Half a year after President Vladimir Voronin’s pompous YY announcement that stated what has already been accomplished, not was is happening at present, the new formula of the national commission for the project, has, ever since the change of the Tarlev government, remained unknown.

On December 26 2007, Voronin signed an accord which declared 2008 to be the ‘Year of the Youth’; according to this decree, the year will apparently include young people’s involvement in decision-making processes, ensuring the right to education and training, vocational training, employment and providing housing to young families.

 

Due to the fact that 2008 is a pre-electoral year, the economic analyst of IDIS Viitorul, Veaceslav Ionita, declared himself aloof towards such campaigns because “the central public authorities promote a propagandistic policy rather than a realistic one.”

 

Junior expert in educational policies Nicolae Toderas believes that it would have been more useful and with more foresight to declare a decade of youth, and not just a year. “The executive power’s duty is to concentrate on packages of integrated policies instead of ‘showcase actions’ meant to solve problems but not causes.” The actions dedicated to youth should be done day by day and it is not particularly necessary to declare a special year dedicated to youth policies. Expanding such policies takes a lot of time, and one year is only the period of identifying the problems.” Toderas believes that the authorities have resumed such actions in order to diminish the weight of their social and economic responsibilities towards young voters. Moreover, this is a way to ensure an electoral capital for the upcoming elections. Metaphorically speaking, it is an “electoral charity,” Toderas explained.

 

On the other hand, assistant at the Youth Department of the Ministry of Education and Youth, Mariana Barsan, stated that this is not a pre-electoral initiative because for many years now there have been some discussions about developing several youth policies. Barsan said that “this is a tradition of ours, that every year should be dedicated to someone. Like Ion Druta’s year, so the YY is. Even the President has mentioned that actions dedicated for youths will not be initiated only throughout this year.”

 

Even so, half a year after the YY’s launch, a report on the already accomplished actions is so far missing. According to Vera Turcanu, president of the National Youth Council of Moldova, this stagnation is explained by the fact that the program was quickly developed. “It should have been examined in its initial form. We must understand that this is a pre-electoral year,” she said, due to the fact that even today the composition of the national commission on actions dedicated to the YY is unknown,=, Turcanu stated that she has sent a letter to Vice Prime Minister Victor Stepaniuc, the clerk responsible for accomplishing the YY program, asking who the commission members are. “I haven’t received a reply. I’ve actually received a letter from Vice Minister Valentin Crudu in which he told me that the Ministry of Education and Youth supports the NYCM initiatives.” Crudu informed us about the recently-launched National Program for Economic Rehabilitation, as well as the ‘Supporting Graduates in Finding Employment’ scheme. We found out that the solutions are being formed and then proposed to the government. The NGOs working in this area are monitoring the YY activities, many realise that concrete actions are missing,” Turcanu said. The deficit of working staff could be one cause. “Three people at the MEY coordinating the youth policy is not enough,” she argued.

 

The problem of houses for youths, under examination

 

The program of actions dedicated to the YY provides the growth of the number of budget funded positions at educational institutions. So this year, by government decision nr. 673 in June 6: “in the 2008 plan for enrolment in higher education institutions (I cycle), specialised secondary and vocational secondary,” a 30% increase of budget financed positions in comparison with 2007 was agreed upon. For 2008, 10,758 budget financed positions are offered in state higher education institutions. For the specialised secondary education 7,066 positions are offered and for the vocational secondary one – 23,010 positions.

 

Toderas explained that the 30% increase of the candidates’ admission margin for budget financing implies adding 27,689 lei to the budget in the higher education financing department.  Not all students will benefit from this offer. Only a fraction of them – around 2,000 – will have such a possibility. Consequently, national higher education will continue being under-financed, which will have a negative impact on the educational act, Toderas stated. He proposes the creation of a transparent framework for the admissions procedure and increasing the budget financial allocations per student. “Of course these actions require considerable financing, but the effects would be visible after an educational cycle, that is, in three years.”

 

The actions dedicated to the YY also imply launching the ‘Supporting Graduates in Finding Employment’ program. Sources from MEY told us, however, that the scheme was excluded from the YY agenda, due to the fact that graduates are supported in finding a job by a series of other normative acts available in the Republic of Moldova.

