Moldovan youth centres to benefit from national, international support

Chisinau, 19 December /MOLDPRES/ - The youth centres will benefit from national and international support. In this respect, the Education, Culture and Research Ministry (MECC) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) today signed an agreement on co-financing on the development of services for youth locally, for a five-year period (2017-2022).   

At a news briefing, Education, Culture and Research Minister Monica Babuc said that this agreement represented the sides’ intention to mobilize financial resources for implementing Moldova’s national priorities in the youth sector and that, till 2022, about 26 million lei was to be invested, of which 19 million lei was the contribution of the MECC and seven million – of UNFPA.  

According to the official, this year alone, the ministry signed nine agreements on the creation of nine youth centres locally with heads of districts councils. The centres will become the central point at the local level, which will provide young people professional assistance in the launch and implementation of their own initiatives and projects, possibility to get involved in programmes on voluntariate, to participate in the decision-making process and contribute to the promotion of their rights, including the right to education for health adequate for the age. At the same time, the youth centres will become promoters of services for youth, with competent staff and trained in communication and interaction with young people.  

For her part, Representative of UNFPA in Moldova Rita Columbia said that the agreement stipulated the sectors of cooperation in the context of UNFPA’s new Country Programme for 2018-2022 and that young people would be further backed. Within this partnership, MECC and UNFPA will develop youth centres from all over Moldova, so that they provide friendly services to young people locally, with emphasis on needs of the most disadvantaged ones, including disabled young people, unemployed, youngsters from needy families or hit by migration.    

Statistic data shows that young people represented the biggest part of Moldova’s population. In early 2017, the persons with ages between 14 and 35 years accounted for 34.7 per cent of Moldova’s residents. At the same time, studies show that most young people, especially from rural regions, have no official occupation, being outside the education system and labour market and many youngsters become victims of risky behavior, with the health and well-being hit. In these circumstances, the agreement on co-financing between MECC and UNFPA is meant to meet these challenges through development of services for young people, especially for the most vulnerable ones, locally, as this is a common desideratum of the sides.    

The agreement signed between MECC and UNFPA is based on the national priorities on the development of the youth sector, provided for in more strategic documents, such as the national youth strategy 2020, Association Agreement with European Union 2017-2019, the Government’s Action Programme 2016-2018.    

(Reporter N. Roibu, editor M. Jantovan)