total statistics, but every Municipality Election Commission has its own statistics. To gain these data separately we need more time and resources. 9 KaltrinaAzizi member of Party - Democratic Union for Integration (part of the ruling coalition) is 25 years old and Stefan Bogoev member of Social Democratic Union of Macedonia (part of the opposition) is 26 years old nevertheless in the procedure for free access to public information, the State Election Commission replied to our question how many youth aged between 18 and 30 were nominated and how many were elected in the LAST parliamentary elections that 389 were nominated in total by all political parties and 8 of them were elected and became MPs (on the website there are only 2)!? 10 Analysis published by National Youth Council,

4 Indicators for youth PP with 0 measures PP with 1-2 measures PP with 3-4 measures PP with 5-6 measures PP with more measures Informal education 3 3 / 1 1 Trainings / Legislation 2 1 / / 5 Budget / 2 Informing / Decentralization of 3 5 / / / the politics Researching 7 1 / / / Inclusion 3 4 / / / Inter-ministry 8 / / / / cooperation Innovation / 2 Advisory Boards 3 4 / / / The results shown in the table are negative for youth, when one considers that only a few political parties were planning more than 3 measures and only in a few of the youth indicators, not in all of them. 6. Structure of Youth Council (national, local) The National Youth Council of Macedonia (NYCM) is the nation-wide umbrella organization representing organized youth in Macedonia. NYCM gathers 67 organizations: 27 youth organizations, 18 organizations for youth, 2 national youth union organizations, 10 youth wings of political parties and 10 associate member organizations united to promote and advocate for youth rights in Macedonia. The membership of the NYCM brings together diverse organizations from the national and the regional level, rural and urban areas, student organizations, branches of international organizations and other types of associations. In the process of accomplishing its goals, NYCM represents the interests of the young people in the Republic of Macedonia regardless of their socio-economic position, sex, race, ethnic and cultural background, political and religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other form of distinction. The mission of the NYCM is to represent the interests and needs of young people as a link to all relevant stakeholders, as well as to ensure the inclusion and active involvement of young people in decision-making processes on all levels. 11 NYCM is mostly financed by foreign donors, such as USAID, the European Commission, the British Embassy, and others. It holds frequent meetings, generally a few times per month, which are open to member organizations. The Secretary of NCYM, as one of the main bodies in its structure, has meetings once per week and organizes individual visits to member organizations at least once per year. NYCM has a three-year Strategy Plan for its operations and adopts an Annual Action Plan every year From the Interview with the Secretary General of NYCM 4

5 7. Online channels (Facebook, Twitter, website, potential online forms of contacts) for government/municipalities/parliament When we search about young people using the internet for accessing or posting opinions on websites for discussing civic and political issues, we note that 34% of youth led by their right to freedom of expression are not afraid of commenting on these issues on the internet (68% of them are men), 29% of youth don t feel uncomfortable giving political statements online, but 18% of them have feelings like these i.e. feel uncomfortable giving political statements online. Also the general perception is that youth very often use their Twitter profiles, as well as Facebook profiles (but quite rarely in comparison with Twitter), to share their views and opinions about current political issues (during the last year these kinds of issues are almost part of everyday life for many youngsters in Macedonia). Also, there are some rare cases when politicians make video statements towards all citizens (from which the biggest number are young people as users of internet) or there are events which are transmitted live on YouTube channels (usually CSOs events which are part of the implementation of some project). Nevertheless, the majority of politicians have their own fan page on Facebook (especially those holding public functions as the youngest generation of ministers, for example) Ratio of youth CSOs out of the total number of CSOs In Macedonia there are around 4,000 CSOs. 14 If we take into consideration only the youth sector, there are two types of CSOs: (1) CSOs with one target group youths as the only group (49%); and (2) CSOs that deal with multiple targets including youths (34,55%). 15 Furthermore, youth CSOs tend to choose the following as their main priorities: education, culture, then human rights and lastly economy. Youth also have the chance to participate in environmental CSOs (there are a few of them that are very active), but one of the issues that should be solved in the near future is networking on the regional and EU level. 16 In the past 2 years there has been progress in networking among CSOs on local and national levels, a trend which is accepted by all stakeholders, because it produces collaboration instead of competition. 17 Having in mind that 64% of youngsters believe that youth CSOs only partially bring progress to the situation of youths, this is an area of potential improvement. Furthermore, the fact that we emphasized above, that 33% of youth are both members of a political party and a CSO, is something that our society should make efforts to overcome as soon as possible through different methods lobbying and advocacy. This is problematic, because it could be interpreted as a kind of conflict of interest, especially since the essence of CSOs is somehow to be a corrector of the government, no matter which political elites are currently governing. 13 However, we need more time and resources to gain more data on this indicator as it is an indicator that has changed rapidly from year to year because of easier internet accessibility for new generations of youngsters 14 Their status is defined by the Law on civil society organizations and foundations 15 Survey named Youth needs and youth participation published by SEGA 16 National Youth Council is in a good position to become a full member of the European Youth Forum, but also Macedonian Youth have their representatives in the co-management decision-making process under the Council of Europe. For the environmental NGOs this should be a priority because it is one of the priorities of Europe One of the motives for networking on the national level is the IPA Mechanism and PRAG which is some calls for proposals suggest, but is some call for proposals order networking among CSOs. 5

