Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1698060816922.pdf (Georgia)
Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia POLICY PAPER Re-granting Project 2020 Working Group 4 # Ukraine # Moldova # Georgia This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union.
Its contents are the sole responsibility of the Open Society Foundation, NGO (Ukraine), Youth Alternative NGO (Ukraine), Georgian Center for Strategy and Development (Georgia), Foreign Policy Association of Moldova (Moldova) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.
Authors: Gogita Gvedashvili, David Jinjikhadze (Georgia) Victoria Rosa (Moldova) Denys Chernikov, Lyudmyla Kudina (Ukraine) Contents Summary Common trends and issues in youth employment in 3 countries Institutions and legislation Stimulus packages Best practices of CSOs, private sector, public authorities and international assistance Country Conclusions Georgia Moldova Ukraine Country Recommendations Georgia Moldova Ukraine 2 2 7 13 15 22 22 23 23 25 25 26 27 1 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia Summary Youth employment policy is a complex area, necessary involving education policy, social policy, and economic policy, which makes it per se hard for national governments to tack- le comprehensively.
In the conditions, which exceed the routine, e.g.

due to Covid-19 re- lated limitations, the problem of youth unem- ployment becomes yet more acute.

The gov- ernments of Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine have to deal urgently with youth employment opportunities, decent work and job stability, and access to social protection for young people.
The present document is a joint undertaking of the experts from the three countries, which introduces the reader to the background related to youth employment, guides though the key state institutions and relevant legislation, reviews stimulus pack- ages and presents the best practices of civil society, private sector, public authorities and international assistance.

The authors con- clude with specific policy recommendations for each country.
Common trends and issues in youth employment in 3 countries Youth employment is an undoubtedly impor- tant issue for Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine in terms of employment opportunities, de- cent work and job stability, and access to social protection for young people.

Instability in employment opportunities and wages was the common feature of the labour market in all three countries, which all had experi- enced the collapse of the Soviet Union.
To- day the labour market provides cheap qual- ified workforce and allows the coexistence of illegal employment and shadow economy, and the lack of social guarantees for the em- ployees.

Youth employment policy in this context be- comes a complex enterprise, necessary in- volving education policy, social policy, and economic policy.
During the recent year, due to Covid-19 related limitations, businesses in all three countries suffered a tremen- dous decline of economic activity without a meaningful compensation from the public authorities.

The problem of youth unemploy- ment, which was crucial before the Covid-19 pandemic, has got even more severe since April 2020.
The official youth unemployment numbers were released, although with some delay (see Table 1), and demonstrate clearly that the current level of youth unemployment is at least twice higher in all three countries, compared to the previous period.

There are several reasons why the youth employment policy has to be placed at the top of the decision-makers’ agenda.
First, the economic decline due to Covid-19 pan- demic was forecasted at more than 8%, so there will be even less opportunities for the young people.

Second, the deficit of the national budgets in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine is increasing, meaning that fewer resources will be allocated to support jobs and businesses.

Third, the uncertain future of labour migration to Western Europe due to the pandemic suggests there are no extra options for employment of the young people.
Last but not least, the lack of jobs may lead to social unrest, especially in small towns, the areas with industrial decline, and the ar- eas with low economic potential.

2 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia Definition of young people • Georgia: individuals aged 14 and 29 • Moldova: individuals aged 14 to 35 • Ukraine: individuals aged 14 to 35 Table 1.

Unemployment by age groups, % Georgia Moldova Ukraine 15-24 y.o.

25-29 y.o.
30 13 20 20 11 11 Figure 1: Youth Unemployment Rates in Eastern Partnership Countries 2015-2022 (%) Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Georgia Moldova Ukraine All three countries share the same back- ground related to youth employment.
Youth unemployment is mostly driven by a mis- match between specialization/skills demand and supply, which is based on the poorly informed choice of the speciali- zation/profession by the young people (the demand side), given poor or no professional orientation services, and their expectations with regards to the “safer” employment with the tertiary education diploma, which would also guarantee a secured career pathway.
On the supply side, the university system remains unchanged and further impacts the 3 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia young people’s choice: school graduates are disproportionately interested to learn social sciences and humanities, compared to other subjects.

Young people’s “rational” choice is not based on their own experience of study or work.
Misinformed choices and exagger- ated expectations are formed in an envi- ronment, where very few opportunities are available for the on-the-job training or the entry/transit job; where youth entrepreneur- ship has few stimulus; where low information circulates on opening of new companies and required skills; where few opportunities arise to develop young people’s soft skills (e.g.

communication, entrepreneurship or leadership).


Poor coordination between the government, the businesses and the educa- tion providers is yet another reason for mis- alignment of the educational system with the skills needs of businesses.

Major employers and educational institutions show little inter- est in establishing systematic cooperation to address such pitfalls.
In Ukraine, the supply of graduates by Ukrainian universities is imbalanced in view of the market demand: more people are trained in social sciences, legal studies, and management (38% of graduates), compared to engineers (13%), natural sciences and IT (8%) or agriculture (3%).

At the same time, the economy shows 10-20% growth in the number of export/import firms in agriculture, industry and services, thus increasing em- ployment opportunities in these spheres.
A dramatic mismatch of demanded and sup- plied skills was emphasized in agriculture and renewable energy.1 In Georgia, young individuals aged 14 to 18 mostly choose to pursue tertiary education immediately after their school graduation2, due to the absence of clearly-defined fu- ture plans, goals, or interests.

Almost half of the students choose to study in the capital city.
A majority of students select education- al programs in the field of social sciences, business or law.3 According to the recent research, only 31% of the employed young Georgians work completely or partially in the profession they were educated for.4 The qualifications and working experience do not match the requirements of the labour mar- ket.

Notoriously weak correlation between academic studies and employment is a se- rious problem for university graduates in Georgia.
Students choose to enter graduate studies as a way of increasing employment opportunities.
Obtaining a Master’s degree increases the chances of getting a job by at least 70% when compared to an individual with only a Bachelor’s degree.5 As for voca- tional education and training (VET) institu- tions, almost half (47%) of people in formal employment say their field of studies corre- sponds with their current professional occu- pation, while another 20% confirms partial compliance.6 European Training Foundation, 2017, Torino Process Conference 2017.
Changing Skills for a Changing World: highlights 1 https://www.etf.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/publications/torino-process-conference-2017-changing-skills-changing Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2016, «Generation in transition: youth study 2016 — Georgia.», 29 Feb. 2016, 2 http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/georgien/13150.pdf GEOSTAT, 2018, Higher and Professional Education, 3 https://geostat.ge/media/18181/umaglesi-ganatleba-%28geo%29_2018.pdf Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2016, «Generation in transition: youth study 2016 — Georgia.», 29 Feb. 2016, 4 http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/georgien/13150.pdf EACEA, 2017, “Overview of the Higher Education System” 5 https://eacea.ec.europa.eu/sites/eacea-site/files/countryfiche_georgia_2017.pdf MES, 2018, Tracer Study, 6 https://www.mes.gov.ge/mesgifs/1584366255_2018-(Tracer%20Study).pdf 4 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia In Moldova, over a third of young peo- ple aged 15-34 are employed (38.4% or 274.000 people), about 2.8% (20.000) are unemployed and the rest, 58.8% (about 420.000), are economically inactive.
Among the latter, over 39.0% are included in the Na- tional Education System (NES).7 Among employed young people aged 15-34 years old, four out of five, that is 80.6% work as employees, and 4.2% of them simultane- ously attend formal training within the NES.

The employment rate among young people aged 15-34 years is 38.4%.
At the same time, for young people aged 15-24, the em- ployment rate is only 19.0%, while for those aged 25-29 and 30-34 the indicator reg- isters values 2-3 times higher, 48.8% and, respectively, 55.0%, being practically higher than the national average, 40.1% for the pop- ulation aged 15 and over.

