This proposal is derived from MMH’s advocacy practice, as well as from information collected by the way of international cooperation with other national youth councils (NYCs) gathered in the European Youth Forum (YFJ). Therefore it reflects an action that is aiming to respond on real needs detected in the youth sector Europe-wide. Because of that, it presents a genuine base for a long-term strategic partnership which will ensure exchange of practices among youth, research organisations and institutions involved in the project. The aim of the project is to initiate and develop an advocacy agenda on necessity of developing quality assurance standards of national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth. Youth organisations gathered in this partnership, with the support of the research partner tend to advocate together on the EU level, within a large platform of youth organisations (YFJ). This way they will encourage creation of Europe-wide quality assurance standards of national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth, which will, finally, contribute to more effective youth policies at the European and national level, as an overall idea behind the proposed project. By engaging NYCs from several EU countries in this advocacy process on the EU level, as organisations representing thousands of young people all over the EU, this strategic partnership will directly influence on stimulating the active participation of young people in EU policy making. Project will be implemented through following activities: (1) Mapping of key issues in developing and implementing youth policy strategic documents from perspective of NYCs in order to prepare adequate module for the (2) NYC capacity building training, which will give project partners necessary skills and knowledge for (3) development of advocacy tool which will be communicated with relevant stakeholders through (4) consultations with national bodies in charge of youth, to collect their opinions on the recommendations stated in the advocacy paper and to secure their support in the later stage of the process where concrete recommendations should be implemented. After this (5) advocacy process towards the YFJ will be initiated through presentation the project on the thematic square during the YFJ’s General Assembly and through advocacy on official adoption of the created advocacy paper. After the presentation of the advocacy paper to the YFJ membership, (6) Follow-up meeting on planning future actions will be organized as last official activity of the project. Depending on the outcome of the advocacy process, project partners will discuss and suggest follow up steps. Two major results are to be achieved by implementing this activities: (R1) advocacy agenda on quality assurance standards of national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth will be developed by and accepted within a large platform of youth organisations (YFJ) and (R2) capacities of national youth councils from the EU countries will be strengthened to create and monitor concrete national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth. Results applied on member organisations of the YFJ, representatives of the national bodies in charge of youth policy within the states from which NYCs involved in project are coming and representatives of the EU and Council of Europe bodies in charge of youth as three target groups which are to be addressed by this activity plan will achieve following impacts: (1) It will strengthened and empower the representatives of the project partner organisations (2) It will raise awareness of other YFJ member organisation on the necessity of youth advocacy within the area of policy development (3) It will raise the awareness of the representatives of bodies in charge of youth policy development on both levels (those on national and those on EU) on the necessity to secure better monitoring of the effects of youth policies on national and EU level (4) The implementation of a unique quality assurance standards for strategic and programme documents in the field of youth will start in different European countries (5) Easier monitoring of the effects of youth policy will be possible and thus will give clearer insight into what are the real perspectives of the currently implementing policy solutions in this field. The sustainability of this action has great potential, especially in the institutional sense, because of the fact that its results will have strong effect on easier and more quality work of different national, EU and CoE responsible bodies. To assure quality implementation of the project, the applicant and project partners have foreseen adequate human and financial resources for preparation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination of the action.
The proposal for this project was derived from MMH’s advocacy practice, as well as from information collected through international cooperation with other national youth councils (NYCs) gathered in the largest European platform of youth organisations - the European Youth Forum (YFJ). Therefore, this project reflected an action that aimed to respond on real needs detected in the youth sector Europe-wide, as it also presented a genuine base for a long-term strategic partnership which have ensured the exchange of practices among youth, research organisations and institutions involved in the project. The aim of the project was to initiate and develop the advocacy agenda on necessity of developing quality assurance standards of national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth. Youth organisations gathered in this partnership, with the support of the research partners, did tend to advocate together their findings and joint possitions at the EU level, but also in each of their national contexts. With joint advocacy efforts of the Better Strategies project team and the Expert group on Youth Policy (established by the YFJ, for the first time), they have contributed to more effective youth policies at the European and national level, which was an overall idea behind this project. By engaging NYCs from seven (in this project, and within YFJ even more) EU countries in this advocacy process at the EU level - organisations which represent thousands of young people all over the EU - this strategic partnership have directly influenced stimulating the active participation of young people in the EU policy making, as it provides a solid basis for further development. Project was implemented through these activities: (1) Mapping of key issues in developing and implementing youth policy strategic documents from perspective of NYCs; (2) NYC capacity building training, which have provided necessary skills and knowledge for project partners; (3) development of advocacy tool which represented recommendations towards more successful youth policy (and was communicated and advocated towards relevant stakeholders), including the inputs provided to the Resolution on youth policy standards (adopted at the Spring COMEM 2016); (4) consultations with national bodies in charge of youth, which were used to collect opinions on the recommendations stated in the advocacy paper and to secure the support of the national bodies in later stages of the process (when concrete recommendations will be implemented, especially concerning developing the next long-term youth strategy); (5) advocacy process towards the YFJ (which started its development during the capacity building training, and was done through presentations, dissemination of the project results, etc.) and which did resulted in including some of the key findings from the project in specific resolutions; (6) Follow-up meeting which served for making a proper systematic evaluation of the project and planning future actions/steps which can be organized to successfully continue efforts towards proper and relevant youth policy. Two major results were achieved by implementation of activities specified above: (R1) developed advocacy agenda on quality assurance standards of national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth which was adopted and advocated (and still going on) within a large platform of youth organisations (YFJ); (R2) capacities of national youth councils from the EU partner countries are strengthened and their representatives are now feeling more educated and encouraged in creating and monitoring their concrete national strategic and programme documents in the field of youth, with more active engagement of their respective NYCs. Project results, findings and advocacy efforts were done towards three main target groups: member organisations of the YFJ, representatives of the national bodies in charge of youth policy (inside partner countries), but also representatives in the EU and Council of Europe bodies in charge of youth. The project has strengthened and empowered representatives of the project partner organisations, as it generally has raised awareness of other YFJ member organisation on the necessity of youth advocacy within the area of policy development. Project has also raised the awareness of the representatives of bodies in charge of youth policy development on both levels (those on national and those on EU) on the necessity of more effective youth policy (but also monitoring the results). This project's work, together with the advocacy efforts of the YFJ, did surely reactivate the youth policy topic at the European level after long time and it has a potential to provide some positive changes through clear recommendations dealing with youth strategic documents.