6 ***Any advances in legal framework/institutional/policy making According to Draft Law for Youth from 2011 (which is still not incorporated into our legislation), among other aspects, it was suggested that a State Youth Council be established by the Parliament of the R.M. which would serve as an umbrella organization for all youth. However, this idea, as well as many others problematic ideas, have been contested by youth since they are not in line with the recommendations of the Council of Europe. 18 This idea would simply replace the lack of proper legislation up to now with the National Strategy for Youths , the Strategic Plan of the Ministry for Education and Science and a few Local Strategies for Youths adopted by the Councils of some municipalities (such as the Municipalities of Gazi Baba, Center, Strumica, Shtip and others). Positive examples are the Local Youth Councils in these municipalities, which were established on the basis of said Local Strategies for Youth and are free to be members of the National Council for Youth. However, establishing Local Youth Councils at the whole territory of R.M. should be based on recommendation of the Council of Europe from 2001 which stated: inflexible solutions should be avoided and space for experimenting should be enabled with priority for enhancing instead of establishing rules; and as a result of above mentioned, wide specter of instruments for inclusion to be established, as well as a possibility for their combination and to adjust the way of their usage depends of conditions. On sub-local level to be founded bodies which should be composed by direct elected youngsters with advisory role and helping in spreading information to youth and with possibility for enforcement competences. ***Impediments to youth political participation In Macedonian society there are a lot of examples of impediments to youth participation. Most of these come from the public authorities, which are significantly influential in public opinion and produce obstacles to youth inclusion. The most popular examples that are common knowledge and do not even require proof in front of the court, because they are widely recognized by the public, are: - For more than 5 years the state hasn t accepted suggestions by youth to finally adopt the Law for Youth. Furthermore, at the last minute the state refused to take into consideration suggestions given by youngsters for the Strategy ; - The State Agency for Youth and Sport revises its budget every year, and all funds are transferred to the field of sport, so no money is available for the implementation of projects for youth participation; - Many obstacles are also visible if we take the statistics shown in the table above on page 4 of this document. ***RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLITICAL PARTICIPATION: The Ministry for Youth to be established with an Agency for Youth and an Agency for Sport as separately functioning bodies; 18 Research published by Re-actor and Youth Educational Forum, Despite the consultations that were done with youth representatives during the preparation process, the Strategy was adopted quickly and without taking into consideration most of the suggestions of youth. Also different aspects of life that concern youth (e.g. education, health, culture etc.) are regulated by proper laws such as: Law on Secondary Education, Law on Higher Education, Law on health care, Law on volunteering, Law on local self-government, Law on family etc. 6