About a quarter of young people, 24.0% have informal jobs, and among young employees 9.2% work without individual employment contracts.
The practice of hiring without completing individual employment contracts, based on verbal agreements is more common among men, 12.1%, than women, 6.0%.8 A number of issues arise in employment of young people from vulnerable groups.
In all three countries such vulnerable groups include: persons with disability (due to lack of remote work options), NEET (neither in education nor in employment), and young females (due to gender stereotypes, risk of being fired because of pregnancy and child care), as well as the youth in the rural areas.
As for country-specific vulnerable groups, they include: National Bureau of Statistics of Moldova, 7 https://statistica.gov.md//newsview.php?l=ro&idc=168&id=6729 8 Ibidem • • • in Ukraine: internally displaced persons (IDPs) (due to the stereotypes of percep- tion by employers, strong dependence on the shadow schemes); in Georgia: ethnic minorities (Azeri, Ar- menian and Russian) who face language barriers, young people with disabilities who suffer from the lack of accessibility to proper infrastructure and education; a heterogeneous group of the NEETs aged 15-29 (30%), and internally displaced young people.
Huge disparities between young people in the large urban and ru- ral areas have to be mentioned, as well as differences between young males and females; in Moldova, however, there has been a positive trend in recent years in decline of young people’s share in the NEET cat- egory.

In particular, the share of youth between 15 and 24 years, who were not in education and neither in employment, decreased from 28% in 2015 to 20% in 2019.
Compared to the number of fe- males, the number of males in this cat- egory decreased most significantly, from 30% to 17%.

To compare, the decrease of females’ share in the NEET group was less impressive, from 26% to 23%, during the same period.

Weak protection of labour rights, “shad- ow” schemes of employment and weak regulation of part-time employment prevent young people from entering the job market.
In particular low payment/employment guar- antees, risk of being fired after an internship, little opportunities to get a job without expe- rience and risks of combining job and ed- ucation are important factors driving youth unemployment.
Additionally, one of the big- 5 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia gest challenges is youth immigration: be it brain drain, seasonal work or educational opportunities, young people choose to leave the country as either job-seekers or stu- dents.

In Moldova, more than 50,000 young peo- ple aged 15-34 go abroad to work or looking for a job for less than a year.

Out of this num- ber, 79.3% are males and 84.2% are young people from rural areas.
Young females compose 39.5% of the total number of fe- males who went abroad to work or looking for a job for less than a year.

Among makes, at the same time, this share is significantly higher: 55.0%.9 Most young people from the Republic of Mol- dova prefer to work in Russia (25.2%), Ger- many (16.8%), Italy (11.3%), France (10.0%) and the UK (9.0%), with significant gender differences.
The share of young females working in Italy is four times higher than that of the young males (29.4% of the total num- ber of females who went to work compared to 6.6% of the total number of males), while Russia, as a destination country, it is more preferred by males than females (28.3% of all males compared to 13.1% of all females).10 During the past several years, young people have increasingly preferred to work in the Eu- ropean Union countries.
Thus, the share of the young people leaving for work in Russia has decreased from 71.9% in 2015 to 41.9% in 2018, while for Germany it increased from 2.6% in 2015 to 10.1% in 2018, for Italy from 7.7% in 2015 to 12.9% and for the UK from 2.2% in 2015 to 6.2% in 2018.11 This could be considered an indirect impact of the As- sociation Agreement (AA) implementation and an increased popularity of the EU as a safer place in terms of labour protection and social security.
According to the nationwide study “Gener- ation in Transition – Youth Study Georgia”12, significant number of young Georgians want to leave their home country.

Every fifth re- spondent (21%) said they strongly desired to leave the country, and almost the same number (19%) indicated that they would consider leaving the country.

It is noteworthy that the share of those who do not want to emigrate is higher among the older respond- ents, and especially among those who live in rural areas.
The USA and Germany are ranked as the top two most desired desti- nations (27% and 21% respectively) among those willing to leave the country.

The top seven preferred countries for emigration in- clude five EU member states – almost half of the respondents wanted to travel to the EU countries.

Better living standards top the list (38%) among the motivating factors of emi- gration, followed by better educational (17%) and employment (13%) opportunities.
Statistica Moldovei, Tineriiîn Republica Moldova înanul 2019, 9 https://statistica.gov.md//newsview.php?l=ro&idc=168&id=6729 10 Ibidem 11 Ibidem Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2016, “Generation in Transition – Youth Study Georgia – 2016”, 12 http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/georgien/13150.pdf 6 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia Institutions and legislation In Ukraine, youth employment policy is split between three ministries: the Ministry of So- cial Policy (MSP, including the State Employ- ment Service (SEE), and the Social Security Fund), the Ministry of Economic Develop- ment and Agriculture (MEDA), and the Min- istry of Youth and Sports (MYS).
The MYS has quite a broad mandate: it promotes pro- fessional orientation, employment of young people and their self-employment, increase of the young Ukrainians’ competitiveness on the labour market and their professional de- velopment, as well as their obtaining of rel- evant competencies.13 These functions ad- dress mostly the area of skills and capacities of the young people; however, the promotion of employment is also on the list.
The employment policy in general, including social dialogue and working conditions, be- longed to the competence of MSP until Sep- tember 2019, when it was transferred to the MEDA.
Along with that the SEE14, remains responsible for implementation of state em- ployment and labour migration policies, including social protection against unem- ployment, labour market analysis, support in job search and in employees’ selection, consulting on starting a private enterprise, provision of professional orientation servic- es, organization of professional training and re-training, and additional support to people who are non-competitive it the labour mar- ket.
Such separation of functions between different ministries has not produced any meaningful results in employment promo- tion, including youth employment, and the situation can get worse due to a pandemic shutdown of businesses in spring and sum- mer of 2020.

Ukrainian legislation contains a number of general norms on promotion of youth em- ployment.

Many of these were adopted in the beginning of the 1990s and still bear the “soviet” spirit, encapsulated in “labour pla- toons” or employment quotas.
Below are several examples of these general principles and norms: • The Law ‘On Employment of Population’ includes a number of benefits and servic- es guaranteed by the state for all catego- ries of employees, including anti-discrim- ination norms.

Moreover, young people enjoy an extra guarantee of 5% employ- ment quota.

Failure to secure such a quo- ta may result in a fine for the employer.
This law also foresees the activities pro- moting youth employment, including pro- vision of the first job or internship to the young people.

• The Law ‘On Promotion of Social Inte- gration and Development of the Youth’ includes two major norms on youth em- ployment.

First, the state guarantees a 2-year entry job/first employment for those young people who either graduated from an educational institution or left it, or were dismissed from the military service.
Secondly, a network of youth employ- ment centres must be established to spe- cifically promote youth employment.

This Law also reconstitutes the norm on the employment quota as mentioned above.

According to the Law, the state shall also support creation of youth business cen- tres and business incubators, and apply reduced charges for registration of busi- nesses established by the young people.
Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 2014-2020, Regulation on Ministry of Youth and Sport of Ukraine, 13 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/220-2014-%D0%BF#n8 Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, 2019, Regulation on State Employment Service, 14 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0733-19#Text 7 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia • Youth employment is also mentioned as one of the main areas of public policy for employment and job creation until 2022 (government ordinance #1396-p15 as of 24.12.2019).
At the implementation level16, the relevant activities are focused on both “inclusiveness of the labour market” and the youth employ- ment.

In particular, youth employment sup- port supposedly focuses on career devel- opment training, reaching balance between skills supply and demand, development of proposals on stimulus for job creation, and promotion of youth entrepreneurship.
The impressively long action plan aimed to promote the youth employment outlined in the acting Ukrainian legislation, did not, however, translate into a well-developed and self-sufficient policy agenda.

In terms of con- crete policy instruments the situation is quite the opposite, especially compared to, e.g.

norms and instruments addressed to people with disabilities.
If the latter target group can refer to specific tax benefits, budget grants or soft loans, the youth employment policy cannot benefit from any of these.

At present, the MYS is responsible for de- velopment of the youth policy.

Among other instruments, the MYS analyses youth needs, and implements programmes of youth civil society organizations (CSO) support, includ- ing support of the projects promoting mod- ern competencies and skills, necessary for employment.
But when it comes to the direct support for youth employment, the MYS has no such instruments, whereas it implements a number of budget programmes to pro- mote sports, including support to teams and capital subsidies to finance construction of sport venues.

Therefore, the key body in the sphere of promotion of youth employment (as stipulated by law), this ministry should consider developing a special programme to address job creation and professional orien- tation.
In Georgia, the complex reforms of youth policy were implemented after the Rose Revolution in 2003 and the launch of the process of Europeanization of Georgia.
The Georgian Law on Higher Education, adopt- ed in December 2004, provided the legal basis for reforms, defining the roles and re- sponsibilities of all players involved in higher education, the levels of higher education, the rules for admission, licensing/authoriza- tion and accreditation procedures, types of educational institutions and introduction of the credit system.
In 2015, Georgia joined the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and, thus, committed to decreasing the number of NEETs by 8% and reducing the level of unemployment to 9,5%.

