In the framework of the conference of the Universal Peace Federation, “Demographic transition in the Western Balkans, brain drain of young people and family issues” was also discussed.
The Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, Daulina Osmani, said that the government has a special focus on supporting young people. She mentioned child allowances, scholarships and support for sports activities.
“Government support for young people starts at the moment of the birth of children with support through child allowances. Then it follows through numerous scholarships from the Ministry of Education, in addition the ‘superpuna’ platform enables young people to enter the labor market, but also to create professional experiences. As Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, we believe that our mission is to serve young people through art, sports and cultural heritage. This approach means that young people develop their talent in the sectors they want”, she said.
Meanwhile, the project manager at UNODC, Viktoria Nesterovaite, expressed concern about the departure of young people from the countries of the Western Balkans due to unemployment and corruption.
“More than 70 percent of the Western Balkan youth would consider leaving their countries and going to work abroad. Main concerns raised by the youngsters are that they are poor, that they are unemployed and that was skyrocketing corruption. And truly corruption affects everything from the way we live through to how our society shapes. And that is why anticorruption education is so important. The importance of education in the fight against corruption is recognized in article 13 of the United Nations convention against corruption”, she said.
In this panel discussion was also the president of UBT, Edmond Hajrizi, who pointed out the decline in the birth rate in the six countries of the Western Balkans.
“We have a decline of population; every country in the Balkan has a decline. In every country in the Balkan the birth rate is going down. In every country in the Balkan you have migration… If we want to have an economic growth, we need to increase the productivity, rather with people or with technology… The migration is growing, every country has a lot of migration, of fifty thousand, sixty thousand, one hundred thousand every year, and this is really very interesting”, he said. /E.Zeqiri/