7 Law for Youth and all future youth-related legislation to be adopted with all the recommendations and suggestions given by youth; Youth to speak with united voice in order to achieve their common goals when dealing with issues of their common concern; Motivating youth to participate more in all levels and aspects for their own benefit; II. SOCIAL PARTICIPATION: In order to have a variety of information about the social participation of youth in Macedonia, about the related policy and legal framework, and also regarding political participation, we should keep in mind different indicators and crucial facts for each indicator with the aim of developing better recommendations in this field. 1. Percentage of young people not in employment, education or training (NEET rate) It is very hard to have correct statistics in Macedonia on this issue (as with most other issues) a country where the last population census was conducted 14 years ago 20 According to the last estimates at the end of 2012 of the State Bureau for Statistics in Macedonia there are youth aged 18 to 30, or 23% of the whole population. The latest data show us that the unemployment rate of youth is around 48% and the unemployment rate of all people of working age is around 28%, a substantial difference and a very high rate itself. F. 21 In order to gather detailed data on the percentage of young people that are not employed, are without education and are not currently in training, we need more time and resources. The UN Committee on economic, social and cultural rights in its Report from June 2016 stated: The Committee is concerned at the disproportionately low labor participation and employment rates among women, particularly Roma women and ethnic Albanian women, as well as at the predominance of women in unskilled/underpaid jobs and positions. It is also concerned at the absence of active employment measures targeted at women and the insufficient level of implementation of the 2012 Law on Equal Opportunities of Women and Men and the National Strategy for Gender Equality It is further concerned at the large gender pay gap in the State party (arts. 3 and 7). 20 In the Last Report for Macedonia from June 2016, the UN Committee on economic, social and cultural rights stated: The Committee regrets that the State party has postponed the population census originally planned for 2011 and that, as a result, there is no updated data on the composition of the population. The Committee is also concerned at the insufficient statistical data provided by the State party on the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. 21 A representative of the Government for the UN Committee on economic, social and cultural rights in June this year stated: The unemployment rate had been reduced from 39.1 per cent in 2006 to 24.5 per cent in 2016, a decrease of over 10 percentage points in 10 years, including a notable fall of 2.8 percentage points between the first quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of This had been achieved through a range of measures targeting particularly vulnerable groups, such as young people. Under a programme entitled Macedonia Employs, jobs had been found for 12,000 people in a period of just one year. The programme encouraged employers to recruit new staff, giving them subsidies for employing individuals from vulnerable groups and exempting them from the payment of income tax and insurance contributions, which were covered by the State. It was planned to allocate 11 million to various employment measures during the current year. But, at the final Report for Macedonia UN Committee on economic, social and cultural rights emphasized that: The Committee is concerned that despite the decrease in recent years, unemployment remains high, particularly among youth, women, Roma and persons with disabilities, and that the majority of work opportunities are in the informal economy (art. 6). 7

8 2. Percentage of young people at risk of poverty (UN Criteria) The crucial problem with this issue is not just whether young people are at risk of poverty but whether they are at risk while employed or not employed. Having in mind the official statistics from 2011 that 54% of the people in Macedonia that are in poverty are employed, in comparison with the 46% of poor people that are not employed, the logical conclusion is that also a larger percentage of the youth that are in poverty are also employed. 22 This was also emphasized in the last EU Progress Report for Macedonia, which also noted that poverty remains a serious problem, in particular for Roma. Labor market participation remained very low, especially among women (38.8% in Q1/2015). These are serious issues that we, as a society, should be concerned about and work to improve. The recent, National Strategy for the reduction of poverty and social exclusion , formally adopted by the Government, obviously is not enough. Data related to citizens of all ages, published by the State Bureau for Statistics, show the following: Т-28: At-risk-of-poverty rate by most frequent activity status and by gender, % Total Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Employed Unemployed Retired Other inactive population Furthermore, the June 2016 Report for Macedonia by the UN Committee on economic, social and cultural rights stipulates that: The Committee is concerned that, despite the decrease in poverty rate in recent years, almost a quarter of the population is still living in poverty and thus denied the right to an adequate standard of living. It is also concerned that income inequality continues to grow in the State party. While welcoming the lowering of VAT on essential consumer items, the Committee also regrets that the State party s tax system, including the low level of the flat tax on personal and corporate income, is ineffective in reducing poverty and in ensuring appropriate redistribution of income (art. 11). Additionally, the following examples show the real picture of the working poor issue: 56% of the young people are unemployed, which indirectly makes their families poorer. The percentage of working poor is rising every year either individual workers don t earn enough or only one member of a family works, and this person s income is shared by three, four or more people. The general perception is that pensioners have many benefits, yet they are the most excluded citizens. In many families the pension is the only income and the whole family lives with that money, which makes many elderly people the victims of domestic violence One more argument on this thesis is the fact that according to all statistics in Macedonia, as we emphasized above in this research, youth unemployment is always higher than the unemployment rate of all people of working age. 23 These data are collected by Macedonian Anti-Poverty Platform MAPP for the 56th session of CESCR, from 12 to 16 October