Existing challenges are still on the agenda, and there are no significant achievements that could bring strong and tangible results.

It should be mentioned that part of the exist- ing legal framework is not time-bound (ex- cept the SDGs) and provides policy-makers with a great leeway to adjust their commit- ments.
In spite of the improvements of the legal framework on youth policy, an effec- tive implementation of the existing regula- tions and state policies still remains a chal- lenge.

Failure to deal with the fundamental problems of youth policy often hinders the achievement of the long-term and sustaina- ble outcomes.
Parallel to the development of the legislation framework, different public institutions took Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 2019, Main Directions of Public Policy in Areas of Employment and Job Creation, 15 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1396-2019-%D1%80#n10 Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, 2020, Activities Implementing Main Directions of Public Policy in Areas of Employment and Job Creation, 16 https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/216-2020-%D1%80#Text 8 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia on various roles and responsibilities to en- hance the youth policy and adopt a more result-oriented approach.
The interplay of macroeconomic, educational and employ- ment policies have had a crucial role on the way youth policy issues are handled in the country.

Primarily, the following key state in- stitutions are the major actors in youth policy planning and execution.

• The Ministry of IDPs from the Occu- pied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia (MoH) is the major institution within the Government of Georgia (GoG) commissioned to regulate the country’s labour and employment.
Some programs have been carried out by the government since 2014 to sup- port job seekers registered on the www.

worknet.gov.ge platform with short-term training, internships, and wage subsidies to increase the employability of the reg- istered.
In 2019, the GoG established Employment Service Agency (ESA) and introduced the Employment Support Ser- vice Development along with the National Strategy 2019-2023 for the Labour and Employment Policy of Georgia that prior- itizes young people as a target group.17 It should be mentioned that the effec- tiveness of the MoH’s program has been questioned due to the low employment rate (annual rate of 11% to 12%) being able to find a job.18 • The Ministry of Education and Sci- ence of Georgia (MoES).
MoES is among the main institutions responsible for setting the employment trajectory for the young people.

Over the recent years, MoES has been mainstreaming vocation- al education and training as the shortest route to employment by introducing com- prehensive strategy documents, legisla- tion and programs tailored to the needs of school students, work-based learning practices and partnerships with the pri- vate companies.
• The Ministry of Economics and Sus- tainable Development of Georgia (MoESD) is the chief ministry responsi- ble for regulating the economic activity, developing human capital, and creating a conducive environment for sustainable economic growth in the country.
Even though the employment policies have been outside the domain of the MoESD, the ministry employs different fiscal in- struments to promote entrepreneurial ac- tivity towards new jobs’ creation, including Enterprise Georgia and Georgia’s Innova- tion and Technology Agency (GITA).

• The GoG established LLC Youth Agency (henceforth the Agency) in 2019 after the abolishment of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Affairs (MYoSA) and its subordinate public organizations19.
Due to the absence of effective mecha- nisms of coordination with other stake- holders and the lack of political will as well as competencies required for the imple- mentation of the youth policy, MoSYA’s intervention remained rather limited.

With a view to optimize public resources and set a joint vision for youth policy, the GoG established the Agency which, among others, is responsible for the economic empowerment of youth.
The Agency is mandated to elaborate a strategy for the development of youth-oriented economy, GoG, 2019, “Ordinance on the Establishment of LLC Youth Agency” 17 https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/4642829 European Training Foundation, 2018, “Youth Transition to Work in Georgia” 18 https://www.etf.europa.eu/en/publications-and-resources/publications/youth-transition-work-georgia GoG, 2019, “Ordinance on the Establishment of LLC Youth Agency” 19 https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/4642829 9 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia provide support for study-to-work transi- tion by creating an enabling environment for start-ups and supporting initiatives, including the allocation of financial re- sources to both commercial and social undertakings.
The Agency has already rolled out a comprehensive 3-year reform package, which includes a grant program for youth organizations, development of youth work as a profession, hobby ed- ucation or out-of-school education sys- tems, formation of youth council with youth SCO representatives, technical assistance and capacity-building for mu- nicipalities.
It is still early to evaluate the Agency’s effectiveness due to the short period of its activity, however, it prepares a solid ground to make a step ahead for more positive changes.

• The Sports and Youth Issues Com- mittee of the Parliament of Georgia (Parliamentary Committee), until very recently, was mainly focused on the is- sues of sports and less on the youth pol- icy.
However, the work of the committee started to gain traction with the establish- ment of the State Youth Policy Monitoring and Development Working Group, which includes representatives of the country’s legislative and executive branches as well as CSOs, experts, international and donor organizations.
Currently, the committee is working on a new Youth Policy Concept for 2020-2030 which puts a strong em- phasis on the economic empowerment of the young people, particularly in terms of countering the unemployment among the youth, decreasing the number of young NEETs, and eliminating disparities in em- ployment opportunities.

tion of the youth policy, the departments or various youth centres are common in local self-governments.
The Law on Local Self-Governance of Georgia and interna- tional agreements mandate municipalities to implement measures for the promotion of youth policies, including employment at the local level20.

Recent studies have confirmed the prevalent narrative about LSG’s negligence in youth policies, as the examples of Tbilisi and Imereti Region show.

The bottom line is that the munici- palities are not taking the youth policy ob- ligations seriously.
The research clearly demonstrated the lack of competencies, low level of autonomy of decision-making authorities, problems of budgeting and support for municipalities21.

Yet, lack of coherence and coordination make it difficult to speak of a comprehensive youth policy.

First and foremost, the state’s employment policy is, to a large degree, supply-oriented, meaning that the emphasis is made on training of the unemployed and matching their qualifications with the require- ments of the existing vacancies.
However, as shown by a labour market analysis, job cre- ation in Georgia is constrained by low-skilled and low-productivity generation of workers.

There is a weak connection between the efforts made by the MoESD to support the formation of high-skilled jobs and MoES to modernize VET and programs carried out by the MoH.
Moreover, the VET should not be viewed as a panacea since there are limits to how far the youth employment policy can go with the vocational education programs due to the structural limitations of the labour market.

• Local Self-Governments (LSGs).

Apart from the national public institutions designated to regulate the implementa- The Youth Agency started off with the verti- cal coordination of youth policies with LSGs as well as non-governmental organizations.
GoG, 2014, “Organic Law of Georgia Local Self-Government Code” 20 https://matsne.gov.ge/en/document/view/2244429 Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2020, “Youth Policy Implementation at the Local Level: Imereti And Tbilisi” 21 http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/georgien/15957.pdf 10 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia Impending introduction of the Qualifications Framework and Rules of Certification of a youth worker shall be viewed as a positive step in the field of non-formal education.
The beginning is reassuring, nevertheless an operable plan behind the vision of the youth economic ecosystem and horizontal cross-sectoral coordination has not been established so far.

Noteworthy, the roles and duties granted to the agency parallel with the ones of ESA, EG and GITA.
Since the agen- cy is mandated to coordinate its action plan among different ministries and public legal entities, it is crucial to present a clear vision on how to overcome the path dependence considering the lack of strong tradition for managing cross-sectoral policies in gener- al.

Furthermore, the existing annual budget allocated to the agency’s disposal seriously limits the extent of youth development op- portunity in the country, especially taking into account the agency’s multifunctional nature.
Currently Republic of Moldova undergoes a deep reform process, adjusting its key pol- icies to the EU standards.

The Association Agreement with the EU, signed in 2014, has set up a new standard as well as new pri- orities for development assistance.
Thus, one of the chapters included in the Single Support Framework for EU support to Mol- dova (2017-2020) include direct reference to development of young generation’s skills, strengthening the coordination between the education and training system and the la- bour market and stimulation of competitive- ness, research and innovation as enablers to economic development, while also targeting social inclusion in education and labour.
A special attention is dedicated to vocational education and training systems (VET) and NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) rate.22 In Moldova, the 2016 Youth Law Nr.