 

Veaceslav Ionita declared that the state should modify the mechanisms of this policy. “We have one problem, but we are solving another. The connection between the money given to universities and solving the problem of staff deficits in rural areas is missing.” Ionita’s solution would be that the state, instead of giving money to universities, should give money to city halls in villages which require specialists. Out of this money they would pay for the studies of certain young people, who, after graduation, would come back to work in the village. All of the city halls would offer young specialists a free piece of land and the 30,000 lei amount promised by the government for building a house. The chances that these young people would go back to their villages are higher than in if the money was offered to young specialists.

 

The Ministry of Local Public Administration is in charge of another area – the national program of ‘Social Support for Young Families’. From the MLPA secretary we found out that a decision in this context is to be approved soon. After that, we were re-directed to the Ministry of Commerce and Economy. At the MCE, Ana Gherganov from the human resources department told us that this project is additionally examined by the government. “We don’t know who examines it. We sent an official letter three weeks ago, but we have not received a reply yet. Some changes might occur and that is why we cannot offer you the program.” The amount offered to young families with the purpose of providing housing is unknown and this is explained by the lack of transparency.

 

The Youth Year will end, but the problems, however, will remain

 

 

Toderas believed that, if there had been sustainable political strategies, the programs would have been truly realistic. According to Toderas, the actions are not implemented according to clearly defined visions, and this does not create sustainability and credibility. On December 31 2008 the YY will end but the problems, however, will remain. “The crisis created by the lack of a highly qualified and competitive labour force, who would meet the requirements of European employers, or the real estate crisis, which is strongly approaching Moldova as well, will continue,” Toderas pointed out.

 

In August, the opening after the reconstruction of the Republican Centre for Children and Youth is scheduled. According to NYCM leaders, large amounts of money will be allocated for the reopening of this centre. This centre needs a total reconstruction and a larger capital investment. It has offices for NGOs projected as part of it, as well as conference halls that could host international events.

 

Larisa Lazarescu, HIV/AIDS and Vulnerable Teenagers’ program coordinator, said that the donors are more aloof concerning the centre’s reconstruction. “We pay more attention to the content. We want impact, because often the walls are pretty but what takes place inside them is different. Together with the MEY we have worked on forming the concept of the centre, the reference terms and the work of the staff who will be employed. I don’t know how much our proposals will be taken into consideration, but we are collaborating,” Lazarescu added.

 

“We focus on actions, and not on the spent money”

 

According to Mariana Barsan, assistant in the Youth Department at the MEY, money from the budget is allocated for the actions dedicated to the YY. In the 2008 budget 6,554,500 lei was assigned for youth activities. Tatiana Slutu, in charge of finance management in the Youth Department, said that 3,455,000 lei is given by the MEY. We have required the list of expenses for the actions part of the program MEY is in charge of. Barsan told us: “We don’t reveal the sums. We actually value the action, its accomplishment, and not the amount of money spent.” All actions dedicated to youth policies are financed from the state budget. “We have the resources and we can afford to finance YY actions,” Barsan said.

 

Economic analyst Veaceslav Ionita claims that the amount allocated from the budget is too small. Toderas believes that the problem is not the financial resources, insufficient and insecure, provided for this category of policies, but it is the way in which the criteria of relevance, transparency, efficiency, and equity are followed. At the NCYM, Turcanu said that, from the beginning, “they started on the wrong foot” and the main cause was a lack of money. The government approved the plan and national strategy long before the declaration of the YY. Therefore, when the program was initiated, the state budget had already been formulated. This is why it is hard to get anything done, even if half of the year has already passed.

 

According to the NCYM president, “the explanation would probably be a mistake from the authorities, who didn’t get the donors involved when this plan was formed. A few donors contributed to this program, like the World Bank or UNICEF, who have a consistent contribution.” Given the fact that too little money is allocated for the YY actions, the MEY has found the solution. “When they’ve concluded that there was not enough money for the YY activities, they took the money from the Youth Department,” Turcanu explained.