9 Finally, for the last 8 years the UNESCO Institute for statistics has not published any data for Macedonia based on the indicator: Poverty headcount ratio at $3.10 per day (PPP) (% of population) Percentage of young people at risk of discrimination (gender, race, ethnic, sexual orientation) In the Republic of Macedonia still there are no official total statistics for this indicator. 25 However, according to the EU Progress Report for Macedonia and the Program Mechanisms for human rights of the UN (CEDAW 2013, UPR 2014, CAT, CERD and CCPR 2015), it is emphasized that the Law on prevention and protection against discrimination in Macedonia needs amendments in order to strengthen the protection of human rights and the principle of nondiscrimination (especially on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity). In this line, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, after a consultation process with the main stakeholders (including CSOs dealing with this issue), adopted the National Strategy for equality and non-discrimination in May Percentage of young people in prisons As we mentioned above for the previous indicator, there are also no official statistics for this indicator. The Annual Report by the Ombudsman for 2015 just emphasized the fact that the prisons in Macedonia are crowded (no distinction among the ages of prisoners) and the conditions in these do not adequately ensure the human rights of prisoners. Nevertheless, an important issue regarding youth and crime is that the Law for Juvenile Justice is no longer force and the Criminal Code states that a juvenile could already be considered criminally responsible if he/she is over 14 years old. 5. Percentage of young people in continuous care For this concrete indicator there is no statistical data also and we can just present the conclusion of the UN Committee on economic, social and cultural rights in the last Report for Macedonia: The Committee is concerned at the insufficient funding to the health sector, the shortage of qualified medical professionals and the inadequate coverage and benefits of the Health Insurance Fund, which result in limited access to healthcare services, particularly for Roma and those living in rural areas. It is also concerned that some private health service providers charge 24 Available at: 25 These are just partial data from the Reports of the Ombudsman, since its competence is just related to discrimination committed by state institutions and bodies with public authorization. One could also collect some data from the individual cases of the Commission for protection against discrimination (just those in which the Commission adopted a final recommendation or opinion), but they are not a mirror of the whole society. 26 Available at: But also UN Committee on economic, social and cultural rights in its last Report dated June 2016 stated: The Committee is concerned that the 2010 Law on the Prevention of and Protection against Discrimination does not include sexual orientation and gender identity as prohibited grounds of discrimination and that article 14(6) of the Law maintains a discrimination between opposite-sex unions, to which the concept of family is reserved, and samesex unions. It is also concerned that university textbooks convey negative stereotypes against lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons. It is further concerned that LGBTIs are bullied, physically attacked, socially stigmatized and discriminated and that law enforcement officials do not always take action in cases of violence against LGBTI persons (art. 2 (2)). 9

10 fees for the services that should be provided free of charge as stipulated by the licensing agreements under which they operate (art. 12). Also we have some connected data for all citizens by the State Bureau for Statistics which show us this situation: 2011 (%) 2012 (%) 2013 (%) Very good Good Fair Bad Very bad Self-perceived general state of health In this field it is important to mention that the Law on Child Care as well as the Law on Health Protection are good grounds for achieving the health rights of youngsters, but improvement is needed in Macedonia in the practical implementation of the legal provisions since many problems that occur in the health sector are caused by the fast reforms that have been taken. Furthermore, a significant role is played by the NGOs that recently have started a campaign for establishing sexual education in Macedonia s formal education system in order to decrease sexually transferable diseases among youth Percentage of young people that are illiterate According to an estimate by the UNESCO Institute for statistics in 2015, in Macedonia 2,124 female citizens aged are illiterate and 1,856 males aged are illiterate, or 3,980 young people in total. 28 Consequently, according to the same estimate, youth literacy rates are 98.74% and 98.48% for males and females respectively. The overall youth literacy rate in Macedonia is 98.62%. The youth literacy rate definition covers the population between the ages of 15 to 24 years Percentage of young people graduated from high school There is no such statistics published on the national level, nor is there any estimate by the UNESCO Institute for statistics. To gather these data (usually done by each school individually), it will take us more time and resources. 8. Percentage of young people that drop out of high school The following statistics are available from the Macedonian National Education Profile published by the World Bank in Nearly 31% of female youth of secondary school age are out of 27 NGO named HERA is leading initiator of this initiative and campaign. 28 Available at: 29 Available at: Additionally, according to Macedonia Population Clock available at: - these are current statistical numbers (last checked on 09 July 2016): Current population Current male population (50.1%) Current female population (49.9%) 10