215 defines youth as individuals aged 14 to 35.
CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIONS Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection (MoHLSP) National Social Insurance Agency В В JOBSEEKERS EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES National Employment Agency (NEA) Territorial Subdivisions (TS) В SERVICE PROVIDES Training courses, employers (internships), bank (payment) Programming of the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) – 2017-2020, Single Support Framework for EU support to Moldo- 22 va(2017-2020), https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/sites/near/files/single_support_framework_2017-2020.pdf 11 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia However, over time the term “young peo- ple” was defined differently.
Based on the old Youth Law as of 1999 Nr.

279 the youth represented the category of individuals aged 16 to 30.
The National Bureau of Statistics uses both age groups (of 15 to 24 and of 15 to 29) for its employment statistics, while the National Employment Agency (NEA) defines the youth category for its employment ser- vices as those aged between 16 and 29.23 In the Republic of Moldova, there are two major institutional stakeholders which are responsible for the delivery of labour market programs, as well as several other state and non-state actors involved in providing the core services among which trainings, and payments which are usually outsourced: • • the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Protection (MoHLSP); the Employment Agency (through the Na- tional Employment Agency (NEA), and its 35 Territorial Subdivisions (TS)); • central ministries and national agencies, including the Ministry of Education, Cul- ture and Research, National Social Insur- ance Agency; • civil society organizations.
The legal framework regulating youth and youth employment policies is comprised of several main defining policy documents: • The 2016 Youth Law Nr.

215 – The doc- ument is considerably improved com- pared to its previous version and includes provisions which impose creation of the National Agency for the Development of Youth Programs and Activities under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Re- search.
The Agency was set up only in August 2020, and the lack of political will, financial and human resources and gen- eral understanding of youth policies could be considered some of the reasons for delay.

The main goal of the Agency is to oversee the implementation of youth-re- lated policies and develop proposals of youth programmes and capacity devel- opment of related personnel.
Additionally, the Law introduces the notions of “infor- mal” and “non-formal education”, a posi- tion of a “specialist in youth affairs” and “youth participation structure”.

Of course, the document makes reference to vol- unteering due to the fact that in 2010 a specific Law on Volunteering Nr.

121 was adopted.
121 was adopted.

Even though the new law was considerably modernized and adjust- ed to the best practices of the Council of Europe, one important provision was not taken into account: the financial and goods protection.

The 1999 Youth Law made very clear reference in art.

22 that the state guarantees the protection of the infrastructure intended for working with the youth, and grants preferential con- ditions for their lease and maintenance.
Moreover, it banned the possibility to al- ienate and transmit infrastructural objects belonging to the youth work institutions for purposes other than training, educa- tion and culture.

The new Law doesn’t make any reference to the protection/ se- curing of the infrastructural objects which makes possible the alienation of proper- ties for purposes other than education.

• The Labour Code of the Republic of Mol- dova Nr.
153 as of 2003.24 The Labour Code of the Republic of Moldova defines Youth Transition to Work In Moldova, 23 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330313251_YOUTH_TRANSITION_TO_WORK_IN_MOLDOVA Labour Code of the Republic of Moldova, 24 https://www.legis.md/cautare/getResults?doc_id=122741&lang=ro# 12 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia the “young specialist” as the graduate of the higher education institution, special- ized secondary or professional second- ary education in the first three years after her or his graduation.
Special provisions are foreseen only for individuals under 18 years old, otherwise the Code applies to youth the same provisions as to all oth- er categories.
The present Labour Code regulates the labour conditions for peo- ple under 18 paying specific attention to: medical examinations, working hours (not more than 24 h/per week – 5h/per day to young people between 15 and 16 years old and 35h/per week – 7h/per day to young people between 16 and 18 years old), forbidden activities, dismissal protection.25 The Code provides separately for contracts addressing on-the-job training and continuous training, and professional qualification (art.

215-221).
215-221).

The above-men- tioned articles aren’t designed specifically for youth but could be attributed to them.

Antidiscrimination provisions can also be ob- served, the age criteria being specified.

Due to Covid-19 pandemics adjustments have to be introduced to the current version of the Code, as it does not reflect enough on the remote (working at home).
Stimulus packages In Ukraine, the young people who graduat- ed from the secondary schools, vocational training and higher education institutions, and dismissed from military service, if reg- istered as unemployed receive a minimum social support for unemployment (about 60 EUR/month, which is twice less than the offi- cial approved cost of living) during 180 days, paid by the Social Security Fund.
In 2019 MSP/SEE drafted several programs aimed at promotion of employment in case of restruc- turing of businesses, focused on re-training, and targeting the employment of the IDPs (using the EU state aid rules).

However, these programmes so far have not been in- cluded into the state budget, and there are no drafts regarding similar actions towards youth employment.
Additionally, one of the reasons behind a weak response to Covid-19 economic crisis and employment issues which are connect- ed to it (as well as a limited number of options for youth employment promotion in gener- al) is that the state has not modernized the mechanism of public support for businesses.

In particular, Ukraine still has to develop a coherent approach towards the promotion of economic activities and attracting foreign direct investments.
According to Ernst and Young (EY) research26, “the weight of na- tional stimulus packages and their impact” is a primary factor for decision-making in choosing a particular country for investors.

The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement includes a number of norms regulating the introduction of the EU state aid rules, which could have fostered modernization of such stimulus or development of the new packag- es.
However, the government of Ukraine has been so far quite reluctant in preparing the relevant laws based on the EU norms.

25 Article 253-257 of the Labour Code of the republic of Moldova Ernst and Young, 2020, How Can Europe Reset the Investment Agenda Now to Rebuild its Future?
26 https://assets.ey.com/content/dam/ey-sites/ey-com/en_gl/topics/attractiveness/ey-europe-attractiveness-survey-2020-v3.pdf 13 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia The Law On Employment of Population en- visages compensations of the unified social contribution for employers, which provide the first job for the young people in the following amounts of the universal social contribution (USC) per employed person: 50% in case an individual was employed for 12 months, 100% in case an individual was employed for 24 months.
This particular instrument needs more transparency in terms of how many young people were employed, how many businesses received such compensation, and what are aggregated numbers of com- pensation per region.
From news published by some regional employment service cen- tres27, we can assume that the average an- nual compensation to all employers in some regions (which, together with young people also covers other risk categories) is below 100 000 EUR, which is distributed among 150-250 businesses per region, providing jobs to up to 500 people in total.
Another law, On Promotion of Social Es- tablishment and Development of Youth in Ukraine, envisages two categories of stim- ulus: • a quota for businesses to employ young people (to be adopted by the local au- thorities or local self-governments), • a subsidy (dotation) to create a first job.

As for the quotas, there is still little or no information on how they are adopted and employed.
As for the subsidies, there are no direct expenses in the form of the budget programmes or tax benefits, which imple- ment this legal norm.

In particular, the an- nual breakdown of budget losses due to tax exemptions, submitted to the parliament to- gether with the draft law on the state budget, has no data on specific exemptions targeting the young employees, whereas there are a number of benefits for e.g.

people with dis- abilities.


In terms of budget grants or soft loans, the state budget foresees no such programmes.

In Moldova, the 2018 Law on employment promotion and unemployment insurance Nr.

10528 (which replaced Law no.

102 as of 13.03.2003 on employment and social protection of the job seekers) includes some progress, including implementation of active labour market measures compared to pas- sive ones, as was the case in the previous version of the law.
The new Law amended and systematized the conditions, the pay- ment period, the amount and the basis for calculating the unemployment benefits.

Ac- cording to the Law, an individual can claim the unemployment status starting at the age of 16 until the retirement age.

Article 23 of the Law places the youth (aged 16 – 24) in the category of people in need for additional support in employment.
The Law does not place the youth into a separate category, nevertheless, its provisions cover their ne- cessities as follows: professional counsel- ling; vocational training; qualification, retrain- ing, advanced and specialization courses; on-the-job training, professional internship and job subsidy.
Allocation of subsidies to an employer who will employ a previous- ly unemployed individual from a vulnerable group, including for creation and adaptation of workplaces for persons with disabilities, in an important legal innovation.

