The overall aim of the studies is to be a reference tool which would give all stakeholders in the field of youth, as well as youth project organisers, an overview of the situation of young people and of provisions available for them in the 10 partner countries.The objectives were to identify whether there was a Youth Policy, legislation or any other national strategy addressing the needs of youth and what kind of provision was made through non-formal education and youth work in the relevant partner countries.
The countries involved are Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey.
The studies and a compilation of the ten are available all in English and in French for Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia because French is usually used in these countries. Also, the executive summary is available in French too.
Research for the studies was carried out by 7 experts and involved gathering of information, during a 5-month period , on basis of available written materials and resources, and as a result of missions to the studied countries to interview relevant youth authorities, organisations and young people individually or through focus groups.
The outcomes of the studies, each produced in a report format following a common structure for all the ten studies, give an enlightening overview of the definition and situation of youth in the Mediterranean partner countries.
The studies focused on young people’s rights and entitlements as active citizens, such as opportunities to vote, get elected and contribute to the decision-making process; the challenges faced by youth such as unemployment, immigration, housing, marriage, generational and cultural conflict, young women’s place in society; young people’s reactions in response to such challenges and description of provision for leisure-time activities and non-formal education through governmental and/or non-governmental youth institutions and organisations.
The studies show that a national youth policy is not yet fully implemented in any of the partner countries. However, each of them has a number of national directives, legislations, policies and/or strategies to address youth issues, usually at cross-sector level, even if youth are not, in some cases, recognised as a priority. The definition of youth varies from country to country, sometimes even within the same country depending on the responsible national authority. Nonformal education has no, or limited, place in most of the studied countries, formal education being the main priority of national authorities.
The RCBS (Regional Capacity Building and Support Unit) for the EuroMed Youth III programme was chosen after a Call for proposals on behalf of the European Commission (DG EuropeAid) to provide a team of seven experts to carry out ten studies.