11 school, compared to 36% of male youth of the same age. For youth of secondary school age, the biggest disparity can be seen between the poorest and the richest youth. Please note that Figures 4 and 5 make use of the national definition of primary and secondary education, instead of the UNESCO-ISCED definition. 30 In this line the UNESCO Institute for statistics has published no statistics and no estimate for Macedonia for this indicator. 9. Young people enrolled in tertiary education The latest data published for Macedonia by the UNESCO Institute for statistics on this indicator date from 2013 when 2,927.9 new students per 100,000 inhabitants enrolled in tertiary education. 31 The State Bureau for Statistics published some data for enrolment of graduates in master studies in the academic year 2014/2015 as following: T-01: Persons enrolled in postgraduate studies by type and location of the tertiary institution, scientific field of the master's thesis, by universities, 2014/2015 Total Technical Natural and technological sciences sciences sciences Medical Biotechnical Social sciences and mathematics sciences Humanities Total Public tertiary institutions 10. Young people graduate from tertiary education The latest data published for Macedonia by the UNESCO Institute for statistics on this indicator date from 2013 when the total number students that completed tertiary education was 11,363. Of these 6,395 were female. Also, for the same year there is not available data for graduates from ISCED 5 programmes in tertiary education. But the latest data from 2012 show us 215 total graduates from both sexes, of which 183 were female. Furthermore, in 2013 graduates from ISCED 6 programmes in tertiary education numbered 9,151 students in total, from which 5,125 were female. In the same line, in 2013 there were 1,993 total graduates from ISCED 7 programmes in tertiary education, of which 1,151 were female. And finally, in 2013 there were 219 total graduates from ISCED 8 programmes in tertiary education, from which 119 were female. 32 Additionally, the State Bureau for Statistics published data for 2014, as is visible in the tables below: T-02: Graduated students by mode of study and sex, 2014 Total Full-time Part-time Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total Public tertiary institutions 30 Available at: 31 Available at: 32 Available at: 11

12 Private tertiary institutions Religious faculties ***Impediments to youth social participation All concerns of the UN Committee on economic, social and cultural rights cited above, and especially the fact that in Macedonia there has not been a Population Census for 14 years, are the biggest impediments to youth social participation. Also, one of the crucial impediments is the problem that laws which regulate this field have been constantly changed or amended in a very short period of time. This leads us to the conclusion that social politics especially towards youth is not consistent. ***RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SOCIAL PARTICIPATION: All legislation for social inclusion to be revised with broader public debate, especially taking into consideration recommendations and suggestions given by youth themselves, followed by the consistent implementation with few changes to improve social participation Supporting Youth to be part of European and International Events, Forums, Exchanges and connect in networks the representatives of NGOs at all levels (local, national, international); Awareness raising among all citizens about the importance of youth needs for better social participation; Establishing of Youth Info and Career Centers in smaller municipalities in Macedonia, to be led by nonpartisan youth; Motivating youth to represent both themselves and Macedonia in international competitions. III. ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION: For the economic inclusion of youth, which is one of the biggest problems in Macedonia, we reach our conclusions by looking at the official statistics of the State Bureau of Statistics and The Employment Agency of Republic of Macedonia through different indicators: 1. Youth unemployment rate Below in the tables are the latest data published by the State Bureau for Statistics related to this issue: Employment rates of the population aged 15 years and over by age, urban and rural, 2014 EMPLOYMENT RATE, URBAN EMPLOYMENT RATE, RURAL Total

