National Youth Policy of Georgia
The Georgian National Youth Strategy document was developed in 2015 by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs of Georgia with the joint efforts of the state agencies, the youth, the civil society, the private sector and international and local organizations. The document regulates a wide range of issues related to the development of persons of 14-29 years of age.
The Youth Policy aims at encouraging establishment of relevant environment for a comprehensive youth development to fully realize their potential and active involvement in all the spheres of the public life. In order to achieve this goal, the Youth Policy encompasses the following priorities:
- Creating opportunities for the youth to be involved in social, economic, cultural and political life;
- Creating opportunities for appropriate and high quality education, worthy employment and professional growth for the youth;
- Establishing a healthy lifestyle and improving access to and quality of the healthcare services provided in the youth friendly environment;
- Increasing awareness among young people on the civil rights and responsibilities, and creating a safe and secure environment for young people, protecting their rights and supporting the young people with special needs.
With regard to the culture, policy objectives are as follows:
- increase the scope of cultural, creative and recreational programs
- involve more young people in preservation of cultural heritage monuments;
- increase awareness of young compatriots residing abroad about the cultural, ingenious and recreational life of their home country,
- facilitate participation of the young people residing on the occupied territories in the cultural life of the country and help maintain the contact of young people separated by the occupation borders
- encourage preserving cultural and ethnic diversity.
The National Youth Strategy covers 4 strategic directions: Participation; Education, employment and mobility; Health and Special Support and Protection.
Participation is focused on: raising the youth awareness regarding their civil rights and responsibilities ; promoting non-formal education in youth work ; enhancing relevant skills and opportunities for young people to participate in the decision making process ; supporting youth initiatives ; developing the culture of volunteering, support involvement of young people in cultural, creative and leisure activities; raising environmental awareness and involving young people in environmental activities.
Under Education priority are envisaged : increasing qualifications, competitiveness and work efficiency of young people; creating relevant conditions for education for all the young people; increasing efforts to improve the social and economic living conditions of young people residing in the regions, mountainous areas and in the areas adjacent to the occupation lines ; support the academic mobility of students and academic staff in teaching, learning and research processes both in Georgia and abroad.
Health priority focuses on promoting healthy lifestyle amongst young people ; increasing the awareness and education about sexual and reproductive health and rights and improving accessibility to and quality of medical services; developing services for improving young people’s mental health ; carrying out a vigorous campaign to prevent abuse of psychoactive drugs among the young people.
Special support and Protection aims at increasing the opportunities offered by social assistance programs in order to better meet the needs of young people affected by poverty ; preventing crimes and ensuring reintegration and resocialization of young people with special needs ; raising awareness of young people about their rights, promoting the culture of non-violence and safety among young people and providing special protection and supporting young victims of violence, inhuman and derogatory treatment and dignity defamation.
The youth will be encouraged to participate in social, economic, cultural and political life of the country; Accessibility to healthcare will be improved. Awareness among young people on the civil rights and responsibilities will be raised ensuring safe and secure environment for young people; Inclusiveness of young people with special needs will be guaranteed.-
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