Additionally, the new Law provides for on-the-job training for the registered unemployed without a pro- fession, as well as for subsidies to support local initiatives that create new jobs.
Ukrinform, 2019, ‘Service Explained What Exemptions Are Envisaged for Employers’ 27 https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-kyiv/2831899-u-sluzbi-zajnatosti-rozpovili-aki-pilgi-peredbaceni-robotodavcam.html https://denzadnem.com.ua/khmelnychchyna/45821 The 2018 Law regarding employment promotion and unemployment insurance Nr.
105, 28 https://www.legis.md/cautare/getResults?doc_id=112528&lang=ro 14 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia Best practices of CSOs, private sector, public authorities and international assistance The role of partnerships between CSOs, public authorities, and business, with involve- ment of international assistance programs and projects, is indeed the most valuable in- put into promotion of youth employment in all the three countries, given the limited policy space for fiscal and tax stimulus.
Such initiatives, as analysis have shown, fo- cus on the following priorities: • Matching demand and supply it the labour market by promotion of partnerships be- tween business, educational institutions and authorities (both national and local) with CSOs as facilitators of such interac- tion.

Such a format helps universities to better understand the current trends in labour market demand and adjust their curricula and training.
On the other hand, companies take commitments to provide the entry jobs or internships/on-the-job training to the young people.

• Career building advice and professional orientation services, which are provided by employment centres and interested CSOs.

• Development of soft skills, job search and other relevant skills, which help young people to find their first job.
Ukraine There is a number of initiatives, which con- centrate on all three of the above mentioned priorities: Delegation to Ukraine in partnership with major universities in the regions.

Each EU Career Day includes: • Panel discussion with business repre- sentatives and business associations, ac- ademia, local government and media on what skills and knowledge are requested by the labour market and how the educa- tion institutions are meeting this demand, and how the use of the EU standards can help.
• Career fair, where students meet their po- tential employers.

• Series of training sessions on soft skills for the young people.

2.

Ukrainian Youth Pact is a joint initiative of the MYS, CSOs, companies and univer- sities.

Participants cooperate in order to create more job opportunities, on-the-job training and mentorships.

More than 120 companies have now joined the initiative, and about 600 agreements with edu- cational institutions were signed.
Since 2016, companies, which participate in the initiative, provided more than 30 thou- sand jobs to young people.

MYS annual plan is to provide 1,500-2,000 more jobs and involve 20 to 30 more participating institutions into the initiative.

3.

Global Alliance for YOUth29, which of- fers the first job experiences, education- al programmes and support for start- ups.

Launched by Nestle, this initiative embraces more than 20 companies in Ukraine.

1.
1.

EU Career Days, a nation-wide annu- al series of events organised by the EU It covers a number of business initiatives, including those implemented by Life mobile The Global Alliance for YOUth, Who are we?

29 https://www.globalallianceforyouth.org/homepage#whoarewe 15 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia operator, Ukrtelecom, KPMG, Philip Morris, CRH Holding etc.
A number of local initiatives focusing on ca- reer development and soft skills develop- ment.

“21st century skills” festival, organised in the Chernihiv region, helps the young peo- ple to choose their profession.
The event has different locations, where participants in teams can test and develop their skills, in- cluding learning and innovative skills; crea- tivity; critical thinking and problem solving; communicative and teamwork skills; working with information, media and computer skills; informational and media literacy.
Various EU-funded programmes and pro- jects are active in youth employment area: EU4Skills30 (EUR 58 million, 2019-2023) is a programme to support the reform of vo- cational education and training in Ukraine, supported by the EU and its member states (Germany, Finland, Poland and Estonia).
The Programme aims at modernising vocation- al education and training institutions, pur- chasing equipment, establishing Centers of Excellence, training school managers and teachers in seven pilot regions: Chernivtsi, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Rivne, Vinnytsia and Zaporizhzhia.
International Labour Organisation (ILO) projects, funded by the EU: • Entrepreneurship Training for Youth in Ukraine31 (2020): aims to create more and better jobs targeting youth with low educational attainment and/or limited work experience.

The young people will receive training in entrepreneurship to equip them with the skills and up-to-date knowledge to start their own businesses.
The project will also strengthen the role of the State Employment Service (SES) of Ukraine and Technical and Vocational Education and Training schools as main facilitators of the administrators of the training • Towards safe, healthy and declared work in Ukraine (2017-2022)32: The long-term objective of the project funded by the European Union is that male and female workers in Ukraine enjoy safe, healthy and declared work.
The expected short-term impact is an improved compli- ance of Ukraine with the key international and European standards on occupational safety and health (OSH) and labour rela- tions.

The two outcomes to be achieved are (1) legal framework on OSH is brought closer to the international labour stand- ards and (2) systems and procedures for a roll out of labour inspection services are in place.
• Inclusive labour markets for job crea- tion in Ukraine (2017-2022)33: The pro- gram will modernize the services of the Ukrainian public employment services enabling them to offer more effective and inclusive active labour market policies.

A strong skills component aims at closing the skills mismatch by better aligning the skills of new labour market entrants with the demand from the private sector.
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, 2019, EU Programme «EU4Skills» Supports Ukraine in Reforming System of Vocational 30 Education and Training https://mon.gov.ua/eng/news/eu-programme-eu4skills-supports-ukraine-reforming-system-vocational-education-and-training ILO, Entrepreneurship Training for Youth in Ukraine, 31 https://www.ilo.org/budapest/what-we-do/projects/WCMS_736371/lang--en/index.htm ILO, Towards Safe, Healthy and Declared Work in Ukraine 32 https://www.ilo.org/budapest/what-we-do/projects/declared-work-ukraine/lang--en/index.htm ILO, Inclusive Labour Markets for Job Creation in Ukraine 33 https://www.ilo.org/budapest/what-we-do/projects/WCMS_617840/lang--en/index.htm 16 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia program also supports social dialogue mechanisms to solve critical issues such as informal employment, wages, or gen- der discrimination.
EU member-states funded (bilateral) pro- jects: • Fit for Partnership with Germany – pro- motes managerial competencies, pro- vides learning modules in Ukraine and internships in Germany; • Development of vocational education op- portunities in the western regions by Ed- ucation Center of Bavaria Economy (Bil- dungswerk der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (bbw) gGmbH); • Inclusive Labour Market for Job Creation in Ukraine, implemented by the Danish (DANEP) Neighbourhood Programme together with the MSP, aims to promote regulation of the labour market, trilateral partnership, social dialogue and sustain- able entrepreneurship.
Georgia In Georgia, there are over 100 CSOs spe- cializing in youth policy, however only few of them focus on the issue of the economic empowerment of the youth.

In a majority of cases, the youth topic is a cross-cutting pri- ority for CSO programs.

The National Council of Youth Organizations of Georgia (NCYOG) is a non-governmen- tal umbrella organization, uniting 45 children and youth organizations all over the country.
The organizations aim to create a favourable environment and conditions for the develop- ment and cooperation of non-governmental youth organizations, leading to the increase of youth’s participation and social activity.

The organization is not, however, actively engaged in policy-making and advocacy of youth-related issues.

The policy dialogue among the CSOs and the decision makers was more active in the Sports and Youth Issues Committee of the Parliament of Georgia.
A special work- ing group on youth policy in the Committee includes around 60 organizations that are actively engaged in promoting legislative changes and advocating different initiatives.

For example, the Committee together with the partner CSOs are working on the leg- islative initiatives which aim to develop the “Single Window” principle to ensure more effective cooperation among the employers and the employees, to create a more fair and result-oriented work environment for the volunteers.
The CSOs enjoyed a dynamic consultation process with the Committee members while developing the Youth Policy Concept for 2020-2030.

In Georgia, CSOs are mainly empowered by international donors and partner countries, which gives them an opportunity to provide services to young people, exercise policy advocacy, and develop interpersonal skills needed for employment and entrepreneur- ship.
In the big cities CSOs are more active, and a significant number of young people spend their spare time attending the training sessions, volunteering, and learning voca- tional skills.

Moreover, in some municipali- ties, CSOs provide technical assistance and capacity-building to local governments in the implementation of youth policies.

Important- ly, the CSOs provide the international assis- tance organizations, such as embassies or international foundations, with insight into the local context.
Persisting key challenges that are character- istic of the Georgian civil society sector and impede the development of the youth field include the following: • Heavy reliance on foreign funding and acute inadequacy of local financial sup- 17 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia port make the work of CSOs less sustain- able.

