Youth offices and NGOs representatives are recognized as important decision makers at the local level. To enable them to formulate effective policies and accomplish program goals, it’s necessary to increase their knowledge to adequatly use data in planning, monitoring and reporting.
SeConS maintained several trainings for Youth offices representatives in order to strength capacities and role they have at the local level. Participants were trained how to identify relevant data in daily work and went through evidence-based policy making. They got familiar with usage of data and indicators in monitoring and policy implementation. In cooperation with trainers, they analyzed their own projects to learn how to improve project log frames which will help them in monitoring and reporting during the project implementation. Monitoring and reporting tools and techniques were presented, as well as their usage in designing policies and decisions. They also learned about development and evaluation of data collection instruments.
Training sessions were organized for 27 youth offices and NGOs representatives from 12 municipalities: Leskovac, Vladičin Han, Bojnik, Preševo, Vlasotince, Surdulica, Bujanovac, Vranje, Bački Petrovac, Palilula, Bečej i Temerin. In the final project stage they had the opportunity to apply learned skills at specific examples. They identified topics affecting youth in each of 12 municipalities (employment, migration, participation rate of young Roma population in high school education, addictions, improvement of formal and informal education, young people living disabilities…) and after that they developed advocacy documents, with the mentor support of SeConS.
Except as the mentioned advocacy documents are used to change the local youth policies, all youth representatives strengthened in the long term their capacities for independent and efficient operation at the local level. Learned skills enable them to recognize the problem, formulate appropriate policy as a response to it, and measure the impact and effects of made decisions using learned tools and techniques.