Develop Strategies for Lobbying: Youth unemployment

1
Develop Strategies for Lobbying Youth
unemployment

• 1. Define the Problem
• 2. Options how to Overcome the Problem
• 3. What/Who is Your Audience?
• 4. How do you send the Message on the Need to
  Change Policy/Policies?
• 5. Tools to Do it
• 6. Sequencing
• 7. Measuring Impact

2
Defining problem

• Main problems are
• Lack of trust in the capabilities of new, young
  entrants on the labor market
• Not enough opportunities for internships and
  voluntary work important to demonstrate
  experience when applying for a job
• Nepotism, corruption in employment procedures in
  public and private sector
• Lack of information on employment opportunities
  in general.

3
The audience

• Youth, students, and youth NGOs
• National institutions Government, Employment
  Agency, businesses, and Universities
  (high-schools)
• International institutions EU commission,
  embassies, youth related organization on EU level
  and other international organizations.

4
How to overcome problems and send SMS/message?

• Pressure through campaigning!!!
• Build youth network in our region, share
  information and implement a campaign that will
  support the same objective across borders
• Initialize actions to regulate internships and
  voluntary work as obligatory for all students and
  all employers
• Lobby relevant institutions and universities for
  implementing Bologna where practical work is a
  priority
• Demand for transparent employment procedures
• Demand linkages between Universities and the
  businesses
• Introduce night school courses for retraining
  young people without necessary skills demanded by
  the labor market
• Law on voluntarism should be adopted
• Small grants ad micro financing great ideas of
  the youth
• Increase motivation and awareness of young
  people, that they should work and ask the
  Government to stimulate youth employment by
  decreasing taxes/social benefits employer has to
  be pay for a young employee!!!

5
Tools

• Media Internet, press conferences, debates,
  campaigns..
• Lobbying
• Round tables
• Research papers on the issues
• Individual briefings with policy makers,
  businesses and universities
• Courses-how to write a CV, apply for job and etc.
• Intercultural meetings and exchanges
• Promote best examples-champions for internships
  and youth employment (ProCredit Bank and etc.)
• Peer information exchange
• Entertainment activities Use fun for being
  heard!

National Regional International
6
Sequencing
Levels
National
Regional
Local
International
7
Sequencing(part two)

• Inform yourself on the circumstances in your
  locality, town, country, region
• Exchange information
• Analyze the problems, write policy study/brief if
  needed
• Present findings-solution to the problems
• Design lobbying/advocacy strategy for policy
  change
• Make an action plan
• Organize your team, set targets, set deadlines
• Lobby, lobby, lobby!
• Evaluate results of your lobbying activity

8
Measuring impact

• NUMBER of youth programs targeting the youth
  employment issues, networks, exchanged
  information, events, promotion materials
• Space in media Number of articles, commercials,
  events..
• International cooperation in lobbying
• Increase of opportunities for internships,
  voluntary work and actual youth employment
• Evaluation self-evaluation, governmental
  institutions and university evaluations
• Research!!!

9
Participants

• CRPM Macedonia
• Kosova Youth Network
• Institute for Democracy and Mediation Albania
• MJAFT Albania
• 2 radio Albania
• Albanian Youth Council Albania
• Eurolt26 Serbia

10

• Thank you for your attention
• Hope you apply this at your country and we all
  will apply it in our region?