As part of the project, a youth policy was reviewed nationwide, including Northern Caucasus.

The goal of the project is to review federal legislation that sets out procedures for providing career counseling and employment assistance for graduates as well as to review a policy relating to youth involvement in public life. This includes:

·         youth-targeted programs

·         funding

·         promotion of youth involvement in youth policy making

·         institutional opportunities and skills available in this area

Government officials, experts in youth policy, public community representatives that deal with youth issues were interviewed during the research.

The youth policy, for many years, has been paid very little attention. The Strategy for State Youth Policy has been issued only recently. Regional governments almost fully depend on the federal center and frequently imitate its decisions on priority activity areas.

Both governments and institutions fail to encourage the young to get involved in social activity. Volunteer movements and other forms of youth social activity need expansion, for example, through simplified regulations governing public associations.

Though, officially, career counseling and employment assistance are among top priorities of the state youth policy, they have been little success as yet. There is a point to consider that wider issues, such as education reform, labor market restructuring, need solutions. With insufficient statistics on these topics, comprehensive social surveys are needed.  

Current mechanisms provided by the federal targeted program The Youth of Russia do not guarantee fair distribution of available resources to meet regional policy’s priorities and the needs of youth population. Methods employed and events selected by region governments with an eye to obtain federal funding are non-transparent and poorly understood even by these governments. The most deprived regions or those with most pressing youth problems are unlikely to receive funding. The federal targeted program The South of Russia suffers the same problems characterized by lack of transparency and high-handedness as regards resource distribution.

Youth Policy Follow-up report (Word Document, 286 Кб)