It is especially true for small-scale grassroots organizations operating be- yond the capital city.
Alternative financing sources may come from the state budget or corporate donations; however, due to the absence of respective legislation, these opportunities are very limited; • Despite the availability of several plat- forms for policy dialogue, the cooperation between CSOs, as CSO-state cooper- ation initiatives, are not systematic and sustainable.
Lack of collaboration and coordination interferes with the achieve- ment for more efficient and sustainable results; • The majority of CSOs do not engage in strategic planning due to the lack of the incentives, and necessary resources, competencies.
Also, a lack of watchdog activities, constant monitoring, and eval- uation of the youth policy results in the poor accountability and effectiveness of the youth policy; • The majority of Georgian CSOs failed to establish a membership-based system to build close ties with the general public, including the youth groups34.
A cross-country study conducted by the World Bank shows that Georgian employers named job-related competencies to be the most deficient, as well as crucially important, along with problem-solving skills and open- ness to experience for typical white-collar jobs.

Despite the relative discontent with the employment readiness of the young people, only 7% of firms provided training for their white-collar workers, with the same indica- tor being much lower for blue-collar workers.
Moreover, the percentage of firms cooperat- ing with educational and training institutions is rather small in Georgia35.

On the whole, over the last 12 years the recognition of corporate social responsibil- ity has been gradually increasing, but the private sector in Georgia lacks incentives and awareness on the benefits of investing in training and development of its own per- sonnel, and the young people are no ex- ception to that.
Representatives from MoES highlighted the lack of skills on behalf of the private sector needed to engage with VET institutions, whether it is curriculum develop- ment or work-based learning.

Rather as an exception than a rule, a handful of private companies have been active in piloting in- novative youth-aimed initiatives, producing good practices such as skill-building, start- up funding, digital learning platforms or youth-led projects.
Georgia has experienced important support from international organizations in the area of youth development in terms of capaci- ty-building, technical assistance, funding and knowledge sharing.

The assistance has laid a foundation to civil society organizations to deliver services, which otherwise would not have been available, enhanced public institutions and propelled them by providing resources for the implementation of complex reforms.
In Georgia, the EU has been the largest pro- vider of international assistance in different areas for youth development.
The compre- hensive support allocated to Georgia by the Head of EU Delegation and Heads of EU Member State Embassies in Georgia, 2018, “EU Roadmap For Engagement With Civil Society 34 in Georgia” https://csogeorgia.org/storage/app/uploads/public/5cd/dc3/6b3/5cddc36b36e40129876779.pdf 35 World Bank Group, 2015, “Skills Gaps and the Path to Successful Skills Development: Emerging Findings from Skills Measurement Surveys in Armenia, Georgia, FYR Macedonia, and Ukraine” http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/205051468038032990/pdf/Skills-gaps-and-the-path-to-successful-skills-development-Final.pdf 18 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia EU aims at approximating the country to the relevant EU policies and practices envi- sioned by the Association Agreement.
The EU has also invested in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies led by the Ministry of Education, MOH, MoESD, and services provided by CSOs in the field of employment, with the focus on young people.

In particular, the EU has been promoting the modernization of the education and training systems as well as the quality of higher education, VET and non-formal education areas, including la- bour and economic policies.
A recent assis- tance in the area of youth development by Youth and Education Package is a complex scheme embracing the areas of labour and education policies.

Together with the EU, there are other well-es- tablished donors and programs in Georgia.

UN agencies, GIZ, Millennium Challenge Compact (MCC) by the US, Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation, The World Bank, Friedrich Ebert Foundation, DANI- DA are especially notable.
To what extent the benefits of the international assistance reach the intended final beneficiaries largely depends on the effectiveness of GoG’s pol- icies.

After all, it is up to the leadership of the country to make the best use of the for- eign assistance, to assimilate western mod- els and best practices into the peculiarity of the Georgian context.
However, reinforced financial support in cases of superficial compliance with the declared policies may conceal detrimental rent seeking behaviour and profiteering.

The absence of an effective donor coordination mechanism, tailor-made actions and data collection in the youth field make it difficult to judge the degree to which the donors leverage result-based policy im- plementation devoid of political agenda.
Moldova In the Republic of Moldova there are sever- al initiatives that can be identified at national level, and being implemented both by central and local governments with the support of the international community.

Additionally, as part of the commitments taken under the AA agreement specific budgetary programs tar- get the youth employment.
These initiatives involve both adjusting the legal framework and practical assistance, thus one could ob- serve education and training programs, as well as support for employment and social participation.

• Currently, the Ministry of Education Cul- ture and Research oversees the pro- gramme on development of Youth Centers with the support of UNFPA.
In December 2017, The Ministry and the UNFPA signed a co-financing agreement for the development of youth services at the local level for a five-year period (2017-2022).

The national priorities for the youth sector development outlined in the strategic documents, such as the Na- tional Youth Strategy 2020, the Associa- tion Agreement with the European Union 2017-2019, the Government Action Pro- gram of the Republic of Moldova 2016- 2018, constitute the basis for the partner- ship.
Also, in 2017 a Joint Fund36 worth about USD 1.5 million was set up by the two stakeholders.

In 2018, the Swiss Gov- ernment joined the Fund with an addition- al financial contribution of USD 1 million.
The Joint Fund aims to increase the level of civic participation and involvement of young people in local communities devel- opment of the network of Youth Centers in the country and partnerships created UNFPA Moldova, Joint Fund for the Development of Youth Centers and Strengthening Participation and Civic Engagement among Young 36 people in the Republic of Moldova for 2017 -2022.
Project’s fact sheet, https://moldova.unfpa.org/en/publications/joint-fund-development-youth-centers-and-strengthening-participation-and-civic 19 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia between the School, Youth Center and other stakeholders/local actors being a priority action.

Additionally, based on an open call of proposals the Ministry is also providing funding for youth initiatives and projects and youth at district and munic- ipal level.
Currently, 44 youth centres in districts and rural areas have benefited from support.

• UPSHIFT Moldova is a social innovation program for young people aged 15 to 24, with a specific focus on the most margin- alized and vulnerable youth, especially the NEETs.

The aim of the programme is to develop life skills needed to identify and solve social problems, using both learn- ing elements and the opportunity to work together in a supportive environment.
UPSHIFT Moldova is a program imple- mented by TEKEDU with the support of UNICEF Moldova, and was launched in 2019 in Singerei district.

Six teams ob- tained funding and support for the imple- mentation of their ideas in 2019.

In 2020 nine teams of adolescents received small grants from UNICEF and the Organisa- tion for small and medium enterprises sector development (ODIMM).
• In October 2018 a Governmental deci- sion was issued for the approval of the “START for Youth Program: a sus- tainable business at home”.

The de- cision was a result of the 2016 Law on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) nr.

179 and the AA provisions on supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the youth.

The Organisation for small and medium enterprises sector devel- opment,in coordination with the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, was ap- pointed as the implementing agency.
The programme offers two types of support: a “business voucher” – a 10,000 Lei cer- tificate for consultancy and training, and up to 180,000 Lei for financing an invest- ment project.

It is open for young people between 18 and 35 from both rural and urban areas.

At present, there are 128 investment project support contracts signed, and 95 businesses created in ru- ral areas.
International organizations active in Moldova in the field of youth employment policy: • In 2017-2019 the International Labour Organization has implemented the Tech- nical support on employment poli- cies for youth, women and migrants programme in Moldova.

The project aimed to improve employment policies with particular attention to females and young people, with a budget of 998,560 USD.
The implementation of the National Employment Policy, the design and im- plementation of the Territorial/Local Em- ployment Pacts and the implementation of the recommendations coming from the functional audit of the Public Employ- ment Service represented the focus of the intervention.
The approach of the in- tervention was based on the involvement and participation of the job-seekers and employers in implementing the measures to promote more and better jobs, and for tackling inequalities in the labour mar- ket37.

The Local Employment Part- nership (LEP), implemented by ILO, reached out to 600 young NEETs in the Cahul region, selected as a pilot region due to complex labour market challeng- es that it faces.
282 young NEETs are already registered as unemployed to benefit from active labour market meas- ures, which is a great achievement taking 37 Technical support on employment policies for youth, women and migrants in Moldova, https://www.ilo.org/budapest/countries-covered/moldova/WCMS_630209/lang--en/index.htm 20 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia into account that economic inactivity is a major challenge in Moldova.
To date, this partnership created 135 jobs, 20 start- ups and 2 cooperatives.

Additional small businesses and jobs are in the pipeline in this rural region, where the rate of in- active youth is the highest in Moldova (25%).

