How to avoid losing the younger generation

The latest research of the World Health Organization (WTO) indicates that young Ukrainians rank first in the world in terms of alcohol consumption. The statistics of Ukraine’s Ministry of Health (MOZ) point to more than 20,000 drug addicts in the country, and juveniles commit 25,000 crimes every year. In addition, almost every 100th child is raised without parental care. According to the State Institute for the Development of the Family and Youth, 35 percent of Ukrainian children spend their leisure time watching television and playing computer games instead of attending hobby groups or sports clubs. Five percent of young Ukrainians are addicted to computer games and almost all children suffer from health problems.

When will the state begin taking an interest in this situation? Every year Ukrainian officials postpone the adoption of the National Youth Policy Doctrine (the subject was first raised in 2005), citing the unstable political situation. Experts believe that this important program must be adopted immediately because it can serve as the basis of a national youth support program for 2009-14.

Apart from the above-mentioned youth-related problems, the program must envisage measures aimed at combating youth poverty, providing jobs for young people, homes for young families, and encouraging youth to adopt a healthy lifestyle. According to this doctrine, in addition to the solutions to these problems, young Ukrainians must enjoy European living standards in terms of health care, education, culture, job opportunities, and a civil society (international student exchange programs, studies of the world’s cultural heritage, etc.). Below, The Day’s experts comment on the need to adopt the National Youth Policy Doctrine.

Valerii HOLOVANKO, senior research associate at the Institute of Economics and Prognostication at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NAN):

The national youth support program for 2004-08 expires this year. No other program has been adopted yet. In this sense, the doctrine is an important document, although it has nothing new for the national program because the national youth policy guidelines are laid down in other documents. However, its final adoption may play a major role in the development of Ukraine’s youth policy.

Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new youth support program by July 2008, when the next year’s budget will start being drafted — and this program must embrace the next couple of years. The National Youth Policy Doctrine could be used as the basis because these two projects are similar in many respects. The only difference between them is the fact that the doctrine envisages favorable conditions in which to develop the younger generation, while the government one contains specific measures aimed at helping young people. This approach can win us time, considering that a concept has to be formulated before adopting a youth support program. We don’t have one, so the National Doctrine is extremely relevant under the circumstances. If we ignore this fact, our young people may end up having no development programs whatsoever.

I personally believe there is no ill will on the part of the Verkhovna Rada, the Cabinet of Ministers, or President Yushchenko in delaying the adoption of this doctrine. The constant personnel shuffles in the leading government bodies and the changing composition of the Verkhovna Rada and other institutions somehow or other serve to slow down the process of adopting the National Doctrine. Incidentally, the representatives of the UN Development Program recommend that all countries adopt mandatory national youth support programs because this shows how democratic a government is and what prospects it sets for itself. Most importantly, such programs reveal governments’ views on youth development.

Lidia SMOLA, director of the State Institute for the Development of the Family and Youth:

There are a number of documents in Ukraine that determine and regulate the development of the state youth policy, which were included in the National Doctrine. One of the first documents that determined the basic principles of the youth policy was adopted in 1992: the Declaration of the General Principles of the National Youth Policy of Ukraine. Our society has undergone substantial changes since then. We need new documents that can meet our current needs. As it is, the draft National Youth Policy Doctrine serves to represent the development of Ukraine’s youth policy in all spheres of life and helps step up young people’s involvement in the social process. However, there is a lot that depends on political events in the country. In 2005 the creation of this doctrine was initiated by Yurii Pavlenko, Minister for the Family, Youth, and Sports. He planned this doctrine to reflect the problems and tasks relating to the creation of an environment in which our young people could adequately evolve. In order for it not to remain merely declarative but embrace all aspects of the youth policy, it was forwarded for discussion to the regional level. The ministry’s leadership was replaced again recently, so the working group had to start working on the doctrine all over again. Right now, the Cabinet of Ministers has resolved that one of the government’s top priorities is to develop the National Youth Policy Doctrine. Work on the draft of this document continues.

The issues raised by the National Doctrine are very important and topical, and they include measures to step up young people’s involvement in public life. Our young people must have opportunities to improve their lives materially and spiritually. Young people must be directly involved in these processes. These kinds of young people may eventually come to the helm in Ukraine. Considering that the National Doctrine contains chapters entitled “Free Choice” and “Participation in the Decision-making Process,” it is possible to assume that this doctrine will serve as the basis of the youth support program for 2009-15. As regards the timeframe of the final approval of the National Youth Policy Doctrine, it will also depend on how actively Ukraine’s youth organizations will take part in its creation. Their participation will make it considerably easier to encourage young Ukrainians to take part in making socially important decisions and creating the groundwork for the full-fledged development of young people in Ukraine.

Oleh DEMKIV, research associate at the Institute of Sociology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine:

The National Youth Policy Doctrine is a good idea, but according to personal experience (I often talk with young people), I have never encountered young people who derived some positive experiences or changes for the better because of any kind of program. On the one hand, we have government-run youth support programs that are funded by the central budget and actively implemented, but neither society nor young people, and all those who need the state’s help, feel their effects. For example, the Youth Credit Program has become inaccessible for most young people. You don’t have to invent the wheel here or plan out intergalactic routes. This program has to be simplified and made understandable for ordinary people. Any youth program must be rooted in cooperation between the government and civic organizations, in particular in the partial transference of functions to youth associations. As long as these functions are discharged by government bodies, no youth program can be effective. This must be the strategic direction of the youth policy.

The issue of integrating rural youth and young people from depressed economic areas into full- fledged vital life remains topical, so any talk of their free choice and equal participation in community life — as laid down in the National Doctrine — is difficult and even unsubstantiated. After all, young people who live in big cities have more self-realization opportunities compared to those in rural areas.

With regard to the active participation of youth in public life, young Ukrainians show initiative most often during election campaigns, when certain youth-related projects are launched. But this type of initiative has nothing to do with a national youth policy because it is subordinated to certain political goals. Another problem in this sphere is that state structures, owing to certain legislative restrictions, cannot respond dynamically to social needs, above all to youth. Here again, there is no other alternative than to surrender some of the powers from state bodies to youth community organizations. Ukraine must embark on this path because this is the only way to achieve positive and effective results.