In June 2024, the Assembly of the Republic of North Macedonia adopted amendments to the Law on Organisation and Work of the State Administration Bodies (LOWSAB).
These amendments introduced significant changes in the youth sector. Specifically, the Agency for Youth and Sports was dissolved, and its responsibilities related to youth affairs were transferred to the newly restructured Ministry of Social Policy, Demography, and Youth, which become the legal successor to the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. Additionally, the legal provisions stipulated that the Ministry of Social Policy, Demography, and Youth would absorb the employees handling youth-related matters from the now-defunct Agency for Youth and Sports, along with the relevant equipment, inventory, archives, documentation, work resources, financial assets, obligations, and other resources related to youth affairs.
The legislator’s intent behind these amendments to LOWSAB was to ensure that youth affairs would no longer be managed by an independent state administration body but rather by a ministry. The decision was made that the most suitable body to handle youth affairs would be the ministry responsible for social policy. At the same time, this ministry was relieved of its responsibilities concerning labour issues and was instead assigned responsibility for demographic matters. The legislator paid attention to continuity in personnel handling youth affairs by ensuring that employees from the former Agency for Youth and Sports, specifically those engaged in youth-related matters (and not sports-related matters), would transition to the Ministry of Social Policy, Demography, and Youth.
Considering this reform, it can be interpreted that for the legislator (and for the government elected shortly after the adoption of these amendments), the youth sector become a priority. However, the adoption of these amendments is merely an initial step.
For the Ministry of Social Policy, Demography, and Youth to successfully take over the execution of youth-related responsibilities—leading to noticeable improvements in the development and implementation of youth policies and increased youth participation in decision-making—several additional steps must be taken. These include conducting a functional analysis to determine how the ministry should be reorganised to effectively execute its newly assigned responsibilities, establishing new organisational units, structuring job positions to be filled partly by former employees of the Agency for Youth and Sports, defining strategic priorities for the youth sector, and developing a long-term action plan for the relevant organisational units.
To successfully implement these steps (some of which have already begun), it is necessary to first study the relevant laws, as well as past practices and experiences of the Agency for Youth and Sports. This analysis has been prepared precisely for that purpose—to assist the Ministry in taking the necessary steps to begin its work in the youth sector.
The analysis was written by Konstantin Bitrakov, part of the "Democracy Works" project.
Тhe document is available in Macedonian and Albanian language.