The Local Employment Partner- ship engages public and private partners trying to find common solutions for labour market challenges in their community.
In the case of Cahul, 20 partners, including institutions, micro-finance educational banks, the employment service, and the local enterprises came on board.38 • The German Agency for International Co- operation (GIZ) Moldova, within the Ger- man cooperation framework, has imple- mented the project ”Structural Reform in Vocational Education and Training (VET)”.
The framework of the project supported the set-up of a working group, composed of representatives from the line ministries, business associations, individual com- panies and technical vocational training • providers, with the aim of negotiating and elaborating the regulation on organ- ization and conduct of Dual Vocational Education and Training in Moldova.

The final document was approved by a Gov- ernment decision, on 11 January 2018.
One of the novelties of the document is that for the first time it introduces the term of “apprenticeship salary” as remunera- tion to those who go through on-the-job training within acompany.39 According to the Donor Committee for Dual Voca- tional Education and Training website, during the school year 2017-2018, about 50 companies initiated implementation of dual programmes in collaboration with about 20 technical vocational education providers, more than 600 trainees cur- rently benefiting from these programmes.
Other donors have also pursued voca- tional education and training activities in the Republic of Moldova, among them the Austrian Development Agency (Youth Employment and Qualification)40 and LED41.
ILO Local Employment Partnership creates new jobs for youth in Southern Moldova, 05 March, 2020, 38 https://www.ilo.org/budapest/whats-new/WCMS_737659/lang--en/index.htm Moldova: New Regulation on Organization and Conduct of dual Vocational Education and Training (VET) 39 https://www.dcdualvet.org/en/moldova-new-regulation-on-organization-and-conduct-of-dual-vocational-education-and-training-vet/ 40 https://www.dcdualvet.org/en/portfolio-items/project-example-ada-moldova/ 41 https://www.dcdualvet.org/en/portfolio-items/project-example-led-moldau/ 21 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia Country Conclusions Georgia Over the last decades, Georgia has made considerable progress in terms of the youth policy modernization and development.
De- spite significant achievements, the country is still in a transition stage and faces many challenges to create more benefits and wel- fare for the young people, as well as the whole society.

Due to the structure of the Georgian economy, the employment oppor- tunities available in the country are at vari- ance with salary and career growth expec- tations of the young people.
When weighing the opportunity cost of taking a blue-collar job in the country against emigrating to do the same type of work for better remunera- tion, young people’s choice tilts toward the latter.

No wonder that youths are the ones who emigrate most frequently.

The govern- ment policies have been aiming at develop- ing SMEs, and investing in human capital as a measure to address the shortcomings of the economy.
Despite the presence of fund- ing mechanisms to start one’s own business, only a small fraction of young people avails those opportunities.

Therefore, the empha- sis should be made on creating decent jobs for the young people in productive sectors of the economy while ensuring a social protec- tion system.

The existing gap between the qualification provided by schooling and higher education, and the requirements posed by employers, remains a serious issue.
Overall, the labour policies have mostly been focused on bridg- ing the gap between the available vacancies and a workforce supply.

The labour regula- tions and programs, carried out by the gov- ernment, highlight the need of young people for specialized programs, training and fund- ing.

The efforts have been made to shape youth employment outcomes through differ- ent public employment services and subsi- dies.
In its endeavour to establish stronger ties between school and work, the MoES has been making incremental steps towards modernizing, promoting the VET systems and work-based learning, while creating partnerships with the private sector.

None- theless, the impact of these policies has been minuscule and can be regarded as be- ing at a very early stage of development.
International agreements signed by Geor- gia and reverberated through the national strategies, however did not lead to effective policy action, on the instance of the Na- tional Youth Policy 2014.

The experience with the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life shows that the ratified interna- tional agreements may stay dormant unless backed by a financial support.
Nevertheless, the financial opportunities presented by the EU for the AA implementation do not guar- antee the efficient policy implementation.

Influencing youth transition requires an inte- grated approach involving different levels of government and various sectors.

Previous efforts for youth policy-making in Georgia mostly failed to accommodate the complex- ity of cooperation and were largely limited to stand-alone initiatives.
At the local level, the municipalities, in spite of being mandated to develop and implement local youth policies, have not demonstrated a strong commit- ment in this direction.

The abundance of international support available for Georgia makes the work of civil society organizations more effective.
How- ever, only a few large CSOs work in the area of youth economic empowerment, while the lack of local resources thwarts the sustaina- 22 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia bility of small organizations.

On the positive note, there are signs that youth unemploy- ment issue is coming increasingly to the fore of policy.
The Youth Agency has recently introduced platforms for youth and CSO engagement as well as funding schemes giving the priority to regional organizations.

Furthermore, a growing number of large pri- vate companies and business associations in Georgia have been mainstreaming inno- vative corporate-social responsibility (CSR) projects in the field of youth empowerment as well as work-based learning.
Looking at a bigger picture, Georgia is at the inception stage of developing policies towards a quality youth policy.

In the mean- time, the state of demographic transition and high rate of youth unemployment indicates the urgency for the governmental action.
Considering acuteness of the youth unem- ployment issue and the rigidity of the social and economic mobility, more shall be done in order to develop coherent youth-oriented policies, engage CSOs in the policy-making process, bridging the knowledge gap, fixing the coordination issue, promoting entrepre- neurship and introducing relevant regula- tions.
Moldova The developing policy framework related to the young people as a segment of the gen- eral population is a sign of the increasing at- tention, which is partly due to the enhance- ment of the Moldovan and the EU relations.

Youth employment became a relevant part of the reconceptualizing of the employment policies in Moldova, the focus from passive to active labour market measures bringing more advantages to Moldovan young peo- ple.
Identifying NEETs as a priority category for support represents a progress in the re- form processes tackling youth and employ- ment policies.

Despite this, the Republic of Moldova faces a series of problems linked to the socio-eco- nomic development of the country, directly impacting the young people’s life.

The mas- sive migration processes, increased unem- ployment, high level of corruption, education shortages and institutional deficiencies be- ing among the key factors.
The development of secondary legislation still remains to be a priority for the full imple- mentation of the primary legislation regulat- ing employment.

Assigning budgetary funds according to policy priorities and training of professionals represent 2 additional condi- tions for successful fulfilment of the reform processes.

Ukraine Ukrainian case demonstrates a difference between a normative dimension of youth employment (legislation, strategic and policy documents) and its actual implementation.
Despite this policy area being cherished by legislation as a kind of priority, stakeholders in civil society and in the government share the consensus that youth employment policy is not a special, self-sufficient policy area.

In fact, it is being addressed within the gener- al framework of the employment policy, and partially within the framework of the youth support activities.

Numerous legal norms on support of youth employment are not translated into mean- ingful policy instruments.
During Covid-19 related limitations, Ukrainian business and society observed a deep split between the EU approach to sustain jobs and businesses and the national reality, when very few sup- port schemes were provided to Ukrainian companies and employees.

Institutional re- forms, such as transfer of powers from one ministry for another in terms of employment policy has yet to prove its effectiveness.
23 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia Therefore, the gap between the normative reality and the implementation practice is being fulfilled by the actions of civil society, business, international projects and educa- tional institutions.

These actions are focused on a dialogue among stakeholders to match the demand and supply in the market, to provide young people with career advice, first job or on-the-job training, and develop their soft skills.
These initiatives are mostly informal, but in some cases they are being formally supported by the authorities.

Such initiatives provide an example of what can become a basis for a future youth employ- ment policy, if supplemented with more sys- temic professional orientation activities and meaningful schemes of public support to business.

Unlike Georgia and Moldova, Ukraine did not undergo an institutional reform in the sphere of youth policy (e.g.

by setting up a special agency).


Some changes in the state employment policy mechanism (e.g.

trans- fer of powers from one ministry to another) has not brought any meaningful results yet.

Therefore, the patchwork of initiatives by CSOs, business sector projects, the univer- sity programs and the international projects will continue to jointly fulfil the gap and pro- vide services and support for youth employ- ment.
24 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia Country Recommendations Georgia • “Mainstreaming” cross-sector initia- tives.

A holistic approach is a precondi- tion to successful youth policy since no single entity is capable of fully providing youth services at all levels.

Many sectors need to work together when devising policies to influence outcomes.
There- fore, it is essential to design a model for better coordination with the clear lines of accountability that are going to work for Georgia.