13 UNEMPLOYMENT RATE RURAL Age Total Total Men Women : We submitted a request for free access to public information to the Employment Agency and we received the information that on 30 April ,033 youth aged between 18 and 30 were registered as active job seekers and 19,168 youth were registered as passive job seekers Youth long term unemployment rate (> 1 year) According to the Annual Report of the Employment Agency for 2014 with state on December 31, % of unemployed persons 34 are waiting to find job up to 11 months, 26% have been searching for a job for 1 to 3 years and 20% have been searching for a job for 4 or more years. On the same day state: 67% of unemployed were Macedonians, 21% were Albanians, 3,3% were Turkish, 5,7% were Roma, 0,8% were Serbs, 0,2% were Vlachos, 0,2% were Bosnians and 1,9% were members of other smaller ethnic communities. 35 In this area when we analyze the Annual Report of the Employment Agency for 2014 we can see that the largest number of unemployed persons are of the following professions: economists, lawyers, professors of Macedonian languages, teachers, social workers etc. 36 One of the measures of the Employment Agency in the last few years is subsidies for unemployed 33 According to Macedonian laws that regulate the labor market, active job seekers are obliged to register themselves as job seekers once per month, whereas passive job seekers are obliged to registered themselves once every 6 months. 34 These statistics are also for all unemployed, not only for youth. 35 These statistics are also for all unemployed, not only for youth. 36 Annual Report 2014 of Employment Agency 13

14 youngsters up to 29 who have at least a bachelor degree, where the financial help directly by the Employment Agency is given to the employers who employ persons from this category for 3 months and afterwards those employers have a duty to hold this employees (or somebody else from this category) for the next 6 months during which period they are paying social charges for them. Up to now, 2 public announcements were published and only 10 youth are employed through this measure. 4. Percentage of self-employed youth Detailed data about this indicator is not available yet, so can only give partial information about the support of the Employment Agency to young people under 29 to be self-employed. This measure was considered to be more popular than the measure for self-employment. Eligible to apply to this measure were not only young people but all unemployed job seekers who completed a training for entrepreneurship and business planning and who suggested an appropriate business plan. Consequently 940 new businesses were registered by unemployed active job seekers. This measure was supported by the UNDP. Also, there is a measure of the Employment Agency for crediting youngsters under 29 and according to the official data published in the Annual Report public announcements for crediting this category of people were published. Of the 1,936 total requests submitted, 597 were submitted by youngsters. Employment Agency statistics show us that for 2014 the total number of credit contracts concluded was 939, of which 284 contracts were concluded with youngsters under the age of Percentage of youth refusing work (National agency) There is no such statistic in Macedonia. We could make efforts to gather this kind of data through the procedure of free access to public information, but we could not be sure about the result of this procedure. 6. Percentage of young people employed in the private sector Below are data published by the State Bureau for Statistics. Most of them are for all employed persons, but there are also some data for youth. The following two tables show data for all employees: T-01: Employees in the Republic of Macedonia 1) Total number of employees Total Indices Women Indices / /2013 TOTAL T-02: Employees by types of ownership, ) Total Ownership Private Other Total Women Total Women Total Women TOTAL And now from the following table we can see the structure of employees by age: 14

15 T-04: Employees by age, ) Total number of employees Number of employees by age Total up to and more Percentage of young people employed in the public sector In Macedonia one of the reforms that was taken was the adoption of new laws that regulate public administration. Recently, two new laws have entered into force: Law on Public Sector Employees and Law on Administrative Officers. 37 According to the Law on Public Sector Employees, from the table below we can see data for this indicator published in March 2016 by the Ministry for Information Society and Administration in its Annual Report for There were so many debates related to this new legislation and some of the provisions were annulled by the Constitutional Court of Republic of Macedonia or additionally amended by the MPs. 38 Available at: 15

16 ***Impediments to youth economic participation There is one general impediment for this field in Macedonia very high rate of unemployment among young people and the largest rate compared with other ages groups. This impediment influences other more specific impediments related to different indicators within youth economic participation. ***RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION: Establish a granting scheme by the Government and Local Self-Government for youth and supporting projects financed by the EU in this field with co-funding; Political efforts to tell foreign investors that in Macedonia the cheap work force is being replaced by a competent and ambitious working force which will be completely in line with the Strategy - Europe 2020 (smart growth) Inform youth about the importance of volunteerism and encourage them to practice more and attend trainings in the fields that they are interested in; Youth organizations to be more active in securing funds, both domestic and international, in order to implement more projects for increasing youth inclusion in all fields; Engaged institutions, as well as CSOs organize more trainings, both professional and as a part of informal education for new business ideas, for the importance of entrepreneurship and for motivating you to found new startups. 16