Youth Policy and Youth Work in EuroMediterranean Area

The issue of living conditions for young people in Europe and in the MENA-region has been on the agenda of the Euro-Med Youth programme for many years. SALTO-YOUTH EuroMed and RCBS are working since many years to train youth leaders and to support researches that helps in better understand the reality of youth and youth policy. Preparing this conference there was with the Italian National Agency a shared agreement to understand ‘youth’ also as a code for the future of societies. Effective youth policies have to take into account the reality of youth and the challenges that young people have to face nowadays. There is therefore a need for a comprehensive analysis of the youth situation in the Euro-Med region to provide policy-makers with updated, reliable information. This entails the active involvement of all stakeholders – young people, policy-makers, researchers, NGOs, international and regional organisations. Research on youth cannot be dissociated from the living reality of young people. Hence, the need to engage youth researchers, representatives from civil society and representatives from governmental institutions involved in youth policy development in a structured dialogue. This conference on Youth Policy and Youth Work in EuroMediterranean wants to be an opportunity to focus on the research dimension, promote dialogue and the exchange of knowledge among researchers, NGOs and institutions in order to further develop research cooperation and to mainstream youth in research and promoting new projects. Aims of the conference This conference aims at looking into the particular the results of researches done in some Arab countries about youth work in order to develop a process of exchange, mutual cooperation and joint actions between the fields of youth research, youth work and youth policy development in the broader Euro-Med context. Objectives • To learn about the results of researches done in Tunisia, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and Israel and to share and compare with researches done in Europe; • To promote possibilities for closer interaction between youth policy, youth research and youth work within the Euro-Med; • To identify priorities and proposals for further development of youth policy ; • To strengthen the process of Euro-Med cooperation in the youth policy field; • To promote a stronger involvement of the civil society in the youth field; • To provide opportunities for new partnerships to develop new projects. Methodology and programme This conference is designed as a mutual learning situation, where participants can share, compare and learn from each other’s experiences. The experiences and realities of participants, as youth researchers, youth workers and governmental representatives, will therefore be the starting point of the programme and the core of the learning process. Inputs from experts from both Europe and Mediterranean region will provide a theoretical framework for the main topics of the seminar, which will be at the core of working groups’ discussions. The programme of the seminar will include: • A review of the status of youth research on both sides of the Mediterranean; • An introduction to the role of youth research in youth policy development and implementation; • An introduction to the institutional context for cooperation in the Euro-Med region; • Opportunities to share experiences and identify limits and challenges in the field of youth in the Euro-Med region; • An exchange of views on the opportunities to develop common pilot research projects or other forms of joint action in the fields of youth policy and youth work.