The GoG’s Inter-Agency Coor- dination Council could be reactivated and empowered with issue-specific working groups.

Sector ministries could assume responsibility for the bulk of policies and allocate needed human and financial re- sources that affect youth in their respec- tive domain.

• Tailoring services to the needs of young people.


Beyond the enhance- ment of the current public services wheth- er it is education, employment guidance or funding schemes, more committed efforts are needed in terms of adapting the existing services to the needs of the young people of different age categories.

Young people as a heterogeneous group require distinct approaches regardless of the nature of the service.
In this regard, using youth-friendly language and means of media to communicate the value of youth-targeted programs and projects is of crucial importance.

• Establishing the National Frame- work.

A well-articulated set of national objectives for youth, developed in col- laboration with the relevant ministries and stakeholders is vital in managing the coordination.

Operationalizing goals, ob- jectives and setting quality indicators will enable monitoring and evaluation of im- plementation.
• Valorise, prioritize and provide cen- tral governmental backing.

Subordi- nating the Youth Agency to the direct su- pervision of the prime minister sends an important message towards valorisation of the youth policy in Georgia.

This should enable the agency to break through bu- reaucratic logjams at all levels of govern- ance.

This trend should be reinforced to obtain increased funding and put the agency in a central position of youth pol- icy coordination among other relevant ministries.
• Elaborating a youth employment strategy.

Develop a comprehensive youth employment strategy and respec- tive action plan tailored to the needs of all groups of the Georgian youth.

This strategy should be linked to the general economic development strategy and re- flected in the broader youth policy frame- work.

Whether it is youth policy or youth employment policy it is important to have them both integrated in planning the na- tional policy.
For instance, SME Devel- opment Strategy or National Strategy for Labour and Employment Policy of Geor- gia could feature the issues and an action plan related to young people.

• Make the knowledge economy a pri- ority.

The development of human capi- tal in the country should prioritize youths when investing in the promotion of SME and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industries.
However, human capital development should be re- inforced by establishing strong bonds and linkages between academia and the pri- vate sector.

Therefore, more investments are needed in the research and develop- ment (R&D) and science development in the country.
Georgian young people with technical backgrounds and foreign uni- 25 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia versity degrees should be empowered and encouraged to pursue their practices to contribute to the development of the country.

• Enhance the local self-governments.

Local self-governments should be em- powered to take leadership and increase effectiveness on implementing youth pol- icies at the municipal level.
They should have to take more efforts on capacity building of the local staff that works on youth policy and increase the annual budget to spend on youth and high-qual- ity programs.

• Empower Public Private Partnership.

Introduce performance-based incentives by contracting out active labour market policy services to CSOs and companies.

There are a few organizations in Geor- gia that are showing promising results in terms of employment services and could benefit from such policies.
As the experi- ence of countries like the UK and Austral- ia demonstrates, a performance-based payment system is the most cost-effec- tive solution.

• Genuinely open institutions for young people.

Despite the commit- ments made by GoG to implement the Open Government Partnership and make public institutions more open, much re- mains to be done in this direction.
Capac- ity building, institutional stability and polit- ical will are necessary to not only ensure proactive provision of information by pub- lic organizations but to provide workable platforms for consultations, feedback, and cooperation with youth.

• Enhance the cooperation with CSOs.


Creating effective coordination mecha- nisms and ensuring more systematic and sustainable policy dialogue among state institutions and CSOs will significantly contribute to more efficient and result-ori- ented youth policy development.

• Develop the capacity for the policy dialogue and watchdog activities.

CSOs should enhance their capacities for more effective policy dialogue and ad- vocacy.
They should be empowered with the opportunities for permanent moni- toring and evaluation of the youth policy strategies and ensure more accountabil- ity and transparency of the state institu- tions.

• International Donors.

In order to in- crease effectiveness of the support by international donors, it is important to car- ry out a comprehensive assessment of how current assistance strategies serve young people and what are the lessons learned.
They should have to enhance coordination across sectors with the engagement of the state and non-state actors to ensure a more tailor-made and needs-based approach.

The international donors should advance evaluation of the programs and policies carried out by their beneficiaries.

Moldova • The primary legislation should be enforced by a well-designed second- ary legislation.
Regardless of the fact that recently both youth and employment sectors have developed or updated the legal framework according to European standards, the lack of secondary legisla- tion providing for the full implementation of the laws is hindering the potential ef- fect of the reform processes.

• Youth as a specific category in em- ployment policies should be consid- ered.
Even though young people are de- scribed as a specific category in policies tackling employment, the provisions refer mostly to age limits imposed for different activities and not necessarily address specific passive and active labour market measures.

26 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia • Better observe the migration waves and offer social assistance to young people coming from families with parents being the working migrants.
Increased social and psychological sup- port should be offered to young people coming from families with parents work- ing abroad due to their specific family conditions which lead to shortages relat- ed to social inclusion, school drop-out or low educational performance, incapacity to take career decisions.

• the pro- Independent audit of grammes designed to support youth policies.

The political factor seems to play an important role in shaping the youth programmes in Moldova.
Thus, it is immi- nent to have transparent and independent audit of the governmental programmes in order to ensure the equal participation, fairness of the decision-making process and full implementation/sustainability of the selected projects or potential financial support.

• Strive for compliance of the donors’ agenda to national needs.
An en- hanced coordination of the national insti- tutions policy framework with the donors’ priority agenda for development could pave the way for a more constructive and efficient implementation of the reform agenda.

• Design efficient inter-institutional communication mechanisms.
A stra- tegic communication action plan should be designed in order to improve the con- nection among stakeholders: central au- thorities and local authorities, central au- thorities/local authorities and the donors’ community, central authorities/local au- thorities and civil society/business com- munity, regular reunion of stakeholders.
Ukraine • Legislation should be renewed to make youth employment policy a self-sufficient area, to move from declarative norms to modern and effective mechanisms of for- mation, implementation and monitoring of the youth employment policy.

This entails a comprehensive redesign of the policy it- self, including defining the core questions: what is the youth employment policy in the context of other policies; what are its objectives; what are the responsible institutions and their functions.
The rele- vant ideas and proposals shall serve as a basis for a framework policy document in the field of youth employment policy.

Policy priorities can be based on interre- lated components of youth employment promotion, including professional orien- tation, analyzing the market demand, update of the curricula, development of skills and knowledge, support for creation of the entry jobs, on-the-job training and start ups.
These priorities can serve as a blueprint for national and local level pol- icymaking.

Local authorities, in particu- lar, should have objectives defined in the context of regional policy mechanisms, which allow promoting such services by the national government or local funded projects.

• Anti-crisis response mechanisms must be developed at all levels of gov- ernment, in terms of providing support to secure jobs and prevention of business- es shutdown.
The EU experience and EU norms in public support, in state aid to undertakings must be used for that.

More opportunities shall be created in micro grant support for start-ups, SMEs, social entrepreneurship and creative industries.

• Labour market forecast (for 3-5 years ahead) shall be introduced with a focus on professions and skills demanded from the young people.

Current informal initia- tives involving business, universities and CSOs can provide some background for that.
Professional orientation must start in 27 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia secondary school.

Professional and ca- reer advice must be based on such mar- ket forecasts.

• At the regional and local level, youth employment objectives should be linked with the economic development ob- jectives, and the LSGs (hromadas) shall have access to budget resources to achieve such objectives.
More public support opportunities shall be created for startups, social entrepreneurship and SMEs, as these can provide more jobs for the young people.

For that, the key stake- holders could rely on the relevant Euro- pean practices and standards.

• Support to dual education (combining work and studies), foremost in the voca- tional education sphere.
28 Youth Employment Solutions: The Impact by Civil Society in Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia The project benefits from support through the EaP Civil Society Forum Re-granting Scheme (FSTP) and is funded by the European Union as part of its support to civil society in the region.

Within its Re-granting Scheme, the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum (EaP CSF) sup- ports projects of its members that contribute to achieving the mission and objectives of the Fo- rum.
Grants are available for CSOs from the Eastern Partnership and EU countries.

Key areas of support are democracy and human rights, economic integration, environment and energy, contacts between people, social and labour policies Open Society Foundation, NGO 12 Sagaydachnogo str., office 221, Kyiv, Ukraine 04070 (044) 425 77 09 info@osf.org.ua www.osf.org.ua