 

International donors willingly involved in the YY

 

Toderas claims that involving foreign donors in this program cannot take place too quickly. “Let’s remind ourselves how the YY was formed. Nobody knew anything for sure and at the beginning of December 2007, administrative uncertainty circled over the 2008 theme. As far as I know, there were several alternatives. The youth policy, however, proved to have a faster and cheaper social and electoral impact compared to other programs. There was no public debate about the presidential measure. The external donor’s function was according to a strict financial plan decided long before the beginning of the calender year,” explained Toderas.

 

The NYCM president confirmed that the donors can make recommendations, but they cannot force the government to accept them

 

UNICEF supports only some of the YY activities. Lazarescu said that UNICEF has planned to finance only a few of the activities they have found to be the most important from the point of view of ability and adjusting the youth policy so that they have a higher efficiency and the young ones can benefit from higher access to information and services. That’s why all of the UNICEF promoted actions are related to youth policy. “We are working on a project of about $73,000 meant to adjust the law on youth, which was formed many years ago.” During this period of time, many changes in society have occurred and, thus, the needs of youth have changed too. In this context, UNICEF started analysing what can be adjusted, if it had been the suitable moment. “It could be that the law is very good but the implementation mechanism might be missing,” Lazarescu explained. In collaboration with MEY, UNICEF is also trying to adjust the Youth Strategy to increase the opportunities of young people in villages and districts.

 

Lazarescu specified that, upon the MEY’s request, UNICEF will support the international youth forum which will take place in autumn and will produce various promotional materials and flyers for the publicity campaign. As part of the program, UNICEF might also analyse the normative acts on financing youth activities. “It has been noticed that these are very old and any youth related action is hard to organise because it does not cover the necessary expenses.”

 

UNICEF also promotes the ‘Social-Economic Empowerment of the Youth’ project. Olga Sainciuc, coordinator of this program, stated that it has been running since 2004 and will end in December 2009. The total budget for developing this project is 1.7 million lei, and young people have been given training in starting a business. Commercial banks gave 40-50% of the money in the form of a non-repayable grant, and 10% of the money was paid for by the students themselves. Sainciuc mentioned that 143 business ideas were accepted last year in which young people had opened their own businesses.

 

The NYCM president stressed how good it is that the majority of the youth-related activities are focused at a local level. “I believe that the state should pay more attention to developing youth initiatives at a local level. This is where we, the NGOs, should get involved as well, but in this case we come with the support of foreign financers and not at a local level.”

 

But for the NYCM, the youth remain a priority, no matter whose year it is and regardless of the social and political changes or events in the country. “This doesn’t mean that this year we will perform more activities because we are dedicated to youth, and do nothing next year. Just as we have worked so far on providing services to youth, we work the same this year and we will do so next year.” Turcanu said it is important to specify that there are activities that organisations do separately and don’t enter the Year of the Youth context. “We clearly make differentiation and don’t use the YY logo because we are afraid that many of these activities conducted by organisations will be included by the ministry or the government in the reports made up in the YY. That is why we clearly make a differentiation.”

 

Many of the activities proposed by organisations for the YY action program, which already had financing, had government ministries in charge of them. “We didn’t like this from the beginning, namely because we didn’t see our place in it, even if it is specified that the implemented program will ensure the participation of youth organisations in the action plan. It is must be clear who is in charge of what, so that we can see our position. And if we take a look at the plan we see that the donors are not represented too.”

 

According to Lazarescu, the fact that donors are not included in the plan is not a problem. “All the donors coming to the country work for the government and this money is for the government. This is a government plan, and if they didn’t mention in the plan which action is sponsored by a donor, that is not a problem for UNICEF.” She mentioned the most important thing is that they do something which will yield results and that the ministries and government are interested in cooperating with them. Lazarescu added that what she would like to see is these actions take place for more than one year, because it is the Youth Year, and this should be a long standing investment.

 

Toderas justifies the non-involvement of external donors by the fact that they have already contributed to youth projects, which were rather consistent. In some aspects, Moldova was considered a quality practice case. See the case of youth organisations thematic networks. The legislative, normative and strategic framework was considered to be one of the most successful in the pan-European region. Out of my own experience I can say that during that time many youth organisations from Romania copied action plans and projects successfully applied in Moldova. Those projects were implemented in Moldova with the financial support of foreign organisations such as UNICEF, UNDP, CRDC and the Soros Foundations.

 

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