The
importance of the Black Sea Region is growing in recent decades. According to the opinion of many researchers
in international affairs, the Black Sea can be considered as a bridge between different
‘worlds’, where major transport, economic, energy, territorial and power interests
of many countries meet. Those interconnections of interests include not only littoral countries (Turkey, Russia,
Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Georgia) or those in adjacent areas (Moldova,
Azerbaijan and Armenia) but also major world powers.
Since the
beginning of the 1990s, there were several attempts to institutionalize the cooperation around the Black Sea,
which have achieved different levels of success. Nevertheless, in many aspects,
the cooperation remains in an embryonic state and the very idea of such
cooperation is put under question. Considering that the Black Sea region is
extremely heterogeneous politically, economically, culturally and in terms of
the shapes and sizes of its countries, some authors express skepticism towards
possibilities of regional cooperation. From a socio-economic perspective the
region is not very stable and homogeneous and economic cooperation remains low
among the countries in the region. In this sense it is the non-governmental
sector that has capacity to intensify the cooperation with neighbors regardless
of the political agenda of national governments. Thus, one of the most
effective ways to foster future regional cooperation in general is to enforce
the cooperation in the sphere of youth in the Black Sea region and to provide
more support to youth civil society organizations to realize their potential as
drivers for future regional cooperation. The participation of young people in
social and political life is essential for a democratic society. That is why
most of the BSR states are attempting to elaborate and improve coherent and
comprehensive youth policies addressing the social, cultural and educational
needs of young people and the regional cooperation should become an important
component of these policies.
Regional
cooperation in any field (including that of youth policy) is a process that requires stakeholders
to mutually adjust their behavior through the coordination of policy. That is
why the current research has focused on examining
the prospects for cooperation in the field of youth policy in the Black Sea
region. The main aim of this research was to create
a complex picture of youth policy in the Black Sea region and to find out what
the main challenges and opportunities in the development of youth policy
in the countries of the Black Sea Region are and to identify trends and possibilities for the development
of regional partnerships in the field. In the
research both, quantitative and qualitative methods are used, including desk
research and online survey, which were supplemented by field visits to several
countries of the region during the period May-August 2012. Despite the challenges of
the research, the main aims were achieved and the results are presented in the
report at hand.
The first chapter of the report provides a general introduction,
explaining the methodology and the scientific approach. The second chapter
examines the Black Sea Region in general and provides the theoretical
background of regional cooperation, which brings the perspectives of regional
youth cooperation to understanding. The main reason and motivation behind such cooperation is the
idea that regional cooperation can achieve additional benefits which the
independent actions of states cannot provide.
The following chapter of
the report aimed to analyze the youth
policy in the countries of the region, according to the essential components
and principles of youth policy. Thus, the questions are answered, whether the youth policy of the BSR states
have a clearly defined target group, a transparent and compatible National youth strategy and clearly defined authority in charge of youth. The
reviewed components also include: existing National Youth Councils and umbrella organizations
in the countries of BSR, the civil society in general, the issues of youth
information, budget for youth, legislative framework, non-formal education, European and international dimension
of youth policy.
The report continues with the analysis of the topics,
which according to the perception of young people from the region are the most
important regarding the youth policy and the situation of youth in BSR. The
touched issues include education and employment, youth mobility, youth participation, healthy lifestyle, existing and potential conflicts,
environment, youth housing, issues of family and gender. In this part the
information provided in different reports and documents is compared and
supplemented by the answers of the respondents to the online questionnaire.
Considering the regional cooperation in the youth
field, the most important challenges mentioned by respondents in the online
survey are: the lack of sufficient funding, non-active participation, limited
and unequal access of information and possibilities, youth unemployment,
corruption, political issues and the barriers to mobility. Among the most important challenges are
also the big number of
countries and their diversity, the presence of conflicts and contradicting
interests. Moreover,
there exists a predominant low level of trust in institutions, insufficient
civic commitment, low trust in civil society and youth organizations within
society and a high level of corruption. On the other hand, however, (and this is the main assumption of the
current research) it is exactly these problems that actually define regions and
regionalism. Deeper regional cooperation often appears as a response for the
challenges, when the common policies are developed to address perceived common
problems. In this way the states of the region can cooperatively achieve the
results, which are impossible to achieve individually. Thus all the challenges
turn to become opportunities for the cooperation. In this context, the non-governmental sector and
particularly the youth is capable to contribute to increase the internal social
cohesion, to consolidate the
trust between all partners and to intensify the cooperation with neighbors regardless of the
political agenda of national governments.
The survey has detected that the
vast majority of the respondents see some potential benefits and opportunities
for their organizations, their countries and for the youth of the region in
general in the emergence of cooperation in the youth field between BSR
countries. Thus, the report continues with analyzing the main domains of the
youth cooperation in the region, be it existing or potential, and the framework
for such cooperation. In this context also the main actors, stakeholders and donors,
playing a role in this cooperation are reviewed, among which the European
Institutions appear to be the most important. The main perspectives of the
future regional partnership are defined to be the share of best practices and
initiatives to provide for the
transfer of experience and expertise in youth policy over the region. Also, the
necessity to base the youth strategies on the real needs of young people and to
perceive the youth as a resource and not as a problem are highlighted. Thus, in
the final parts of the report the potential directions for cooperation in the
region and relevant topics for partnership projects as they are seen by young
people are provided.
To
conclude, the report provides recommendations for development cooperation and
partnerships on the regional level basing on the results of the survey. Those
recommendations emphasize the necessity to establish the evidence-based youth
policy and elaborate common regional strategy, to introduce a system of monitoring and evaluation of youth
projects, to improve the management of youth budget and coordination of funding
on regional level. Furthermore, there is a need for more oriented actions on
building up information systems for young people, to contribute for recognition
and appraisal of the role of non-formal education, to focus on improvement of the
situation of youth employment and youth participation in the region. Particular
attention is paid towards sustainability of the cooperations and thus to the
necessity of maintaining the ownership of youth over existing initiatives. The
youth in the Black Sea Region needs to create its own attitude towards the
situation concerning youth policy, and indeed to see the clear benefits of
being involved in the regional partnerships and cooperation. Only in this case,
the youth of the Black Sea Region can exercise responsibility and actively
participate in the process of regional youth cooperation and actively
contribute to it.
The full text of report is available in PDF: http://www.cntm.md/rapoarte/Study2.pdf
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