On Thursday, February 25th, Minister Udovičić, Minister for youth and sports, visited the headquarters of the National Youth Council of Serbia and attended the meeting with members of KOMS team.
Besides office tour and meeting with the minister, there were also meetings with Ivana Dukić, special advisor of the minister, Snezana Zugic, assistant of the minister for youth, Snezana Klasnja, advisor of the minister and Nemanja Svjetlicic, head of the office of the minister. KOMS representatives were Uros Savic Kain, the president of the Executive board, Jovana Božičkovič i Maša Vračar, members of the Executive board and Miljana Pejić, program manager.
Subjects of the meeting were about changes and amendments of the Law of Youth, initiation of the process of creating the Action Plan of The Nationals strategy for the period 2021-2023 and issues concerning spaces for the young.
This meeting happened as the next step of previously held dialogue of the Young and the Minister of Youth and Sports, in December, 2020 and its aim was to make concrete the recommendations and suggestions reached on the held dialogue.
After the first session of the newly established Council for Youth, the ministry committed to undertake necessary steps in order to initiate the process of changing and adding amendments to the Law of Youth and committed to providing that this process happens within frameworks that the minister announced on the dialogue held in December 2020 and the frameworks imply that the process is over by the third quarter of ongoing year. The ministry also recognizes the importance of the participation of the young on local levels and KOMS will, through its network of organizations provide additional support to this process, emphasized Uroš Savić Kain.
KOMS, as an umbrella alliance that identifies, suggests and advocates for the measures for improvement of the situation of the young highlights that the series of previously submitted proposals were adopted by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. The need that was recognized was the need for providing adequate spaces for the young and the first step towards that is supporting development projects through which experts will create a feasibility study that will provide optimal solutions for youth centers and clubs.
On KOMS initiative, budget funds for the young were increased for 11,5% which represents the first step towards quality assurance and accessibility of all programs to all the young. Additionally, the number and amount of scholarships were also increased which is a significant encouraging mechanism for remarkable youngs in the educational system.
KOMS committed to deliver proposals of measures and their prioritization to the Ministry while the Ministry committed to timely initiate processes of key importance for the position of the young which was the main topic of the held meeting.